2017 International Forest Industries Magazines April May 2017 | Page 73
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 w e 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