Turned my Skidding Tongs into a Poor Man's Grapple

[jimainiac]

Gordon, that was an excellent invention, and it works great, but why would you use that when you have a logging winch? You can drag several logs at a time with the winch.
Was it just because you felt it was a challenge to see if it could be done?

 

[square1]

Very clever Gordon I'm sure a few will copy that idea before you get it patented

:yes: you sure got that right!

 

[Gordon Gould]

Gordon, that was an excellent invention, and it works great, but why would you use that when you have a logging winch? You can drag several logs at a time with the winch.
Was it just because you felt it was a challenge to see if it could be done?

At my age I don't always know the reason I do what I do. And I like it that way.

I always thought grapples looked handy but I could not justify one already having a winch like you say. And for 90% of my particular work a winch is a far better choice anyway. I just always thought I might be able to do something with the tongs to use them as a grapple.
The part of my little operation that I felt needed improvement most was on the landing. I felt I took way to long sorting logs prior to loading. I need to have them well organized to load the truck efficiently. With my little grapple I can do that job a little quicker now.

 

[Ed of all trades]

Guess what I am going to do as soon as the shop thaws out. I do think I will use brackets instead of welding the studs on. Afraid I will soften the tongs. Thanks Gordon for the GREAT idea.

 

[Happy Gilmore]

Very cool Gordon, I really like the simplicity of your idea!

 

[Gordon Gould]

Guess what I am going to do as soon as the shop thaws out. I do think I will use brackets instead of welding the studs on. Afraid I will soften the tongs. Thanks Gordon for the GREAT idea.

On my prototype I used U-bolts to get all my dimensions all figured out.

My tongs don't seem hard at all. At least it is easy to file a sharp point on them. They are El-Cheapos from Northern Tool.
I brazed the studs on though, just because I thought I could do a better job that way with the equipment I have.

 

[Billrog]

I made a set that work well a no. of yrs. ago I used off the loader in some circumstances now I going to adapted them to Gord's idea.

 

[dieselcrawler]

Great idea... I think I'll 'borrow' it...

 

[pat32rf]

At my age I don't always know the reason I do what I do. And I like it that way

When you get to be my age you will find that there are days when you just don't want to climb on and off to hook up the winch. While I have an electric winch, most of the logging this year has been done using a helper and chain. Those tongs would let me work on days that my helper is also feeling his age.....and would prevent me from standing there with the chain in my hand wondering which log I was heading for

 

[square1]

and would prevent me from standing there with the chain in my hand wondering which log I was heading for

Funny, I don't remember posting this, but there it is...