Winches Logging winch on B7100

[MowerDude]

This is what you need, although you might need to anchor your tractor down (it really is that powerfull).

Portable Winch Capstan Winch 4x4 Winch Off-Road Winch Tree Service Rule Gas-Powered Winch

Used one a couple years back at remote location (belonged to the land owner). It works as advertised, maybe even better. Super safe too.

If you're handy you could fashion your own capstan winch set up and run it directly off the rear PTO. Then you could pull a house. Just be sure you use the proper ropes and block.

John

 

[Gordon Gould]

Here is a another option. Portable capstan winch by Portable Winch Co. can pull alot of wt. About $1250.

 

[spike23]

Sorry if my post from yesterday seems a bit sketchy. What I'm saying is, look at the weight of different PTO winches before you go with the Norse model.
Norse 190, 15-30 HP, 198 lbs (without the cable)
Wallenstein FX65, 17-45 HP, 470 lbs
Uniforest (from Hud-son) 35E, 16-45 HP, 540 lbs
Farmi JL351P, 17-40 HP, 430 lbs

Don't know why, but something strikes me about that Norse weighing 200 lbs less than the others, I mean, I know the HP range is a bit less, but 200 lbs is a lot... If you do a search for "logging winch" a lot comes up, one in particular, a guy bought a Wallenstein FX65 for his BX25, but he never posted back to say how it was working.

For me, I'm going to end up with an electric winch with a deep cell battery.

 

[Bluelick]

Again, thanks to all of you for joining in this discussion!

I saw the capstan winches in my search and found them intriguing. It begs the question of why not simply mount a capstan directly on the pto? I'm way over my head on that. I know something could be fabricated but I also know that means lots of design, redesign, troubleshooting, and frankly whatever you use for this kind of work has the potential to be very dangerous, and in that regard I see merit in using something that has already been tested and proven, as I'd rather not lose a hand (or worse) finding out that something didn't work as well as planned!

So how about the capstan PTO, anyone aware of this being done, or more particularly a commercial application of such?

One thing I like about the logging winches is the relative simplicity of the design, and those who have them seem to really love them. Making firewood easier, as I am getting older, seems like a good idea and is part of why I wanted to get the tractor, although it's main purpose is mowing which is also why I don't really want a bigger tractor.

I agree with the poster above who notes the problem of laying out thousands of bucks for a piece of equipment that won't be used all that much. However, if I use it for ten years, it's just a few hundred bucks a year (I wonder if my wife will go for that). Love to find a used one.

I did see that there is a 92 foot synthetic winch rope for 8-12K winches on sale on Amazon for $99.
Amazon.com: ProMark Offroad 92' Blue Synthetic Winch Rope for 8k-12k Self Recovery Winches SK: Home Improvement

That rope, or a couple of them, along my 30-year collection of chokers, chains and cables, and some snatch blocks could do a lot I suppose, just a fair bit of rigging.

I'll try to get some pictures of the lay of the land. A big chunk of my property is up the mountainside on the far side of the ravine. I don't want to log it, but when trees blow down I hate to see them just rot. A few years back I rolled some big hickory rounds down the mountain, split them in the creek bed with a maul and wedges into pieces I could lift, then carried them up the steep part of the bank to where I could load them into the buggy on my riding mower. It was not practical, but was great exercise. It was also a few years ago!

Skylines...geez, I like the sound of that! Anybody done skylines?

 

[easygo]

I would think that if any winch the Norse 190 would be a good match for your tractor. I'm pretty sure that is about the target tractor size (in design) for that particular winch that has a pull rating of about 4400 lbs on the first wrap of cable.
As you said you would not drag the logs with the tractor but cut them up and stack them on a carry-all. The plate on the bottom of the winch would dig into the ground and stop the winch from dragging the tractor backwards. If a log is too big you could just winch out shorter sections. I just recently read that a guy hooked up a way oversized winch behind a small tractor like yours. It winched in logs just fine but he had no way of dragging them with the tractor. He mentioned that he uses the winch on a larger machine but did it just to try.

 

[easygo]

Here is a link to that post:
www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/188035-norse-190-logging-winch-questions.html#post2143053

 

[Bluelick]

I have been doing some research on capstans, and this post was interesting as far as going beyond the "all you have to do is" level of information:

I ran a small soil sampling drill rig for seven years. We ran a soil sampling spoon with a 140lb hammer and rope on a capstan. Or a 350lb weight for driving casing. They can be very dangerous. When the rope gets wet it gets very grabby. I have had the rope grab and take the hammer 30' to the top of the boom then break the 1 1/4" rope 10-15 times over the years. Also getting dirt on the rope and feeding it through the drum can make it grab harder. Getting the rope going under a loop on the drum can cause it to pile up on the drum. Also you have to be carefull not to to stand on the free end of the rope. Because if the rope gets caught up in the drum it can and will pull the free end back in and should you foot be cought in a loop of the rope bad things happen.

http://www.arboristsite.com/firewood-heating-wood-burning-equipment/94045.htm

 

[Bluelick]

I also ran into a great deal on some 5/8-inch cable on CraigsList, at 10 cents a foot, so I bought a 200 foot cable and a 100 foot cable. Now I'm thinking about how to rig up a skyline. I've been doing some research, and most of the information available seems to be from commercial logging, and I would be doing a much different scale of course just getting my firewood in. I'll let you all know if and how this goes forward.

By the way, the gentleman I got the cable from stall had a good bit more of it the last time I talked to him:
Steel Cable 5/8"
He is about an hour south of Lexington KY.

The cable is guy wire cable from cell phone towers, and has a very good coating of galvanizing on it. It is quite stiff, however, not like wire rope for winches. It has relatively few strands, each strand about the size of the lead on a number 2 pencil if not bigger. If anyone has information on working load of this kind of cable, I'd like to know.

 

[Glen Watkins]

Man that cable sounds real rigid. In his ad he says NOT soft winch cable. Might be real hard to work with! Probably kinks easy too. Good luck.

 

[Bluelick]

I'm figuring to use the heavy, stiff cable as a stationary line with a trolley on it, and to pull the logs in with a second "retrieval" line.

The kind of rig I have seen pictures of has a trolley or pulley on the stationary line, with a second pulley attached below that, rigged as a snatch block (or block and tackle with multiple pulleys). The retrieval rope or cable raises the log and also brings it in. So if there is more resistance, it raises the log more. I would use another more flexible cable or combination of cables, ropes and chains, for the retrieval, not the stiff cable which certainly would be hard to work with.

I think this approach has the potential to do less damage to the forest floor than just dragging the logs, and might be done with much less power, so that I might be able to do this effectively with a small electric winch on the tractor. The electric winch would also be handy for stringing the stationary line.

Tractor Supply has a snatch block that I think will accommodate the 5/8 cable and would work as a trolley:
Champion Power Equipment Snatch Block, 16000 lbs. - 1834177 | Tractor Supply Company
I'd be interested in any other or better sources for a pulley that size.

It might not be the most practical way, or the easiest, but it seems intriguing. I'd need to be able to get a fair bit of wood from one setup to be worth the rigging time.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who has done this sort of thing.