Best Rope for Pulling

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Russ Stihl 290

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New to this site and have a question for the experts. I have been cutting trees, I would say higher up on the rookie level for while now. Dropped a few dozen over the years and grab plenty or firewood off the side of the road. My question is this. What size rope should I buy for pulling trees. Not for pulling trees over, I know enough not to do that, but for moving them when they are on the ground. I pull things quite a bit with my pickup and have broken a few ropes in my day. I have looked at Weepsur.com and they have some nice bull rope on there. 5/8 rated at 16,000lbs or 3/4 rated at 20,000lbs. What do you guys think?
 
I would say get a husky 3/4 line. We have had great success with husky ropes so far. We have a few (1/2 and 5/8) for rigging but the 3/4 line is used for pulling mostly.haven't broken any of them yet.
 
I would say get a husky 3/4 line. We have had great success with husky ropes so far. We have a few (1/2 and 5/8) for rigging but the 3/4 line is used for pulling mostly.haven't broken any of them yet.
Plus one on the 3/4 Husky. We took a retired one and let 2 powerstrokes play tug of war just for kicks. 8 smoking tires, and It held.
 
I have a 2"×25' double thickness flat strap with eyes on both ends that has done some serious pulling and seen a lot of abuse. Girth hitch one eye around the base of the downed tree and throw the other end around the ball of your pickup and take off. If you're like me you'll find out the weak link in this method is the truck.Putting it to use Saturday doing some cleanup on a plantation from last ice storm. Good luck
 
I most often use wire rope (cable) or chain for dragging logs. Rope and straps wear to quickly from rubbing on the rocks and dirt. A half inch cable costs a little over a dollar a foot add a pair of hooks and a half dozen saddle clamps and you are set for a lot of dragging.
 
Thanks for the replies. I have a few tow straps with loops that I do use when the distance isn't too great. I think my 3 inch smittybuilt strap is rated for 15,000 lbs. I have spun the tires of my F350 with that (4 wheel drive on dry pavement) pulling logs off the side of the road. I don't think I could ever break that so hopefully the 3/4 rope serves me well. I need the rope for longer distance pulls. I have a hill on my property, sometimes I cut trees at the bottom then pull them to the top to cut up into firewood. I also want a nice solid rope for any other application I may run across. Like I said, it always seems I am pulling something with my truck and I want a rope I don't have to worry about. Like Intreezzz says, I want the weak link to be the truck, not the rope.
 
I would say get a husky 3/4 line. We have had great success with husky ropes so far. We have a few (1/2 and 5/8) for rigging but the 3/4 line is used for pulling mostly.haven't broken any of them yet.

+1

I don't have experience with the 3/4 but i bought 200' of the Husky 5/8 bull rope from Treestuff and it is a fantastic rope for the money. Very strong (18000 lbs) hard wearing but holds knots well. I would have no hesitation in recommending Husky rope.

Don't know how it would hold up with constant dragging though, maybe a wire cable as suggested would be a better option? I use the Husky for pulling and rigging and a wire cable for dragging myself.
 
I have a 2"×25' double thickness flat strap with eyes on both ends that has done some serious pulling and seen a lot of abuse. Girth hitch one eye around the base of the downed tree and throw the other end around the ball of your pickup and take off. If you're like me you'll find out the weak link in this method is the truck.Putting it to use Saturday doing some cleanup on a plantation from last ice storm. Good luck

Never tug with the ball of a hitch, it's a great way to make a metal baseball projectile. Use a pintle hitch or shackles.
 
Good thing this one held. Chains had their part in it also i would guess. Oh and the rock in the grill.:)
 

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the screw style ones break, I have a welded three ball solid for 12000lbs and have used a sling that went over all 3 balls so the pressure was distributed but I'm always happier to use my shackles
 
When you're dragging logs, get a wire cable choker and then shackle your rope to it. The cable will take the wear on the ground and save the rope. Also it you can put a pulley up in a tree to lift the nose of the log off the ground a bit, it will be easier to drag.
 
When you're dragging logs, get a wire cable choker and then shackle your rope to it. The cable will take the wear on the ground and save the rope. Also it you can put a pulley up in a tree to lift the nose of the log off the ground a bit, it will be easier to drag.

Anyone who drags brush can attest to this, I've put a pulley on the lift hook on a boom truck ran rope around the brush pile to the pulley to a pull truck, Also while dragging through snow, make a 8-12' length wrap it around the butt ends and sinch it up to your shoulder, much better then dragging it with the butts dragging on the ground.
 
I use 5/8 to skid logs up the side of the hill on my farm. I wrap a chain around the trunks of trees I plan to take down in the future, about ten feet high, and hang a snatch block on it. Or, I have several 20' lengths of 5/8 with bowline loops on the end that I throw over big crotches to hang the snatch blocks. This gets the ends up out of the dirt and lets them slide easily. I can skid a 24" log 20' long with my Ram 1500 2 wheel drive.
 
I guess it would depend on the size of the bolt part of the hitch ball. Mine are large enough so that they are stronger than the cable. I have seen some that are only 3/4 inch where it counts.
http://www.carid.com/curt-trailer-hitches/curt-balls-and-shanks-2155508.html

I've only seen them fail pulling trucks, and jeeps out of mud. I use 30k tow straps or stronger, I used to have a 09 F-350 on 35's. So my recovery gear is a little over kill on my 2014 ram 1500. If you pull logs in my area if one gets caught on a rock your truck will stop, your rope will break, or your ball will snap. We need to over compensate and pull the largest logs as possible because 2 trips would be blasphemy.
 
Working load vs tensile strength should be considered if a jerk or shock load will be applied. Working load is mostly between 1/5 and 1/10 of the tensile strength of fiber rope. Chain and wire rope also has similar reductions and don't forget the shock load to the other components, bolts, balls, clevis, hooks, etc. Bad things happen when something breaks during a hard pull. A smooth steady pull is best but often doesn't fit the real world. We tend to jerk a load to get it moving so the "snatch-em straps" are popular when we have a buddy jerk us out of the ditch we are stuck in. They are designed for a heavy working load. A quality 3/4" rope is good for most of us most of the time. Personally, I am too much of a tight wad to buy what I want, Amsteel Blue.
 
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