kebo
Elite Member
- Joined
- May 16, 2006
- Messages
- 2,910
- Location
- Lexington, SC
- Tractor
- 2001 John Deere 790 4x4, bar tires
I was surfing CL (like I always am) and came across this interesting log arch for sale. The story from the seller was that it belonged to his F-i-L, who used to run a sawmill. The log arch is home made, and HUGE, but it looks to have been very well thought out and very well constructed. He only had 3 pic's posted, but I emailed him and asked him to send me some more. The seller was gracious enough to do so, and I thanked him for it, even though I wasn't really interested in buying the arch. I was more interested in how it worked. I spent probably 20-30 minutes studying over these pic's to figure out just how it worked. It's quite ingenious, actually!!! My hat's off to whomever built it! :thumbsup: The best picture showing the whole thing from the side was on the CL post. I tried saving them to add here, but for some reason they came out as thumbnails and not worth adding here.
The tongue of the arch attaches to the tractor, as well as the really long PTO shaft on it After driving (or backing) over the log, you would hook up the cable to the log and engage the PTO to winch the log up. The PTO shaft directly drives a car axle mounted on top of the arch (sitting directly above the tractor wheels). One side of the car axle has a small dia. tooth gear on it, which directly drives a larger dia. tooth gear, which gives it a torque multiplication. The larger gear has a shaft attached to it, which is the shaft for the log winch itself. On the other side of the car axle is a standard brake hub. If you notice in one pic, there is a master brake cylinder mounted close to that end of the axle, which can be controlled by one of the two long rods that goes up to the front of the arch. By pumping the brake, I suppose you can control or stop the axle from turning after the PTO is disengaged.
One the other end of the winch shaft, there is another large dia. tooth gear. It looks like the other long rod (that goes to the front of the arch) has some sort of a pawl that can engage this gear (with slightly angled teeth) to lock the winch in place (thus holding the log up off the ground). Now is this thing slick or what??? :thumbsup: If I needed one, and had a big enough tractor, I would be headed that way to look at it already! If you're interested, it's near Oakboro, NC. I think that's close to where the FarmTrac tractors were at, before they went out of business (not that it has anything to do with this).
Sort of a front view:
Here's the tongue showing the end of the PTO shaft:
Here is the winch cable hanging beneath it:
Here you can see the PTO shaft and brake master cylinder with the long rod for it:
Here is the "locking gear" on the winch shaft, notice the angled teeth:
The two levers near the front for the brake lever and locking pawl lever:
View looking from the rear. Gives you some idea how big it is. Also shows the winch and cable:
Right side tire also looking from the rear:
The tongue of the arch attaches to the tractor, as well as the really long PTO shaft on it After driving (or backing) over the log, you would hook up the cable to the log and engage the PTO to winch the log up. The PTO shaft directly drives a car axle mounted on top of the arch (sitting directly above the tractor wheels). One side of the car axle has a small dia. tooth gear on it, which directly drives a larger dia. tooth gear, which gives it a torque multiplication. The larger gear has a shaft attached to it, which is the shaft for the log winch itself. On the other side of the car axle is a standard brake hub. If you notice in one pic, there is a master brake cylinder mounted close to that end of the axle, which can be controlled by one of the two long rods that goes up to the front of the arch. By pumping the brake, I suppose you can control or stop the axle from turning after the PTO is disengaged.
One the other end of the winch shaft, there is another large dia. tooth gear. It looks like the other long rod (that goes to the front of the arch) has some sort of a pawl that can engage this gear (with slightly angled teeth) to lock the winch in place (thus holding the log up off the ground). Now is this thing slick or what??? :thumbsup: If I needed one, and had a big enough tractor, I would be headed that way to look at it already! If you're interested, it's near Oakboro, NC. I think that's close to where the FarmTrac tractors were at, before they went out of business (not that it has anything to do with this).
Sort of a front view:
Here's the tongue showing the end of the PTO shaft:
Here is the winch cable hanging beneath it:
Here you can see the PTO shaft and brake master cylinder with the long rod for it:
Here is the "locking gear" on the winch shaft, notice the angled teeth:
The two levers near the front for the brake lever and locking pawl lever:
View looking from the rear. Gives you some idea how big it is. Also shows the winch and cable:
Right side tire also looking from the rear:
