One ton log truck

[bigblue12v]

No I'm not using it for logging but in my quest to make firewood more efficient and easier on me, I have to haul my wood in to my property as I am not blessed with acreage of timber to harvest. My one ton has a steel flatbed and I am racking my brain for a simple and cost effective way to easily load logs onto it. A truck bed hoist, a very large heavy duty one, would work but it gets kind of complex to motorize or otherwise have reliable safe control over it to keep the load from swinging around and smashing something. Is anyone familiar with a burial vault truck? The local vault company has a few one ton trucks that have a bed like pictured. A hoist on a rail that runs lengthways with the truck allows you to roll the hoist out past the back of the truck bed, lift the (log in my case), spin it 90* if needed, and push it toward the front of the truck until log is situated where you want it, then lower it. The design is solid and simple, the uprights for its frame would act as log racks. I simply need to figure out how big of a winch I need to use for this. Most 12V winches are rated for flat ground pulling not vertical lifting. I want one plenty safe but not any bulkier than necessary as I have a maximum height to be concerned with in order for truck to fit into my shop as needed, and other reasons. So I don't want a huge 10,000# winch taking up a lot of my available height. Would a 4" H beam be strong enough as a rail? It would be extended roughly 4' past the rear most vertical supports.

 

[CalTreeEquip]

I have seen these trucks used to haul boulders. The length of the log would be a problem.

 

[bigblue12v]

My truck bed is 8' wide 9' long. I think if the logs were cut about 10' long, and the beam hung out past the rear most vertical support, you could have the logs sideways until they were above the bed then spin them 90* and run them home. That's my thoughts anyway?

 

[Mike-M]

No input on the rail idea.
I have a harbor freight 2500 lb atv winch mounted on a truck bed crane. Its the smallest size 12v winch i know of. I cinch a strap around a 3-500 lb log or bundle of logs, and drag it up next to my truck. The HF winch does that part no problem. From there, it really struggles at lifting the wood straight up in the air, even at 1/5 of its rating, so Im using a snatch block now which helps a lot, but it still struggles a little with bigger loads. I also have a Warn 2500 lb atv winch which I have lifted over 1000 lbs off the ground easily, so you get what you pay for I guess.

 

[bigblue12v]

Mike, I've got a off brand 2000# on my garden tractor and it has its place but I was pretty sure it wouldn't lift it's rated capacity straight vertical even with a snatch block. Thinking a 4500# ATV winch may do the trick, with snatch block if needed. Yes you get what you pay for with winches. I do have a Smittybilt 10k on my truck and it's been awesome used to have it on a car trailer used several times a day pulling junk cars on, has pulled hundreds of times no issues at all. $500 winch. Couldn't be happier. Have pulled non running combine out of woods with it. 6500# machine. Used it for a gazillion things. Only once used snatch block. It has a very quick line speed for a 10k also!

 

[bigblue12v]

Still scratching my head on this project since I'm waiting on finances to catch up with my want list. Too many money pits at once right now unfortunately.

 

[blades]

I have noticed that the holes into which one pours funds have increased in depth and width exponentially over the past several years.

 

[bigblue12v]

I have noticed that the holes into which one pours funds have increased in depth and width exponentially over the past several years.

That is fantastic in all of it's awful truth lol

 

[TimberMcPherson]

Thank me later!

 

[bigblue12v]

I've seen those videos, I've scoured YouTube! My truck bed is so high that I feared the geometry might not be correct for one of those arches. It is dead simple though. My truck is a 4wd one ton Dodge with a flatbed but it's not a cab chassis truck so the bed has additional height from crossmembers used to bridge the bed to the truck frame. Also not sure how well it would work to stack to more than one layer of logs. If you search "winch loading logs" on YouTube you'll find the most results that way. Another option I'm considering trying is the ramps off the side and roll logs up it with winch. Again very very simple and you can stack multiple layers that way quite easily.

Here's truck:

 

[bigblue12v]

Here's what I came up with!!! Still have some tweaking and perfecting but I'm happy with it for the time and money investment and practicality. No permanent or inconvenient modifications to my truck. Actually none at all, the ramps hook on like trailer ramps and the winch mount sits down in a pocket and a chain secures it. Need to perfect that a little, clean up weld slag and grind corners and edges smooth on everything but it was threatening rain so I had to hurry lol. Pardon the winch cutting in and out, my battery wasn't charged and my cordless remote surges when battery is low. This is a 10,000# Smittybilt winch on a receiver hitch mount, goes in front bumper of my truck or rear, or on front of a trailer. Anywhere really. I have a power plug on front bumper and need to run one back to bed also so it can run off truck battery. This set up can be used on either side of the truck bed that's a nice thing!!!! I was initially going to go this route but was concerned that stacking multiple layers of logs would be very difficult at best but I pondered on it and found a couple YouTube videos showing how to do it.

 

[rwoods]

I believe you will find that you don't actually need such long ramps. I parbuckled on trailers without ramps. Ron

 

[rwoods]

Even odd ball stuff will roll up with a chain. Ron

Base is 3' or so on both of these stems. All loaded without ramps.


Even this forked log will load with chains.

 

[bigblue12v]

Rwoods! Nice! I can always cut them down, they're 8' long right now. 2x4" x 0.25" wall box tube they're friggin heavy! One reason I might leave long is these could be integral back bone to a set of ramps that could be used for loading riding mowers in bed of my truck and need the length for that.

 

[rwoods]

Nothing wrong with multitasking. I just figured that they would have to be stout to work at that length - thus heavy. Ron

 

[bigblue12v]

Testing it out in the yard. Works great just gotta keep a cant hook handy. My wireless remote sucks. It's great when it works right. Going to fetch some bigger logs tomorrow. Will post pics.

 

[bigblue12v]

More action yesterday, works great!

 

[bigblue12v]

It's back to a dually with 6 new tires they came in Tuesday and was finally able to get them mounted today. The single tire set up handled loads superb all things considered but I was still fearing a blow out with the tires at the end of their life span and as overloaded as they were. These are the same height as the 33's I took off, but the front end has leveling spacers which will come out when I get to it, so they don't look all that big under it.