3-point logging winch info needed

[Urbicide]

Hello.

I have decided that adding a 3-point logging winch to my L5030 Kubota would help make my life a bit easier. The four brands I have seen on line are Farmi, Fransgard, Norse, and Tajfun. No one locally carries any of them so I would have to have one trucked in. I have been trying to educate myself as to what brand to buy, or at the very least what to stay away from. Most of my property is pretty steep and it is rather uncomfortable operating a tractor on. My tractor is rated 42.5 hp at the pto and has a fel. Your experiences and suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Vince

 

[John Ellison]

Have you checked out Hud Son forest products? Some of their dealers have a couple of different tractor winches.

 

[Esbjug]

The four brands I have seen on line are Farmi, Fransgard, Norse, and Tajfun.

Hello, some recommendations from Scandinavia: I would say no to Fransgard products. These are made in Denmark, with very little forest areas. My knowledge of Fransgard winches is that they are not to solid made. Stay away, but ok for light use.

Tajfun is from eastern Europe. Stay away.

Farmi (from Finland) and Norse (from Norway) make good products. Either will give you years of service. I think some of the Norse winches are made by Igland here in Norway, a very well renovated company (www.igland-as.com). If you can get a Igland in your state, buy one. For your tractor, a 3 or 3.5 tonne winch is ok. Igland also supply radio control as an option, and you can also control the revs of the tractor engine with this remote control.

I now have a 3.5 tonne Igland (model 3601) on a 45 hp tractor. An ok combination, but its not hard at all to turn over the tractor if not aware!
8 mm wire is the best option, but 9 mm can also be used. The larger wire is harder to handle.

Hans, Norway

 

[woodfarmer]

i use the farmi, excellent winch

 

[tawilson]

My tractor is a tad smaller than yours and I opted for the 551 Farmi. It's a stout piece of steel and can be used for scraping and filling in holes. It was my favorite implement, till I got my backhoe, partly because it was great weight and didn't stick out as far as a backblade.

And for a hoot, hook the cable up high and get the tree to rocking then give it a good tug and sometimes the whole thing will pull over. This is for smaller stuff in shallow soil of course. Here's one, the rest of the tree is still attached. Great for trail clearing, no stump to deal with.

Oh, have you checked out the "Farm Tractor in the Woodlot" thread?

 

[John Ellison]

When you land a log/s can you unhook and get the chains up and in the clear(so the tires wont back over them) by just dismounting the tractor one time?
What is the process?

 

[tawilson]

John, if you are asking me about the skidding tongs hanging on the bucket, I can hookup, move and get unhooked from a log without getting off the tractor. I'm so lazy that I usually will cut down a tree, limb what I can easily get to, then do my bucket/tong trick to drag the tree out so I can easily finish limbing, then drag the tree to where I've dragged other trees so I don't have to drag the winch cable all over. Course I am usually dealing with smaller trees for firewood. An advantage of doing it this way is because the tree is held by the tongs I don't have to worry too much about it rolling whilst limbing.

 

[John Ellison]

No, I meant when you are using the winch and have a couple or so logs hooked. The pics that I have seen they were not skidding off the winch fairlead, but off the chain slots on the blade.
That looks like a good idea, the chain slots on your bucket.

 

[tawilson]

Ah. I usually use the lower slots on the winch. Usually lowering the winch and backing up gives enough slack to unhook the chains, but I always start the pto so I can give them a yank with the winch if I need to. I use that to get the chains free of the logs too, so yes I only have to get off the tractor once. I use the blade of the winch to push the logs to my pile then off to the woods again.
I'm having shoulder surgery Tuesday. I'm hoping to get healed up enough to do some logging before winter is over.

 

[John Ellison]

Those winches look like a pretty neat set up. Hope the shoulder turns out OK.

 

[ever green]

I have a TN 75 wjth FEL and Farmi 501. I should have got the 601, more pulling power and heavier duty...Heres a few pics...

 

[ever green]

Winches work great for getting you out of trouble, pulled me right out...

 

[tawilson]

Oh yeah, I meant 501 instead of 551. Heh heh.

 

[sawyerDave]

Fransgard winch

I have, I think the smallest Fransgard winch. It is also about 20 years old, instead of a blade, it has 2 feet kinda like backhoe stabilizers that contact the ground when you are pulling. The one thing I learned quick is to have the tractor front end pointed square away from the direction you are pulling the log. I rolled a 16' 16" poplar log over the top of my pile at the top of a small hill, it landed about 30 feet down the hill. Pulled the winch, mounted on a grey market Kubota L2202 almost parallel to the log hooked up the winch and started to pull--the tractor over sideways! Luckily was able to stop and release the winch with no rollover. I learned my lesson, never gonna do that again! Now I know why I got that winch for free, cause the guy who gave it to me said he rolled his tractor twice with it!

 

[Urbicide]

Winches work great for getting you out of trouble, pulled me right out...

That is a nice tractor you have. 75 hp? I like the larger front tires. I have R1s on my Bota and with a full, ain't-no-more-gonna-fit, load of wood on my pallet forks really puts a strain on the front tires.

Talk about getting buried! It was a good thing you had that winch alright! How long did it take you to wash all of that mud off?

 

[Urbicide]

One thing that I have noticed is that Farmi does not include a safety screen with their winches. I guess that it is an extra cost option. Fransgard, Igland, Norse, Tajfun asd come with the screen. I was wondering if those screens would make it more difficult to manuver in tight places anyway.
opcorn:

 

[Husky137]

Those safety screens aren't going to protect you from anything that is going to do you harm anyhow. I've has my Farmi for almost 5 years with no problems. I think the screen would be a nuisance.

 

[computeruser]

Tangentially related question:

I see that Farmi sells their 290 winch for the 17-30hp tractors. Forgive my ignorance, since I'm a suburban boy whose only tractor experience has been with a lawn tractor, but how much real-world skidding and pulling could be done with a tractor of that size? I'm thinking something like a JD790 or one of those 20-25hp Japanese used imports.

 

[sawyerDave]

Little tractors can pull big loads

But you have to be safe. The Kubota that I mentioned in the earlier post is only about 22 hp, but can pull twice its 1500 lbs, if you set it up right, and keep it upright! Not thinking about what you are doing causes more damage, than the actual doing of it.:jawdrop:

 

[Urbicide]

Do any of you guys use the self-releasing snatch blocks? There is one shown on the Norse demo video on Labonvile's web site.

Link to video: http://www.labonville.com/videos/v7.htm