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Thunderbird Yarders, Loaders, and Etc from the Murray's in Eugene Oregon

Plebeian

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2009
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433
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NZ
I am old enough to remember when TVs and truck cranes had a cable/ lead on the remote control.
255 on a cable remote control.
 

John C.

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Hallback, if you have the time, could you tell us a bit about the terms you are using. I think I understand that a skyline is the line that supports the rigging which is suspended on it. I could be wrong. What is a running and standing skyline?
 

Hallback

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Jun 1, 2011
Messages
2,306
Location
Aberdeen Wa.
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Gyppo tower logger
Hallback, if you have the time, could you tell us a bit about the terms you are using. I think I understand that a skyline is the line that supports the rigging which is suspended on it. I could be wrong. What is a running and standing skyline?
A standing skyline is just that it is the skyline drum of the ardor which is the largest running line on a yard or held stationary in the air. It is generally run these days with a motorized carriage such as a Boman or an acme or an eagle. You can also use a conventional drift carriage on there and slack it down out in the brush set your chokers raise the skyline and pull the turn in but that does not get used very often anymore with the advent and popularity of motorized carriages.

A running skyline system is basically like a high lead logging system with your haul back running to the tail end through a single or double block and backup hooking to either the back of an MSP carriage which is a mechanical slack puller or or a grapple. You then have 2 main lines coming off the yard going to the MSP carriage wis a speed carriage with a short line called a grub line And a drop line that runs through the MSP. When you you send the rigging out and the rigging slinger blows a stop you stand on the break pedals, it is all done with a single lever control for the clutch & brake frictions
 

John C.

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Thanks, for the explanations! I'm basically a mechanic and have seen these things while fixing or looking at machines on the landing but it wasn't to a level of understanding what was going on. Basically I was more worried about staying out of the way and safe.

So a standing skyline is attached to something out in the cut area and it basically can be pulled tight or let loose to change how high off the ground it is. I've seen plenty of operations running the carriages on the standing sky line. Sometimes they used a carriage which had the main line hooked to the front and the haul back line hooked to the back. The yarder operator used the haul back to pull the carriage out to the trees and the main to pull the carriage back to the landing. The carriage had its own drum and line which was run by a small diesel engine. I saw this set up used for pulling in logs that were on the hill above the yarder.

If I understand it, a running skyline goes out to a pulley wheel and then back up to the yarder so two drums are involved? I seem to recall seeing butt rigging that used that type of setup years ago. I also remember some of my contemporaries who spent years working for Washington Iron or some of the other forestry makes talking about interlocked machines. Is this what they are talking about?

I think I've seen a mechanical slack puller once or twice but didn't really understand all the lines. What I saw one time looked like a carriage with no motor. There was a main line and an extra line that went through the device. The extra line carried the chokers and was raised and lowered separately from the main line. I'm sure I'm wrong about some or most of this stuff.
 

John C.

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Is there a specific skill set involved for the operator? Does that make for a busy yarder operator or does that depend on the brush crew?

Are there machines with more than three drums?
 

Hallback

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Joined
Jun 1, 2011
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Location
Aberdeen Wa.
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Gyppo tower logger
Is there a specific skill set involved for the operator? Does that make for a busy yarder operator or does that depend on the brush crew?
Have to be alert & awake like any yarder engineer but also understand the logging method, pressures & watch 3 drums vs two.
Are there machines with more than three drums?
 

Plebeian

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Apr 2, 2009
Messages
433
Location
NZ
NZ TTY70 project with a bit of government money to grease the wheels, conversion etc around 7 minutes into the video (Ballpark costs are in the first half of the vid, multiply by 0.67? for US $equivalent at the time last year) Lobby DARPA to program the Atlas robot to run a chainsaw for defense purposes?

 

Jumbo

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2010
Messages
682
Location
Black Diamond WA
Occupation
retired
NZ TTY70 project with a bit of government money to grease the wheels, conversion etc around 7 minutes into the video (Ballpark costs are in the first half of the vid, multiply by 0.67? for US $equivalent at the time last year) Lobby DARPA to program the Atlas robot to run a chainsaw for defense purposes?


With all the automation, will a cold beer be included? Pretty soon it sounds like you can log successfully and profitably from the comfort of your own living room. Only people left will be the shovel runner (now that dates me) and a few log truck drivers. But, with autonomous trucks even they can potentially drive from the comfort of their own living room.
A very fascinating presentation. Will the machine grease itself automatically and not spread grease over everything and everyone else? Forget boots on the ground and hands on the wood. I want slippers on the feet, manicured fingers on the few remaining controls with the operator's station in front of the fire place. And, a beer in the hand that isn't busy counting all the money rolling in.
 

Hallback

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Jun 1, 2011
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2,306
Location
Aberdeen Wa.
Occupation
Gyppo tower logger
I'm all for automation and mechanization. Monday we had a chainsaw and cut off saw stolen Tuesday a they couldn't find the keys to the crew bus and and this morning the crew bus had been stolen by whoever had the missing keys. I'm absolutely done with these cull piece of **** rigging rats.
Gawdammer bring on Thursday & Friday!!
 

Truck Shop

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Dec 7, 2015
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16,550
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WWW.
If anyone is interested a friend is clearing out some of his logging equipment. Right now is cleaning
up a 736DL Thunderbird with a DM3500 head. If interested I will give you his number.
 
Joined
May 24, 2023
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2008
This is our TMY40 we purchased recently it spent most if its life in NZ until making it back to oregon around 2014
 

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Hallback

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Jun 1, 2011
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Aberdeen Wa.
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Gyppo tower logger
I saw that ARE or Crowley whatever the hell one of those equipment hawks down in Oregon had that listed
 
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