The very best tractor attachment for loading firewood into trucks with a tractor is?

[mikereynolds]

For moving logs around I use a skidsteer with a 72" rock bucket with grapple or the same skidsteer with fork lift attachment, they both work well...just depends what is on the Bobcat at the time. However for loading firewood into the trailer for delivery, No tractor! We hand load and stack it in the trailer nice and neat. This is the only way we can make double darn sure the load is correctly measured prior to delivery. Also the customer can inspect his accurately loaded cord prior to hitting the dump button. Wish I could figgure how to load pics from my phone.

 

[KiwiBro]

Kiwi, I have several buckets for loading firewood and I hate them all. Pics are on "My Firewood tools" thread. I have a regular bucket with a 2 tine joined grapple on it, no good, too much junck picked up with the wood. I took the grapple off and mounted it onto a stone fork type bucket, better but not what I hoped it would be. Regular bucket with a toothbar on it but no grapple, works but all the junk still. 60" manure bucket with 8 or 10 tines on it about 6 or 8" apart and about 30" long, this one works the best but is too narrow to get a good bucketful. I think the best type would be a stone fork style but one with the round tines on it and not the 1/4" flatstyle I have. Problem with it is that the brush will wedge in it.
Save yourself some grief and rent before you buy. I'm a collector so having 10 buckets isn't an issue with me, my wife might have her own opinion.

Thank you. That's helping to eliminate a few from the line-up.

 

[KiwiBro]

The best is a westendorf 3-d loader. I saw a cane farmer using one and it was the cats ass.

wow. I've not seen one like that before, thanks. Does anyone use something like this for split firewood? It would be good to get feedback specific to the task required of it.

 

[indiansprings]

I don't have one yet, but I like the idea of some sort of grapple with tines closer together to keep the logs form jamming in between them. My 6' FEL isn't very efficient at scooping logs and it isn't extra large or heavy duty, but it's much better than loading a truck/trailer by hand.

The grapple allows you to move longer logs to a landing or processing area without having to get off the tractor to hook up skidding chains/cables. Moving remaining brush into piles is also more easily accomplished with the grapple.

Treepointer this is almost the identical set up we use in our firewood operation, tires are filled with fluid for extra weight. We drag up some monster tops with it to a central landing, we have an attachment with two four and a half foot forks for picking up cull logs, we use a heavy box blade on the rear for ballast, it allows us to pick up a max of about 2500 lbs. It is amazing what our little 47hp machine will do, we have a 125hp 4 wd 6420 and a 140hp 4440 but the little tractor is king in the woods. We have welded hooks to the bucket to allow us to also use it to pick up whatever we need to. With tractor buckets you just don't have the depth to pick up much firewood. If we are going to try go load wood with it, which we will sometimes do if we can't drag a top out of a steep ravine we manually stack the bucket full of wood and use a pallet platform on the back and stack it full. I guess if you were at a really large scale and wanted to use 100 hp + 4wd you might get a grapple bucket large enough to pick up an amount big enough to matter.
If I were doing it on that scale I'd try to find an old military surplus 5 cu yd bucket Michigan loader.

 

[Diesel nut]

I don't have one yet, but I like the idea of some sort of grapple with tines closer together to keep the logs form jamming in between them. My 6' FEL isn't very efficient at scooping logs and it isn't extra large or heavy duty, but it's much better than loading a truck/trailer by hand.

The grapple allows you to move longer logs to a landing or processing area without having to get off the tractor to hook up skidding chains/cables. Moving remaining brush into piles is also more easily accomplished with the grapple.

Is your 4600 a hydro or shuttle shift? We've got a 4710 with the same loader and its a shuttle shift nice size tractor for sure. We also have a 4700 hydro but it seems the hydro takes a lot of hp to make it go.

 

[indiansprings]

Mine is 4600 shuttle shift, nice little piece of machinery, don't break the hood, that will set you back about 600.00, don't ask me how I know.lol

 

[TreePointer]

Mine is 4600 shuttle shift, nice little piece of machinery, don't break the hood, that will set you back about 600.00, don't ask me how I know.lol

LOL! The hood in that picture is actually broken, but it's still functional.

EDIT: forgot to answer your question--It's hydrostatic.

 

[cantoo]

This is the type of bucket that I think would work good for loading firewood. Holds a good volume and debris should fall thru. Round tines seem to work better to scoop. Scoop up a bucketful. pick it up high and give it a shake, I would bet the amount would be fairly consistant so you don't have to stack it.
View attachment 211542

 

[GeeVee]

YES. CanToo found it.

I had been thinking of the stonebucket, and of the skeleton bucket....

Ultimately, it has to be a combo of the skeleton/stone, but also have a grapple of something similiar, but flexible. The grapple top has to have some "give" to conform to the heap of SPLITS he was trying to load.

He wasn't trying to pick up logs, was he?

The "ensilage" bucket, again prolly needing a grapple clamp modified to it, or possibly a "recyclers scoop" might be a place to look?

I might need to review your circumstances to understand your need, but if your needing to load that much split with a loader, you might need a conveyor, and a yard pusher.

 

[budcampo]

Skeleton grapple, root rake grapple, it doesn't necessarily have to give, nothing is going to work perfect, but grapple buckets are awesome! If your going to invest in one, do not get a solid bottom bucket, even the skeleton/root rake buckets will hold dirt debris, but not nearly as much, and if you have your piles clean, and your not digging in the dirt when your scooping, I think you'll be very happy with a grapple!
The rock bucket pictured in this thread with a grapple on top would be best in my opinion if you are only using it for firewood and occational log moving etc., it will prevent wood from falling out the sides.
Your tractor will work fine in my opinion guessing on the weight you said, what horse power is it? What about a grapple and a conveyor? That would be cool I think? Never done it, but then you'd have speed and clean right? I don't know?

 

[Turkeyslayer]

I also agree that a stone/root bucket with grapple would be the best for firewood loading applications. If getting a grapple make sure you get the heaviest duty bucket you can find, my bucket is heavy duty but still has a few good wows in it by the force of the clamp on the wood.
I also agree that the most efficient way to load wood is with a conveyor. It seems that all the large firewood operations in my area use a conveyor of some sort. The coolest on I have seen is mounted on the passenger side of a suzuki samurai with the loading end at the rear powered by a gas engine and the unloading end going up over the hood.

 

[Chainsaw_Maniac]

This is the type of bucket that I think would work good for loading firewood. Holds a good volume and debris should fall thru. Round tines seem to work better to scoop. Scoop up a bucketful. pick it up high and give it a shake, I would bet the amount would be fairly consistant so you don't have to stack it.
View attachment 211542

This is similar to what I use. If you are picking up too much dirt, hand bomb it into any type of loader bucket. Hand loading is more work, but the wood is cleaner. I like the stone fork for loading on frozen ground, from concrete, or when I intend to reload it again anyway (let's say from where I cut or split it onto a trailer to be dumped into a pile for drying -- and I intend to reload it later, this time hand loading to avoid dirt).

 

[Turkeyslayer]

He has plenty to answer for. I blame him for my current buying spree, although I'm not convinced his bucket+tooth bar+grapple set-up is optimum but it sure is a good (possibly the best) one-attachment plan.

Lol. I am blaming this thread for putting ideas in my head. http://www.arboristsite.com/chainsaw/26571.htm

 

[KiwiBro]

Lol. I am blaming this thread for putting ideas in my head. http://www.arboristsite.com/chainsaw/26571.htm

I read that one too. I reckon all of you lot are what's often called 'astro-turfing' robots for the great consumerism machine. Passing your testimonials, helpful advice, recommendations, and general info off as passive, general, helpful ****-chat amongst like minded posters. When all along, you are employed by various parties in the great consumerism machine to give those of us who don't need much encouragement the gentle nudge we crave to spend more money under some fragile pretence of it saving us more in the long run or becoming more productive.

When I first posted on this site I was looking for advice how to keep my near terminal Poulan wild thing from flat-lining as I was only 300 trees into a stand of about 700 and struggling to afford/justify anything else. Now I've bought 5 saws in the last year (admittedly two were presents), other gear, heaps of bits and pieces and now lining up a tractor with pto winch and extra attachments and possibly a kinetic splitter.

Can I redirect the bailiffs around to your place please, when they come knocking on my door? Thanks in advance.

:msp_w00t:

 

[KiwiBro]

the weight might kill this option but, for your viewing pleasure:

from here

Notwithstanding the fact I won't be able to afford it even it it was a good weight, if I were to get one, I'd make the two grapple arms independant and also make bigger, removable (easy on/off) sides.

In addition to holding as much split firewood as possible (within the constraints of the FEL lifting capacity - 2400 lbs), it needs to pick up and hold logs and also brush. Now, if there was a cunning way to use it as a cradle when holding logs, so that I could buck the logs up without having to drop the bucket width remnants into a separate cradle to complete the bucking, then i might just be moved to giggle like a teen whilst muttering OMG, OMG, OMG.

 

[Rudolf73]

Here is one I prepared earlier...

We use this mostly for clean up - logs, brush, etc. but haven't tried using it on firewood yet. With a few more ribs and sides it should grab a good load of firewood.

You could maybe build an excavator type grapple and hang it off your FEL for bucking logs. It would probably only be 8" wide so won't interfere - just grab the log in the centre and cut from both sides.

 

[KiwiBro]

Here is one I prepared earlier...

We use this mostly for clean up - logs, brush, etc. but haven't tried using it on firewood yet. With a few more ribs and sides it should grab a good load of firewood.

You could maybe build an excavator type grapple and hang it off your FEL for bucking logs. It would probably only be 8" wide so won't interfere - just grab the log in the centre and cut from both sides.

Good idea on the single excavator grapple. I think though it would be too much swapping and changing of gear not to mention another cost I just can't afford at the mo'. I think a root rake with double grapple arms would get more use, but I'll keep a look out for something second hand and maybe it will come up.

Any idea what your beast weighs? I doubt there's be much lift capacity left in the FEL on the lil tractor I'm looking at to actually carry much firewood if I used something like your implement. It's a juggling act between safe working loads, average volume, implement weight, implement strength, and versatility.

 

[Rudolf73]

Good idea on the single excavator grapple. I think though it would be too much swapping and changing of gear not to mention another cost I just can't afford at the mo'. I think a root rake with double grapple arms would get more use, but I'll keep a look out for something second hand and maybe it will come up.

Any idea what your beast weighs? I doubt there's be much lift capacity left in the FEL on the lil tractor I'm looking at to actually carry much firewood if I used something like your implement. It's a juggling act between safe working loads, average volume, implement weight, implement strength, and versatility.

I designed it to be 'light' so that it can also be used on smaller tractors and skid steers if necessary, but total weight is around 220kgs from memory. I have the SWL rated at 1000kgs just because of OH&S but it is designed to lift several tonnes. The total cost was approx. $1300 AUD excluding labour.

 

[KiwiBro]

I designed it to be 'light' so that it can also be used on smaller tractors and skid steers if necessary, but total weight is around 220kgs from memory. I have the SWL rated at 1000kgs just because of OH&S but it is designed to lift several tonnes. The total cost was approx. $1300 AUD excluding labour.

That's much lighter than I thought it would be.

 

[cedar]

I have a Swinger articulated loader with a WR Long root grapple. The root grapple has dual independent grapples and there are extra rails welded in to reduce the spacing to about 3 inches. It works very well for moving logs but it difficult to near impossible for me to grab a grapple load of split firewood from the pile to load onto my truck. Next year I will probably buy a conveyor to load split firewood.