Skidding winch-- to skid, or not to skid?

[Grandad4]

Second video...

Nice setup for jockeying smaller material!

 

[Rustyiron]

One final, final opinion: Keep the SCUT away from the logs. It was never meant to be wrangling heavy stuff like that. The potential for hurting you or the equipment is too great.

Very good point! There is little to no "under armor" down there on any (color) of them!

 

[Deere Dude]

Once you clear out a trail to fork longer than 8' logs you will be set. Just start at a particular location and start expanding the section. You should be able to drive right up to the trees, hook them with a chain and start pulling. If the log is too big just cut them off in whatever lengths you can handle and carry them out to the pile. Once you get into a rhythm you will be surprised how fast it goes.

I pulled a dozen good sized oaks from the middle of a big woods and at the end of the day I had a nice area cleared with a 45 HP with forks and a few chains. It is a killer getting on and off the tractor a million times though. I don't think I would have the patience running a long cable out to snag the trees if I could drive up to them easier.

I did weld a trailer ball on my forks frame so I could just loop a chain or cable around to lift and back up...carefully.

One consideration is if you have filled tires, maybe valve stem guards would be nice.

 

[roadhunter]

For less than $50 you can buy 20' X 5/16" of Grade 70 transport chain at Home Depot or Lowe's. This is in the HARDWARE/TOWING section, in a bag. Chain will have grab hooks on both ends. Replace one grab hook with a Grade 70 slip hook ((think CINCH)) and you are ready to drag out logs from the center drawbar on your heavy L6060.

Tractors are designed to PULL. With low, low gears, big rear wheels for mechanical advantage and 4-WD you will be able to drag 85% of your tree trunks whole, after limbing them. The heaviest 15% may require limbing then one trunk cut to reduce weight.

Use only Grade 70 chain, which is much stronger than lower grades.
5/16" chain in Grade 70 is amply strong. 3/8" is much heavier/tiring to drag around.

You will want a clevis grab hook attached to the tractor center drawbar for securing the chain "easy on/easy off" on the tractor end.

LINK: CountyLine Drawbar Hook - For Life Out Here

If this $70 investment does not prove efficient, consider buying a logging winch as Plan 'B'.

(( However, you need to consider the fragility of your cab. "With 260 ft of cable on the winch, the tractor seldom had to go off the trail." ))


I am with GRANDAD4: Keep the SCUT away from the logs. It was never meant to wrangle heavy stuff. The potential for hurting you or the equipment is too great.


Tractor in two pictures is a Kubota B3300SU/HST, 1,950 pounds, less than half the weight of an L6060.

I have found that modifying a slip hook makes them work even better for this application I use half links to narrow the opening so the chain just barely fits in sideways.

.

 

[John_Mc]

It is a killer getting on and off the tractor a million times though. I don't think I would have the patience running a long cable out to snag the trees if I could drive up to them easier.

IF you are willing to make a trail up to each tree wide enough to get to it and haul the logs out in a grapple that may make sense. If you want to snake the log out without that much disturbance, that's where the winch comes in.

I own both a grapple and a logging winch. Since I'm generally thinning, not clear cutting, the winch gets the most use in the woods. Most winches come with 165' of cable (50 meters). The Uniforest 35E I have came with 230' (70 meters) of 3/8" cable. I don;t get up and down off the tractor for each tree. If I put a bit of thought into directional felling, I can set up the tractor in one place and winch out as many as a dozen trees without getting back on the tractor. (A self-releasing snatch block really helps with this, since I don't have to pull everything in a straight line.) I generally don;t use the whole 230' - it's hard to tell what is going on in my hilly terrain at that distance if I'm working alone. I'll pull all the trees I can comfortably reach out to the side of the trail - or sometimes into the trail, if I'm not worried about blocking the access. If they are for firewood, I'll usually block them up into stove length right there. Occasionally, I'll pick up those logs with a grapple to make them easier to cut. Often, the spllitter comes right out to that area and I split and load them into a trailer right on the spot.

Where I mainly use the grapple is if I'm organizing logs in a log landing or similar area. It's also great for managing piles of brush or slash if I'm in an area where I have room to maneuver. Occasionally, I'll carry logs out of the woods to a more open area for further processing. Since I can only comfortable carry about 1200+ pounds at a time with in my grapple, that is not the most efficient way to move them out of the woods. I can fit about 2500 - 3000# of green hardwood (half a cord of beech or oak) into my trailer if I stack it, rather than throw it in (I'll generally take the time to stack it if I have a longer haul).

 

[Gordon Gould]

The consensus about how to clean up 6-8 acres of downed logs and debris was a 50+hp tractor, grapple, and skidding winch. (Assuming a tractor, not a telehandler!) I am looking at a Kubota Grand L6060 cab tractor, grapple, and Wallenstein skidding winch. Grab the debris with the grapple and move it to a burn pile. Use the winch for the big stuff.

I have some resistance about buying the skidding winch. This is mostly because I have never used one and am unsure of its capabilities, but also because I would probably rarely use it after this one time cleanup was complete. And, it seems labor intensive to constantly be off the tractor pulling out cable and hooking onto logs to skid. I also have a Massey GC1710 SCUT with a backhoe and mechanical thumb. In lieu of skidding logs out, do you think it is feasible that I could use the Massey backhoe to lift one end of a log, cut it in sections, then haul the sections away with the Kubota grapple? Or maybe lift the log using the Massey loader with a chain?

I do have some logs two feet in diameter. Obviously too big for a SCUT. These were decked up by my contractor who felled the diseased trees. But most of the cleanup logs are eight inch diameter on average. They are in a whole tangle of debris that makes up the 6-8 acres. Some logs are smaller, some larger. It seems many were wary of taking a shiny new cab tractor into such a mess, but if I have two tractors to clear some lanes to work with, along with some patience and caution, I'm guessing I could get it done without a winch.

Considering these circumstances, would you spend the $$$ to purchase a skidding winch?

I would love to see a couple pictures of what you are dealing with. It would make it easier to offer a valid opinion on what you need. Even so you have been given some very good advise.

gg

 

[John_Mc]

Getting back to the OP's final question:

Considering these circumstances, would you spend the $$$ to purchase a skidding winch?

If it was just for a one-time use, I would not buy a winch. I had a hard time justifying it for my own use: I heat primarily with firewood, but only burn about 3 cords per year, all harvested off my own land. What finally tipped the scales for me was when I became part of a group-owned conserved working forest. We work together harvesting firewood, and I trade winch services for other work.

If it were just for one project, I'd find another way: for a few years, I just strung together chains and pulled with my tractor before I got the winch. It was more time consuming and involved a lot of climbing on and off the tractor, but it worked. I didn;t own a grapple at the time, but if the area was open enough to work in with the grapple, that would be a good way to go. Grapple what you can reach without risking tearing up the tractor, and use chains to pull out what you can't reach.

Having said that, now that I have used the winch, I'll NEVER give it up. It saves me a lot of time and effort, and I don't have to make trails up to any log I want to pull out, which is a whole lot easier on my forest. I also enjoy the puzzle of figuring out how to fell the trees in a way that allows me to pull them out efficiently and in a manner that minimizes or eliminates residual stand damage. I also enjoy figuring out the best path to pull out the logs. I like watching them slide along without damaging the standing trees I want to keep, or bouncing off the bumper tree I'll eventually take but left standing till last to protect the "keeper" behind it. If I get to use a self-releasing snatch block (sometimes two), it's all the more interesting. (OK, I'll admit it: I'm easily entertained when it comes to stuff like this.)

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I'm with the group that doesn't like building a road to every tree! I'd much rather skid tree's to my tractor and them pull a load of them out.

I do the same thing with firewood, skid them out into the open and cut the firewood out. I did exactly that, yesterday,

SR

 

[spruce Deere]

How I do fire wood....

Skid to a 'landing' from out of the woods on what we call around here 'skid trails' then ether load short logs and haul home or make logs into firewood right then and there, depending on time or situations. Right now i have a small deck of logs in the back yard waiting to be bucked into firewood...

Helps I was a logging contract operator for years, did just this for a living

I would really like to get a skid winch for the 790 also, but I manage just with chains and chokers just fine with the 790 in my own stand timber

 

[MossRoad]

Nice setup for jockeying smaller material!

I'd imagine if you had bigger stuff, you can get bigger tongs (and a bigger tractor, too!). These were the smallest, cheapest I could find to test. I'll keep em. :thumbsup: