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Colton’s Journey

BTB visits Grass Lake, Michigan, to chat with third-generation logger Colton Fodor. Colton shares his experiences becoming a teenage logging business owner and navigating the Michigan industry to remain successful.

— Mike Soluk

Colton Fodor standing in front of Tigercat machines
Three generations of Fodor men have worked the forests of Michigan. Over the years, Christmas trees, firewood, saw logs, and most recently, high-value select-cut hardwood timber have all proven to be viable revenue streams for the Fodor family. As the next generation continues in the family’s footsteps, Pull-Hard Logging owner Colton Fodor has targeted the niche market of walnut and white oak as his new focus. The high-value hardwood timber is primarily destined for the offshore market.

Woodlot management for repeat harvests, buying standing timber, land clearing, and right-of-way projects for municipal development are also a part of Colton’s service offering. The company has attentively diversified its portfolio of services to ensure it can meet the needs of a wide customer base while future-proofing the business in an ever-changing landscape.

Starting early, Colton learned what it takes to become successful and grow a business. When there wasn’t school, a 4:00 am wake-up to head with his father Todd to the family sawmill was what he chose to do. “I give Dad 100% credit for taking me every day when I was probably the age of three and up. Tough to take a kid with you every day to work, but he did,” Colton reminisces. “That’s where I fell in love with going to the sawmill, going to the woods.” By age ten, he was actively involved with the mill, unloading trucks, loading the debarker, and stocking the log deck to prep for the incoming shift.

In his teen years, Colton grew his firewood business. At the age of fifteen, he purchased his first second-hand skidder and began working for local hand-falling contractors, paid on volume extracted to roadside. He built a reputation as a reliable contractor, planting the seeds for future growth. Colton had started making a name for himself.
group photo
(L-R) Mike Soluk, Tigercat Marketing Representative; Larry Nelson, Tigercat Product Support Representative; Jerry Smeak, Tigercat District Manager; Colton Fodor, Owner of Pull-Hard Logging; Heath Yoder, Ricer Service Manager; Danny Gatrell, Ricer Sales Representative; Loren Ricer, Ricer Dealer Manager.
In 2012, the same year he graduated from high school, his small business became official and Pull-Hard Logging became the new brand. At nineteen, Colton may be the youngest person ever to purchase a new Tigercat machine, a 610C skidder sourced from Ricer Equipment in Lucasville, Ohio. Colton fondly recalls seeing Bobby Goodson on TV inspecting a brand new Tigercat 635D and its Turnaround seat. “When they put that in a small skidder like a 610, I’ll own one,” Colton remembers saying. “At eighteen, I finally called a dealer. Dad and I drove down. We checked it out. We couldn’t drive it a whole lot, but I fell in love. A year later I decided to pull the trigger and drove down and got my brand new machine.”

The 610C purchase was the starting point in his longstanding relationship with Tigercat and Ricer Equipment. After twelve years, his fleet includes a 234B loader, an 822D feller buncher with a 5185 fixed felling saw, a 625H skidder, an M726E mulcher, a new 865 logger, and the original 610C.

Using large logging equipment for small woodlot harvests often concerns landowners. Colton addresses this by treating the land like it’s his own. “Fix the trails when I’m done. Grade the landing off. Clean the blocks up. Do a nice job, just like it was my own property,” says Colton. Good relationship management and low impact logging techniques have led to repeat customers. Although most of Colton’s work is acquired through word of mouth, he admits that he often evaluates timber stands as he drives between jobs. He isn’t shy about contacting landowners should he see an opportunity.

An appetite for hardwood

Rural Michigan is characterized by privately owned woodlots and farms. When walking the stands and evaluating their potential, Colton focuses on trying to determine the best market for the species. Most of the timber is destined for local pallet mills or the US west coast for export to Asia.
Tigercat 822D with fixed felling saw and hard hardwood tree
Colton runs his 822D/5185 selectively cutting high-value walnut.
Mature walnut and white oak are felled with a Tigercat 5185 fixed felling saw mounted on an 822D carrier. With diameters as large as 130 cm (51 in) and lengths ranging from two to seven metres (7-21 ft), processed logs are transported to Colton’s yard to be unloaded and sorted. Using the Doyle scale, the logs are graded and loaded into containers using the company’s newly purchased Tigercat 865 logger. The containers are shipped to Detroit for fumigation and then onto a train headed west to ports in Oregon and Washington state for export. “Right now, the white oak and the walnut are just the two species that everyone’s paying good money for. So that’s what we’re focusing on,” says Colton. “We’re still trying to cut some cherries and some red oak. We’re still trying to manage the woodlots so we can log them in ten or fifteen more years. That’s the ideal wood right now. It’s what the world is calling for.”

LOGGING IS ALL ABOUT CARE. WE’RE TRYING TO MANAGE THE WOODLOTS SO WE CAN LOG THEM TEN OR FIFTEEN YEARS FROM NOW.


Colton’s production ramps up in winter. That’s when all the high grade walnut and white oak trees are harvested. Prices are higher in winter, and the low temperatures favor storage. “If a log is sitting in a container for two months in 100-degree Fahrenheit [38 Celsius] weather, it’s going to pop, split, crack, and stain. In the winter, it’s a big push to cut and ship as much hardwood as possible. Plus, the frozen ground helps. Of course, there is less cleanup. If you don’t have to take a dozer, you’re not spending extra money cleaning trails.” Due to these challenges, Colton staggers his large hardwood jobs to coincide with the cooler weather, making for long days and an intense winter. “I mean, my wife, we’ve been together a long time, high school sweethearts, and she understands the busy time of the year. But she still doesn’t like it because she knows I’m never home.”

Softwood and soft hardwood, primarily cottonwood, white poplar, and spruce, are merchandised to lengths between five and seven metres (18-24 feet) and hauled to local pallet mills on the company owned truck. With this lower-value timber, Colton ensures the tracts are within 130 kilometers (80miles) of the mills to keep transport costs on budget.

Tigercat, all the way

Colton recently added a new Tigercat 865 logger to his fleet, the first of its kind in Michigan. With the comfort and visibility required for loading trucks and containers, the cab was the main reason Colton wanted the 865 in his operation. It is deployed to the log yard, sorting, loading, and unloading logs. Colton says he can load a container in about fifteen minutes, a job that would take an experienced operator 40 minutes to complete with a wheel loader.
Tigercat 865 logger in wood yard
Pull-Hard Loggings’ most recent purchase, a Tigercat 865, is unloading walnut and white oak to be sorted and loaded into containers for shipment.
“With the timber industry not as good as it used to be, you’ve got to think outside the box a little bit, and you can’t put all your eggs in one basket and count on logging every day. So I’ve been doing more land clearing. And I think that 865 for land clearing is going to be the awesome tool in the shed because we’ll be able to load dump trucks with it, clear land, load mulch, move mulch, and fill a grinder. I mean, I’m filling containers with it, and I didn’t even think I was going to do that. It’s just a handy tool so far.”

Even with extensive exposure to various equipment manufacturers over the years, Tigercat is Colton’s preferred brand of choice for several reasons. Notably, he first mentions the strength and durability of the machines. “The equipment, of course, is built to go to a different planet. I mean, nothing is built like a Tigercat. They’re overbuilt, heavy-duty, and I love that.” He adds that it’s a combination of build quality and ownership maintenance programs that further the life of the equipment. Pull-Hard Logging has implemented 300-hour complete machine inspections to ensure any concerns can be addressed immediately.

The other major differentiating factor Colton points to is the continuous product development and free flow of communication between end users and the Tigercat engineering team. “It’s the engineering that big corporate companies don’t think of. And the other thing I really love is Tigercat listens to what we say as operators and owners. They listen to what we want, and then they adjust and make positive changes.”

Growing with Ricer

Additionally, Colton highlights that parts and service turnaround time, and the handpicked dealer network, is unrivaled in other brands. To Colton, this reinforces Tigercat’s focus on after-sale customer support. He describes that he can place an order through Ricer Equipment, and if the parts are not in stock, Ricer will orchestrate a next day dropship from one of Tigercat’s three parts distribution centres to ensure he is up and running as quickly as possible. Colton also notes the reliability and responsiveness of Ricer service manager Heath Yoder, parts representative Curtis King and technician Chad Lawson. Colton stresses that “with Tigercat and Ricer, it doesn’t matter if you are the largest or the smallest customer, they always do their best to have you back up and running.”

IT’S THE ENGINEERING THAT BIG CORPORATE COMPANIES DON’T THINK OF. AND THE OTHER THING I REALLY LOVE IS TIGERCAT LISTENS TO WHAT WE SAY AS OPERATORS AND OWNERS. THEY LISTEN TO WHAT WE WANT, AND THEN THEY ADJUST AND MAKE POSITIVE CHANGES.


Colton recalls the first time he and Lyle Ricer, VP and co-owner of Ricer Equipment, met to discuss the purchase of his 610C skidder. “The biggest thing about Lyle is that he took me seriously. I was nineteen, calling and talking about a $250,000 skidder. And he took the time to meet me at a job, show me the machine. Not many people do that.” It was the beginning of a committed business relationship that would foster growth for both parties.
Colton Fodor, his wife Alexandra, and their two children, who may be the fourth generation of Fodor loggers.
Colton Fodor, his wife Alexandria, and their two children, who may be the fourth generation of Fodor loggers.
As Lyle has focused more on dealership management and development, Pull-Hard’s recent 865 purchase was handled by salesman Danny Gatrell. He has stepped in, maintaining the same level of support Lyle provided Colton over the years. “This last big purchase of the 865, we just wanted to make sure we were making the right choice. And so Danny said, ‘Let’s get in the truck and drive.’” They travelled to RNS Logging in Virginia so Colton could see the 865 in action.

A way of life

Logging is a way of life for the Fodor family. Colton’s primary goal is to be a role model and set an example for his family of what hard work and dedication can build. Reflecting on his early beginnings in the industry and the outlook for Pull-Hard Logging, Colton talks about the importance of stewardship for the next generation of loggers. “These Michigan woods are the ones that my grandpa cut, my dad cut, and I’ve cut now maybe twice already. I want to see my son cut them, and maybe I want to see his son cut them. Logging is all about care. We’re trying to manage the woodlots so we can log them ten or fifteen years from now.” Striving to be a good land steward, Colton is doing his best to ensure the forests of Michigan can be harvested by the Fodor family and others for generations to come.

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