Page 194 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

Top right, counter-clockwise: 330C working at Roseburg mill yard; Headrick’s 320C building log deck; Peterson got two 568 field follow machines in July 2011 with 330D stickers to guard their secrecy;
D & S testing out the 538 LL field follow machine
one.” After 5000 hours, Arndt replaced his first 568 with another one in October 2019, and a year later added a 558. “For a big production logging shovel, I don’t think there’s anything out there like the 568. We noticed a 25% to 30% increase in pro- duction immediately, over the John Deere. It’s fair to say that in the woods we work in, out to about 400 feet, a 568 can swing 40 truck loads a day of tree lengths. That’s big production. And on steep ground, that additional tenth roller in the track frame added stability and changed the personality of the machine. It’s just a great machine.”
THE CAT 527:
THE LOGGER’S SWISS ARMY KNIFE
Back in 1996, Cat finally came out with a pur- pose-built 527 skidder, a tracked machine perfect for the steep terrain of the Pacific Northwest. “The 527 was a landmark machine,” recalls Culligan. “Everyone had one. But they took quite a beating out in the woods.” It was built on a D5H platform and, over time, came to include a special tri-track D6 undercarriage and a highly modified main
192 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG