630B Construction Tractor

31st July 2016

Dwayne Lyda, owner of The Lydell Group in Drayton Valley, Alberta purchased his first Tigercat 630B skidder in October of 2000. Dwayne’s company utilized the machine in daily skidding operations until 2014 when Dwayne’s equipment requirements shifted. With continued expansion of the company into oil field construction, road building and land development, Dwayne now needed a machine that could churn the soil with a construction disk. He felt that his 630B was up to the task.

Dwayne’s 630B skidder equipped with a construction disk for a commercial development project approximately 140 kilometres (87 miles) southwest of Edmonton in Drayton Valley, Alberta.

With 20,000 hours of operation under its belt the 2000 model year 630B was completely rebuilt. The boom, arch and grapple were removed, as they were no longer required for its new duties, and a hitch system was added to the rear of the machine to connect to the disk. Most impressive was the total rebuild of the operator station including interior insulation, headliners and a full paint job. Installation of 44 inch tires completed the transformation and the machine was ready to go.

The main requirement was to pull the disk through the hard wet soil (solid clay in Alberta) to improve aeration, allowing for a drier and more stable compaction base to form prior to building. Traditionally this work is done by a high horsepower farm tractor so to no surprise, after 4,000 hours the 630B held up to the challenge.

After successful completion of the contract, followed by several more, the machine was reassembled to resume daily forestry skidding operations at 24,000 hours. After witnessing the machine’s capabilities and having his dealer’s support throughout the transformation, Dwayne and his team at The Lydell Group have been huge supporters of both Tigercat and dealer, Wajax Equipment.