2017 International Forest Industries Magazines May 2017 SHOW Special | Page 77

The men of J & R Logging. (L-R) Chris Respess, Jeff Bell, Jason Respass, James Foster, Joedy Cahoon, Goreio Martinez, Billy Joe Boyd, Aaron Warren, Loco Ramirez and Tommy Baldwin. started thinking about Tigercat skidders, “I always wanted a tractor with a big bucket on it,” he says. In 2005, Joedy purchased his first Tigercat skidder, a 620C from Jimmy Harris, whom at the time was sales specialist for Tigercat dealer A.G. Lassiter. Joedy initially ordered the machine with the standard 1,39 m2 (15 ft2) grapple but then he found himself getting into some tracts where the hardwood was not heavy but bulky, short and hard to handle. Joedy then decided to put an order in with A.G. Lassiter for a larger 1,58 m2 (17 ft2) grapple. By mistake, a 1,72 m2 (18.5 ft2) grapple – typically equipped on a 630 skidder – ended up on the machine. This was a very lucky mistake for Joedy. He couldn’t have been happier, thinking that the oversize grapple would be perfect for his operations The bigger grapple went a long way toward maintaining a steady flow for the chipping operations. “Normally we run two chippers and it takes a lot of wood to run two of them. Before the skidders get out of eye sight to get another load the chippers were already done, but those Tigercat skidders with the big tongs will get enough wood for both before all the wood is eaten up,” claims Joedy. After the mistake was revealed, Tigercat engineering spent some time investigating and learning more about Joedy’s operations. Considering all the factors involved and the type of operation, the final decision was to leave the 620C as it was minus the remaining warranty. Joedy agreed based on his high level of confidence in Tigercat and the quantifiable improvements in his chipping operations. Eleven years later with 24,000 hours on the machine, the configuration is still working very well for Joedy. Full equipment line-up One of Joedy’s 630E skidders. Joedy’s current Tigercat equipment fleet includes four drive-to-tree feller bunchers – a 720, two 724Gs and one 726B – as well as an 860 track feller buncher. He also operates three 250B trailer mounted loaders and one T250B track loader. The most recent addition to his line-up is a 2016 630E skidder purchased through sales specialist Donald Smith of International Forest Industries | APRIL / MAY 2017 71