Mechanized Piling During Pine Plantation Thinning

Piling cut bolts is necessary when utilizing forwarders during southern pine plantation thinning. Although often done manually, piling may also be accomplished using machinery. In particular, a small three-wheeled machine, the Mor-Bell Logger, seems particularly well-suited for this task. This study examines the productivity and costs of the Logger while piling. Multiple linear regression techniques were used to estimate piling time per tree based on time study data collected in the summer of 1981. Costs per hour were developed and combined with productivity rates to determine cost per unit of production. It was concluded that piling time per tree was significantly influenced by the number of cut and residual trees per acre. Also, larger piles could be built as efficiently as smaller ones. No statistically significant effects could be found between bolt length or slope and piling time; however, the Logger was observed to have difficulty in negotiating slopes greater than 20 percent.

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