Suburban logging with forklift

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davidwyby

Desert Beaver
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El Centro, CA (East of Sandy Eggo)
I get teased and get questions about my machinery, using what I got, so I figured I’d start a thread. Once you get good and as long as the ground is firm enough you can do a lot. Sometimes I have to venture off the hard pack to grab a log(s). In that case I only get one shot. A little momentum and stab the forks under on the first try to get weight on the drive tires and off the counterweight tires. Long forks help a Lot. Counter balance thing, reach, and being able to sweep things side to side. One nice thing is a compact lift can pick up a lot of weight for its size. Mine are 5 and 6,000lb. The 5 gets around better. Lighter counterweight and the drive wheels are smaller so the tires have more sidewall squish, grip, float.

Thinking ahead is important. We put the strap in the bed before putting the logs in. Loading them we used a small, hard tire short-fork lift. Significantly less useful than mine.

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In recent memory I have only had to pull the lift out with the truck once.

I grew up running them in our dirt lot. Those were built from WW2 surplus with manual transmissions.

Here is the 5k. I nearly got stuck here. Had to get 3 logs on for drive balance. Don’t steer too much, easy on the throttle, don’t bounce it. Smooth is fast, slow is smooth.

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I had a guy pick up wood at a job in an industrial park and he used a fork truck. After pulling him out for the tenth time I made up my mind they are useless for tree work. Now this was a never left the warehouse machine until now with smooth tires. He was getting stuck on grass and a 1.5° incline it was pretty ridiculous.
 
Never anything wrong with learning your equipment, and I won't preach safety to you David, except standard PPE. If you can yeet the tractor better than I can, it's a skill issue on my part.

Have I mentioned that Rob is a maestro on the Dingo? Guy makes it look easy, so does Da Boss, I made an ass of myself 😆. But experience can breed skill, and I have fine teachers.

Just be safe Wyby, don't want my favorite desert rat ending up squished by some dirty euc log.
 
Run what you brung! Gotta make do with what you have. We all have a wish list of all the expensive toys we would buy if we had unlimited funds to outfit out tree businesses. In the real world we rarely have that option. I have no doubt my Avant 528 with a grapple would run circles around a forklift but the forklift didn't cost $55,000 either.
 
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Run what you brung! Gotta make do with what you have. We all have a wish list of all the expensive toys we would buy if we had unlimited funds to outfit out tree businesses. In the real world we rarely have that option. I have no doubt my Avant 528 with a grapple would run circles around a forklift but the forklift didn't cost $55,000 either.
I can’t do soft ground. No grapple. Yet. But it’s kinda fun seeing what can be done with some creativity. Physics. Kinda like using a “floppy” grapple. Momentum, rolling, etc.
 
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As long as the ground is used, it stays compacted.
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This dirt road is as hard and smoother than the pavement here. The asphalt wears away and exposes the rocks. Tire wear is fast.
 
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Only downside is Tele is a lot heavier than big yellow 😆


…will probably be roading it. May need to put toolboxes on it or trailer to pull behind, no truck. 😆
 
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Do you have tongs?
One pair that is usually too small. Used them once with a bunch of large dia firewood rounds or cookies a tree co left, worked well with two people. Those rounds were a pain to deal with in the long term.

Neighboring shop to mine has a large Mil tele with a grapple for landscape rock handling. They also have tons of old eqpt around so I may get a grapple for mine. Also a bucket, etc.

Usually easier to just fork under than get on and off the lift with tongs. I thought about a pair of them connected by something semi rigid to keep them parallel to the log to be lifted.

Got me thinking, the Avant wouldn’t really work for me because I’m not doing normal tree removal work, I’m usually hauling logs, and usually not small ones. The little handlers cannot pick up nearly the weight the forklifts can. Easier to haul logs on my flatbeds than chunks (lot less hand work) and I’m usually trying to save the logs to make something from them.

Side benefit of the tele is easier to weigh my logs with hanging scale.
 
The tongs take skill development, like a dangle- grapple such as a BMG. About once a year I get off the mini to position my grapple tine.

Rarely, I cut an oversized piece to accept the grapple tine.




Cable chokers seem suitable for you, from this side of the screen.

I keep 2 or 3 on the truck.
 
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