How to hook up a 12v winch to pull logs into a processing table?

[Pat Burton]

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I built this fours years ago, mostly for cutting small diameter logs and slabs off of the sawmill. Now I want to toy with the idea of adding a 12V winch above the trough to pull logs in direct from the wood pile. Similar to the way that Wallenstein's mobile firewood processors use a winch to pull logs to the chainsaw for blocking.
The quickest 12V hookup may be a deep cell battery. But what sort of longevity would the battery have I wonder? The only power source that would be nearby would be either the quad machine which has a 12v plug on it (would mean running the quad to keep the battery topped up). Or, rig something up on the honda gx390 that would already be running on the wood splitter nearby. The honda is a pull start. So would it mean converting the engine to a electric start. Then run the two winch leads to that battery.

Is there an alternative solution? What would you do?

Can your Honda be adapted to handle an alternator for charging? A 60 amp car alternator and and deep cycle batteries should power a winch.
I have pulled some heavy timber out with a quad and a 3500 lb winch but that is short term use. A big question is how much continuous use it will get during a day. Would double batteries and charge overnight suffice?

 

[sean donato]

If you're going to screw around with a car alternator run by an engine may as well just do a hydraulic winch and be done with it.

 

[cantoo]

Jim, here are some pictures of a couple log deck I made. You would still have to load them with the grapple but at least it would allow you several hours of cutting per deck. The red one has adjustable legs and was made for my buddies Blacks Creek processor with belt feed. It also has lifting arms for one log at a time but it took longer to load a log than it did to cut and split it. As you can see they hold quite a few logs and it's still safe cutting. This would also allow you to have a dedicated splitting, crating area close to your log piles. Your splitter is mobile but I assume it takes awhile to move your other items as you work down the row.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I get at best 3 minutes of hard pull off the winch mounted on front of my tractor, 360 amp draw and 560 amp battery and that is with the tractor running. Would a hand crank winch be a better option. Can't be any slower.

I have NO problem loading or turning even the biggest logs with my manual winch, and the best part is, my 20V drill runs it great!

The secret is, don't use one of those china made winches!! They are cheep for a reason and are geared wrong for a cordless drill to run it smoothly and with enough power to get the job done!.

SR