How'd it go today?

Aye, thats about 50 loads here, depending on the timber, and how accurate the metric conversion is. If its decent stuff two guys can cut that in 3 days here, if all we have to do is fall it, maybe buck some of the bigger ones.

We'll be limbing them and bucking to shipping container lengths , 11,8 meters,or half that if the tree is broken up.

But we are 3 guys falling, so I think it'll work out.

It'll all be stuffed into containers and sailed to China.
 
11.8 meters? Looks like you had a typo there. So about 38 or 39 ft?

Good bit of work to get that limbed and bucked in three days with three guys, but sounds doabable with a good crew, which you obviously have.

I think you mentioned the species, but I cant remember. Can you remind me? How many logs per tree? Curious what the timber looks like over there.... thanks.
 
Us? Not long. I keep about 2500 gallons in several tanks.


We had propane delivered a week and a half ago, so we should be good for a while.


According to the propane man there are lots of folks that are close to out.


Even though I have propane, it still makes you pucker up a bit when you find out it is in short supply.

Probably has something to do with the mild winters we have been having. Not just here, but pretty wide spread mild winters.
 
haha, looks like someone was trying to hula hoop but is obviously to fat.

I had a good day.... got me some new spiderman underwear and almost certain they will improve my climbing ability. :boogie:
 
11.8 meters? Looks like you had a typo there. So about 38 or 39 ft?

Good bit of work to get that limbed and bucked in three days with three guys, but sounds doabable with a good crew, which you obviously have.

I think you mentioned the species, but I cant remember. Can you remind me? How many logs per tree? Curious what the timber looks like over there.... thanks.

I haven't seen the trees yet, but apparently they are a mix of Grand fir, Noble fir and Doug fir. All are too big for the harvesters to handle.
Some of the better Dougs will be custom bucked for a local mill that makes high end floors.
The rest all go on a slow boat to China.
Probably get 3 good logs and maybe a half length log out of each tree. Thinner stuff and broken logs will just be left and go into the biomass pile.

Even if it takes us 4 days, we'll still make good money, but pulling it off in 3 would be great.
 
We have a JD tractor with a loader on it. A lot of clutch use. Disc holds up well, but pilot bearing seizes up and ruins input and flywheel. JD shop glued it in flywheel with loctite. Nice job boys. Last job they got.

I had a bushing made for the flywheel and a new input shaft. Many more years of service. It is a ball bearing and should be oversized needle.

They had a wimpy needle bearing on a bellcrank on steering linkage on the same tractor. Had the housing bored out and replaced it with oversized. Never had any more trouble. Sometimes engineers are looking more at cost than durability.


Many people have modified ball bearing pilot bearings into 7.3/zf6 combinations and many people have used Kevlar and bronze bushing. Very varied reports on success. Many people reported a higher failure rate with the bushings. The difference was the bushing doesn't fail catsstrophically it just wears and gets 'loose'. Also there seemed to be a fairly high failure rate with the ball bearing conversion. A lot of people reported back not recommending it. The oversized needle bearing in the re-sleeve kit has a much larger contact area and a good proper seal on it. I couldn't find any reports of early failure and it seemed to have lots of successful high mileage reports back. So that's what I went with.

I still believe the condition of the tranny is the main deciding factor in how long pilot repairs last. Time will tell I suppose. As a plow truck my 550 clutch sees a lot of use. I just plowed for five years on the old needle pilot and it's the clutch that came to me with the truck as well as that many different people drove it when I had my tree service and a few of those people had no place running a standard. So the pilot bearing that was in there gave good service and it's still not clear if it failed taking out the pressure plate or if the pressure plate failed and took out the needle pilot?
 
Time was of the utmost essence with my repair too. I plowed and sanded Wednesday morning and then tore it down and got all the parts I could. Friday morning the final parts came in and by Saturday early am it was plowing/sanding again.

If I had more time I'd possibly have researched or considered a ball bearing conversion more but as it was most all the info I could find was in regards to a stock sized input shaft which I was no longer going to have. Having to resleeve it again meant it was going to be oversized and all the reports I could find said the pilot needle bearing supplied in the resleeve kits was far superior to the stock one because of the increased contact area and high quality seal. Made the decision pretty easy for me under the time constraints.
 
Lol I could talk about diaper changes, bottle time, screaming for reasons unknown, and sleep deprivation if needed :big-bat:
 
M and I are cooking, drying, packing our camp grub for a trip down to southernmost Arizona, expect to leave in 10 days. So I'm a little shy on time for full engagement here. Just checking in :).
 
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