logging winch danger

[MapleLeafFarmer]

I never thought but these may be local expressions.
Twitch means to pull in or drag logs with a horse, tractor or skidder.
Jill poke is when an object strikes a snag and jerks sideways or upends.
Upends means upends:laughing:
I leave the cord long so I can stand safely to the side when operating winch. Lot of stuff going on there

great warning and glad no damage / injury done.
In Manitoba Jill Poke is same for use.
Instead of twitch we use the term skid or skidding.
I am retired and rec. log solo and stories like reminds me just how dangerous winch lines and trees under tension can be.

 

[goeduck]

I am retired and rec. log solo and stories like reminds me just how dangerous winch lines and trees under tension can be.

Yes, particularly since Hoobie has 60 years of experience working wood under his belt.

 

[CobyRupert]

I never thought but these may be local expressions.
Twitch means to pull in or drag logs with a horse, tractor or skidder.
Jill poke is when an object strikes a snag and jerks sideways or upends.
Upends means upends:laughing:
I leave the cord long so I can stand safely to the side when operating winch. Lot of stuff going on there

So did the tree standup, with it’s butt on the blade, or hitch?
Would choker being closer to end reduce risk?
When disconnecting, I always set winch in ground, which often reduces some tension in cable, then with PTO still off, reach up under guard and manually pull brake lever.
Only if there’s too much tension to not pull manually do I turn PTO on and use it to get slack so brake drops off.

I though my way was sketchy, but after reading these stories, and not having a PTO involved, I like it. PTO’s might be one of the biggest tractor killers along with rollovers.

Keep cord long enough to stand away. When winching, I use to watch log to see if it was snagging on stumps, roots, etc...once on snow & ice I relearned Newton’s 3rd Law, that you’re also pulling the tractor’s backwards too, so don’t stand behind the tire. Now I mostly look at the cable going into the winch, that tells me most of the information I need to know about what is moving or not moving.

Like others say, just when up you think you’ve learned all the dangers, Mother Nature has so many more that can kill you that you haven’t even thought of.

 

[CobyRupert]

OP’s story also reminds me why it’s a good ideal to have a cable longer than the tree is tall when a tree gets hung up in another and you pull on the butt end. Most times butt end will slide away and tree top gets pulled out of branches, but if butt end hangs up and becomes the hinge point and now the top of the tree is mouse-trapping over....watch out! That mistake has gotten a few.

 

[3Ts]

Jill pokes and Gin Poles were used by the western railroads to unload redwood logs from rail cars into a log dump, usually the sawmill ponds. It was pole the that pushed the logs off the car as the car went by.

 

[MossRoad]

Jill pokes and Gin Poles were used by the western railroads to unload redwood logs from rail cars into a log dump, usually the sawmill ponds. It was pole the that pushed the logs off the car as the car went by.

Here's some historic pictures of jill pokes and gin poles

Flickr

 

[Hoobie]

So did the tree standup, with it’s butt on the blade, or hitch?
Would choker being closer to end reduce risk?
When disconnecting, I always set winch in ground, which often reduces some tension in cable, then with PTO still off, reach up under guard and manually pull brake lever.
Only if there’s too much tension to not pull manually do I turn PTO on and use it to get slack so brake drops off.

I though my way was sketchy, but after reading these stories, and not having a PTO involved, I like it. PTO’s might be one of the biggest tractor killers along with rollovers.

Keep cord long enough to stand away. When winching, I use to watch log to see if it was snagging on stumps, roots, etc...once on snow & ice I relearned Newton’s 3rd Law, that you’re also pulling the tractor’s backwards too, so don’t stand behind the tire. Now I mostly look at the cable going into the winch, that tells me most of the information I need to know about what is moving or not moving.

Like others say, just when up you think you’ve learned all the dangers, Mother Nature has so many more that can kill you that you haven’t even thought of.

Yes stood up when butt hit the blade and snagged under the ball hitch receiver built on the Wallenstein winch. Hitch closer to butt is better but those winches have tremendous power.

 

[jjp8182]

Anything can happen and given enough time it will.

So very true.

After seeing the maintenance and mishap rates for entire fleets of equipment (and how each event occurred) it has taught me that little bit of wisdom. In fact it's also lead me to the conclusion that: given some of the consequences even a very low probability (e.g. a true 1 in a million, "not possible") event starts to seem risky when it could happen to you.

When my time is up it's up, but I'd rather avoid becoming a statistic before then....