Logging Choker cables

[cory]

We say 'put a roll on it.'

I like that kicker term, Imma start using it, thx Zane. I had no term for it before, just an explanation. It's a key technique

 

[treebogan]

I haven't touched a choker for over 20 years.Man did I used to get some mean sprags from those horrible things.

Bull chokers were 1¼" swaged cable,horrible to have to dig/ jam/ ram them under logs . Especially if they didn't have bullet ferrels on the end

 

[Dave Shepard]

1 1/4"? I used to rig big blocks of marble with 1". That was bad enough. Although not as bad as 3/4" chain. Pretty much had to set that in place with the machine.

 

[cory]

I used to get some mean sprags from those horrible things.

We called em jaggers

 

[flushcut]

I haven't touched a choker for over 20 years.Man did I used to get some mean sprags from those horrible things.

Bull chokers were 1¼" swaged cable,horrible to have to dig/ jam/ ram them under logs . Especially if they didn't have bullet ferrels on the end

Do you have any pics of the trees you were working?

 

[cory]

!" is the largest I ever used and they were plenty big!

 

[Burnham]

1 1/4-inch cable...that has to weigh over 2.5 pounds per foot, iirc. I'm sure 3/4 inch is about 1 pound per foot, and 1/2 inch is about half a pound.

Move much cable around by hand, and you'll know it's heavy stuff .

 

[Dave Shepard]

Gratuitous rigging photos. Not me in the photos. I was in the machine rigging the chain lift.

 

[Burnham]

@Dave Shepard Hey, I'll take that old International Scout if it's available .

 

[Dave Shepard]

There's a bunch of them hiding in there. "Nope, I'm going to hang on to that. Might want it some day" For a junk yard, they didn't sell very much.

 

[flushcut]

Better do some trimming around them or you’ll be cutting out the trees growing thru them.

 

[treebogan]

The most miserable memories of cable logging were the occasional manual skyline shifts.

You could usually drag the skyline over using the tail rope but sometimes you couldn't.

So then it was three guys moving a 100 meter skyline extension laterally over a hillside a few feet at a time ,working upwards and then go down over and over until it was inplace.

Such fun!

 

[treebogan]

1 1/4-inch cable...that has to weigh over 2.5 pounds per foot, iirc. I'm sure 3/4 inch is about 1 pound per foot, and 1/2 inch is about half a pound.

Move much cable around by hand, and you'll know it's heavy stuff .

We used to North or South bend most of the time,so you got really good at spotting the rigging ( mostly) to right onto of the logs.

Mechanical slack pulling cartridges were unheard of back then. All the rage now though.

 

[cory]

The most miserable memories of cable logging were the occasional manual skyline shifts.

You could usually drag the skyline over using the tail rope but sometimes you couldn't.

So then it was three guys moving a 100 meter skyline extension laterally over a hillside a few feet at a time ,working upwards and then go down over and over until it was inplace.

We always used 'haywire' to do that, 1/4" (?) cable routed to pull the mainline into the new setting.

 

[Gypo]

I've used haywire from 3/16 up to 7/16. Yarder dependant. 3/8 is most common here.

1 1/8" is biggest chokers I ever set. Downhilling with a skavinsky, aka rider block, aka pollocking. Wow, just realized that was 28 years ago.

I'm gonna take a nap.

 

[stikine]

Yeah, I think 3/8 is most common for haywire.

 

[treebogan]

We always used 'haywire' to do that, 1/4" (?) cable routed to pull the mainline into the new setting.

Usually the skyline was attached to a dozer,the tail rope block too.

we would if we could too,shift the skyline with haywire,in New Zealand we called it "Straw line".

did alot of " bridling" that was having the tail rope block set at an angle to the skyline,the rigging was pulled almost laterally away from the skyline,the carriage was held static by the tag line.It was horrible with lots of manual shifts down ridgelines and carrying coils of straw line and blocks plus strops all over the place.

But the money was terrific for a 18 year old plus I had few chances to spend it.

I remember walking into a newspaper shop the first time.e I got paid,instead of being able to afford just one hunting magazine, I could afford to buy them all! Such luxury!