Tractor Sizing What do you use for logging? Prevent my divorce.

   / What do you use for logging? Prevent my divorce. #51  
Were logging 40 acres of our own land to break into farmland and we do have a cat d7 that i push trees over before cutting as pulling stumps is the work of the devil . We clear 5-10 acres each winter as weather allows and in quieter work periods with oak ash pop from 8-24 inch . i looked at worn out old skidders but ended up doing it all with the MF390 4x4 and 2x 20ft chains hanging from the loader . Pulled 100-150 cords a year for the past 4 years for my firewood business and this winter should finnish it .

Hydrostatic will let you down if you work it hard.
 
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   / What do you use for logging? Prevent my divorce. #52  
Newbie here, and I noticed no mention of sulkies, or arches. Is there a reason no one uses them?
 
   / What do you use for logging? Prevent my divorce. #53  
Were logging 40 acres of our own land to break into farmland and we do have a cat d7 that i push trees over before cutting as pulling stumps is the work of the devil . We clear 5-10 acres each winter as weather allows and in quieter work periods with oak ash pop from 8-24 inch . i looked at worn out old skidders but ended up doing it all with the MF390 4x4 and 2x 20ft chains hanging from the loader . Pulled 100-150 cords a year for the past 4 years for my firewood business and this winter should finnish it .

Hydrostatic will let you down if you work it hard.

Why not just skid them out with the D7. You could have pulled out quite a few trees at a time.
 
   / What do you use for logging? Prevent my divorce. #54  
You have more options if clear cutting. No concerns of accessing logs and minimizing damage to standing trees. I will say, from spending time logging using fixed length cable or chains, a proper logging winch is a massive boost to your productivity.

Were logging 40 acres of our own land to break into farmland and we do have a cat d7 that i push trees over before cutting as pulling stumps is the work of the devil . We clear 5-10 acres each winter as weather allows and in quieter work periods with oak ash pop from 8-24 inch . i looked at worn out old skidders but ended up doing it all with the MF390 4x4 and 2x 20ft chains hanging from the loader . Pulled 100-150 cords a year for the past 4 years for my firewood business and this winter should finnish it .

Hydrostatic will let you down if you work it hard.
 
   / What do you use for logging? Prevent my divorce. #55  
Newbie here, and I noticed no mention of sulkies, or arches. Is there a reason no one uses them?

They're still hard work compared to a medium sized tractor with a logging/skidding winch. In open woods with a dry, hard bottom that you can drive over repeatedly without digging ruts an arch will do the job, although it's slow progress.

I have one that works really well behind an ATV for small wood up to about 8 inches, I used it to cut several hundred fence posts and several cords of firewood over the past few years. I've moved logs up to about 18 inches with it on occasion, and it's a workout. Even using a hand winch to get the log hooked up, handling bigger wood gets old in a hurry, particularly if you're doing it every weekend. You end up moving one log at a time, which is OK if you only have a couple to do.

This year I'll be cutting firewood and clearing deadfalls again, on a smaller piece of land than the OP has to deal with. I found a new-to-me 6000 lb logging winch that's a good match for my tractor, it should make life a lot easier than in the past.

Sean
 
   / What do you use for logging? Prevent my divorce. #56  
Why not just skid them out with the D7. You could have pulled out quite a few trees at a time.

Too slow and awkward and dirties the timber too much , the loader gets them up off the ground better. The dozer is always pushing anyway so quicker to use both .
 
   / What do you use for logging? Prevent my divorce. #57  
a proper logging winch is a massive boost to your productivity.

I've only found this to be true if working on steep banks , otherwise i find no difference .
 
   / What do you use for logging? Prevent my divorce. #58  
...I used it to cut several hundred fence posts...

Sean

Sean,

When I said I was going to cut fence posts from my timber I got nothing but guff.

I'd LOVE to hear about how you did this, and how the posts performed.

Thanks in advance.

David
 
   / What do you use for logging? Prevent my divorce. #59  
Depends on the woods and how armoured your tractor is, and if you are clear cutting. Selective cutting it takes a lot of work to get to within 2 chain lengths for each tree, and a lot of time carrying chain. My logging winch lets me set up 150 ft+ away and take 5 or 6 chokers per winch pull. In my situation I more than quadroupled my output per day.

EDIT I'm not talking about a 3/4" dozer hydraulic winch cable, those things are murder to drag out and the winching is slow.

I've only found this to be true if working on steep banks , otherwise i find no difference .
 
   / What do you use for logging? Prevent my divorce. #60  
Sean,

When I said I was going to cut fence posts from my timber I got nothing but guff.

I'd LOVE to hear about how you did this, and how the posts performed.

Thanks in advance.

David

I'll try not to hi-jack the thread, but here goes...

It's not particularly cost effective, but I enjoy doing woods work. We cut our posts between 8 and 9 feet long, and I like to get three posts per tree. If the smallest diameter is 3-4 inches, on a 24-27 foot stick the bottom end is pretty solid.

We use an auger to put them in, so as long as it'll fit down the hole, size isn't a problem. Probably the last time you'll see that in print..:laughing:

We use pretty much exclusively black spruce, which grows straight, tall and thin, or juniper, which is highly rot-resistant and hard as nails once it dries.

We get 10-15 years or more out of the juniper posts, and a few less from the black spruce. We have them peeled (by machine) for $1 a post locally, that probably doubles the life span.

Fir and pine are pretty much useless for posts, at least the balsam fir and white and red pine we have here. 5 years would be about the life span of those.

The ATV with the log arch will easily haul about 8-10 posts at a time, or 3-4 full length sticks. In the past I've hauled them with that out to where I can get at them with the tractor.

We can buy them locally for less than it costs me to cut them, so as long as that supply holds up we probably won't be cutting many more. We recently fenced our new property, at a guess I'd say we used just under 200 posts, 90% of which I cut myself.

As I said, it's hard work and not particularly cost effective, but it IS an option. It's not the most accepted type of forest management practice either, as you're cutting essentially young trees that would be marketable timber in another 20-30 years, I guess that depends on your philosophy for land use.

Sean
 
 
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