Pave the rodden or buy a crawler

[normandylumberjack]

There was a good article in Forestry journal this month about a guy who brought an ex sweedish army cat, with loader and winch fitted.

May be of some interest?

I also remeber seeing a Fordsom major on duals, used for skidding, with something between the tyres to prevent brash ingress. From memory it looked like a semi inflated inner tube, or a piece of fire hose? It was a long time ago so cant be sure.

Good luck.

[normandylumberjack]

Sorry forgot your smilies.

 

I like them too!

[renewablejohn]

Difflock

 

Which part of the country are you. If your near to Bolton you could try my Forward control on your land. I used to be a MB Trac traditional but capability wise in sticky conditions theres no comparison. The downside being the long linkages for gear shift, pto shift etc. If you do decide to sell your MB let me know as I would be interested for spare parts.

[NI Tree]

rember you will need acess aprox every 5 years for thining each block as you not clear felling it

[muldonach]

How deep is the peat? If it is more than a few inches you are wasting your time with a wheeled vehicle and there is no way you will get enough brash off lodgepole to keep you up. it is unlikely that putting stone in will be economic even if you can quarry on site

 

As you probably know very well when you do pop through it will be messy, we have ground with 3-4m of peat (level) and are thinking in terms of a skyline or winch equipped harvester. We have been in with a 13 tonner cleaning ditches and it put years on me with all possible birch and willow and any necessary lodgepole going under the tracks

 

Crawler worth a try I would say - steel tracks greatly to be preferred.

 

Have rescue equipment handy on site before you need it

Edited February 29, 2012 by muldonach

[difflock]

Muldonach,

Depth varies, digger arm deep in places (&,been tested) only knee deep in other places where the peat was cut-out.

I kinda wondered at my seeming inability to get enough brash to pave, thanks for that helpfull comment

So, good, you understand my situation perfectly,& I require to buy quarry stone, or if I would be really lucky, get demolition rubble, though "they" have got a lot tighter on monitering any such usuage,

& the price of diesel being the real killer no matter what sort of hard-fill I get.

Plus the cost of digger hire.

So I had figgered that was a non starter.

Plus other buggers would use the improved access,& probably to steal my timber

So then looking at a traditional crawler

PS

I honest to God, about 10 year ago I came across an unused Fiat crawler, about 80 HP, PTO & link arm, no cab mind ( but no glass to smash) with 4 spools.

Down about Devon if I recall.

£10,000 plus VAT

I swithered & swithered

And didnt, and regret it ever since.

Especially since I bought the old MB trac instead, plus a MULE for the Missis = & remains unused since the adolesent weans creashed it

Gerr!

thanks

Marcus

Edited March 1, 2012 by difflock

[NI Tree]

i am jelous as as we face the same problem on some of our farm as they are reclaimed mud flats, and it only the grass holding you up as if you do get it out quickly your in troulbe as there over 300ft deep lol and you on them all the time for silage.

 

have you concided a double drum winch usining one i line to hall the winch line back up the wood while winch out some at the same time.

[difflock]

I could be in danger of becoming

Mr. "AllTheGearAndNoIdear"

cos I keep twitching to buy the Sexy:blushing: Farmi 4.5 tonne hydraulic winch to front mount for self-rescue ( or that would be my excuse:001_tt2:)

& See if I ever win the Lottery?

[muldonach]

Who does this woodland actually belong to - if it is yours you could take the long term view and decide that putting a roadway in is an investment for your children. If it does not belong to you seems that it should be the owner who puts this in - if it is not worth his while it certainly is not worthwhile for you.

 

However since you express concerns on security I assume that you are not the only person who has access to this area?

 

Seems to me that you need a main extraction road to skid or skyline to - note that use of double drum winch described above is just another form of skylining. without a roadway that will stand up to regular use you are shovelling the proverbial uphill.

 

I had the cost of roadmaking on this kind of ground quoted at £40 per meter with rock free to quarry on site several years ago. You can get membranes which will apparently reduce the amount of rock you need but you are still talking 50cm of crushed stone. The only other option is to use enough of the timber to keep you up but you can figure the cost of your time for doing that.

 

I have to say that skidding a couple of sticks at a time with a crawler over a 400m skid route does not sound too productive

 

Sorry this is not exactly helpful but forestry has gone to the use of heavy brash mats, 8 wheel drive and band tracks for pretty good reasons.

 

Big thing on this ground is not to break through in the first place

[difflock]

Muldonagh,

Yes we do own the ground, & the trees, and yes I would really like a decent access roadway.

And I might yet bite the bullet.

Weather permitting,

& I oh so nearly got her paved during that very dry April last year, except since everybody locally had the same notion I could not get the plant ..............................................until the rain came on, that was.

 

& Yes I would certainly use Geotextile and whatever that plastic weldmesh type reinforcing stuff is called, it certainly reduces the amount of paving required.

If I were going down that road I would hire a tracked dumper to place the stone since I dont need a surface capable of carrying lorries, and from previous experience most of the bloody paving is only needed to get the ongoing lorry loads of paving into the roadhead.

Kinda "chicken & egg"

Gerrr!

And anyway, any future lorry access would be from a different direction.

Gibber

Mutter

& Twitch

PS

Thanks for your sound advice Muldonagh.

I can be quite terrible at deciding on the best ( best=perfect) course of action.

Edited March 1, 2012 by difflock