Frontloader forestry

[Psycho]

Hi all, I've been thinking about a low-maintenance approach to casual forestry (woodcutting) for side-profits in downtime and how I might do that. I've done some research but it might be time to get in the big guns and ask for expert advice. :)

I was hoping to avoid expensive dedicated machines and rely mostly on frontloading attachments, that way I don't need to have a treecutting machine, I can absorb low maintenance costs and use the tractor/arm on my other operations when not woodcutting.

So far I'm looking at a small-medium tractor, frontloading arm, the CST(?) frontloader attachment pack (has a nice light logging fork), maybe the Stoll Duo log fork[www.fsmods17.com] for heavier operations and the TR3200[farmingsimulator.wikia.com] to fell first. I'm pretty average on the chainsaw so happy to spend some money to speed that up...

I'll almost certainly need another machine to tow a log trailer or woodchipper (maybe lease that to chew up piles of logs I save up).

I need the arm as the TR3200 has fairly terribad handling, carrying and lifting ability, at least in my greenhorn hands. I tried using it this morning to load logs into a woodchipper and it was like trussing a greased pig on a pitched roof. I don't want to have to manually cut and load every piece if I can avoid it...

How does that sound to you as a basic affordable setup? I'm also happy to hear from other occasional loggers what your setup is.

I was really hoping to find some sort of drop and chop saw attachment I could put on the arm saving the rear hitch and second vehicle, but I haven't been able to find any mod to match.

Actual gear along these lines (thanks Google!):
https://www.palletforks.com/12-hd-rotating-tree-shear-attachment-with-5incylinder.html
http://www.wolffmfg.com/id1.html

[bigsnag]

mostly, the equipment use is about practise. one will hear plenty of whinging and moaning about physics etc. but the reality is nothing is inate. it is a matter of practise.

the game is open enough to allow one to choose which ever route one desires, your sole job is to practise.

[Kaeru Gaman]

maybe this crane is helpful:
https://farming-simulator.com/mod.php?mod_id=77416&title=fs2017

and yes, there are three steps to success: practice, practice, practice!
give it some days to get used to it, and the pig will jump on itself when you whistle. ;)

[bigsnag]

the log grapple by the same fellow also on the modhub is a great tool as well.

turns one's tractor into a skidder of sorts.

[Lesser_weevil]

I like the pretty simple setup of a Tr3200 tree saw(cuts tree flush with ground no need to stump grind all the time) fliegl timber runner, dolly, tractor then later on a truck. With the big trailer you do less cutting before loading. As for wood chippers i find the small heizomat at 28k ideal i dont really feed any big tree's into the chipper anyway since they are easier to load into trailer. Highly reccomend you get a bigish trailer for the wood chips. I just use biggest tractor i have at the time and take my time with it, i do just fine with the starting case tractor tbh(not always, accidents happen hehe)

My brother had an intresting idea to buy 3-4 fleigl timber runners at 17k and a dolly to position them at the logging site. slowly load them all and then just rent the cheapest truck to deliver them to the sawmill.

tree saw 5.400
dolly 9.000 (maby just lease it at 750 to position the trailers at site for loading)
Timber trailers x3 51.000
truck lease 9.920 (only lease once the trailers are full)

TOTAL 69.925

[Psycho]

Thanks for the advice on my newbie forestry operations everyone.

Originally posted by Kaeru Gaman:

maybe this crane is helpful:
https://farming-simulator.com/mod.php?mod_id=77416&title=fs2017

and yes, there are three steps to success: practice, practice, practice!
give it some days to get used to it, and the pig will jump on itself when you whistle. ;)

Originally posted by bigsnag:

the log grapple by the same fellow also on the modhub is a great tool as well.
turns one's tractor into a skidder of sorts.

Yes, I was looking at those but I was hoping to keep my rear hitch free for maximum towing efficiency. I just sold the turbosaw as it was getting in the way. Those are good options to have a butchers at and explore, you never know until you try. Ahh... training the pig... is that how they do it so fast? :)

I think the reason I was going the tree saw at all was I was a bit scared off by the chainsaw tutorial which is really unintuitive and annoying. I did some more practise liek you said and you can just use the simple real technique by diagonally cutting through*, falling away (in game it always falls into not away) and then nipping across base to tidy off the stump at ground level. With some practise I've found I can chainsaw just as fast as using the tree saw; I have to rear mount it as it won't fit at front along with the loader arm so it's pretty fiddly backing up and has limited range. It's also great that chainsawing always falls exactly where I want it to whereas backing the tractor around trees in a forest is tiresome. Most times for trees under 4 growth I don't even bother trimming or cutting, just take the whole tree away. (this is not even a strong/weighted tractor)
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1166289620

Most times I actually nip, then drop - the tree almost always falls onto the loose stump and hangs, ready to grab with the loader. It's sad that you can't slide forks under the dropped trunk like in real life, but hopefully this will be fixed at some stage. It's very annoying to chase logs around the field and maddening if there's any slope but The Claw soon sorts them out.

This is why I was getting so frustrated with the TR3200, it's very hard to load into chipper, let along trailer. My hat's off to you if you load all day with the turbosaw.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1165364669
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1165364856

I did find that you can angle in and that 'kind of works' but it's incredibly fiddly and tiresome.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1165365041

You can also drop and push
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1165365585
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1165366279

I think you can do this, but you'd then need another vehicle to push along the 'cradle' axis. Good luck to you, if you get the angle not-perfect it will slip off and you'll have to start all over again.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1165885758

Front end loading with hydraulic loader is fast, easy and efficient. Try this with the TR3200!
Chip the whole tree, no trimming required.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1166290258

Originally posted by Lesser_weevil:

I like the pretty simple setup of a Tr3200 tree saw(cuts tree flush with ground no need to stump grind all the time) fliegl timber runner, dolly, tractor then later on a truck. With the big trailer you do less cutting before loading. As for wood chippers i find the small heizomat at 28k ideal i dont really feed any big tree's into the chipper anyway since they are easier to load into trailer. Highly reccomend you get a bigish trailer for the wood chips.

I should have mentioned that I'm targeting woodchips as I have Great Demand today but certainly I am looking into medium-sized flatbed/log trailers to suit my 'weekend' timber needs. That's a great idea to lease the truck for a day. I was thinking about doing something similar with harvesting, to try and get the field harvests to all ripen at once, lease, boom, return lease. Take the next few days off and don't other paying maintenance on gear lying around unused.

I didn't realise that woodchips were so bulky. I'm running a medium tipper with a custom front bin which gives me 26000 total load, that's enough for now with very low maintenance cost but if I was get more serious I can see I'd need to upgrade. The universal bin[www.fsmod.net] takes 4000/5000 and also triggerfills and dumps, so will be handy around the farm - bulk loads of seeds and fertiliser or light bin chasing.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1167173228

I found over time I had very little use for the rear-mount tree saw, it was often jamming in the stump, and it was starting to hurt performance with the tractor being so unbalanced. I'm moving towards a large weight to counterbalance the carried tree (also my tractor is a bit light-weight) and trying to find a towball fitted weight so I can tow the woodchipper; only two vehicles needed, minimum travel. All most all weights only offer bolt hitches, which is a bit strange. I would have thought towing light equipment would be a standard job for a rear-weighted tractor.

Hours of mod scouting later... d'oh!
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1166288524


* Yes I have a chainsaw. No I am not very experienced with it. No this not how you would cut down most real trees, especially not ones of any size.

[bigsnag]

have no fear the ai isn't about to take over yet.

it's mostly not how one would do anything really, more of a relaxing way of loafing around doing nothing.

[DSwan]

My first 30+ game hours were also of the strategy of low initial cost logging. I just used the CaseIH 1455XL stock tractor, added the front loader attachment and went with wide tires for some extra balance, bought a 2300Kg weight for rear mount, installed a Biobeltz frontloader log fork similar to stock only there is an additional fork on top and bottom (so 3 bottom, 2 top), and fell just about everything near the solid timber selling station (direct-delivery of trees). Once I made enough cash, I bought the Tatra Pheonix 6x6 and a long logging trailer and went to town all over the map!... then as I was getting bored, I started to do farm work missions and realized that was more profitable per unit of time, so now logging is just a side hobby to kill monotony of farm and animal work. Haha, ended up outfitting the CaseIH Puma 215 that same way, and man can it handle some big logs! Hint: wheel weights. :D

[Psycho]

Originally posted by AMD DSwan:

My first 30+ game hours were also of the strategy of low initial cost logging.

Sounds like we've gone down very much the same path. I was using the starting Case for a very long time until I wised up to the fact it was costing me far more than it was worth.

Thanks for the advice.