View attachment 1000347
View attachment 1000348
I own the new holland 33hp with a uniforest winch. Jake, with whom we regularly subcontract, runs a 37ish hp John deer with Farmi winch. Both have weighted tires and front grapples. My grapple is a little larger for carrying bigger (or more) wood. His closes a little tighter for grabbing brush. Both weigh 4000-5000 pounds.
We don't often deal with small gates in our context. But I will say that a tractor with the right tires is much less invasive on lawns than a tracked mini skid. It's just a bit heavier. Their ability to run up hills is the same and, unlike my mini, they have gears and will move a lot faster. My mini has a 25hp Kubota so the tractors are significantly stronger and can carry much heavier loads. They can also lift material much higher and better load trucks.
I sometimes use the winch to skid logs (it has 3 slides so we can skid 4 logs at a time) but most often I use it for felling opposite leaners and fishing out material in areas that aren't as accessible with a mini loader.... or just getting big tops to the chipper.
The uniforest winch is rated for 7,000 lbs of pull, so if you have a high enough tie in point you can pull huge trees where you want them. You need to know what you're doing, and how to hinge properly, and we sometimes will use both tractors to pull something particularly big and scary (pictured).
If your context doesn't involve a constant need to fit through narrow gates, a tractor with winch and grapple has more advantages- and is cheaper- than a mini loader.
I recently priced out a new LS 33 hp tractor for 23k. Not sure if that came with the loader arms but adding a grapple (1500-4000) and wallenstein winch (4-5k), brings it around to 30k. A new dingo without a grapple is pushing 40k now. But there are a lot of used tractors around too (at least easier to find than a mini). I bought my used new holland for around 10k. Don't forget to have a 3rd function kit installed too so you can use a grapple.
A bigger tractor (40hp plus) will really move some wood and be better at moving full size saw logs if you're into selling logs. They are just harder to transport to the job and are heavier on lawns. I've never sold a piece of wood so I wouldn't know. The 30-40hp range seems to be a good fit for residential tree work. Also my tractor takes up all of my 16' dump trailer.
When I worked in Los Angeles I had never heard of a skidder winch and probably would have thought that using a tractor for tree work would have been unusual. A mini skid would have been amazing there.
All in all, I'd say in the right geographic context, a tractor with a skidder winch and grapple is a highly underutilized tool in residential tree work with incredible benefits.
