Youare
Platinum Member
I have been using a Farmi winch, the smallest one they make, for almost 30 years it started out on the back of a Ford 8N and now resides on a Kubota L3000DT. I cut an average of 12 full cords of wood a year and do some light logging to feed a portable saw mill.
A farm tractor is not specifically made to go in the woods, it does not have the overhead protection or the underbelly protection a skidder or dozer has and does not have the same stability on rough ground. That does not mean you can not use a farm tractor to log with, it only means you have to know the limits of your machine and stick to them.
One piece of equipment that makes tractor logging safer is an arch. This allows you to lift the whole log off the ground without putting a lot of weight on the rear of the tractor which makes the front end light. It also keeps the log from snaging a root or rock while you are pulling it which can cause the tractor to rear up and possibly turn over.
The Farmi winch is a very tough piece of equipment when used on the correct size tractor. Depending on the type of terrian you are working on and the road system you have you should be able to move wood faster with the tractor. Your hitch size maybe smaller with the tractor but you can make more trips in less time.
The ultimate setup would be a forwarding trailer that has a log loader attached. However the cost of a tractor and trailer approaches the cost of a skidder.
Randy
A farm tractor is not specifically made to go in the woods, it does not have the overhead protection or the underbelly protection a skidder or dozer has and does not have the same stability on rough ground. That does not mean you can not use a farm tractor to log with, it only means you have to know the limits of your machine and stick to them.
One piece of equipment that makes tractor logging safer is an arch. This allows you to lift the whole log off the ground without putting a lot of weight on the rear of the tractor which makes the front end light. It also keeps the log from snaging a root or rock while you are pulling it which can cause the tractor to rear up and possibly turn over.
The Farmi winch is a very tough piece of equipment when used on the correct size tractor. Depending on the type of terrian you are working on and the road system you have you should be able to move wood faster with the tractor. Your hitch size maybe smaller with the tractor but you can make more trips in less time.
The ultimate setup would be a forwarding trailer that has a log loader attached. However the cost of a tractor and trailer approaches the cost of a skidder.
Randy