LOG DRAGGING

[SFish]

Flintlock:

It is always best to distribute the force of the pull as much as possible (e.g. include the top link with the lower links). If I were starting from scratch I would purchase a 3 pt trailer hitch and hook the chain to the hitch with a hook. With this arrangement you can lift the front of the log and keep the center of pull in line with the tractor center of gravity. Also, you only need to worry about traction, not tipping the tractor side to side or lifting the front. With large logs you would have to have a connection point a little higher so that you could lift the front of the log.

steve

 

[randy41]

you'd have to be going pretty fast to flip a tractor while pulling a log. or very slow reaction time.

 

[daTeacha]

Or uphill with the log lifted but hitched too high on the tractor. When I drag a log, I lift it with the three point, but only use the bottom two points -- the lift arms set with spacers and/or a drawbar. Run the chain around the log, preferably with a timber hitch as if it was a rope, and snug it up to the lift arms, then lift the front end about 3 or 4 inches off the ground.

If you use the top link and the chains somehow come off the lift arms it could get interesting. The tool Michigander made is really nice and undoubtedly works well being a rigid frame and all, but I think I would have made it shorter to ensure the weight is as low as possible.

Then again, the flattest part of my ground is about a 4/12 pitch and I'm usually operating on some amount of sidehill, over lumpy stuff like rocks and groundhog holes, in among the puckerbushes, and generally am pretty paranoid about keeping the shiney side up.

 

[flINTLOCK]

I already have the quick hitch advertised on this site. That gives me a 2" receiver at the level of the lower links. Bar and clevis or bar and hook should be well supported that way by lower arms and top link.

 

[flINTLOCK]

I was thinking that I could have welded up a short log boom based on triangle of 2" square stock, with the long side of the triangle extending beyond rear vertical leg. Could weld a hook or attach a clevis at end of the long leg. That would give me a little more working height an still have weight supported by lower links that are well below tractor center line.

 

[SFish]

Flintlock:

A modified ball mount in a receiver would work well. I can't quite picture your welded up log boom.

Steve

 

[daTeacha]

fLINTLOCK -- Do you have logging tongs or are you just using chains? If you have many logs to move, the tongs are really a handy item to use.

When I had some logging done, the Amish guys had a 3 wheel yoke that straddled the log. The log was grabbed by tongs connected to a chain that rode up a sloping piece of round stock mounted under the frame. The round stock had a lowered section at the top so the chain dropped and locked in place when the log was lifted. This picked up the log as the horses moved forward. Grabbing a log was a simple matter of backing the rig over it, setting the tongs, and then pulling forward. Unhooking meant backing the yoke until there was enough slack to slip the chain back down the round stock and then pulling the tongs out of the log.

 

[mwark]

Union Farm Equipment - Weekly Specials
At the botttom of the page is the log arch that I was using. I now have a Norse winch but the arch worked well.
To bad you weren't near by. I'd give you a good deal on my used arch.