Portable winch to pull slabs uphill?

[Trdoldtreecutter]

Ya, mine vary in thickness. It depended on what character the wood and the edges were that was my thickness gauge. Width as well. I have a bunch of 16’ x 24” x1 1/8” that were some middle of the log cuts that don’t have a lot of live edge character but Look pretty cool inside. I’ve got a never ending tree job that has a bunch more material. I’ll wait for the sap and the leaves to drop before I go back as they’re big and hanging over house and power lines and out buildings. It’s just a free bee weekend project for a friend of my nephews and I can take whatever I want. Might carve up some hemlock as I like it the best for stain and character- just need more time ha ha

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I’ve got a huge pile of slabs that I wasn’t sure what to do with but eventually a use will come. I’m doing a live edge wall and chinking where I’m mounting a tv

We toss them a rack, band up when full and sell for $100. Roughly a cord of wood.
Some gets used in the shop stove as well.

 

[Trdoldtreecutter]

My back hurts just reading this thread. I’ve manhandled slabs out of some bad locations... flipped them end over end through creeks, you name it. Problem is I get too excited about the potential slabs and don’t take into account the surrounding area... slab blindness?

Lol, it only took a couple times before I went and bought a little tractor with some attachments which included some forks.

 

[Doorfx]

That potential for burning up the motor is what I was concerned about Doorfx. Thanks for the information. From your chart that winch could do 2 minute spells with these light loads. 30 ft. Then a 10 min cooldown. So over the 100 ft or so pull I would be looking at about 30-40 min per slab. Not the knockout solution I was hoping for.

You could attach a single pulley to the slab and rune the cable back to the winch effectively doubling your pulling power.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

I am surprised how many times I have said never need this stupid thing again then some thing happens. My home-made winch seemed essential forty years ago now it seems more than essential. I have access to many logs, but they are all bunched up making it very difficult to cut. Chain up the winch some here and pull the starter cord and things begin to happen. Thanks

 

[abbott295]

Slabs: Not everyone uses that word to mean the same thing. From past posts, Choppychoppy (and some others) means the first piece taken off a side of a log; one side will be rounded. It is not flat on two opposite sides. This is why he makes firewood out of slabs. This is also what I learned first was a slab; a great-uncle had a sawmill.

Some others use it to mean any wide (full width) thick board taken off a log; it will have two flat, parallel sides and two edges will be 'live', meaning the edges of the log as cut all the way across. Sometimes, even when one, or maybe both, edge has been cut off square to the flat sides, it will still be called a slab if it is still wide and thick.

And then there is a door slab, or slab door. A door that is not bored for a knob or mortised for hinges, or it could be.

 

[Philbert]

the first piece taken off a side of a log; one side will be rounded

Sawmills often refer to this as ‘clapboard’. When we first installed our wood stove I bought a few ‘bundles’ of this cheap (each the size of a compact car), and cut them to length for stove wood. No splitting.

Philbert

 

[unclemoustache]

$200 isn't going to do it.

I got one of these guys a month or two ago (the larger version) and I don't regret it a bit!! I use it to load logs onto my trailer, and will probably use it to get the logs into my sawmill shed as well, once that's finished.

 

[Philbert]

$200 isn't going to do it.

I got one of these guys a month or two ago (the larger version) and I don't regret it a bit!!

Always thought those look interesting. Which one did you get?

Thanks.

Philbert

 

[Ted Jenkins]

$200 isn't going to do it.
I got one of these guys a month or two ago (the larger version) and I don't regret it a bit!! I use it to load logs onto my trailer, and will probably use it to get the logs into my sawmill shed as well, once that's finished.

To get a decent usable set up to actually pull some thing will run between $3,000 and $5,000. One of my money makers is to pull trees right out of the ground. It can take up to two days to set up the rigging though. The actual pulling can be over in less than two hours. Thanks

 

[softdown]

Maybe a competent 4wd in 4low with the right gears and aired down quality tires?

I'm figuring out to remove 20' logs from a sloped 2 acre lot. It would be easy to buck and burn but I think some are lumber quality. Wouldn't take that long to pay off a trailerable chainsaw sawmill.

 

[Blue42]

Maybe try attaching a block to the slabs and double your pull might work with a lesser winch. A high purchase to gain lift might help too. Or even a skyline if there is some deflection

I'm not sure if the multiplication of a block would help or hurt with the winch. They pull slowly already at like 10ft/minute. So with one pulley, they'd pull 5ft/min and the thing would have to run for 20 min to get one pull done. I've never done a skyline but it would get the front of the slab off the ground without having to wrestle it onto the wheels, and pull it over stumps, etc. I'll have to think about that. I do already have a trolley I bought for a zip line.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

Setting up a zip line or high lead is not easy and very time consuming. If you can justify the expense get a decent winch and use it. A cart or sled will work very well to get leading edge of log off the ground. Thanks

 

[sean donato]

For what it's worth, I use a 12k lb winch to pull logs up on my deck over. 95 feet of line out takes under 10 minuets to spool in with a 20 foot long in toe. Only issue is the motor gets hot after a long pull like that and needs some time to cool off.

 

[Blue42]

Slabs: Not everyone uses that word to mean the same thing. .......

Thank you for that. I was not aware that there was another meaning than a thick, full width plain-cut board.
I've seen a difference in nomenclature cost $80,000 at my job just a few years ago. "I thought you meant..."

 

[Blue42]

For what it's worth, I use a 12k lb winch to pull logs up on my deck over. 95 feet of line out takes under 10 minuets to spool in with a 20 foot long in toe. Only issue is the motor gets hot after a long pull like that and needs some time to cool off.

So about 10 ft per min. It sounds like that's typical for most winches.

 

[unclemoustache]

Always thought those look interesting. Which one did you get?

Thanks.

Philbert

I got the 'big' one - PCW-5000. 2,200 pound pulling capacity. There is a logging kit you can get with it that comes with a skidding cone. Here's an awesome video of logs being pulled through extremely challenging terrain with the cone:



You want to double up on your pulling power, then just add a pulley. These things are amazing. Here's another vid showing several uses for it pulling logs, game, cable through conduit, vehicles out of the mud, rescue operations, etc.




Here's my own video pulling a log onto my trailer:

 

[Blue42]

"I got the 'big' one - PCW-5000. 2,200 pound pulling capacity."
That winch is rated for 40' or 60' per minute compared to about 10' per min for most electric winches. Pretty good.

 

[Blue42]

Remember all winches are rated as “ intermittent Duty”. That means they are not designed for continuous pulls.
For example a Warn 2500 ATV winch pulling the rated 2500 lb load for 10 seconds requires a 10 minute cool down.
You can melt the windings in the armature or destroy the brushes. This is the main reason there are so many failures on small winches as people don’t read their manuals[emoji3]
...
The chart listed is directly from a Warn owners manual.

Door, do you know if there are any electric winches that can do a long continuous pull without risk of burning up?
It's looking to me like for pulling any wood or other object more than 50' or so, especially one object after another, you are recommended to go with a gas powered winch. Or a mule.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

I pull often 6,000 lb logs either 40 in low speed or 80' with the larger pulley all day. Not every day though. I gather about 10 cords worth of logs then cut them. Using tie downs I can arange close to a cord of rounds to wherever I plan to do splitting. I can not wait to charge batteries. Thanks