Shovel logging

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Log Loader Linkbelt4300.jpg
Log Loader

Shovel logging, sometimes called Hoe Chucking, uses a log loader to swing logs to the forest road. Shovel logging is one of a number of methods that may be used to move logs from forest to road. Rather than driving out to the log and dragging it back to the landing, the loader moves slowly across the harvest area, grabbing logs/trees within reach, and swinging them around to drop them closer to the road. Logs further from the road can be shoveled to the landing in a few passes back and forth.

Logging the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto transport vehicles

Logging is the cutting, skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars.

Skidder skidding

A skidder is any type of heavy vehicle used in a logging operation for pulling cut trees out of a forest in a process called "skidding", in which the logs are transported from the cutting site to a landing. There they are loaded onto trucks, and sent to the mill. One exception is that in the early days of logging, when distances from the timberline to the mill were shorter, the landing stage was omitted altogether, and the "skidder" would have been used as the main road vehicle, in place of the trucks, railroad, or flume. Modern forms of skidders can pull trees with a cable/winch, just like the old steam donkeys, or a grapple or a clam-bunk.

Skidding and cable logging can be more cost efficient for logs further from the road. Shovel logging can make use of the loader between log truck arrivals. It can also reduce soil disturbance, since it requires only a single pass to move all the logs in reach.

Cable logging

Cable logging, also referred to as skyline logging, is a logging method primarily used on the West Coast of North America with yarder, loaders, and grapple yarders, but also in Europe.

The machine shown here is typical of the 'shovels' used for shovel logging. It is a modified excavator or 'shovel'. The name dates back to a previous generation of equipment when loggers uses power shovels (often with a different boom) to load logs.

Excavator type of construction equipment

Excavators (hydraulic) are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, dipper, bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. They are a natural progression from the steam shovels and often mistakenly called power shovels. All movement and functions of a hydraulic excavator are accomplished through the use of hydraulic fluid, with hydraulic cylinders and hydraulic motors. Due to the linear actuation of hydraulic cylinders, their mode of operation is fundamentally different from cable-operated excavators which use winches and steel ropes to accomplish the movements.

Power shovel

A power shovel is a bucket-equipped machine, usually electrically powered, used for digging and loading earth or fragmented rock and for mineral extraction. Power Shovels are a type of rope/cable excavator, where the digging arm is controlled and powered by winches and steel ropes, rather than hydraulics like in the more common hydraulic excavators. Basics parts of power shovel including the track system,cabin,cables,rack, stick,boom foot-pin,saddle block,boom,boom point sheaves,and bucket. The size of bucket varies from 0.375cu m to 5cu m.

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Shovel tool for digging, lifting, and moving bulk materials

A shovel is a tool for digging, lifting, and moving bulk materials, such as soil, coal, gravel, snow, sand, or ore.

Loader (equipment) heavy equipment machine

A loader is a heavy equipment machine used in construction to move aside or load materials such as asphalt, demolition debris, dirt, snow, feed, gravel, logs, raw minerals, recycled material, rock, sand, woodchips, etc. into or onto another type of machinery. There are many types of loader, which, depending on design and application, are called by various names, including bucket loader, front loader, front-end loader, payloader, scoop, shovel, skip loader, wheel loader, or skid-steer.

Backhoe excavating equipment consisting of a digging bucket on the end of a two-part articulated arm

A backhoe — also called rear actor or back actor — is a type of excavating equipment, or digger, consisting of a digging bucket on the end of a two-part articulated arm. It is typically mounted on the back of a tractor or front loader, the latter forming a 'backhoe loader'. The section of the arm closest to the vehicle is known as the boom, while the section which carries the bucket is known as the dipper, both terms derived from steam shovels. The boom is generally attached to the vehicle through a pivot known as the king-post, which allows the arm to pivot left and right, usually through a total of 180 to 200 degrees.

Heavy equipment vehicles designed for executing construction tasks

Heavy equipment refers to heavy-duty vehicles, specially designed for executing construction tasks, most frequently ones involving earthwork operations. They are also known as heavy machines, heavy trucks, construction equipment, engineering equipment, heavy vehicles, or heavy hydraulics. They usually comprise five equipment systems: implement, traction, structure, power train, control and information. Heavy equipment functions through the mechanical advantage of a simple machine, the ratio between input force applied and force exerted is multiplied. Some equipment uses hydraulic drives as a primary source of motion.

Dragline excavator large vehicle used for lifting, especially in the process of mining: basically an excavator which drags its bucket to fill it

A dragline excavator is a piece of heavy equipment used in civil engineering and surface mining.

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Forwarder

A forwarder is a forestry vehicle that carries big felled logs from the stump to a roadside landing. Unlike a skidder, a forwarder carries logs clear of the ground, which can reduce soil impacts but tends to limit the size of the logs it can move. Forwarders are typically employed together with harvesters in cut-to-length logging operations.

Harvester (forestry) type of heavy forestry vehicle

A harvester is a type of heavy forestry vehicle employed in cut-to-length logging operations for felling, delimbing and bucking trees. A forest harvester is typically employed together with a forwarder that hauls the logs to a roadside landing.

Steam shovel

A steam shovel is a large steam-powered excavating machine designed for lifting and moving material such as rock and soil. It is the earliest type of power shovel or excavator. Steam shovels played a major role in public works in the 19th and early 20th century, being key to the construction of railroads and the Panama Canal. The development of simpler, cheaper diesel-powered shovels caused steam shovels to fall out of favor in the 1930s.

Swing yarder

A swing yarder is a mobile piece of heavy duty forestry equipment used for pulling logs from the woods to a logging road with cables. The swing yarder is also known as a grapple yarder.

Steam donkey steam-powered winch, or logging engine

Steam donkey, or donkey engine, is the common nickname for a steam-powered winch, or logging engine, widely used in past logging operations, though not limited to logging. They were also found in the mining, maritime, and nearly any other industry that needed a powered winch.

Ox common bovine draft and riding animal

An ox, also known as a bullock in Australia and India, is a bovine trained as a draft animal or riding animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration makes the animals more docile. Cows or bulls may also be used in some areas.

Gravel road type of unpaved road surfaced with gravel

A gravel road is a type of unpaved road surfaced with gravel that has been brought to the site from a quarry or stream bed. They are common in less-developed nations, and also in the rural areas of developed nations such as Canada and the United States. In New Zealand, and other Commonwealth countries, they may be known as 'metal roads'. They may be referred to as 'dirt roads' in common speech, but that term is used more for unimproved roads with no surface material added. If well constructed and maintained, a gravel road is an all-weather road.

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Logging truck

A logging truck or timber lorry is a large truck used to carry logs. Some have integrated flatbeds, some are discrete tractor units, and some are configured to spread a load between the tractor unit and a dollied trailer pulled behind it. Often more than one trailer is attached.

Deforestation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

Deforestation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is a significant transnational issue. In the DRC, forests are cleared for agricultural purposes by utilizing slash and burn techniques.