swamp log skidder

[watsons dozer]

At my deer camp I have an absolute ton of hard wood tops and blown over trees, the only problem has been that my tractor weights to much and gets stuck requiring me to pull it out with my dozer. So I found a smaller tractor( Massey 1033 4x4 with a loader) to use at the camp and started to drag a few logs with it and just a set of tongs. That worked OK for a while, but there were small issues. So in my scrap pile I had all of this. The quick hitch I had torn up years ago and and the blade was from a broken grader blade that was on the farm when I bought it. Haven't used it yet, might get a chance this weekend. What do y'all think? Will it speed up my skidding process, or was it just a fun way to kill a day or two? No I don't have any close ups of the welds. they aren't pretty, but whiskey does that to my welds, but I don't believe they will break.

 

[Homelite410]

That's cool man! I hope your welds take the abuse! I like it!

 

[zogger]

that should work fine!

 

[watsons dozer]

I still need to add the winch Mount above the blade for the 3k ATV winch I have.

 

[Steve NW WI]

You're askin for trouble there. Hitch point way above the rear axle. Snag a stump, and you will be going over backwards.

I hate to burst your bubble but people get killed every year when their tractors flop over on em. If you gotta get some weight transfer, hook the tongs to a drawbar on the LOWER links of the 3 point.

 

[watsons dozer]

Steve you have a very good point. And one I thought of... Kinda. If you look just above the blade were the quick hitch meets it there are two hooks, one on each side for me to attach choker chain to should this idea get hairy. If it does the tongs would only be used to lift the logs so I don't have to push chokers under them. Honestly its still an unproven work in progress. But keep comments like that coming. Saftey never was a big thing with me, but I'd like to not kill myself playing in the woods.

 

[nathon918]

You're askin for trouble there. Hitch point way above the rear axle. Snag a stump, and you will be going over backwards.

I hate to burst your bubble but people get killed every year when their tractors flop over on em. If you gotta get some weight transfer, hook the tongs to a drawbar on the LOWER links of the 3 point.

all 3 point skidding implements pull from a point higher than the axle... hell even actual skidders pull from way higher than the axle, yeah they weigh more, but they also have a lot more traction and can flip just as easy, IF YOU DONT PAY ATTENTION!

 

[Steve NW WI]

Not true, Nathon. They pull from the lower links, and draft (load) pushes on the top link, forcing the front down, when used as a standard 3 point. Hooking above the lower links tosses this out the window.

Pulling off the drawbar on the lower links only can lift the nose, but unless you're going up a steep hill, not enough to go over.

I'd bust out my crayons and draw ya pictures, but I gotta go to work.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Edit: winches are slightly different, will discuss in 13 hours or so.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

What I see is, if the front end comes up, the blade will hit the ground, so flipping over backwards will be tougher (but not impossible) to do, at that point. OF COURSE I would hope the guy running the tractor has enough common sense to add front weights, if the front is light, in the first place. AND drive slow enough, keeping the load low enough when skidding, to react to a lighter front end...

IF you aren't going to use common sense, then you shouldn't be out there in the first place! AND you probably will hurt yourself no matter what you use... lol

SR

 

[watsons dozer]

OK y'all easy now. First of common sense ain't that common, but fortunately for me I got a good heaping of it. Second this little tractor in high gear goes about 6 mph. So even empty it ain't screaming fast and its small so last time I used it to skid with I was I first high range and going a blistering 2 or so and it never once lifted a tire. Yes its got some weight on the front end, its called a loader with a bucket. And if this idea doesn't work as planned I'll go to plan b, use my dozer and just repair the damage to the ground when I'm done with the little tractor. Got to use it for something.

 

[redfin]

I'm slighlty confused what the point of the blade is for? Is it just a foundation to build off?

 

[watsons dozer]

The blade in theory has many uses.First and for most is to protect the tractor and pto shaft while skidding. this tractor has a PTO over run adapter on it so the PTO shaft sticks out an extra 3 inches and skidding logs useing the quick hitch and tong some logs got to close to the PTO for my comfort. Another reason is to be able to push the left over crap from cutting and splitting off of my make shift sets. The last idea in it being there is so that when I use the winch the weight of the load will sink the blade in the ground and not drag the tractor. I'm not sure if the 3k winch could drag the tractor but the blade in the ground should stop any movement of the tractor.

 

[redfin]

Nice.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Gray market Massey? US spec would have an independent PTO.

 

[watsons dozer]

Its a grey market hinomoto badged as a Massey.

 

[watsons dozer]

In the end its just a fun little thing to build, my mind wonders while I'm at work and I read on here a lot durning the firewood season. So I blame y'all for me building this. I am trying to increase my production rates and number of cords per year sold. I do about 10-15 a year as it is now, but I read on here and I'm simply amazed by the numbers some of y'all put out. But I read on how and what equipment y'all use and I try to figure cheap ways to catch your cord rates( never going to happen). But somes I read something here and modify or try to adapt it to my situation. Take my still ms361, worked fine stock. But I went to reading and bang, next thing I know baileys box's are arriving and now its a screaming big bored, muffler mod, tuned monster. Halls fault, I'm weak and can't resist the temptation of speed and power. But now I can cut the trees up faster than I can skid them, so we have this contraption, yet again speed. Oh and I found a neighbor with an old JD cable skidder sitting under a shed ain't moved in lord knows how long, so no body talk about cable skidders or I might have to go talk to them about Thiers. But anyways y'all have a great board and I've learned a lot and still learning.
Hey Steve,
I would like some detail of cable skidding with this ATV winch. You said something about different weight transfer. And if some knows of a tool to skid with a tractor and be able to transfer weight to the front tires I'd love a pic
Thanks
Matt

 

[Steve NW WI]

I wasn't reading too well yesterday, and I apologize to Nathon for taking what he said out of context.

A regular 3 pt implement (plow or such) does transfer weight to the tractor like I said above. Nearly every log winch I've seen does not, by design mostly, as they're trying to lift the nose of the log, much like driving with a 3 point implement raised in the air.

The problem gets worse when the hitch point gets higher or further back, WD's tong mount is a pretty extreme example of that. It's all about leverage and the further from the pivot (rear axle), the more force that gets applied. I'd feel a lot better using the hooks you have added (that I didn't notice the first time around. Still gonna have to use caution, but it's gonna be a lot less likely to be trouble than towing from the top mount.
Here's a pic from the Farmi operator's manual (available here: http://www.farmiwinch.com/10-farmi-jl501-skidding-winch-owners-manual.html ) They say to skid only from the chain hooks or the lower pulley, not the top pulley - that's for winching only. I know manuals are uncool, but there's some good info there, even if the translation from Finn? isn't perfect. Notice the lower pulley and chain hooks are almost in line with the lower links (just a little above)



The blade is gonna stop you from going over - UNLESS you're going up a steep hill that lets you over center, or something breaks (that never happens, right?) If that little Japamassey doesn't have a GOOD ROPS on it, I'd strongly suggest adding one, just in case. (Hypocrite alert - my 180 MF doesn't have one, but it's also 7 feet wide and weighs 10,000 lbs with loader and weights, and I generally only skid on snow so I'm traction limited.)

Nathon, you're also right on purpose built log skidders, but the difference is that an ag tractor is generally set up to be heavy on the rear - roughly 35/65 F/R weight split, and a skidder is built pretty much opposite. It takes a lot more to get the nose up.

One last note - to get weight transfer with a 3pt skidder, you'd have to hitch below the lower links. Not practical at all for a small tractor, doable with a large farm tractor, but probably not necessary by the time you get that big.

 

[watsons dozer]

Well Steve I'll make the assumption( really bad I know) y'all done have swamps up there. But here in Louisiana swamps and hills don't go together, neither does traction. But I enjoyed the read. And yeah the little tractors got rops. Thanks for the info.
Matt

 

[Steve NW WI]

We got swamps. Usually at the bottom of the hill, LOL.

Course, this time of year, they're froze solid up here! One corner of my woods is only accessible in winter because of this.