Logging cable?

   / Logging cable? #1  
S

SteveInMD

Platinum Member
Joined
Sep 3, 2003
Messages
541
Location
Brookeville, MD
Tractor
TC33D
I need to pull a bunch of brush out of the ground. A while back I saw someone with a cable and slider for this purpose. You could walk the cable around the brush and attach it back to itself with the slider. The other end of cable had a small loop to hook it to your tractor. The cable would cinch down around the brush as you pulled it out. The system worked really well. I can't seem to find it anywhere online. Does anyone know what it's called or where to get it?
 
   / Logging cable? #2  
I think you are talking about a choke. Often used for skidding logs.

I've been looking for one, but haven't found one. Can't remember if I checked baileys.

What I've been doing is using the heavy HF chains and just putting the chain hook on the chain around it tightly. This works fine, so I stopped looking. And I figured that under too much pressure I rather have the chain slip than snap.

Otherwise I bet you could get Wesspur to make you one reasonably.
 
   / Logging cable? #3  
Bailey's sells them. I bought a cable choker and a choker hook for chain (slightly different than a slip hook) from them and use them both quite often. The cable version is my favorite. Make sure you get the one with the loop on the end (FSE), as they sell them with swaged fittings on both ends (FSF) for use with rigging lines.

Bailey's - Wire Rope & Grappling Supplies > Chokers

-John
 
   / Logging cable? #5  
What you are looking for is called a cable choker. It's used with a logging winch or skidder to drag logs out of the forest. You can also get them made from chain, which is what I use with my winch, but I'd bet that the cable style is better for brush (lighter weight too).

Here are some Bailey's Chokers Available in 3/8" or 1/2" cable. Even the 3/8" is overkill for brush.

Here are some Labonville Chokers Available in various lengths of 1/2" cable. Thee have 3 links of chain on the end. I'm thinking the 1/2" cable on these is more than you want to mess with for grabbing brush.

Northern Tool only sells the chain type choker, from what I can find. It also appears that these chokers have a slip hook on the end (the hook is partially obscured in the picture), rather than the "choker hook" which I think works much better.

John Mc
 
   / Logging cable? #7  
Thanks, RavensRoost. My signature line has been changed to reflect the source. He made several variations on this quote.

I guess I've run into him before... I heard about "Maslow's Heirarchy of Human Needs" in a couple of courses I took through work, and again when studying to be a flight instructor.

John Mc
 
   / Logging cable? #8  
SteveInMD said:
I need to pull a bunch of brush out of the ground. A while back I saw someone with a cable and slider for this purpose. You could walk the cable around the brush and attach it back to itself with the slider. The other end of cable had a small loop to hook it to your tractor. The cable would cinch down around the brush as you pulled it out. The system worked really well. I can't seem to find it anywhere online. Does anyone know what it's called or where to get it?
Click to expand...
If I read this correct you are in MD. This is what I did a few months ago, go to a commerical fishing supplier, or a rigging supplier, for cranes. I worked around Baltimore about 3 years, but I forgot where we got our cables. Just get them to make you, what you want. The size of the cable, depends on the size of the tractor used. I had 5/8 made for a 90 hp, its a little large, but I want it for pulling me out of bad place. I would get the size you need, with two eyes (no thimbles) get a safety shackle, for the slider. The safety shackle has a place to put a cotter pin, so the pin doesnt unlock itself as it rolls. I have seen cable on eBay, but I'm sure you can get something made in your area to save freight. Buy the imported cable its cheaper and almost as good. After you use it, wash it off and spray it down with oil, not WD40, I keep mine in a plastic bag
Good Luck
One last thought, dont do what one of my workers, did a few years ago. He hooked the cable around a bunch of small brush and hooked to the tractor, with a lot of slack here he goes, in fast mode and try to jerk it out of the ground. I was working close by on the Bobcat, it was too late to holler, when the cable came tight, it lifted the front end of the tractor off the ground, I thought we were going to have a end over end deal. WELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL after he cleaned his pants out, I gave him a few choice words. I have a place on the front of my JD to hook a cable and its a bunch safer. Get the slack out first and then rock it. Be Safe
 
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   / Logging cable? #9  
Is the idea to pull brush out of the ground by the roots? Or to just gather brush that has been already cut and haul it to a pile?
 
   / Logging cable? #10  
I have several "sling chokers", in various lenghts, like the ones at Bailey's, that I use to skid maple trees out of my forest for firewood.

They work great hooked to the tractor drawbar with a clevis at the end of the drawbar. Easy, safe and secure, as well as being inexpensive...it's all good.

I went to a local logging supplier and had them made up in the cable size and lenght I wanted.
 
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