Finished Building The Log Arch

[Chilly807]

You drop that frame all the way to the ground and then cinch the logs up to it, so they lift off the ground when you lift the 3pt?

You got it. When fully lowered, the bottom of the frame is a couple of inches above the ground. I really should have built it so the attachment points for the lower arms were higher, then it would have actually touched the ground. Most stuff I'm hauling can be lifted a couple inches to hook the chokers with a little bit of effort, so it's not a problem really.

When you lift it at first, sticks may be entirely clear of the ground. The first couple of bumps cures that, and everything hauls great after that.

I don't normally have anything much bigger than 10 inches in diameter, but I may have a bunch of smaller stuff (branches). If it'll fit in the stove and it's bigger than my thumb, it's firewood !

Chilly

 

[Chilly807]

Nice rig on the 3ph Chilly.

Another twist, and cheap for me, is to use the quick hitch (iMatch for me) and have a couple grab hooks welded for snubbing up choker chains. Easy to toss the log tongs on the top hook, just keeping due caution to the need for counter weight on the front end.

You've got a serious chunk of wood on there ! Most of my wood is smaller, I wanted the screen on the back to keep multiple pieces from swinging forward and hitting anything behind the frame (possibly me !)

The three main reasons I use something like this is to get the wood off the ground so it stays cleaner, it takes some of the dragging load off the tractor (or ATV), and it gets the butt of the log up where it can't hook a stump or root. That happened to me once with the ATV, an eight foot fence post nearly drove me into the ground like a sledgehammer.

Chilly

 

[dieseldriver1]

Have any of you guys thought about buying one of those 2000 pound winches that are selling for $79.99 at Harbor Freight? They come on sale every so often and ya can get them for $49.99. I bought one at $49.99 that had a remote with it. I couldn't believe that they could sell something that cheap. It's still in the garage in the box, never opened!

2000 lb. Electric ATV/UTV Winch with Automatic Load-Holding Brake

They have larger winches that would work very well, too.

Reg.

 

[chopped]

I was wondering myself.curious if the remote should 'fail' if there are the usual manual knob to use?That would be my concern if the remote should fail..Also.I read one post here somewhere where there is a ''lag'' sometimes with the on and off. I'm not sure how picky it has to be .some applications a bit lag wouldn't be a problem but in some it would.
On my tractor I have a lareger no relote winch on the front of the tractor. I use it mostly to hold stuff in the bucket when I move it.Its a bit of overkill .lol so Id be interested in a smaller one.I was also considering on my small utilty trailer ,as even the hand crank ones like boats have is around 20 plus dollars..

 

[Oliver1655]

Not to get off topic, but in response to the question on the 2,000 lb HF winch with a remote:
- I have a 12,000 lb & 2 - 2,000 lb HF winches with hard wired switches & a 3,000 lb with a remote. I have had no complaints about any of them.
- I do not like the 2 sec delay in response between operating the switch & response from the remote controlled winch in most cases. If your want to pull something a long way & do not have to be very accurate at where it stops, it works fine.
- For the log arch, I would stay away from a remote controlled winch. However, if you want to spend the money, you can add a hard wired remote to the remote controlled winch at the connection points on the winch & have both options. I did this to the 3,000 lb winch using a controller from one of my 2,000 lb controllers & found out the the red & black wires from the remote controller turned the winch backwards from the hard wired controller. No problem, I reversed the wires. I did this because I wanted the remote for loading vehicles on the car hauling trailer, but the fine control for positioning. (Yes I was using a snatch block). This was before I was able to afford the 12,000 lb winch. No comparison! I LOVE my 12,000 lb winch! :thumbsup: