Moving Felled Trees

[jeff9366]

Thanks for the replies. If I did go with the chain method, what size chain is required?

If the chain broke, could it pop back and hit the person in the tractor?

5/16" Grade 70 chain is correct. The best price is a 20' length of same at Lowe's or Home Depot in Hardware section, subsection Towing. It is sold with a Grade 70 Grab Hook on each end. You probably want to remove one grab hook and substitute a Grade 70 slip hook. Slip hook makes it a choke chain. (Post #4)
Lowe's and Home Depot chains come in a plastic pouch.

Chain will not snap back if it breaks. One link may lob a short distance, but the rest will drop to the ground. This is why chain is used rather than steel cable or synthetic straps, which will snap back if they break and can kill or maim someone in the process.

Keep chain from concrete contact. Even the strongest chain will abrade pulled across concrete with a load pressing it against the road.


Once you free the trees do not drag them flat on the ground. If flat, and tree hits a rut or boulder and stops, the tractor will rear up on its back wheels in 1/2 second. (Ask me how I know.)

Elevate the end of the tree nearest the tractor at least 8" before dragging.

 

[GManBart]

5/16" Grade 70 chain is correct. The best price is a 20' length of same at Lowe's or Home Depot in Hardware section, subsection Towing. It come with a Grade 70 Grab Hook on each end. You probably want to remove one grab hook and substitute a Grade 70 slip hook. Chains come in a plastic pouch.

Chain will not snap back if it breaks. One link may fly a short distance, but the rest will drop to the ground. This is why chain is used rather than steel cable or synthetic straps, which will snap back if they break and can kill or maim someone in the process.


Once you free the trees do not drag them flat on the ground. If flat, and tree hits a rut or boulder, the tractor will rear up on its back wheels in 1/2 second. Elevate the end of the tree nearest the tractor at least 8" before dragging.

Some of the new synthetic ropes have no memory, and won't snap back at all if they fail. Amsteel Blue is the one I'm most familiar with, but I'm sure there are others.

 

[8N Ren]

I would go with a 5/16 grade 70 chain. Lowes has them pretty cheap. Yes if a chain breaks it can fly.

If you don't feel safe with a chain a strap would work.

IMO a strap is out of the question, those things are dangerous as F%@K!! LOL
They work like an elastic band which is why they are great for pulling vehicles out with everyone at a safe distance away. I've seen a guy get his leg broken by one that decided to snap in half and he just happened to be too close, after being warned to step away. Great for stuck cars and trucks, terrible for logging.
Go with a chain, 5/16 or bigger if you can find, slip hook on one end, grab hook on the other. Hitch it to the lowest possible spot you can on your tractor to keep your center of gravity low, so you don't flip over. Every year people are killed attempting this simple task so please be careful. Plan your route and be cautious of stumps catching your log. Do a search on this site as there are a lot of write ups and pictures of what to do and how to stay safe.

p.s.
Bullitt, I hope you don't take offense to my comment as that is not my intention.

 

[KiotiKowboy]

I dont know where you get them from but how cool and simple is this for wood handling etc? It must be pretty new as theres very little info about for them. I want one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ovOgeNBqd4

I think almost any grapple is a great tool. However, this one is just a bit brutal with the load drops. It seems a FEL grapple allows for much more operator finesse.

 

[DeereMann]

Do you have a mini sawmill close buy? If the cedars are of any substantial diameter, they are valuable saw timber - lots of guys buy rough sawn cedar board for outdoor project now days instead of CCA treated pine.

Just a thought............

 

[jmc]

Here's some video off Ken's bolt on bucket hooks website that shows what a short length of "seemingly" inelastic chain assembly will do when something breaks. Granted the loads are higher in the video but it's just a matter of degree. And I think a longer chain would be even worse since there is more length to stretch-more energy released.

Ken's Bolt on Grab Hooks <<Proof Testing>>

 

[joshuabardwell]

Here's some video off Ken's bolt on bucket hooks website that shows what a short length of "seemingly" inelastic chain assembly will do when something breaks. Granted the loads are higher in the video but it's just a matter of degree. And I think a longer chain would be even worse since there is more length to stretch-more energy released.

Point taken, but:

1) That was 20,000 lbs. Far, far outside the realm of what most of us are working with.

2) This is just pulled out of my butt, but intuitively, it seems like a longer chain would behave better in a break. In this test, when the bolts gave out, the chain whipped around quickly because the chain was very short and there was nowhere for the energy to go. On a longer chain, it seems like the increased weight of the chain and the fact that the energy would be dispersed through the entire length of the chain would cause it to be less likely to whip. To put it another way, try whip-snapping a 24" string. Now do it with a 60" string. Now do it with a 20' string. Which one takes more energy to get the tip moving?

 

[jmc]

With whipping a string, the energy involved in each case is how fast you can move your arm, not how long the string is. So each length of string is releasing about the same energy.

An analogy for my case would be, which would you prefer- to be snapped with a rubberband stretched to its limit or to be snapped with a chain of 4 rubberbands stretched to that chain's limit?

 

[CobyRupert]

With regard to chain strength: my tractor weighs about 3,000 lbs. I figure if I am working with a chain that has a WLL over 3,000 lbs, then I could literally hang the entire tractor from the chain, and the chain wouldn't break. Stands to reason, then, that as long as I don't go getting a runup and snapping the chain taut, there shouldn't be too many ways that the tractor is going to break the chain.

....your tractor couldn't pull more than it's own weight? I don't think that's right.

 

[bcp]

Under ideal conditions a tractor can have a drawbar pull of more than the weight on drive wheels, but usually not.

Relation of tractor weight to pull

Bruce