Moving rounds out of a creek bottom.....

[Dalmatian90]

Skycrane? Pish.

You need a K-Max from Connecticut's other helicopter manufacturer: Welcome to KAMAN Aerospace

Get the remote piloted version they made to haul cargo for the Navy, so you can sit at home a computer and fly it

 

[zogger]

way cool

Skycrane? Pish.

You need a K-Max from Connecticut's other helicopter manufacturer: Welcome to KAMAN Aerospace

Get the remote piloted version they made to haul cargo for the Navy, so you can sit at home a computer and fly it

Every boy *needs* one!

 

[slowp]

Here is a bad movie I made of a K Max working a couple miles from my house. Our gray, damp days make for bad filming but good lift for the helicopter.

[video=youtube_share;oYytJzvRMss]http://youtu.be/oYytJzvRMss[/video]

 

[TreePointer]

I will never try one of those skidding cones. Just looked one up. $$$$$$

Bailey's - Portable Winch Skidding Cone Kit

That's the entire kit. You can purchase just the cone for about $150 at a bunch of places.

Of course, it's still more expensive than an old car hood from a junkyard .

 

[KiwiBro]

Wait for a big rain and wait downstream.

This is more like it. Just not so far downstream the neighbours have a chance to swipe it on it's way through their 'jurisdiction'.

 

[turnkey4099]

You could drill a hole in the bottom of a plastic 44 gallon drum or the like. Especially the drums with tapered bottoms. I was gobsmacked how well it worked, snaking logs around stumps and up steeper sections. It really works.

Hood or trunk lid off an old car, torch hole in it and let it slide on the chain or cable. Too wide? Torch it down to size and maybe curl up the edges a bit.

Harry K

 

[KiwiBro]

Hood or trunk lid off an old car, torch hole in it and let it slide on the chain or cable. Too wide? Torch it down to size and maybe curl up the edges a bit.

Harry K

Was really just chancing it when I tried the drum. Didn't think it would work so well but I kept dragging out logs past areas that would normally snag them up. So I got someone else to haul one slowly while I stood on the side of the hill to watch it in progress. I picked a log at the bottom of the hill with three stumps, two standing trees (skid rope rubbing against one of them) and one seriously steep kick in the gradient along it's skid path and it was like watching water flow downhill - skating around or over obstacles i it's way without any drama and as efficiently as possible, except it wasn't water it was the skidding log and it was the very opposite of downhill. Magic. If a car hood was bent to taper then it too would have snaked around obstacles I would imagine. the drum only cost $20.

 

[turnkey4099]

Likely not as much about traction as balance. A little tractor with a lot of weight on the 3 point will get real light in the nose on level ground, and want to tip backwards going uphill forward.

Seems I either misread it, or mis 'pictured' it. Backing up with load on the 3 point _will_ add a bit of weight to the tires. I must have bee picturing it with theload on the front.

Good point about the balance. I tipped a bucket excavator vertically on its nose digging out a basement once by forgetting to "carry the load low".

Harry K

 

[lambs]

Thanks for all the responses guys

I was out of town for a day trip over the weekend, and just now had a chance to read all your responses. I really appreciate the ideas. I really liked the Jeep with the hitch hauler. I have a hitch hauler. I'll have to look on line to see if anyone makes a 3 pt adapter for it. That would be one answer.

My 1010 is pretty much identical to the one someone posted. I had a weight rack built for the front end that I can hang MF suitcase weights on. I think they are roughly 35 lbs each, and I have 4 of them, with room for 2 more. With 3 of the weights in place, I can handle a 250 lb core aerator on the 3 point with no issues. So I'm thinking maybe 6 weights and try to keep the load under 500 lbs each trip may work. Maybe I won't have to back up the grade, but if I get enough traction to do this slowly enough, I'd try it.

The trailer I was using is the one I haul the tractor on...it's a 4 x 8 and probably weighs 500 lbs empty. But my loads were maybe 4 x 5 x 12" high on average. I do have a lot of turns in the woods, including a 90 degree turn at the bottom of the hill into the creek bottom. And I have to get around the stumps and trees. The length of the rig is one of the problems. I have lifted the back of it when empty to get it into position for backing up a couple times.

Friday I went down the trail with a leaf blower to move the leaves, and spread a partial load of chips from where we had earlier ground up a bunch of the limbs. That improved the traction. Then when I get to the bottom of the hill with a load, I go to 2nd gear, high range, open the throttle, hit the diff lock, and let out the clutch. It claws up the hill pretty well like that. I have dropped the air pressure on the rears, but may drop it more. I don't have a winch but used a 4 ton cable come-along Friday when I got stuck. That worked pretty well too. I have pulled about 10 loads out of the creek bottom so far like this.

I've been doing some searches on the internet about it, and I think the answer for me may be a 3 pt carry all, lifting a wooden pallet loaded with rounds. If I get stuck, I can set the load down and pull away, or get around the pallet and pick it up from the other end to move it off to the side. I have a pallet in my garage, so I can see how this might come together.

Any other thoughts on this, please post...thanks again for your ideas.

 

[leon]

firewood tug fest

Hi guys.

I am helping move downed wood out of a creek bottom right behind a friend's home,
and I've been doing it with a MF1010 diesel (16 hp) and a 4 x 8 utility trailer.
It's all from the April 16th twister here in NC.

The problems are:

•wet soil and leaves
•limited traction on turf tires
•lots of twists and turns with limited manueverability
•uphill slope to the driveway


As a result, I can only load my trailer about half full of wood (say, 12" high)
and pull it up the slope. Not efficient, and it's really giving my tractor hurt feelings.
I have no lack of power and torque, it's just too much weight to pull through the woods.

I'm starting to think of alternatives, and the one thing I've thought of is a carry all for the 3 pt hitch.
I'd have to make a lot more trips up the hill, but it would be very maneuverable, and I could actually
back up the hill if needed for traction.

I guess I'd have to modify it some to get decent capacity.
There is a LOT of wood down, and I could probably work out there every Saturday for months.

I need something durable and compact.....a skid steer would be ideal, but it would really cut things
up, so I'm trying to stick with the tractor.

Can't go with tire chains since I need to go 100 yards down an asphault driveway once I come out of the woods.

Anyone have thoughts on this? I'm "all ears". Thanks.

OK wheres the beer!?????


The thing you have to realise about a skid steer is you drive down a hill
and back up the same hill or it becomes very FATAL!!!!!

A serious option would be an ASV with tracks as you would have traction
and weight for traction, the problem is limited vision on the sides of the ASV.


If you have that much wood it might be better to rent a dozer and make a
stone boat with solid ends to tow the wood out in pulp wood lengths in fewer trips.

A monster cart or an atv dump cart and an ATV or truck winch with a lot of cable
is what you need as you can load the cart up with the winch and battery on the trailer
and ride up with the load. you would want to have spare battery or a charger for the
battery on the cart during lunch breaks.

Short of using a winch line on a direct rise-run path you dont have lot of options that
will work as running uphill with a rear carry all is also a time bomb if you do not have a
R.O.P.S. and chains.

 

[SPDRMNKY]

if'n yer fabbin' up a 3pt basket, fab up a basket that bolts to the front too...more counterweight...better balance...no trailer

could probably make it so it flipped up when empty...kinda like a brush guard

 

[KiwiBro]

Have you got a clear line of sight down to there from a tree at the top of the driveway? If so, put in a skyline and freak the neighbours out when they see logs floating passed their two-story windows. You say there's a 100 yard downhill driveway. Use it to haul the turn 100 yards at a time or make smaller turns and go down, hook up to a snatch block and then back up and then even back down through another block if need be, giving you 300 yards of pull.

Just trying to get a lil' outside the box with this, without seeing pics of the situation. Pics would help plenty if you have 'em.

 

[lambs]

I'm not dealing with logs, just rounds

I'm sorry if my description was misleading, but almost all of the wood left has been bucked, and most of it is limbs and small rounds that I can handle with my 261. But great comments nonetheless. I do not have pics yet and probably won't be back out there for a few weeks due to the holidays and a little out-patient surgery I'm about to have that will affect my ability to hold a saw for a few weeks.

I do have an ROPS on the tractor. I'll keep it on the light side of a load. I've got a couple weeks to plan the next move. Even the trailer is fine as long as I keep it light. Just not so efficient.

I need to remember to take a pic or two for you guys when I get back out there with whatever I end up doing.

Thanks all, and have a great holiday!

 

[lambs]

if'n yer fabbin' up a 3pt basket, fab up a basket that bolts to the front too...more counterweight...better balance...no trailer

could probably make it so it flipped up when empty...kinda like a brush guard

I really like this one. Adds more capacity and sounds like it would be safer too! I may have to see about having a 2" receiver welded to the bottom of the front weight rack. Then I could use my hitch hauler on the front, and a 3pt carrier on the rear....

 

[snofrog]

I really like this one. Adds more capacity and sounds like it would be safer too! I may have to see about having a 2" receiver welded to the bottom of the front weight rack. Then I could use my hitch hauler on the front, and a 3pt carrier on the rear....

please note . the hitch hauler you seen behind my jeep is something I made up at work and is much stronger than what you will find at the local store . fyi, Mark

 

[KiwiBro]

They need to split'm with a chomper

They could tow one down to the creek bed, split those rounds into the world's most profitable, highest BTU firewood in the blink of an eye with enough time to sip on the ice cold beer from the built-in Chomper beer fridge while they watch the sun go down.
Next day, after a sleep in, the Chomper could use it's nifty labour-saving cable through a snatch block at the top to help the lil' engine that thought it could get back up the hill carting the splits.
For a thorough job though, I recommend leaving nothing but sawdust at the creekbed...and the Chomper itself, to be sacrificed to a rising river.:wink2:

OK wheres the beer!?????


The thing you have to realise about a skid steer is you drive down a hill
and back up the same hill or it becomes very FATAL!!!!!

A serious option would be an ASV with tracks as you would have traction
and weight for traction, the problem is limited vision on the sides of the ASV.


If you have that much wood it might be better to rent a dozer and make a
stone boat with solid ends to tow the wood out in pulp wood lengths in fewer trips.

A monster cart or an atv dump cart and an ATV or truck winch with a lot of cable
is what you need as you can load the cart up with the winch and battery on the trailer
and ride up with the load. you would want to have spare battery or a charger for the
battery on the cart during lunch breaks.

Short of using a winch line on a direct rise-run path you dont have lot of options that
will work as running uphill with a rear carry all is also a time bomb if you do not have a
R.O.P.S. and chains.

 

[Gap Goat]

Last Nights Rain

Wait for a big rain and wait downstream.

Do you have anything left?

 

[Garmins dad]

You where looking for a adapter from three point to a receiver hitch.. Google Heavy Hitch.. They are pretty nice..