Komatsu D20A-6 ?

[Rara Avis]

Tom,

Good question - It keeps my dogs from tearing up the wood pile

Squirrels & mice make quick residence between the logs. It drives our dogs nuts so they tear the wood pile apart to get at them. This season I have decided I'm only going to stack the wood once, as opposed to two or three times like I did last year.

Larry

Geez...and I thought it was because all that wild wood would stampede...

Tom thanks for asking the question...I was wondering too...just not that much...

 

[3RRL]

HI larry,
The welds look GREAT! Man, I wish mine looked that good.
5-1/2 cords of wood? That is a lot of work. I'll bet you are glad to have that behind you. Good thing for Winter so you can rest up to cut wood for next year again!
Loretta and I are going to get with it and start cutting wood too. I told you we already bought our wood stove and hauled it to camp. Jeez, I hope we don't go through that much wood a year.
Great post Larry, tell us how the grab hook works out.

 

[GuglioLS]

Update on the grab hook performance -
I told you Esther and I were done cutting wood for the season. Well we just could not help ourselves, so we went up the hill to scout around and see what we left behind near the trail. Plus I wanted to test out the grab hook on the dozer by pulling out a few dead trees close to the road.
Here are a few videos of how the Dozer grab hook connected to a 25' chain worked out:

This one is my personal favorite:







Normally I would have just pushed these over, these particular trees were located on a slope so I had a good excuse to test out the grab hook.
After pulling out three trees, I inspected the receiver hitch & grab hook, no damage or any signs of twisted metal so it all held up nicely.

Larry

 

[ultrarunner]

I enjoy your posts and pictures... what size chain are you using to pull down the trees?

 

[GuglioLS]

Ultrarunner,

The chain is 3/8", it's holding up quite nicely after 30 years of hard use. The grab hook is welded to a solid 2" X 2" bar inserted into a receiver tube retained with a 5/8" hitch pin:




Larry

 

[3RRL]

Well, I guess that removes all doubt about the strength of your grab hook fabrication.
Those videos are great Larry! How fun that must have been.

 

[BTDT]

Man, that's pretty neat. Is that how your going to get firewood for the winter? "Honey, I'm going for another log for the fire", then just go snatch a tree out of the ground and drag it back to the house.

 

[EddieWalker]

Great videos Larry!! I really enjoyed watching them.

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[GuglioLS]

Thanks Guys!

I sure am glad your enjoying this, your interest and kind comments make it all worthwhile. Did you see the size of the root ball that tore out of the ground on that first video? I was surprised that little Komatsu dozer ripped it out along with severing the roots.

Michael -

Man, that's pretty neat. Is that how your going to get firewood for the winter? "Honey, I'm going for another log for the fire", then just go snatch a tree out of the ground and drag it back to the house.

HaHaHa that's a great idea, now if I could figure how to toss the logs into the stove with the grapple.....


Well now I know I can yank trees out easier than expected. Since adding on the receiver hitch, I've been planning on tapping into the dozer hydraulics so as to add a valve to operate the home made dump trailer. I had a valve laying around doing nothing so it got installed on the rear of the dozer. I pulled off the dozer floor plate & the drivers seat to access the existing dozer valve and to route in two new hoses. I had the hoses made with Komatsu JIS 22 mm x 1.5 mm metric female on one end and 3/4" NPT pipe thread on the other. No messing around with adapters. I had all the fittings & quick connects to add the remote valve, so it all went together rather quickly:

Added Valve:.................Ran Lines from pump.....Installed QD's.............Metric fitting on pump.

Larry

 

[GuglioLS]

After installing the valve it was time to test it out by connecting the dump trailer. Then cycle it up & down a few times to check for proper operation:






Seems to be working OK & no leaks.

Larry