We used to have a winch on the back of a old dexter tractor. About the same size as a 8n but diesel. The lift arms where removed and a subframe mounted under the axle. the winch ran off the pto. Below the winch was a large pipe that acted like a bumper when the tractor would raise up. The bumper would hit the ground and keep the tractor from flipping over backwards. The bumper was also used to back up to a tree to keep the tractor from being pulled backwards while winching. We where skidding big whitepines off the side of the mountain where my house is now. Trees where 100-150ft tall and butts where close to 4 ft dia. Now the problem with winching trees this long and big with a little tractor was the tractor wouldnt winch the tree forward, the tree pulled the tractor backwards. We would run out the cable, about 200ft at a time and find a tree to back up against and winch the tree up and then do it again until we got to the landing. There was a small jack pine next to the log landing and was the last scotch tree we hard to back up against. One of the trees had the tip dig into the ground where it had to be winched across a creek. Well that old winch only had one way of working. You engaged the lever and the dogs engaged the winch drum and if you wanted to stop winching, you had to kick the lever back out. With a hard load, it was very hard to kick out. This particular tree dug into the creek bank and locked the winch lever so hard it couldnt come out of gear and started bowing our scotch tree over. It winched the tractor up the tree and when it got so far the tree straighten back up and flipped the tractor on its top. Tractor hit the ground and was still running, all the while winching the tractor back toward the tree. Had to reach under the tractor and pull the fuel cable to kill the engine. That tree won that round, but the lumber it provided is nailed up in my house.
