possible 5 ton build

Ya'll are going to think I have totally lost my mind on this one, but here goes.

I have been kicking an idea around for about two years now about building a 5 ton to harvest small diameter timber for biomass. This is mainly due to the price of anyhting to do with forestry equipment. The closet piece of equipment that I can find to do what I want is nearly $700,000.

So here goes. I was thinking about mounting a Kesla harvester boom on the truck with the low mount to keep the center of gravity low. THe bed would be a standard flat bed with removable log bunks in order to facilitate the use of another part of this project.

I have found a set of 26.5" rims with the 10 on 11.25" bolt pattern to fit high flotation forestry tires. Find some kind of locking differentials for the rears and it should be good to go.

THe other part of this project would be a chipping unit with a dump box and a chipper mounted on a skid to be able to pull it up to the bed when needed.

Hopefully this way, the unit could be driven from site to site and go to work with just a tire change eliminating the need for equipment to move everyhting around.

Ok, I got my asbestos underwear on so, flame on.

Give it a shot, I want to see pics, sketches, photoshops, and anything else to show us what you got! Sounds like a plan....

Something we build for a friend.

You could get a bridge truck with the PLS and make different pallets for different jobs.

I've had a similar idea, but not wanting to mess up my relatively clean M813, I was going to look for a basket case 5 ton with a long wheelbase and make a trailer. I would mount a loader on the front of the trailer so I can load the truck and trailer. If you're talking harvester as in buncher/feller, stability and manuverability would be an issue. Maybe mount the harvester on a Drott Cruz-Air?

Floridianson,

Your real close to what I have in mind.

Scout,

Stability wouldn't be a problem. The forestry tires would end up taking the overall width to about 10 feet. Nearly the same as most harvesters/forwarders.

And beleive it or not, I won't be giving up a whole lot of manueverability in the woods. Some of those forwarders need alot of room to turn.

The harvester head I am looking at can be mounted on a 9 to 16 ton base machine. So as you can figure, this is not a machine to take down the giants. only those 14" and under.

I had imagined powering the "trailer" axles off the truck. With the flange design of the axles, it would be fairly easy assuming the trailer is another 5 ton chassis. It would be a monster, but with log bunks on the truck and the back of the trailer, you could haul a lot of material on one shot.

Keep in mind that if the truck happens to slip and the trailer is still loaded with traction and still pushing ALL THAT PUSH is being driven off of ONE single driveflange from the pinion of the truck's rear tandem. This was all discussed in 'the big dumb trailer project' thread where I made a tandem axle deuce bed trailer out of a derelect truck and figured out the logistics of powering the trailer. The driveshaft would have to be super custom with a high angle CV joint under the pintle and long spline slip yoke...and custom bearing supports...and how to do a fairly easy yet heavy duty disconnect...it snowballs into a mess. Cool, absolutely! Practical? ...well, lets see how the truck does with 3 lockers and meaty tires first.

Spicer,

I read your thread on the trailer project. I was thinking about this also on a bobbed duece and a trailer and come up with the same idea. A PTO shaft off of a larger tractor.

I think some custom parts are in order, like a 300M output on the rear axle. I need to do some more research on this.

EDIT: Had to refamiliarize myself with a PTO shaft and how it functions. Been a long time since I was on the farm.

On most PTO shafts there is either a shear bolt or a set of slip clutches to relieve pressure in case the attachment jams up to prevent damage to both the tractor and/or the attachment.

So as long as the clutches or shear bolt is lower than the breaking strength of the rear output of the axle, this would actually work great. Add in a CV style PTO joint (yes they make them) and depending on the max working angle of the u-joint, then your set. For example, a 1410 u joint has a max working angle of 40 degrees in a singlr joint application. So a CV joint with two 1410 u joints would handle an 80 degree angle as each u joint would take half on the overall angle.

PTO Shafts has alot of parts to build these.

Yep, you're on the right track! The CV would also have to be located directly under the pintle hook so the turning pivot point(s) would be inline but also don't forget about a long travel slip yoke. For instance you crest a short steep knob and drop down the other side. With the rear drive under the pintle at this point you're compressing it's length a LOT. Now lets say you have a short steep hill right after that so now the trailer is still aimed down the hill and the truck is crawling up the next one. Again, with the drive under the pintle...this time it is getting expanded. I didn't figure out the amount of travel needed for the slip yoke but it would need to be a decent amount.

Also don't forget about the rear axle's ability to move down and pull away and extend further travel on the driveline. I figured you'd need two CV's, one right off the rear and one under the pintle hook. The drive would have a nice beeby mount at front of the trailer tongue so that no fixed mount under the pintle or on the truck would be necessary. Just the CV at the rear, the long travel shaft, and the CV under the pintle. A disconnect box on the trailer as someone mentioned in the other thread would be nice too. I think I figured at the time about a grand for the technical part of the shaft, then just truck parts from there back to the trailer rears.

Oh, don't forget from the truck rear axle to under the pintle runs out of space pretty quickly when jamming all these big 1410's under there. You may want to look at an automotive ball style CV for space reasons but you'd have to make sure it couldn't pull apart.

OH, and don't forget the rear pinion is located off to one side as well so that would already take a few degrees out of your turn angle in one direction.

What do you all think about this one mounted on a 5 ton chassis?

http://www.kollergmbh.com/downloads/Koller_english.pdf

Scroll down to page 5.

THe whole reason behind all of this is a cost effective way to harvest small diameter wood in order to clean up 200 million plus acres of national forests while giving as many people as possible a chance to start their own businesses. I CANNOT go into that part of it any deeper as it becomes a political battle and is against the rules here.

THe one thing I hate about boards is the fact that voice tone and inflection is lost.

I grew up one cable yarders, skidders, and "living" in the woods and would love to find a way to make it possible for those who want it as cheaply as possible.

This just may prove that everything IS on the 'net.

That is a cool looking little yarder. Not much detail on the drum setup though.