hslogger
Platinum Member
1967 International Harvester Loadstar 1700. Mine since 1978.
Skidding winch
- Thread starter Stomper
- Start date
- Views: 37551
Coyote Kilr
New member
If it's a 12 volt winch why do you need an inverter to power it?
WranglerX
Super Member
Also electric winch will kill your tractor battery in a few pulls..... You are going to need at least 100-150 AMP alternator and BIG battery for any sustained pulls...IF winch is anything over about 2500 pounds...
This is why almost all logging and heavy winch work is either hydraulic or PTO....
Dale
Sawyer Rob
Super Member
Not to mention the "duty cycle" of those HF winches, is REALLY low! IF you ignore the duty cycle, you will burn the winch up and HF does not have to honor the warr...
SR
muddstopper
Veteran Member
I read all the post and didnt see it mentioned , so I will.
The OP thred starter was about a homemade skidding Winch, I watched the video and altho interesting design, not my cup of tea. The suggestions about buying a factory skidding winch misses the point about home made. I will agree if one has the money to buy, it might be cheaper and certainly faster to aquire factory equipment in the overall whole picture of things. Getting back to the whole homemade skidding winch, I suspect not many here have every seen or used one of the old bigstick cable log loaders. First one we owned was on a almost new 1964 1 ton ford truck. They have been around for a while. I think if I was going to home build a skidder winch, the bigstick winch is the design I would copy.
I searched the internet for pic of just the winch, but didnt find one. The bigstick winch ran off a pto on the side of the truck transmission. there was a long shaft that ran thru pillow block bearing with a sprocket in the middle of the shaft. This sprocket turned a #100 roller chain to another larger sprocket on the winch, similar to the belt drive in the OP's video, chain instead of belt. That is about where the similarity end. The Bigstick winch used a old, GMC I think, double brake master cyl. One section worked the brakes and the other the hyd clutch. The winch drum was mounted on a shaft that had been drilled to accept a metal brake line on one end. The clutch of the winch was actually a front brake drum., I suspect off a similar old gmc truck front end. The drum and its backing plate was mounted on the shaft, like a car spindle complete with bearing, and a brakeline was attached to the wheel cyl to activate the brake pads. The Large chain driven sprocket was mounted on the lugs of the brake drum. When the Master cyl was activated and braking power was applied, the brake shoes would engage the drum and turn the shaft. The cable drum was attached to the shaft and would pull in the cable. For a brake, on the opposite end of the winch shaft was mounted a band type brake drum with a band. The band had what I believe was the hyd clutch slave cyl off that same old gmc truck. The second section of the dual master cyl was connected to the slave cyl for braking power. With this setup, you had two hand levers, connected to the dual master cyl, one for the clutch and one for the brake. It was a very simple design and worked very well for loading logs. You could control winch speed by hand pressure allowing the winch to slip to slow it down or fully engage for full speed. Of course overall power and speed was controlled by engine rpms. The brake and clutch could be released to allow the cable to free spool off the winch. You could adjust the brake band to apply just enough friction so the cable didnt just freewheel the cable off into a birdnest. Our Bigstick loader carried 200ft of 3/8 cable so reach was hardly ever a issue and the winch had more than enough power to turn the truck over, seen that happen a time or two.
We used the bigstick loader way up into the late 1970, and altho we broke the drive chain a time or two, I cant ever remembering having to change out brake shoes, but we did wear out the little swivel fitting that carried the brake fluid to the winch drum a few time. I think that fitting was around $4 or $5 at that time. When we sold the bigstick loader, we bought a Kennemer cable loader, the Kennemer loader had a little stronger winch, but it was the same design as the bigstick, I believe the only real difference was the sprocket gearing. I do believe someone with a good scrounge source could find enough junk yard parts to build the complete winch, except for needing the winch shaft machined, and once built, it would prove very reliable, fast, and strong enough for any firewood or logging operation. Unless in the PNW and logging big redwoods. Might run out of power trying to winch a tree big enough to drive a car thru. Anyway, thats my thoughts on a homemade skidding winch. Mount the bigstick style winch on a 3pt hitch and run the winch off the pto shaft and go get some wood.
The OP thred starter was about a homemade skidding Winch, I watched the video and altho interesting design, not my cup of tea. The suggestions about buying a factory skidding winch misses the point about home made. I will agree if one has the money to buy, it might be cheaper and certainly faster to aquire factory equipment in the overall whole picture of things. Getting back to the whole homemade skidding winch, I suspect not many here have every seen or used one of the old bigstick cable log loaders. First one we owned was on a almost new 1964 1 ton ford truck. They have been around for a while. I think if I was going to home build a skidder winch, the bigstick winch is the design I would copy.
I searched the internet for pic of just the winch, but didnt find one. The bigstick winch ran off a pto on the side of the truck transmission. there was a long shaft that ran thru pillow block bearing with a sprocket in the middle of the shaft. This sprocket turned a #100 roller chain to another larger sprocket on the winch, similar to the belt drive in the OP's video, chain instead of belt. That is about where the similarity end. The Bigstick winch used a old, GMC I think, double brake master cyl. One section worked the brakes and the other the hyd clutch. The winch drum was mounted on a shaft that had been drilled to accept a metal brake line on one end. The clutch of the winch was actually a front brake drum., I suspect off a similar old gmc truck front end. The drum and its backing plate was mounted on the shaft, like a car spindle complete with bearing, and a brakeline was attached to the wheel cyl to activate the brake pads. The Large chain driven sprocket was mounted on the lugs of the brake drum. When the Master cyl was activated and braking power was applied, the brake shoes would engage the drum and turn the shaft. The cable drum was attached to the shaft and would pull in the cable. For a brake, on the opposite end of the winch shaft was mounted a band type brake drum with a band. The band had what I believe was the hyd clutch slave cyl off that same old gmc truck. The second section of the dual master cyl was connected to the slave cyl for braking power. With this setup, you had two hand levers, connected to the dual master cyl, one for the clutch and one for the brake. It was a very simple design and worked very well for loading logs. You could control winch speed by hand pressure allowing the winch to slip to slow it down or fully engage for full speed. Of course overall power and speed was controlled by engine rpms. The brake and clutch could be released to allow the cable to free spool off the winch. You could adjust the brake band to apply just enough friction so the cable didnt just freewheel the cable off into a birdnest. Our Bigstick loader carried 200ft of 3/8 cable so reach was hardly ever a issue and the winch had more than enough power to turn the truck over, seen that happen a time or two.
We used the bigstick loader way up into the late 1970, and altho we broke the drive chain a time or two, I cant ever remembering having to change out brake shoes, but we did wear out the little swivel fitting that carried the brake fluid to the winch drum a few time. I think that fitting was around $4 or $5 at that time. When we sold the bigstick loader, we bought a Kennemer cable loader, the Kennemer loader had a little stronger winch, but it was the same design as the bigstick, I believe the only real difference was the sprocket gearing. I do believe someone with a good scrounge source could find enough junk yard parts to build the complete winch, except for needing the winch shaft machined, and once built, it would prove very reliable, fast, and strong enough for any firewood or logging operation. Unless in the PNW and logging big redwoods. Might run out of power trying to winch a tree big enough to drive a car thru. Anyway, thats my thoughts on a homemade skidding winch. Mount the bigstick style winch on a 3pt hitch and run the winch off the pto shaft and go get some wood.