Logging winch

   / Logging winch #1  
J

jesker

New member
Joined
Mar 18, 2012
Messages
8
Location
mosinee wi
Tractor
bobcat
I am looking at building a 3 pt logging winch. I have been looking at several different brands and I thing i can build one for a lot less money. I am a welder fabricator by trade, so that part is not the issue. what i need help with is the winch part of it. PTO Or hyd and sizes that i would need stuff like that. I have a Bobcat ct 450 (50 hp) tractor
 
   / Logging winch #2  
Hey jester. Try building a heavy duty square frame with a 3 point hook up. Use a heavy piece of 2x6 tubing for a top link. Use tongs attached to tubing to pick up your log enough to get chains around it. Skid it out, works great. I used an old 3 point bale carrier to make mine. It works great. Be sure to add weight up font! Check out the log skidding machine thread. It's ugly, but works really well! The tubing is 3/8's wall.
 
   / Logging winch #3  
There's a guy down the road from me who built one using a 8000# pto wrecker winch. Very strong but slow. I've also seen several guys use hydraulic winches with a pto pump and separate tank. It's also easier to reverse a hydraulic winch. I also thought of building one but ended up buying an fx 90 wallenstein which has worked great. Just be sure if you build one that you don't use use to big of winch or you risk tearing your tractor up. You might stay in the 8000 to 10000 range for your tractor. I think it would make a great project and would like to see what you come up with. Good luck!
 
   / Logging winch #4  
I looked into this once myself as I will eventually need a logging winch for my place to pull logs down off of steep slopes. I am looking at a hydraulic winch as it can be mounted either front or rear (taking proper care of course to not tear one's tractor apart). The tricky part is line speed - you want a high line speed, like 50 feet per minute, to haul stuff one or two hundred feet out of the woods. Plus variable speed to be able to slow it down when needed. The ability to add remote control is also desirable. There are hydraulic motors available however which can provide this if you look around. Here is one example.
 
   / Logging winch #6  
I want to build one too! Have you thought of the truck rear type? I would like to find a fork truck "rear" (narrow & HD) and mount a little bake master cly & lever to operate the brake on the std brake drum, with a cable drum fabbed up & mounted on the "other end" This is a way around the clutching mechanism that is on the store bought logging winches. This way when you let off the brake, the "dummy" drum would spin vs. the drum. I would think that you could "feather" your winch line in this way also.The other idea I has was to use a modern rear that has disc brakes & possible making it a dual drum, but you'd need 2 brake set ups. There is a bunch of stuff like this on u tube. The main frame/pullys/butt blate/blade is the easy part, it's the clutching action that hangs me up. Worm drive (tow truck) type winches are 2 slow for a logging winch IMHO & it seems that you have to be very careful in how you let your wire spool onto the wide drum to not pinch the cable. This is an aspect of the "store bought" winches that I don't understand how they avoid this situation. Narrow drum?
 
   / Logging winch #8  
I am thinking about mounting an electric winch on a 3 point dirt scoop. Use the winch to pull the log into the scoop and hold it, while lifting the scoop and drag away.... For logs you can back right into, you could tip the scoop down, and back under the log and just pick it up.

Opinions on this concept?
 
   / Logging winch #9  
Rustyiron said:
I want to build one too! Have you thought of the truck rear type? I would like to find a fork truck "rear" (narrow & HD) and mount a little bake master cly & lever to operate the brake on the std brake drum, with a cable drum fabbed up & mounted on the "other end" This is a way around the clutching mechanism that is on the store bought logging winches. This way when you let off the brake, the "dummy" drum would spin vs. the drum. I would think that you could "feather" your winch line in this way also.The other idea I has was to use a modern rear that has disc brakes & possible making it a dual drum, but you'd need 2 brake set ups. There is a bunch of stuff like this on u tube. The main frame/pullys/butt blate/blade is the easy part, it's the clutching action that hangs me up. Worm drive (tow truck) type winches are 2 slow for a logging winch IMHO & it seems that you have to be very careful in how you let your wire spool onto the wide drum to not pinch the cable. This is an aspect of the "store bought" winches that I don't understand how they avoid this situation. Narrow drum?
Click to expand...

I've often thought of this concept. I really think if a person had the the patience to do the "engineering" it would make a nice winch. Probably the toughest part would be making it all compact enough to fit fairly close to the tractor. And also I've found that the farther the cable fair lead is from the winch drum the easier and better the cable spools onto the drum.
 
   / Logging winch #10  
Rustyiron said:
I want to build one too! Have you thought of the truck rear type? I would like to find a fork truck "rear" (narrow & HD) and mount a little bake master cly & lever to operate the brake on the std brake drum, with a cable drum fabbed up & mounted on the "other end" This is a way around the clutching mechanism that is on the store bought logging winches. This way when you let off the brake, the "dummy" drum would spin vs. the drum. I would think that you could "feather" your winch line in this way also.The other idea I has was to use a modern rear that has disc brakes & possible making it a dual drum, but you'd need 2 brake set ups. There is a bunch of stuff like this on u tube. The main frame/pullys/butt blate/blade is the easy part, it's the clutching action that hangs me up. Worm drive (tow truck) type winches are 2 slow for a logging winch IMHO & it seems that you have to be very careful in how you let your wire spool onto the wide drum to not pinch the cable. This is an aspect of the "store bought" winches that I don't understand how they avoid this situation. Narrow drum?
Click to expand...

Hey Rustyiron,
I have seen pictures of a winch that was made using a rear-end from a truck. It was PTO driven through an in-line-mounted 4spd manual transmission allowing for different speeds. The builder mounted the whole thing on a logging arch that was towed by a tractor. The real challenge is to make it compact enough to stay close to the tractor so you don't loose much of the 3ph lift capacity. Although on your 9540 it is probably not nearly as big of an issue. You can just build an #800 winch and have another #1000 (or more) of safe lift capacity.
 
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