Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

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The best tool I've found that will do the most is pallet forks with a matching grapple. It will do everything a dedicated grapple will do and many things a dedicated grapple won't.

The forks/single grapple is fantastic at handling logs too,

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Man I love your setup.
I usually frequently check the log yard where I cut. But earlier this year, the farmer, who owns the property, did some house cleaning and scrapped a hay wagon with a 8' wheel base onto a scrap metal pile. Bent the frame all up. It would have solved all my log hauling problems, but I was too late.
 
I like the rope pull because it is light, mobile, and I can use it by myself. Unless the tree has a real bad lean, the rope stretch will pull it down w/o anyone working the winch.

That is also a good feature if you have young ones working with you, just put them in a safe place and tell them to stay put.
 
I like the rope pull because it is light, mobile, and I can use it by myself. Unless the tree has a real bad lean, the rope stretch will pull it down w/o anyone working the winch.

That is also a good feature if you have young ones working with you, just put them in a safe place and tell them to stay put.
I much prefer rope also, at least in urban (residential) logging. I use my drill winch attached to a rope and like you said put some tension on it and usually goes once it’s cut up.
Something else that can cause barber chair is having a small undercut or an unintentional Dutchman (cuts not matched up), the further a tree falls before under cut closes the less likely a barber chair.
 
The video is a bit blurry, but this is one of five I cut next to a friend's house last year. Being as he had the trackhoe and is a friend. I did the job for next to nothing.👍
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That fence row I cleared out, I predominantly used the hoe for pushing the trees over. Dug out around the root ball on the one side, get behind them, reach up as far as I could and push them over with the machine. Worked great for most of them, save a few bigger ones I didn't feel comfortable with the size machine I had. Felled them first then dug the stumps out. Sure is a lot less work when the root ball is pulled out by the tree..
 
Sure is a lot less work when the root ball is pulled out by the tree..
That's the sad truth... and it's the only way to go when the stumps have to come out in the end.
But, I'd much rather saw a tree down, than have it pushed out, and then have to cut the root ball off, always dirt & rocks on the log after being shoved over with a machine.... And everything's all bound up, it's sometimes real hard to tell how it's going to move when you saw it off.
I rarely get a powersaw hung up, but when I do it's almost always while cutting off the stumps....
 
That's the sad truth... and it's the only way to go when the stumps have to come out in the end.
But, I'd much rather saw a tree down, than have it pushed out, and then have to cut the root ball off, always dirt & rocks on the log after being shoved over with a machine.... And everything's all bound up, it's sometimes real hard to tell how it's going to move when you saw it off.
I rarely get a powersaw hung up, but when I do it's almost always while cutting off the stumps....
If you dig about around the base right, and have a appropriately sized machine with a thumb, you push them over, grab the root ball end, shake the dirt off and use the machine to hold them up for bucking. Well.i drug them over closer to the burn pile then dad cut the root ball off, I tossed that on the burn pile then grabbed the truck and it got bucked up into 16 foot sections, and top got limbed. Didn't have any issues pinching any bars doing it like that. Most the trees were under 24"dbh.
 
If you dig about around the base right, and have a appropriately sized machine with a thumb, you push them over, grab the root ball end, shake the dirt off and use the machine to hold them up for bucking. Well.i drug them over closer to the burn pile then dad cut the root ball off, I tossed that on the burn pile then grabbed the truck and it got bucked up into 16 foot sections, and top got limbed. Didn't have any issues pinching any bars doing it like that. Most the trees were under 24"dbh.
Yeah it's not really an issue when the guy on the machine does it that way.
I'm usually on the ground running around behind some guy on a dozer that don't give a poop what kind of a mess he leaves in his wake.
 
Yeah it's not really an issue when the guy on the machine does it that way.
I'm usually on the ground running around behind some guy on a dozer that don't give a poop what kind of a mess he leaves in his wake.
Thats too bad. We rented the machine to make life easier for us. No way would I have left a path of destruction for me or dad to clean up. Sure it took a little longer, just tracking the machine around so much burned up time. But our backs didn't hurt too bad and it was all cleaned up and nice looking when we were done, and thats what mom and dad wanted.
 
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