Another way to get rid of trees...

[sawcollector]

MB, if this is the wrong place for this or off topic move it or delete it, but I thought this was interesting and wanted to share. Have you seen this thing?
It is a Le Tourneau G175 Tree Crusher, and the website is here:
http://www.mackenziechamber.bc.ca/tree_crusher.htm
Interesting history behind it and why and how it was used.
Seems like a waste of timber to me.

[woodworkingboy]

Gnarly device! Can't help but think that no American Indian was involved in the development or operation.

[MasterBlaster]

Wow!

[woodworkingboy]

Surprised some police department didn't purchase it for raiding crack houses.

[squisher]

Yah the TREE CRUSHER!!!

Le tourneau loaders are what all the mills around here use. Unload an entire logging truck at once.

[Al Smith]

Le Tourneau has built some of the most massive equipment of this sort and for quarry work ,excavating etc .in the world .All seem to use the electric drive which the company is famous for .

The story of the brains behind all this company is very interesting .He got the idea for a self propelled pan scrapper while running a massive old gasoline powered Cat pulling a pull pan and was frustrated he couldn't go any faster .An idea was formed and a legion was born . H G Le Tourneau from equipment operator to inventer .

[Mr. Sir]

I like how its all camoed out in that first pic... for stealthy tree crushing.

[MasterBlaster]

I don't think that's camo.

[Frans]

The scale is hard to see in the pix. But that second one has a guy standing on it.
That thing must be HUGE!
What a great thing to go see on a road trip.

[squisher]

Check out the link, it'd be a bit of a roadtrip for you Frans. Twin 700hp diesels.

[woodworkingboy]

With the greenery on it, it looks a bit like the machu picchu ruins that were discovered in the jungle. Leave that thing in the woods for a few hundred years, and when future mankind discovers it, they will be asking, "What kind of people used machines like this?"

[Al Smith]

They used to take great big giant chain ,about like an anchor chain on a carrier and use it between two big dozers to mow down that stuff in south America .

Two Cat D9's or TC 12 Euclids and 300 foot of chain .Knocked trees down like they were weeds . I imagine the practice is no longer being done .

[treesandsurf]

Seems like an ecological disaster to me.

jp:D

[squisher]

That's just a giant mulching machine, good for the earth.

[sawcollector]

Le Tourneau has built some of the most massive equipment of this sort and for quarry work ,excavating etc .in the world .All seem to use the electric drive which the company is famous for .

The story of the brains behind all this company is very interesting .He got the idea for a self propelled pan scrapper while running a massive old gasoline powered Cat pulling a pull pan and was frustrated he couldn't go any faster .An idea was formed and a legion was born . H G Le Tourneau from equipment operator to inventer .

Al I have head all kinds of stories about him and the company. I read a book once that indicated some of his equipment was used in the Pacific islands during WWII, but maybe I am wrong on the dates.
I think I will do some book searching and see if there is a bio or company history on Le Tourneau.
Glad y'all liked the story!
Eddie

[stig]

Twin 700 horsepower diesels, yes.
That means the thing has less engine power than a good old ( well, not so old!) M1 Abrams.
Whats so amazing by that?

[stig]

They used to take great big giant chain ,about like an anchor chain on a carrier and use it between two big dozers to mow down that stuff in south America .

Two Cat D9's or TC 12 Euclids and 300 foot of chain .Knocked trees down like they were weeds . I imagine the practice is no longer being done .

That is known as siamese cats! They still run those in Brazil , to clear jungle for soybean grovers, so american beef farmers can get cheap protein feed for their feedlots.

Danish hogfarmers too, I should add................

[treebogan]

"Scrub crushing" Really is a blast,when I worked in a Yarder crew we sometimes but rarely used two Dozers to level any remaining brush at the completion of a unit.We would join two Dozers to a length of Butt rigging by their winch ropes and flatten the remaining little trees and scrub.

[woodworkingboy]

Glad y'all liked the story!Eddie

Thanks for posting about it, Eddie! We like just about anything that cuts, devours, munches, lifts, explodes, runs silent and runs deep (for Al), etc., particularly if it throws out noxious gases when doing it....as long as nobody gets hurt.

[Frans]

Check out the link, it'd be a bit of a roadtrip for you Frans. Twin 700hp diesels.

Those rollers gotta be over 6 feet in diameter. I really like checking out massive machinery. Brings out the kid in me.

[sotc]

Those rollers gotta be over 6 feet in diameter. I really like checking out massive machinery. Brings out the kid in me.

me to frans, im thoroughly fasinated by huge engines and equipment. even if my dodge is capable of the the horsepower of one of those big 12cylinder engines. i seen old boats from the 30s with 2000 gallon air tanks that were used as engine starters!
http://i.pbase.com/o4/84/18784/1/57928561.ME5J7588_cor_cspL3zeroHI_res.jpg
http://www.titanicinbelfast.com/uploads/H1711large.jpg

[Al Smith]

That means the thing has less engine power than a good old ( well, not so old!) M1 Abrams.
Whats so amazing by that? Well one difference is the fact the Abrams uses a Lycoming turbine that goes though fuel at an astounding rate . I think that thing is 1500 HP more or less .The turbine and tranny are not much larger than a large refridgerater . BTW ,that's another place I have worked .It's about 10 miles from me .;)

That turbine could never take the abuse those big diesels can nor will it last nearly as long .Then again it wasn't designed for that type of service .

[squisher]

Twin 700 horsepower diesels, yes.
That means the thing has less engine power than a good old ( well, not so old!) M1 Abrams.
Whats so amazing by that?

I never said it was amazing, just another tidbit of info for people who didn't bother following the link. We're tree men here, not army dudes I could give a crap about some big ass tank.

This bush obliterator is cool imo.

[Thor's Hammer]

This bush obliterator is cool imo.

Its a tree Squisher!

[Newfie]

I never said it was amazing, just another tidbit of info for people who didn't bother following the link. We're tree men here, not army dudes I could give a crap about some big ass tank.

This bush obliterator is cool imo.


Commie!

[sawinredneck]

The rollers are eight feet Frans.

[squisher]

Commie!

That's commie bastard to you!:D

[JamesTX]

When I was in public accounting, LeTourneau was on eof my client. Every year I'd spend a few weeks at their factory in Longview, TX. The round buildings in the pic below are their warehousing/manufacturing buildings. They are designed like a tent. In theory, they can be lowered around their center pole and then folded up like a fan and moved around. They also have a steel smelter - amazing thing to see work - big electrodes lower down into a pit of steel scraps and short out - sparks everywhere.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&ll=32.457777,-94.734421&spn=0.006554,0.01369&z=17

[Al Smith]

That is an electric arc furnace you are talking about .

[JamesTX]

That is an electric arc furnace you are talking about .

Sounds right.

They used tell us a story about a train car full of metal shavings that got rained on. I guess when steel shavings start to oxidize, they give off heat. Put enought of them together and - poof - whole thing caught on fire.

[Al Smith]

It's rare but metal shavings can produce enough heat through spontanious combustion to catch fire .

I remember as a teenager going through Flint Mich. and seeing shaving piles a city block long with smoke comming from them . They used to biquette shavings to prevent this plus make them easier to remelt .They have since developed a newer process to extract the tramp machining oils and just haul them as loose chips .However you can still see chip haulers on the interstate with funny looking smoke comming from under their tarps .

[Greenhorn]

I would like to know the capabilities of the thing, did I overlook it - any specualtions on the diameter of its typical diet?

[stig]

I never said it was amazing, just another tidbit of info for people who didn't bother following the link. We're tree men here, not army dudes I could give a crap about some big ass tank.

This bush obliterator is cool imo.

Just for your information:

This treeman ( faller/ arbo for 30 + years) avoided ( narrowly) military service,
killed trees his whole life instead, and thinks that treechrusher is a piece of shit, that never should have been invented!!!!!!!!!!!
It's just another way to put fallers out of business.

Tanks rock, by the way!:D

[squisher]

Stig that chip on your shoulder must be weighing ya down some.:P

If you think it's such a pos why are you even bothering wasting your valuable time posting in this thread?

Did you even bother reading the link? It's a interesting little bit of history is all.

Maybe it's getting lost in translation but you got quite a attitude dude, why not just mellow out.

[squisher]

Just for your information:

This treeman ( faller/ arbo for 30 + years) avoided ( narrowly) military service,
killed trees his whole life instead, and thinks that treechrusher is a piece of shit, that never should have been invented!!!!!!!!!!!
It's just another way to put fallers out of business.


Just for your information::P

The reason I asked if you even read the link is because the machine ran for a short period of time in '64, '65(up here, also did a bit of clearing down in the states earlier to that, I'm sure handfallers were being layed off left and right because of it). I highly doubt that it displaced many handfallers during that time period. It was an expirement, a unique oddity is all that it is, not large scale long term production.

[stig]

Sorry,I missed that piece of info!
Had a mental picture of those things running wild all over, flattening trees.

Trees, that by any right should have been cut down by brave men and their trusty chainsaws.

An M1 Abrams still have 100 more horsepower that that treecrusher, though:D

[stig]

It's rare but metal shavings can produce enough heat through spontanious combustion to catch fire .

I remember as a teenager going through Flint Mich. and seeing shaving piles a city block long with smoke comming from them . They used to biquette shavings to prevent this plus make them easier to remelt .They have since developed a newer process to extract the tramp machining oils and just haul them as loose chips .However you can still see chip haulers on the interstate with funny looking smoke comming from under their tarps .

Al, what is " tramp machining oils"??

That one is missing from my vocabulary.

[squisher]

Sorry,I missed that piece of info!
Had a mental picture of those things running wild all over, flattening trees.

Trees, that by any right should have been cut down by brave men and their trusty chainsaws.

An M1 Abrams still have 100 more horsepower that that treecrusher, though:D

No worries dude. I am known to slightly overreact at times.:D Hence the phrase under my alias.8)

<<<<<<<

[sawinredneck]

The "tramp oil" is oil and cutting fluids left after the machining of metals. It builds up in the chip hopers.


I can't imagine that machine put many fallers out of buissnes. I wouldn't think it could take a whole row of large trees, maybe one or two at a time. I think it would be more for brushing and knocking over smaller trees.

[sotc]

the abrams couldnt mow trees down as fast as this thing but would probably be more fun

[Al Smith]

That M1 A1 Abrams doesn't have the ass of a good running D9 Cat . They are not bulldozers no matter what anybody thinks . Rubber road tracks ,boogey wheel suspension ,made for desert warfare ,not worth a hoot in the mud ,get stuck in the snow .

On the other hand a D9 doesn't carry a big gun and can't shoot down a road at 40 plus miles per hour .However you can dig a pond with a D9 and just get stuck in one with the tank .:lol:

[sotc]

im talking shoot em down:D

[Al Smith]

Now ,so much for tanks .However there are all types of clearing machines .Big giant rotary mowers used on the front of dozers for clearing powerline right of way comes to mind .

Often times brush alone railroad right of way is cleared using a track mounted machine that cuts it like a hedge ,looks odd after they go through a section of track .

[sawcollector]

Well I must say that I am pleasantly suprised at the comments this thread has generated. Again I say, what a waste of wood to use a machine like this, but I guess it really didn't pan out very well. On the other hand, the website didn't explain very well the reason they tried such a monster. Was it to get more done with only one operator and never mind the waste, or was the area being cleared not worth trying to clear in the usual manner and use the wood? May never know.
I did not see this mentioned when I did a search, so here is another unusual way to trim:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMQgt5YiD0w
Turn the sound down when you watch this, since it has some crappy music playing.
And a couple of pics:

[Al Smith]

When they pioneer those roads in they aren't all that concerned about saving useable lumber logs .If it were all just chips and slash they could care less .

Recently on an ethonal project locally they literally chipped an entire 15-20 acres of hardwoods ,just ground them to chips in two giant tub grinders and hauled them off for bio-fuel .The plant by the way has filed bankrupcy after operating for less than 6 months .:what:

No matter what it is given enough time somebody will invent a machine to replace labor . Like it or lump it ,it's going to happen no matter what type job you have .

[Reddog]

Here is what the design stated.
I put in red the main reason for crushing.



The Tree Crusher is designed specifically for land clearing. It has no other use. As advertised by Le Tourneau the purpose of the machine is to:

Clear large tracts of land in a minimum amount of time and at a minimum cost.
Allow one machine and one operator to do an amount of work equivalent to that of several machines and operators required by conventional clearing methods.
Compress all wood materials into a compact splintered mat, which when allowed to air dry, will become highly combustible and allow in place burning without additional preparation


It was used for hydro power clearing.


It was then shipped to Thurso, Québec, where it cleared a nominal amount of acres before being shipped in November 1964 to BC for clearing experiments in the Pondage area of the Peace River Power Project.

[Al Smith]

It was used for hydro power clearing. In other words devegitation in preperation for a giant "mill pond " type of deal for a hydro electric project ? If so that makes perfect sense .

[sotc]

or clearing right of way before the lines go up?

[Reddog]

Reservoir cleaner:D makes sense, they would crush everything then come back and burn it off.
They do not like trees and brush going through the power turbines. And the problem is wood floats, so it is headed right to the water intakes.

Most of the wood, would have been junk spruce and such in swampy areas.

[squisher]

You nailed it Reddog, lots of hydro dams up here.

[Dave Shepard]

Should be lots of hydro dams everywhere.;):/:

[sotc]

our governor is tearing them out, something about fish being more important than people. hes green as grass but wants to get rid of the greenest power we have