Come a long and or Hand Winch

[Wildeman]

I don’t have a winch and i dont think i need one, was wondering how efficient it would be to use a come-a-long for pulling up short sections of logs. I would also consider a hand crank winch if you know of a good one. I Live in the mountains of WNC and some of the good tree on my own property are inaccessible with a vehicle but i could buck them and man haul them to a drive. If i do get a come a long any recommendations on brand and tonnage? In general i am hard on thing and have found its better to buy one good one instead of three crappy ones. I am burning a bout 4 cords a year and want to scrounge all i can.
thanks
Devlin

 

[haveawoody]

Wildeman,

For short distances a human powered come-a-long is fine.
You could also try a pully system that multiplies your natural pulling power x2 x5 x10 etc.

Longer distance a power winch is nice.
Can be just a 12 battery, a loop of chain to secure the winch to a tree at the destination or onroute to it and the winch.

How often you use it and how far you have to haul things will make it easy for you to decide.
Nice thing with a power winch is once you install it on a machine you use to go get logs it's avaliable all the time.
Can be a 4x4, truck, car etc.

 

[Nosmo]

Winch or Come-along

I've got a couple of come-alongs and I have a hand power winch mounted on a crane in the rear of my pickup.

Come-alongs (any tonnage) are powerful but it has been my experience that they move the load slowly.

Tractor supply has a super looking giant size come-along but the price is high - around 179.95. I have one of their hand operated winches on my crane and it is rated at 2,500 lbs.

It will move a log pretty fast and if I put a snatch block on it will double the pulling power but the pulling speed is cut in half.

So my recommendation from past experience would be some type of winch - either hand or power type rather than use a come-along.

Nosmo

 

[zogger]

This thing. I dont have one yet but want one. Works like a comalong, but you arent limited to the cable spool, use any length 1/2 inch rope.

Bailey's - Maasdam Pow' R-Rope Puller

 

[Sandhill Crane]

I bought a large come-a-long from TSC, tired of the cheap ones. The one I bought was just a bigger cheap one, and I took it back. I absolutely hated using it it was such a pain to unspool without an extra three hands to hold this lever, and that back, and pull. For twice the price you can get a chain come-a-long. Almost bought one, but got along without it one more time, for now anyway. Check out Log-Rite junior arch to see if something like that might work for you.

 

[haveawoody]

zogger,

Now that looks like a cool piece of equiptment.
A long rope and tie up in a tree sure would make felling the dead and dying much easier with it.
Let alone hauling logs in and out of a trailor, tugging down worrysome dead limbs, moving crud before a drop etc etc.

 

[bbxlr8]

This thing. I dont have one yet but want one. Works like a comalong, but you arent limited to the cable spool, use any length 1/2 inch rope.

Bailey's - Maasdam Pow' R-Rope Puller

I have had one for 2 years and really like it. Mostly I use it for a safety line to provide extra pull going against the lean or if there are critical things in the fall zone. It has also been really good for pulling down snags or leaners (like mentioned in another thread recently). I am using 200' of line which is a bit long in most cases but really nice when you need it.

 

[brenndatomu]

This thing. I dont have one yet but want one. Works like a comalong, but you arent limited to the cable spool, use any length 1/2 inch rope.

Bailey's - Maasdam Pow' R-Rope Puller

That looks pretty slick zog. I have used something similar to pull cables into industrial electrical conduit, works well. They make a 120v powered one for pulling wire too, big $$ though.

I just bought a 3000lb ATV winch from RKO farm store for $60 on sale. 50' of 1/4" cable and remote control. I'm gonna mount a couple chain hooks to the mounting plate and extend the power cables with jumper cables to reach my truck battery. I'll hook the winch over the top lip of the front beam of the trailer to drag logs up.

 

[Old Doug]

I have a hand crank winch on the crane on my pickup. I also have a big castiron comealong. The hand winch is a jet airplane compared to the paint drying speed of the comealog. I use the comealong when i need a short pull on a heavy object.

 

[Iska3]

Hope to do a few miles of barb wire fence this summer.. If I chance the one end, I can see how this would save me a lot of time. Looks like a handy tool to have around.. Thanks for the idea and the link.

This thing. I dont have one yet but want one. Works like a comalong, but you arent limited to the cable spool, use any length 1/2 inch rope.

Bailey's - Maasdam Pow' R-Rope Puller

 

[Wildeman]

This thing. I dont have one yet but want one. Works like a comalong, but you arent limited to the cable spool, use any length 1/2 inch rope.

Bailey's - Maasdam Pow' R-Rope Puller

Hey that looks good!