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Joe_D

This came up a while back,

Thought the site might be interesting to Sherman fans.

Traxxon

TrevorLarkum

Interesting link - looks like they've got some for sale too:

www.traxxon.com/equipment.html

Maple_Leaf_Eh · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jan 24, 2006 Posts: 517

By following the leads suggested in the Traxxon.com text, it is possible to answer the questions previously asked about which companies converted M4 Shermans. << www.com-central.net/in...mp;t=10658 >>

BINGO! I did a search using words like "tracked yarder spar s. Madill" and found www.forestechequipmentltd.com/ which lists a number of converted M4 and M32 chassis' as the platform for logging equipment.

Further searching revealed a rather dramatically entitled book, < books.google.ca/books?...;ct=result
> that gives even more names. Although I haven't followed the leads to their logical ends, google is a researcher's best friend.

Joe_D

I wonder if the manufacturer kept a record of the chassis serial numbers they used?

Might account for some wayward Shermans and variants.

TrevorLarkum

Good find, Maple_Leaf - VVSS from $17500:

www.forestechequipment...px?iid=320

and HVSS from $32500:

www.forestechequipment...px?iid=321

A bargain, I'd say!

Maple_Leaf_Eh · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jan 24, 2006 Posts: 517

Well considering as how Niner Domestic just concluded procurement of another mode of household transportation and the resulting discretionary financial restrictions, a tracked crawler in the driveway at any price is somewhat unlikely.

Maple_Leaf_Eh · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jan 24, 2006 Posts: 517

Madill Equipment Canada
2560 Bowen Road, Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 5M6
Tel: (250) 758-5255 Fax: (250) 758-0912 Email: info @ madillequipment.com

Evidently the company went bankrupt in Apr 08 and their assets were sold at auction. I discovered this too late after sending a request for information into the ether.

It appears that the 'Madill 071 Mobile Tower Crawler Mounted Five Drummed Mobile Highlead/Skyline Yarder' is a well-known conversion over the years. Sometimes a Sherman chassis is used, other times some other tracked heavy-weight undercarriage.

"Medium-sized towers
Medium-sized yarders (with towers 14–21 m) like the Madill 071, or the larger Madill 171, can be used to yard mature coastal second-growth timber in a live or standing skyline configuration. As in the smaller towers, these medium-sized towers are quite mobile and relatively easy to set up with three to six guylines. They can also be used to yard parallel corridors, decking the wood below the yarder at the roadside, as with the smaller yarders."

One BC auction site lists 5 Madill 071s selling in between 06 and 08 for:
Maximum Auction Price $35,631
Minimum Auction Price $9,691
Average Auction Price $22,693

A Washington equipment dealer in Apr 08 had a Madill 071 complete with lines for US$55K.

A researcher mentioned he used a pamphlet on the Madill 071 as one reference for some project he was doing. So, paperwork does exist!

Maple_Leaf_Eh · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jan 24, 2006 Posts: 517

So, I invested 9 minute and 20 seconds of long distance phone time in the pursuit of greater knowledge. I hope you guys appreciate it.

Madill is back in business, but only as a wholesaler of their own parts, owned by a Montana-based company. As long as there are trees to cut, there will be logging businesses. This is just another cycle to weather.

The office guys I spoke to said the 'old military crawlers' were imported on ships from overseas. without their turrets or top sides. Too heavy and not required for the conversions. Many of the 'Oh-seventy-one' conversions were done in the 1970's in the hundreds in Nanaimo. They were perfectly serviceable logging machines, that improved on the earliest designs. Prior to the arrival of tracked crawlers, towers were dragged around on trucks, sleds and wagons. The tracked undercarriages were well suited for the steep sloped forests of BC, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Northern California, New Zealand and Australia. Apparently there are still hundreds in use in the forests too. The modern crawlers are now hydraulic drive with fully automated controls.

There are small shops up and down the coast have supplies of spares, rebuilding jigs and expertise to keep them running. From a low value of about $10,000 for a junker only good for parts, all the way to well-maintained and fully fitted rigs up to $200,000. This is business, not history.

JG300-Ascout

- Maple_Leaf_Eh

The office guys I spoke to said the 'old military crawlers' were imported on ships from overseas. without their turrets or top sides. Too heavy and not required for the conversions. Many of the 'Oh-seventy-one' conversions were done in the 1970's in the hundreds in Nanaimo. They were perfectly serviceable logging machines, that improved on the earliest designs. Prior to the arrival of tracked crawlers, towers were dragged around on trucks, sleds and wagons. The tracked undercarriages were well suited for the steep sloped forests of BC, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Northern California, New Zealand and Australia. Apparently there are still hundreds in use in the forests too. The modern crawlers are now hydraulic drive with fully automated controls.

Tracked vehicles for relocation, anchoring and retrieval (of anything) is a widely practiced, and potentially dangerous, skill. The same method of yarding fallen logs is also used for grooming black diamond slopes at many ski resorts. Many "Pisten Bully" snowcats have tracks and a winch boom in addtion to their blade. They sometimes used a fixed anchor at the top of a steep slope (say, in the 35-40+ degree range) or will work with another Snow Cat as an anchor at the top so they can make controlled ascents and decents on the slope by cable winching.

One of my favorite runs in the world, the "No. 9 Express" at Alta, got it's name when the cable broke on the #9 Snow Cat during a grooming session, making for an an exciting decent for the driver. Incredibly, it turned around on the decent and the only damage was a broken running light.

Tank chassis, of course, are way too heavy with too much ground pressure for this kind of work.

Hanno_Spoelstra · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jun 04, 2006 Posts: 185

Thanks for the links, they prove many of these machines using Sherman components are still in use, albeit being phased out of service.

Ref. web.inter.nl.net/users...hshare.htm

Mind you, many times even the lower hulls on these type of conversions were swapped for custom built ones. So before anyone is contemplating rebuilding one of these rigs back into a Sherman tank, bear in mind all you might get is a set of worn out bogies and possibly a transmission and set of final drives.

Regards,
Hanno

TrevorLarkum

Hiya, Hanno, good to see you here!

Don't worry, I don't think anyone thinks these conversions are a quick way of getting to a restored Sherman, just an interesting topic.

Maple_Leaf_Eh · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jan 24, 2006 Posts: 517

Here is a pneumatic drill on an M35 ARV chassis.

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