Retiring to the woods - moving wood.

[max2cam]

peterrum,

I have a photo of my tripod unit somewhere but not right at hand. I'll look.

Tripod is not fancy and cost nothing to build. It's made from peeled balsam fir poles bolted together at the top with a piece of threaded rod. A short piece of chain is wrapped around the top and the come-along hooks to that.

I simply roll the mill log over a logging chain, wrap the chain around the log and hook it, position the tripod over the log, then extend the come-along down, hook it up, and then ratchet the log up off the ground. Then place a sleeper under it and then lower the log.

The come-along is my older smaller one (I'll check size). The biggest log I have lifted was about 24" dia. BUT, on the heavy logs I lift one end at a time. The tripod is light enough that I can drag/carry it into the woods. Before that I tried various methods of rolling the logs up ramps onto sleepers, but the tripod method is FAR superior. In fact, this was just an experimental version but it has worked perfectly.

PS: I didn't know the Alaska Mill was portable enough to haul into the woods to the tree. That's good too.

 

[peterrum]

You know Max its funny the way you describe your system. Sitting over here in Africa right now I have alot of time on my hands to think about these various methods for my system and i had briefly thought about a tripod but it never went much further than that. The reason why is that I had never read of a tripod method on this website and there were alot of other alternatives mentioned. You may have mentioned it on another post but there is so much information here it is impossible to read it all. Thanks for the description you provided and for me, who is a little monetarily challenged and not in a rush I like what you have described. I think for those of us who will work on site where the tree falls we want to have a system which is both economical, extremely portable, reasonably fast, safe, and easy on the back. From the sounds of it you have that and it works for you. Its worthy of further exploration for me. Pics would be great if you can find them so good luck digging through your material.
Slabmaster, are you happy with your setup? I haven't had a chance to use mine yet so its nice to hear from someone that has something similar. Nice wood you have stacked. Tell us about it.

 

[slabmaster]

I am real happy with my set-up. I wouldn't have it anyother way.I keep my saw and mill in the house.When i'm ready to mill,i go out to the barn and grab my honda 200sx with pull cart and bring to the house.I then load it with my sawmill,gas,oil and a bucket of small supplys.Earplugs,nails,wedges,baroil bottle,hammer,etc. I then drive back to the barn and pick up my rail guide a 2x6 16 ft.Then off to the woods.Once there,i mill the tree i cut down the day before and load the lumber on the cart and drive back to the barn and where i sticker them.i then drive to another barn where a compressor is waiting to blow off the saw& mill and me.I then drive it back to the house and put away the saw& mill.

 

[slabmaster]

Here is some more shots of my back property and woods i mill in.The last picture is some dead ash i milled afew weeks ago.It was dry when i stacked it,so it wasn't stickered.Most the wood i mill is 16 ft. long and 4/4 and 8/4 lumber ou to 24".All of it was hauled out with that little wagon from where i dropped the tree.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Tripod is not fancy and cost nothing to build. It's made from peeled balsam fir poles bolted together at the top with a piece of threaded rod. A short piece of chain is wrapped around the top and the come-along hooks to that.

I tried a setup like that for pulling some small stumps. It was easy to put together. Just drill some half inch holes, toss in a few fender washers, a couple of threaded rods, and some nuts. Didn't take long.

I did use it to pull a bunch of smaller stuff, then I tried a 3 incher.

Bent my half inch threaded rod in short order.

Didn't impress the stump one little bit.


Still, I know it would lift quite a bit. Just not an oak sapling that happens to still be anchored.

 

[max2cam]

I tried a setup like that for pulling some small stumps. It was easy to put together. Just drill some half inch holes, toss in a few fender washers, a couple of threaded rods, and some nuts. Didn't take long.

I did use it to pull a bunch of smaller stuff, then I tried a 3 incher.

Bent my half inch threaded rod in short order.

Didn't impress the stump one little bit.


Still, I know it would lift quite a bit. Just not an oak sapling that happens to still be anchored.

I've used a come-along attached to a tree to uproot oak grubs (small trees) and they are a #####! Most of the time is spent digging and chopping at their roots and then digging some more.

Lifting logs with the tripod, the come-along (1-2 ton model) groans a little, but the tripod has yet to whimper, and it's made of mere balsam poles. If it ever breaks I'll upgrade to spruce or red pine poles.