Skidding or trailering?

[joecool85]

Ahh! You are more fortunate than I am

Ken

Thanks to my family The land is my uncle's 80 acre wood lot. I am definetely fortunate, my Grandfather gave me my tractor.

 

[GeeVee]

A 12 volt winch is a cheap tool, with it and a length of chain or two, you can move logs to safer locations to continue to "land" the logs.

I just reply again, with your conditions, there may be many ways? What works best is effective minimal handling of the wood before it is consumed by the end user.....

 

[joecool85]

A 12 volt winch is a cheap tool, with it and a length of chain or two, you can move logs to safer locations to continue to "land" the logs.

I just reply again, with your conditions, there may be many ways? What works best is effective minimal handling of the wood before it is consumed by the end user.....

It's a 6v tractor

 

[tanker]

Only run chains year round if necessary. They do wear out eventually. Getting pushed down a hill by your trailer is not really an issue if you use a little common sense. I cannot see a datsun bed trailer being loaded heavy enough for this to happen anyways.

Do you have much experience operating this tractor? That's the most important thing! You need the seat time and confidence to act if the tractor does start doing its own thing. Happy Hauling! I love playing with the old Deere's!

Learn what you are doing,take your time ,be thinking all the time and be careful.That 40 is about the same as an 8n ford and personally,I'm not fond of either one(too light for my tastes or uses) but people have used them for over a half a century and got along good with them so after you learn to use the tractor and get comfortable with it,you will be fine.Good luck to you.

 

[user 19670]

A farm tractor is not a skidder. That said, you can skid with it but you should use GOOGLE and educate yourself about the dangers and shortcomings of using a farm tractor to skid in the woods. Some of the things that can happen will only happen once and you won't get another chance to learn the hard way because you won't be alive.

Some practical things I can think of is farm tractor tires are not as durable as skidder tires. The sidewalls are much easier to damage and tires are expensive. Skidder wheels have protection for the valve stem, farm tractor wheels do not and emptying the brine, dismounting the tire, modifying the wheel, remounting the tire and filling it with brine again is expensive. This was told to me by a logger that grew up on a farm. He has a skidder and he is aware of the problems with tractors.

This was just the tip of the iceberg. As I said, GOOGLE for answers.

 

[joecool85]

A farm tractor is not a skidder. That said, you can skid with it but you should use GOOGLE and educate yourself about the dangers and shortcomings of using a farm tractor to skid in the woods. Some of the things that can happen will only happen once and you won't get another chance to learn the hard way because you won't be alive.

Some practical things I can think of is farm tractor tires are not as durable as skidder tires. The sidewalls are much easier to damage and tires are expensive. Skidder wheels have protection for the valve stem, farm tractor wheels do not and emptying the brine, dismounting the tire, modifying the wheel, remounting the tire and filling it with brine again is expensive. This was told to me by a logger that grew up on a farm. He has a skidder and he is aware of the problems with tractors.

This was just the tip of the iceberg. As I said, GOOGLE for answers.

Oh trust me, I know all about the dangers of skidding with a tractor, that's why I'm looking at other options. The biggest problem with skidding is that you can catch the log on something it will damn near instantly flip the tractor over. There are other problems as well if you are near hills, like the log can start rolling down the hill and pull the tractor over with it. Plus the general annoyances like the log getting all dirty from dragging it, then when you cut it, it dulls you chain real quick. It looks like I'll be using the trailer and I will cut the logs to firewood length, load them in the trailer, then swap the trailer onto my truck and go home.

As for the tires, it's not that hard to mount a tire on a 40T, but it is expensive for sure if you have to buy a new one. I won't be running "brine" or anything else in my tires other than air though, so that's one less step.

 

[joecool85]

Learn what you are doing,take your time ,be thinking all the time and be careful.That 40 is about the same as an 8n ford and personally,I'm not fond of either one(too light for my tastes or uses) but people have used them for over a half a century and got along good with them so after you learn to use the tractor and get comfortable with it,you will be fine.Good luck to you.

Apparently the 2n, 8n, 9n all have really bad tendencies to lift the front end, even worse than the JD M, 40, 420 tractors. This is probably due to their being a little shorter than the 40.

___ Overall Length - From rear axle to front of tractor
8n -- 115 inches - 90 inches
40T - 130 inches - 102 inches

That extra ft of length on the 40 makes for a huge multiplication of torque handling. Let's say both tractors have 900lbs on the front end (the 40T is 914, so it's close). That would mean that the maximum tq applied to the ground without lifting the front end would be:

8n: 7.5' x 900lbs = 6,750 ft/lbs of tq
40: 8.5' x 900lbs = 7,650 ft/lbs of tq

Also this means that adding weight to the front of the 40 is more effective because it has a multiplier of 8.5 instead of 7.5.

That said, my 40T is a tq monster compared to the 8n. The 40T has 142 ft/lb of tq at 1850rpm and the 8n only has 92 lb/ft of tq at 2000rpm. On top of that, the 40T's first gear is 1.6 mph, the 8n is 2.9 mph. When you calculate out tq multiplication the 40T can make almost 4 times the tq at the wheels than the 8n.

 

[user 19670]

Oh trust me, I know all about the dangers of skidding with a tractor, that's why I'm looking at other options. The biggest problem with skidding is that you can catch the log on something it will damn near instantly flip the tractor over. There are other problems as well if you are near hills, like the log can start rolling down the hill and pull the tractor over with it. Plus the general annoyances like the log getting all dirty from dragging it, then when you cut it, it dulls you chain real quick. It looks like I'll be using the trailer and I will cut the logs to firewood length, load them in the trailer, then swap the trailer onto my truck and go home.

As for the tires, it's not that hard to mount a tire on a 40T, but it is expensive for sure if you have to buy a new one. I won't be running "brine" or anything else in my tires other than air though, so that's one less step.

opcorn:

 

[logbutcher]

From the back "40" harvesting less than 10 cords of firewood, keep it safe and simple. Now, pulp is another story. Farm tractors with their unbalanced wheels can be unstable with loads even on the flat.

K.I.S.S. -- what we've done for too many years: drop the tree, buck it, leave slash to rot in place ( you have to delimb anyhow), place bucks in trailer, pile near woodsheds for later split and stack dance. No dirt, no trail damage, chains stay sharp ( for a couple of tanks at least :censored: ), and most of all, Goodbody gets a workout. We try to do all of the woodlot work in winter on hard or snowy ground---no bugs, no heat, no wet feet, and it's soooo manly to work in winter. :greenchainsaw:

Remember: only you can prevent beer belly.

 

[ken45]

We try to do all of the woodlot work in winter on hard or snowy ground---no bugs, no heat, no wet feet, and it's soooo manly to work in winter.

The old classic way of logging.

Unfortunately around here, winter is more "mud" than anything else. And when we do get a freeze, a little midday thaw can really turn it into grease.

Ken
southern Ohio

 

[peter nap]

Common sense? True. It depends on the terrain. On our farm, most anything flat enough for a tractor is pasture. The woods only start where it goes downhill from there (too steep for a tractor.) Some of it is negoitable with a bulldozer, some of it isn't

Maybe I'm too safety conscious (I know I prefer to error on the side of safety), but some of our trails (done with a bulldozer), I won't even take a tractor and bushhog to mow them when they are dry.

My farm is the same Ken and I am not as confident with the tractor as some others.
I like my CSM because I can take it to the trees and then trailer the boards out using my ATV.

There just isn't a pat answer!