Log winching safety questions

   / Log winching safety questions
  • Thread Starter
#11  
The 2nd and 3rd videos in this series will give you an idea of one way to deal with a side hill when winching.

Very helpful. I do see how quickly the side roll wants to develop.

Due to my terrain, I was thinking of parking my tractor to the side while pointing downslope, routing my pull cable straight up the hill to a snatch block, then 90 degrees over to the logs to pull them sideways and slightly uphill from the snatch block. But the tractor would be downhill from the logs. After looking at your video, it's obvious to me that if the logs developed a good enough roll during the pull, either before or after releasing the snatch block, they could potentially roll into and hit the tractor. So I will re-look at the area again and figure out how to re-do that.

I don't have a 2nd snatch block. Never considered using two at once before looking at your video. But with my sloping terrain I think I'm going to need one.

Q- if I use a safety rope as suggested above by denchen, are there any tricks to that? I've seen the portable gas-powered capstan winches, and something like that seems ideal for this situation. Unfortunately 95% of my time doing this sort of work is alone with no helper.
 
   / Log winching safety questions #12  
Unless there is some REALLY compelling reason, I believe I'd leave them where they are to rot. Looks like they've been there several years already and that one tree with the bark falling off looks well dead. If there are limbs or branches above what we can see in the picture, they may not be stable and could fall if bumped hard enough.
 
   / Log winching safety questions #13  
Very helpful. I do see how quickly the side roll wants to develop.

Due to my terrain, I was thinking of parking my tractor to the side while pointing downslope, routing my pull cable straight up the hill to a snatch block, then 90 degrees over to the logs to pull them sideways and slightly uphill from the snatch block. But the tractor would be downhill from the logs. After looking at your video, it's obvious to me that if the logs developed a good enough roll during the pull, either before or after releasing the snatch block, they could potentially roll into and hit the tractor. So I will re-look at the area again and figure out how to re-do that.

I don't have a 2nd snatch block. Never considered using two at once before looking at your video. But with my sloping terrain I think I'm going to need one.

Q- if I use a safety rope as suggested above by denchen, are there any tricks to that? I've seen the portable gas-powered capstan winches, and something like that seems ideal for this situation. Unfortunately 95% of my time doing this sort of work is alone with no helper.

That side hill is much steeper than it looks in the video. Before we put a rough grade on it, it was really touchy driving my tractor down it: bearable when things were smooth, but iffy when a wheel hit a stump, rock, or pot-hole. (It will eventually have a much nicer grade on it when we are done.)

There are other tricks besides using a snatch block. In a pinch, I've left my stumps high along the high side of the slope, and run the cable on the uphill side of the stump. I'll winch the log till it's close to the stump, chock the log so it doesn't roll, put slack in the line, then unhook it from behind the stump (since I can't get the log to go around the high side of the stump), and winch some more.

I don't do this trick on a live tree, since the rubbing cable can damage the tree, but a stump or a junk tree is fair game. You can also use a non-self-releasing snatch block: just use a fabric sling to anchor to the tree as I did in the video (perhaps with an old scrap of carpet as padding if it's a particularly valuable tree). You'll have to walk back to manually release the cable from the block, but the non-self-releasing variety are much less expensive than the self-releasing style: Regular snatch blocks sell for about $30, while the self-releasing logging blocks sell for around $300. (Harbor Freight sells a block I linked is rated for 9mm, which is slightly less than 3/8". ost logging winches have cables ranging from 3/8" or 9mm up to 1/2" or about 12mm. Make SURE to get one rated for your cable size and rated higher than your pulling capacity.)

In a pinch, I've seen someone use one of the sliders on their cable for similar purpose: rather than attaching a choker to a log they want to winch out, they attach it to a stump or tree and connect to the slider on the cable. I avoid this, since it can be hard on the cable, but it is do-able, particularly on something like this where you are not taking much of an angle through the slider (the cable is almost in a straight line, unless the log rolls far down hill).
 
   / Log winching safety questions #14  
An other thing to keep in mind is that you don't have to do it all in one pull. Keep an open mind. You can winch the log to a stable position like against a tree or stabilize it with wedges/stakes or choker it to a tree with an extra choker(s) then move your tractor and snatch block to a new position for the next leg of the pull until you can finally let the log release where it is not a clear path directly down hill to the tractor.

John's idea of using a slider as a temporary snatch block can work well but be aware that if the cable makes a angle greater than about 30 or 40 degrees on a hard pull it will put a pig tail kink in your cable like running a Christmas ribbon across a sisors.

gg
 
   / Log winching safety questions #15  
I agree with Gordon. You’ll have to make multiple pulls and adjust the tractor each time. Just keep some point of contact between the log and your tractor.
 
   / Log winching safety questions #16  
Here are some pictures of the limbs I want to winch "sideways" and "downhill."

I looked again at the limb I want to winch sideways. It's a little larger than I thought-- more like 20" at the fattest end.

The logs I want to come downhill are bigger diameter. Regarding a possible option to instead pull them uphill, I don't know. From being at the limbs and looking uphill, it doesn't look appealing. Maybe I need to climb to the top of the hill above them and see if there is a way I could winch pieces of the limbs out-- going uphill?

View attachment 680263View attachment 680264View attachment 680265View attachment 680266

Personally I don't see your side hill as a "problem" is pretty gentle.... Slightly more than flat ground.... IF picture are not deceiving I would just wrap a chain around log and connect it to drawbar and give it a tug.....

Dale
 
   / Log winching safety questions
  • Thread Starter
#17  
Personally I don't see your side hill as a "problem" is pretty gentle.... Slightly more than flat ground.... IF picture are not deceiving

I spent several hours yesterday at that location, sawing up the smaller stuff. I quickly realized there is a *lot* more slope than I originally thought. Like John wrote: the picture doesn't show the slope very well.

There is enough slope that I'm concerned when I cut a section off the end of the limb, the newly severed section might take off rolling on its own. I will revisit it this morning and contemplate the good advice given.
 
   / Log winching safety questions
  • Thread Starter
#18  
I took a few more pix that maybe better show the amount of slope.

I set up a (self-releasing) snatch block, with tractor below, and tried a first lateral pull on a small 7-8" diameter limb. It pulled nicely. There was very little downhill movement, which surprised me.

With that limb removed, I discovered one of the larger limbs has a fork in it. I have to cut the limb to make it shorter to pull, plus cut some of the "fork" out, but I'm presuming it's best to leave a good chunk of the fork intact so it would inhibit rolling?

Slope1.jpgSlope2.jpgWinch1.jpg
 
   / Log winching safety questions #19  
John's idea of using a slider as a temporary snatch block can work well but be aware that if the cable makes a angle greater than about 30 or 40 degrees on a hard pull it will put a pig tail kink in your cable like running a Christmas ribbon across a sisors.

Yeah, I tend not to use my sliders that way at all, since I don't want to send my cable to an early grave. Just thought I'd mention it as a possibility, since some peope do use that technique regularly. I'm more likely to rig something else up, or go get the equipment needed to rig it up properly. I might do it if there were some issue with leaving a log where it is even temporarily. Personally, 30 or 40 degrees of angle is more than I would be comfortable with under any significant load: not that I'm worried about anything letting go, I just don't want to do that to my cable.
 
   / Log winching safety questions #20  
from (removed)
"Anuthr trick, put old tire in pull line at log. Tire stretches and acts to take shock rather den winch taking shock."

I also used that trick when we pulled a 'drag' to grade our dirt roads.
It acted like a shock absorber.
 
 

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