Skidding winch

[Jstpssng]

Not really an issue with a properly designed logging winch. The clutch slips before you put enough torque on the winch to damage it or your tractor.

I once almost pulled my 275 over backward with my beat up old Fransgard. I was watching the twitch and trying to get it to come up over a stump. Something didn't sound right so I looked at the tractor and backed off just before it got the the point of no return... the closest I've ever come to flipping. Granted that winch was old and probably out of spec but still...

Does anyone use 230' of cable? I'd cut that in half, mine holds around 140' and that's more then enough.

I did last winter. By March with all of the snow it was easier to drag a tree down trails which I hadn't kept broken out. I had my snatch block about 100 feet back from the tractor, and ran the cable from that off to the trees on the side in the herringbone pattern.

Sometimes when I'm winching at low rpm the tree will catch on something and stalls my tractor and some how the motor starts running backward, I have to shut it off and re-start, weird and sounds different to, that ever happen to anyone else?

My 275 did as I stated previously. My neighbors tell me that their 235 Timberjack will do the same thing. It sure does sound different, and all of the idiot lights and gauges on the dash do funky things.

 

[guitarman]

Does anyone use 230' of cable? I'd cut that in half, mine holds around 140' and that's more then enough. Sometimes when I'm winching at low rpm the tree will catch on something and stalls my tractor and some how the motor starts running backward, I have to shut it off and re-start, weird and sounds different to, that ever happen to anyone else?

Is there a clutch and if so can you adjust it to release before it stalls

 

[John_Mc]

Does anyone use 230' of cable? I'd cut that in half, mine holds around 140' and that's more then enough.

95+% of the time when I'm harvesting sawlogs or firewood, I probably use less than 150'. When clearing for a new trail, I'll use everything I have, and occasionally ad a length of chain to that. Often the trail is too rough or has too much side slope to take my tractor on until we get a dozer or excavator in to pull the stumps and put the final grade on the trail.

Unless I have a nice straight pull with good visibility (a rarity in the woods around here), it's very tough to use the full length without an extra person to act as a spotter. Maybe if I had a remote control winch, I could do it alone, but I prefer to have someone within sight of the tractor as well.

 

[John_Mc]

I once almost pulled my 275 over backward with my beat up old Fransgard. I was watching the twitch and trying to get it to come up over a stump. Something didn't sound right so I looked at the tractor and backed off just before it got the the point of no return... the closest I've ever come to flipping. Granted that winch was old and probably out of spec but still...

I'm having trouble picturing how that could happen. If I were driving and pulling a load and it caught on a buried stump maybe, since the rear tires are providing some rotation. But sitting stationary with the butt plate of the winch on the ground? Does your winch not have a lower pulley so you can winch from down low? Even without the lower pulley, the pivot point would be where your butt plate meets the ground. It would require basically lifting up the tractor by the top link of your 3 pt hitch.

 

[Agvg]

Often you want height when you pull, very seldom I use the lower pully, and it's no problem to lift the front up I the air on a smaller tractor when winching, and if you transport out the logs hanging by the wire the wheels easily goes up in the air.

 

[CobyRupert]

I want all the cable that can fit on the reel.

True, that 90% of the time when pulling logs I use 100' of cable or less, I often use the winch as a "plan B" helper when cutting a tree that absolutely-positively has to fall in the direction I want it to.

In these situations, and other situations too, I might to "double up" the cable through a snatch block at the tree to double the pulling force, which is something I DON'T want to run out of when I have the tree 90% cut.

So with a 165' cable the most I can be away from the tree is around 82'. This can be too close for comfort when pulling over some big trees.

 

[John_Mc]

Often you want height when you pull, very seldom I use the lower pully, and it's no problem to lift the front up I the air on a smaller tractor when winching, and if you transport out the logs hanging by the wire the wheels easily goes up in the air.

During transport I can easily see how it could happen (as I mentioned in my previous post). During winching with a logging winch is what I'm having trouble with. The pivot point would be where the winch blade meets the ground. I've never even seen mine get a little light in the front end, let alone lift up, since the forces during winching aren't creating a pivot around the rear wheels. But if it happened to you, I guess it's possible. I'm using a Uniforest 35E (rated for 7700# pull - very similar to a Farmi 351 or a Fransgard V-3507) behind a NH TC33D (2400# bare, probably between 4200 and 4500# as I have mine set up).

 

[Jstpssng]

There's no down pressure on the 3 pth, so the winch does nothing as far as keeping it from coming up. I only had the problem once to that degree and I was more concerned with getting the tractor on the ground than analyzing it. I had an old Fransgard which I had mostly reworked; new chain, all 8 bearings, new cable. I had taken the drum out and had it turned to resurface it. I doubt that anything was up to spec; the A-frame eventually got bent so badly from the entire unit getting dragged backward that the chain rubbed a hole through the steel housing. The entire setup probably weighed about 3200 lbs.
Before I learned it's limitations I was dragging out hardwood twitches which must have approached the weight of the tractor; 2 big maples plus a few smaller trees, thrashing and tearing, at times pulling myself forward with the bucket. It's a wonder that I never broke anything.

I now have a newer, heavier tractor and a Uniforest 35M; but don't bring out nearly as I used to with that old setup.

 

[Oldpath05]

Is there a clutch and if so can you adjust it to release before it stalls

There's only two adjustments I want on my winch, fully on and fully off, the rest I'll rely on eyesight and my cat like reflexes.

 

[Jstpssng]

^^^^^
:thumbsup: :laughing: :cat: