Skidding winch for the tractor

[morewood]

The cutting went well Saturday, I'll post a pic or two. Didn't get much done as I had to do a few things around the house and for my dad. I did load my bucket up with oak rounds to keep the front end down, I was surprised that it worked with the load I had behind me. I would still prefer to somehow add weight to the front of the tractor and keep the bucket available for use as needed. I've got to go.

Shea

 

[morewood]

 

[morewood]

This is the pile I am working on. Shea

 

[timbrjackrussel]

Looks good, cleaning up the bush.

 

[wej52]

I bet you are grinning every time you hook a choker to one of those logs! W. Jones

 

[morewood]

Bingo!! That looks like it has my name written all over it. I would prefer that to hooking it to the tractor hitch because most of my trailers ride higher and that would give me the elevation to help with it. Thankfully I know someone with the welding skills to help me with this.

Shea

 

[morewood]

Looks good, cleaning up the bush.

This is pretty easy compared to what I have next. When I move the tractor back closer to the house it gets a lot steeper. You gotta love free wood, even if there is a little rot on it.

I bet you are grinning every time you hook a choker to one of those logs! W. Jones

Absolutely, cut, line up, and pull. Free oak is a blessing, easy to get to free oak...Awesome.

Shea

 

[timbrjackrussel]

This is pretty easy compared to what I have next. When I move the tractor back closer to the house it gets a lot steeper.


Try using snatch blocks to keep the log from digging in. Put the snatch block a few feet up in a solid tree.
You may have to move it a few times. Be careful.

 

[chipper1]

This is pretty easy compared to what I have next. When I move the tractor back closer to the house it gets a lot steeper. You gotta love free wood, even if there is a little rot on it.



Absolutely, cut, line up, and pull. Free oak is a blessing, easy to get to free oak...Awesome.

Shea

When there is a good rootball the trees are usually quite solid which means prefect for burning once the initial moisture gets off the outside, I love pre-dried/seasoned wood
Free oak is great, and so is a way to get it a lot easier. Some stuff that is down in ravines would just sit there and rot as there is not a great way to get it out without a winch. Depending on the lot I can do a lot fast with a quad pulling it right up to the trees I'm working, but that will only get you so close to the butt of a bigger stick before you have to split them right where they lie in order to haul bigger ones in the little trailer.

 

[morewood]

When there is a good rootball the trees are usually quite solid which means prefect for burning once the initial moisture gets off the outside, I love pre-dried/seasoned wood
Free oak is great, and so is a way to get it a lot easier. Some stuff that is down in ravines would just sit there and rot as there is not a great way to get it out without a winch. Depending on the lot I can do a lot fast with a quad pulling it right up to the trees I'm working, but that will only get you so close to the butt of a bigger stick before you have to split them right where they lie in order to haul bigger ones in the little trailer.

I generally can get our Ranger 6x6 close enough to cut and haul off small loads, but with the amount of wood on this patch I find it easier to centralize all the wood and then I will drag a trailer in and start hauling it off that way. I am still finding logs dropped by the feller buncher scattered all over this small top. Once I get the blowdowns cleaned up I may have 20 left to pull up and cut. I also have two solid, but dead oaks standing to bring down and take away. It's a great thing to have friends that don't need all this wood.

My woodlot up above the house is over 100 acres, privately owned. I am, to my knowledge, the only person allowed to cut off of it. I can have anything dead or down. With the winch, that gets scary. I have one block and will soon have another. I have one road I am still clearing off and pulling from. The amount of wood left there is staggering. I will put as much as I can in the wood yard while I can, never know when you might need some time off. I'll try to find some pictures of where I am cutting up by the house and post them. It sits just above me at 3,000'+ of elevation.

Shea

 

[chipper1]

That's awesome.
I just got a call Saturday to come get some dead ash. The guy doesn't burn either. He said he will load them for me with his kubota if I cut them. Said he has more 300' across the low lands he wants gone, might have to hook a bull rope to the winch and help him out, I would probably charge something for that one though as It's a bit of a drive for me unless I can pull them with my quad. I also got another spot with at least 5 cord only 5-6 miles down the rd that would need the winch to retrieve some down the river valley hills which can get pretty steep.
Gotta run as I'm sharing all the wood I have piling up, gota call from a tree service and he has some wood talk later.

 

[KiwiBro]

We use snatch blocks often. Have two 4 ton and one 6 ton. Want to try and use 3 snatch blocks as a reverse winch set up.

The video shows the general 4x4 blocks. The diameter of those sheaves is about 3-4". I learned the hard way they are a nightmare when using cable on many tractor winches. If the logs bind on a stump, with full load and no cable movement, the cable can easily kink because the sheave diameter is too small. Something i never really thought about until it was too late.

 

[morewood]

Same spot with/without vegetation. Still have lots off of this road to pull.

Shea

 

[chipper1]

View attachment 493696 View attachment 493697

Same spot with/without vegetation. Still have lots off of this road to pull.

Shea

Sure looks different.
You sure get some nice loads out of there.
I'm expecting to see that type of change here sometime after this weekend. The leaves normally come out 2-3 weeks after the peepers here and I they were loud as could be two mondays ago.
I don't enjoy allergy season, but you get what you get.
Here's what I got called off to yesterday.
I like this type of load. I already delivered, bucked, and split the big one then went back to clean up the rest which is the small load. This one is just over 1.5 cord.

 

[morewood]

The video shows the general 4x4 blocks. The diameter of those sheaves is about 3-4". I learned the hard way they are a nightmare when using cable on many tractor winches. If the logs bind on a stump, with full load and no cable movement, the cable can easily kink because the sheave diameter is too small. Something i never really thought about until it was too late.

Just wondering, do you have any thoughts about what size you consider adequate, would the weight be a drawback?

Sure looks different.
You sure get some nice loads out of there.
I'm expecting to see that type of change here sometime after this weekend. The leaves normally come out 2-3 weeks after the peepers here and I they were loud as could be two mondays ago.
I don't enjoy allergy season

The difference between the seasons could be worse. My biggest annoyance is the sting weed that grows up and covers most of this area.

Shea

 

[dancan]

First time I've seen this one .

 

[agvg]

Seems quite light duty, but an easy build to replicate


Sent fra min Nexus 5X via Tapatalk

 

[KiwiBro]

Just wondering, do you have any thoughts about what size you consider adequate, would the weight be a drawback?

There's bound to be a forestry handbook somewhere that lists the relationship between pulley and cable diameters but I haven't looked. I'll make a point of measuring what I have used and get back to you but I think the 4x4 ones were about 3" and the ones I use now are about 5". Certainly the bigger ones are heavier to carry around.

 

[morewood]

First time I've seen this one .

I remember seeing it, but thinking that I could have that beat to a pulp in no time. Heavy duty did not come to mind.

Seems quite light duty, but an easy build to replicate


Sent fra min Nexus 5X via Tapatalk

I agree 100%. Makes me think of something you buy and have to assemble yourself in terms of quality/strength.


Shea

 

[morewood]

There's bound to be a forestry handbook somewhere that lists the relationship between pulley and cable diameters but I haven't looked. I'll make a point of measuring what I have used and get back to you but I think the 4x4 ones were about 3" and the ones I use now are about 5". Certainly the bigger ones are heavier to carry around.

This page seems to have the minimum size needed.
http://thecableconnection.com/pulley-diameters.html

Shea