Cheap logging winch

[patrick_g]

The trouble with the bigger winch is that the manual says it should be hooked to a battery with 660 CCA and the JD comes with a 550 CCA battery as does my kubota. Not sure I want to spring for a bigger battery so will just have to see how it works. I would appreciate any comments of experience re this. In the future If i move up to a hydraulic winch i will have to get all the hydraulic hoses and valves to hook to my power beyond.

Mf

You could just add a small battery in parallel with your tractor battery to easily exceed the minimum suggested capacity. This will help protect your tractor battery from overload and make the winch work better. If you starve the winch for current you risk smoking the motor. I'd recommend heavier than #4 wire from your battery to the winch. By all means have the tractor running when you use the winch.

I like your ingenuity. I don't quite understand the box full of concrete. Google on Danforth anchor and put a piece of steel in that general shape on the bottom of your implement so that if the tractor tries to back up the fluke will dig in and provide lots of holding force. Egon was close with his suggestion but instead of several small ones you want one big one so it will go deeper and get below the soft surface of the ground or mud or ...

With respect to welding. Don't get a brand X POS. Old Lincoln tombstone buzz boxes are cheap and just about indestructible. Miller and Hobart are very good too, just pick the color you like. I suggest you read the book before you learn bad habits, not after. Get some steel scraps and some 6011 and 6013 rod and try welding. Weld a couple pieces of scrap together and then but in a HD vise and beat the dickens out of it with a sledge hammer. If it is easy to break the pieces apart that is bad. If it is hard or impossible that is good welding. What looks nice may be a good weld and what looks uglier may be strong. Ideally you will try for strong AND cosmetically pleasing welds. Automatic darkening welding helmet is a very very nice thing to get. I have used several, including a couple from Harbor Freight which work quite well for way less $. A class would be nice but yoiu can do it yourself. An intermediate solution is to pay a welder to help get you started and critique your welding. Won't cost much and you will be glad you did as it will jump start your acquisition of usable skill level. Maybe someone at a welding supply store will help you get started or recommend a welder to mentor you.

Pat

 

[tree grower]

Great winch !! For Brad Blazer-- " dredging stuff out of dumpsters, lusting after machinery, ....". That's what makes life worth living !! A good trip to the dump is one in which you bring home more than you took. And for the non-welders out there, the smell of rod flux wafting in the air is one of life's finer pleasures.

 

[Baby Grand]

Get some steel scraps and some 6011 and 6013 rod and try welding. Weld a couple pieces of scrap together and then but in a HD vise and beat the dickens out of it with a sledge hammer. If it is easy to break the pieces apart that is bad. If it is hard or impossible that is good welding. What looks nice may be a good weld and what looks uglier may be strong. Ideally you will try for strong AND cosmetically pleasing welds.

That is simplest and most useful welding advice I have read in a long time.
Aye - aye!

-Jim

 

[Mudfarmer]

I have done my share of skidding and I am not convinced that you ballast blox in the rear is really necessary and actually may reduce the overall traction of your tractor my reducing down force on your front wheel drive and actually making your front end very light particulary when skidding a heavy log.

When i am skidding a big log (> 18 inches) I hook it to the draw bar with a chain and drag it out. A little harder on the ground, but the tractor doesn't seem to mind at all. I tend to drag more than one pole (the smaller stuff, <12 inches) at a time and lifting them with the chain hooks imbedded in the block minimizes the ground mess and again the tractor doesn't mind at all.
Mf