Advice re: cleanup equipment

[Binrattler]

I have a seasonal tree business operating in cottage country and the majority of my work is around lakeside cottages on roughish terrain. This is an on the side business as well as I have a 40hr a week job. Been doing this for 4-5yrs on the side and while its fun to climb and rig on my own terms the cleanup has become annoying to a degree haha. I would estimate 75% of my work is large body wood white pine removals. Also most of the work I get is inaccessible by a bucket truck or a large enough crane worth hiring.

I have a 4wd f550 single cab 7.3l dump truck without a chipper lid, 9" morbark chipper, and a 4wd compact tractor at the moment.

Almost every job is a drag and a half to remove the debris. How handy is a winch chipper for pulling body wood potentially up a hill closer to the truck? Could I get away with using a skidding winch on my tractor? (Considered a capstan as well). I had a skidding winch on a 50hp tractor and it was awesome but not sure about a smaller 24hp tractor.

The tactor is very handy but keep being drawn to mini skids for some reason. They seem to be the cats meow for cleanup but in no way would one I've looked at ever lift wood over the side of my dump truck. It has fold down sides but wouldn't be as handy. The idea of a grapple bucket would be sweet but not possible on my current tractor. New tractor? Tractors cant go everywhere within reason either and the bigger the tractor the more impact on the site and bigger float to maneuver around tight cottage roads etc.

Rarely am I working on manicured lawn or dealing with gate access either.

In the end just looking to make the cleanup a bit more efficient and less labor intensive. Looking for opinions. What are you guys using?

 

[Ryan'smilling]

Interesting setup. I've considered doing something similar myself, but focusing more on pruning than removals. I'm curious how your tractor is set up currently. Do you have a grapple on the front? What are you using on the 3 point? What's your tractor weigh?

I have a skidding winch and pallet forks on my bigger CUT. It's a 45 hp Kubota, which I do occasionally use for residential tree work with my friend's company. It works very well, though with Ag tires and weighing in at about 7000# fully dressed, it's not easy on the turf. I've used the winch on my other compact, which is 29hp. Yours might be similar, or lighter weight. It's still handy, but definitely more limited. The small tractor has industrial tires and no loader though, so it's much easier on lawns, but nowhere near as much traction.

I've never used a mini skid, but if I was starting from scratch, I'd strongly consider one. That or a mini articulating loader like an Avant. There's pros and cons to every setup. I like that full sized skid steers are harder to damage, but they can only use one implement at a time compared to 2 on a tractor. Also, a tractor or a mini can be mounted and dismounted without lowering the loader. For a one man show, that seems crucial.

Anyway, cool thread. Hopefully you'll get some posts that contain advice rather than ramblings like mine.

 

[4seasons]

Some skid steers use a scissor style lift that give you a higher lift dump. You can also add a 4 in one bucket that will give you the ability to bottom dump. But a skid steer can get very tippy on hills and uneven terrain, not to mention they are expensive, especially with the accessories I mentioned.
Have you considered adding a PTO winch to your truck? I have used a gear driven PTO winch with 3/4" cable to skid logs out years ago. I don't suggest you go that big as it could pull 20" diameter pines over and out of the ground with the root ball if the truck was anchored properly. But a good hydraulic winch and secure way to anchor your truck, you could pull up the trunk before limbing so all the brush is right next to the truck to pick up.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I'd say a mini excavator would be more versatile for the work you are looking to do. Could also use it to dig out stumps.

How tall are the truck sides? Cut them in half and weld in some hinges so you can lower when needing to haul logs. Or a truck setup with log bunks.

I've used both skid steer and excavator to load trucks, both suck in some ways. These were sights with 5-10 truck loads of stuff too short to haul on the log truck (need about 28ft min) and not enough to put a short log truck we have back on the road.

 

[Binrattler]

The tractor I have currently is small and nimble and lifts over the side of the truck not many of them can do that. 74" max lift is the minimum to go over the side but the sides on the truck drop down to around 42" from the ground.

The setup I have atm is pallet forks and roughly 400-500lbs counterweight on the back. A skid winch for a small tractor like this usually weighs the same from all the ones I've looked at. The setup probably only touches 3000lbs or a tad more atm. Comfortably loads 6-700lbs wood onto truck or trailer.

Unfortunately my truck doesn't have a pto the dump is electric over hydraulic the gear winch on the truck would be handy as hell. The idea of a truck or chipper winch is something I like as well. I've used a winch chipper only a few times and was very impressed with it tbh.

I'm open to whatever tbh am leaning towards a 35-40hp compact large frame tractor with a winch and either grapple or forks again. I would put a grapple on the tractor I have but since grapples are so heavy I think it would significantly reduce the lifting capacity of the tractor I have atm. Or any small compact for that matter. I have thought of a mini ex as well would be cats ass for loading actual logs onto flatbed or truck. I normally cut the wood into whatever the tractor can load but on the rare occasion where I can get a log for my sawmill I try to save it. Would be a lot trips with an ex walking back and forth I imagine. It would serve in multiple ways though for allowing me to work on my property as well.

I dont think I'd ever actually skid anything behind the tractor suspended off the 3pt would just use the winch to get wood to where I can comfortably take the tractor for loading. But she's pretty light for winching imo. Could potentially lash it to a tree I guess but I'm leaning toward a heavier tractor atm.

As a note I'm certainly not opposed to hard work and I realize u cant have/get it all with 1 piece of equipment haha I dont have unrealistic expectations.

 

[4seasons]

Unfortunately my truck doesn't have a pto the dump is electric over hydraulic the gear winch on the truck would be handy as hell. The idea of a truck or chipper winch is something I like as well. I've used a winch chipper only a few times and was very impressed with it tbh.

I am not a winch expert by any means, but I am aware of hydraulic winches that run off the power steering pump. 4x4 off road guys love them because an electric winch gets hot fast and can burn up after just a few minutes work, whereas the hydraulic can pull all day. Some guys beef up their pumps to not overwhelm the factory pump. I also don't know how big you can go as far as pulling power as I have never looked at any over 12k capacity.

 

[DSW]

Almost every job is a drag and a half to remove the debris. How handy is a winch chipper for pulling body wood potentially up a hill closer to the truck? Could I get away with using a skidding winch on my tractor? (Considered a capstan as well). I had a skidding winch on a 50hp tractor and it was awesome but not sure about a smaller 24hp tractor.

The tactor is very handy but keep being drawn to mini skids for some reason. They seem to be the cats meow for cleanup but in no way would one I've looked at ever lift wood over the side of my dump truck. It has fold down sides but wouldn't be as handy. The idea of a grapple bucket would be sweet but not possible on my current tractor. New tractor? Tractors cant go everywhere within reason either and the bigger the tractor the more impact on the site and bigger float to maneuver around tight cottage roads etc.

Rarely am I working on manicured lawn or dealing with gate access either.

In the end just looking to make the cleanup a bit more efficient and less labor intensive. Looking for opinions. What are you guys using?

You gotta get a grapple. Tractor, skid, mini, whatever but it needs to have a grapple. I had my grapple ordered the night I picked up my mini.

I don't see a winch being more handy than the tractor. The only advantage I can even see is a winch doesn't take up the space a tractor does.


Why not chip brush into dump and load trailer with tractor/mini with grapple/forks? Brush gets forwarded by grapple.

 

[TraditionalTool]

Yeah, it builds up fast for me and mobile is not currently an option. I'm seriously thinking that if one was milling full time, it would make sense to get a one of those wood boilers for heat. Just use a chainsaw and cut them up in pieces that will go in and it seems like a win-win.

The lazier I get the harder it is to clean up. What I mean by that is if I get impatient and cut like 5"-6" on the first cuts, those pieces are frickin' heavy and clean up is much more difficult. Taking 1" cuts to get the wain off of each side takes quite a bit more time. The bigger the log, the longer it will take...ain't I smaurt?
The way I look at it is you only get 1/3rd the diameter as you need to cut the wain off. If one had a boiler it wouldn't be hard to cut those thicker 6" wain cutoffs in manageable pieces (16" like firewood?). Your 550 dump would work perfect for that, haul it back home and put it in a pile by the boiler. Food for thought...I know those boilers are not cheap...I've been able to get some of my logs an extra inch or two in my experience, but it's safer to figure 1/3rd the diameter to get a clean cant. Pine can be difficult to tell the heart from the sap for me and I've had wain warp off cants I thought were clean, trying to leave big.