Must be a hell of a chain. If 25 ft. costs $633 you'd have to be looking at 3/4", which, if it's grade 100 is rated at 35,000+ lbs and weighs over 150 lbs for 25 ft. of it.
Choker Cable, or Chain and Choker Hook,,,,, OR,,,,, Bull Dogs!!?? (not the Purina kind!)
- Thread starter SweetMK
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one of the semi retired self loader jockeys I know swears by a set of 5/16 chains he picked up sometime in the 70's, Seen him do some really dumb S with them chains and they've never even so much as got a shinny spot, stuff that the normal grd70 stuff we have now days would just stand straight up or fail.
calamari
ArboristSite Operative
This will get a lot of negative replies but I've been using apiece of telephone pole guy wire cable as a choker for a few years. It's galvanized, has spliced eyes on both ends with thimbles in the eyes and seems to be plenty strong. I don't have a commercial wood business so it's just for me and a few friends I help. The biggest stick I've pulled with that choker and my 4WD truck was about a 24" diameter piece of Oak maybe 15' long. It handled that OK but just in case it went west I put a moving van pad over the cable to slow it down if it breaks.
The good part about it is it's stiff as a...well it's stiff. It makes it easy to push under logs however the bad part about it is also that it is stiff. Makes it hard to coil up in a manageable circle and it takes a set once you use it one time. Since it's only used for that purpose that's not really a problem. It's 15' long and free so I've also got that going for me.
I like chain as a choker if somebody else has to dig the hole under the log so I can push it through. A hydraulic floor jack is one of my most used tools when I'm messing with heavy oak. I have to drag heavy oak sometimes on asphalt up to where I can buck it up out of the traffic. To keep from wearing my chain out grinding it on the road bed I cut up some heavy walled 2" black pipe into 2" collars and have strung them on the chain making a wear surface to save the chain. It's surprising how much I've worn off those collars dragging the wood maybe 75 feet on the road. The collars only touch the road when I first start and at odd times during the pull because I hook up to the log as closely as I can. That way when I start to pull the angle lifts the front of the log and the chain doesn't touch anything.
The good part about it is it's stiff as a...well it's stiff. It makes it easy to push under logs however the bad part about it is also that it is stiff. Makes it hard to coil up in a manageable circle and it takes a set once you use it one time. Since it's only used for that purpose that's not really a problem. It's 15' long and free so I've also got that going for me.
I like chain as a choker if somebody else has to dig the hole under the log so I can push it through. A hydraulic floor jack is one of my most used tools when I'm messing with heavy oak. I have to drag heavy oak sometimes on asphalt up to where I can buck it up out of the traffic. To keep from wearing my chain out grinding it on the road bed I cut up some heavy walled 2" black pipe into 2" collars and have strung them on the chain making a wear surface to save the chain. It's surprising how much I've worn off those collars dragging the wood maybe 75 feet on the road. The collars only touch the road when I first start and at odd times during the pull because I hook up to the log as closely as I can. That way when I start to pull the angle lifts the front of the log and the chain doesn't touch anything.
You'll get negative replies because you can get the right tool for the job for about $40 and it's far less likely to break and leave you stranded without a choker or injure or kill you or somebody else. All while being way nicer to use.
calamari
ArboristSite Operative
Perhaps valid concersn but as I mentioned it was free, laying in my yard after a pole replacement and has pulled enough wood to make me feel comfortable with working within its limits. Not comfortable, don't do it.
see now... free trumps the right tool everyday, though I myself would pass on that particular cable as its unweildy as frig... but if its what you got...
I feel attacked...
calamari
ArboristSite Operative
Bigger is better or so they say. I picked up this log chain a few years ago at an "antique" store for $75. I don't have anything big enough to break it, but I only use it as a counter weight for the compact tractor in the picture. It has a nice pear loop on the far end. I use the 5/16" USA made G70 chain next to it quite often.
Ron
Ron
After coiling up the choker cable into a circle as best as I can, I use a large nylon spring clamp from Harbor Freight to help hold it together as a coil. Works for me.
calamari
ArboristSite Operative
I use the same clamps on my boats covers but unfortunately even the biggest one won't work. I have to use a piece of nylon heavy cord in a couple places around the 3' diameter coil that is the tightest I can roll it.
I use chain, that guy wire, a couple different lengths of wire cable that are more flexible and a number of ropes. I don't feel like I'm in too much danger but then that's what the former lion tamer said just before he put his head in the lion's mouth.
Are you comparing today's Chinese import prices with 1973 chain that was probably made near Quincy Massachusetts by union workers??
That same $100 would buy a new 10 gauge double barrel shotgun it Richmond VA,, at a store called Best Products, in 1973.
My nephew bought that gun, and deer hunted with it for a half dozen years,, until he realized he did not need to be carrying so much weight..
My choker cable must be a lot smaller thickness. I got it off eBay to pull branches and trees behind my ATV. I can coil mine up to less than a foot diameter.
I slip the small ring under the log and through the larger ring and place the smaller ring over the 2" ball hitch and drag to the burn pile. For the smaller stuff, I lay the cable on the ground and place the ends of multiple brances over the cable and then make the loop. When done I place the nylon clamp where the cables come together to form the circle.
The guy wires that I've seen do seem to be pretty stiff. Good luck!
calamari
ArboristSite Operative
Those are perfect for ATV use and for small stuff. I frequently pull stuff that weighs6-8 hundred pounds and more. One of the reasons i can do it is because I'm dragging them on a paved road which is low friction. I can pull big stuff in the dirt if I pay attention to rigging it so that the front edge of the log doesn't dig in. It's surprising how much you can pull with a 1/2 ton 4wd pickup with wider but still stock tires. I've had as much as 23 big green wood oak rounds in the back that weighed a pretty consistent 200# apiece and drove it 40 miles to my house. Not fast and not often but the actual capacity for short term use is higher than the manufacturers claim... if you're good.
Bill G
ArboristSite King
Apparently you failed to read what I wrote
No. I'm saying that if a person is going to spend $633, of today's dollars, on 25 feet of chain, it pretty much has to be 3/4" grade 100 (made in the USA too, FWIW). Nothing smaller costs anywhere near that much, that I've been able to find. See for yourself. https://www.westechrigging.com/chain-034-g100-domestic.html
Oh, they're definitely valid concerns. I worked with this stuff for a couple decades, enough time to know that using what you describe because it's "free", when the right tool costs less than a two person meal at a sit down restaurant, just isn't worth it, at all.
I have one 50’ choker cable I pull behind my loader. Only one end has an eye, the other end has the quick connect (whatever it’s called). The tow pin is so heavy that I don’t mess with it more than I have to, I have a short cable with shackle. I’m thinking of getting 2-3 more choker cables, maybe 12’ long. I would hook these to the end of the 50’ choker cable, so I can move more at once. I don’t have logging experience, I have 20 acres of timberland that I want to reduce fire hazard on. It has very many beetle killed trees on it. I also have a chain choker, no pictures.
The red piece is part of the quick connect.
So you put the shiny piece around the tree, and lock it into the red piece.
Top of the tow pin.
And I have this (the top one) for doing perpendicular pulls out to a road, with a length of cable. I don’t have a winch. I have looked into putting a winch on the back of the loader, not sure I’ll do it. The lower snatch block is the size/type used on Jeeps.
The red piece is part of the quick connect.
So you put the shiny piece around the tree, and lock it into the red piece.
Top of the tow pin.
And I have this (the top one) for doing perpendicular pulls out to a road, with a length of cable. I don’t have a winch. I have looked into putting a winch on the back of the loader, not sure I’ll do it. The lower snatch block is the size/type used on Jeeps.
I wish they'd spend an extra $.50 and put a ferule in the eyes of those. The first hard pull is going to kink the eye.rwoods,, actually, I ordered one of those this weekend,, 1/2",, 8 or 9 feet long,, kinda like this,,
I like cable chokers. They're light, easy to push under a log, and grip tight. I have one with a plain eye (no chain) that I put a ferule in after kinking the eye. I used it with chains and cables to pull out logs with the tractor. When I got a forestry winch with a chain slot on the end of the cable I realized I needed either cable chokers with chain like in the pic, or chain chokers. The winch has storage for chain chokers so that's what I got. Grade 100 was only $5 more than the heavier grade 70 chain. I made some extensions out of small rod to let me poke them under logs. I think I like cables better except for the storage issue.
LOOKY at what came in the mail today,, my spankin' new cable!!,,
I was taking a pic of my Plumb Champion axes,, and the mail lady drove up,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Who did you order from?
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