Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[Gordon Gould]

Just I quick question why do you guys use choker chains instead of cable chokers?

What the other guys said and most important to me is it allows you to control how the hitch bunches together. You don't have a lot of leeway with a winch. You need to get the hitch snugged up to the tractor in order to lift it. I don't think you could do that with cable chokers on a tractor winch ????

gg

 

[Gordon Gould]

When my Uniforest was nearly new I kinked the cable in the middle so badly that I had to go home and get my torches to cut it. I didn't realize how quickly I had gotten used to having 230 feet on.

Man that will keep you in shape. To me pulling out a 100' feels like a half a days work. Can't imagine 200' to often. Although a few times I have added some 20' chain lengthss to my 150' of cable. But only a few

gg

 

[52wej]

Have any of you used a hydraulic top link on your winch? It will allow a bit of extra slack in the cable if you find your logs are not quite loose enough to unhook. W.Jones

 

[Gordon Gould]

I lost my nice snow covered trails in yesterdays rain so I switched back to cutting fir instead of firewood. I had a tree that was leaning left but I wanted it a fall right into a little gap that would give me an easy winch path.

In the winter when the trees are frozen wedges are very prone to spitting back out at you. The wood is hard and slippery and the barbs on the wedges don't hold well. It helps a whole lot if you use more than one wedge to spread the lifting force around rather than having it all on one. Plus it gives some insurance in case one spits out or breaks. On this tree I new I would need to stack the wedges two high in order to tip it over. I decided to use 3 sets of wedges. I set in the three wedges as I walked my back cut around the tree starting on the left side. When the hinge was all set I drove in the three wedges until I was confident all was going OK. Then I drove the middle one all the way in which loosened the two outside wedges and allowed room to double them up. Then I drove the outside ones in until the center one was loose. Like so. You can see the little slot down there where the other fir top is.

At this point the tree was almost ready to go over.

Then I doubled up the middle wedge and drove the thee sets of wedges evenly until it went over into the slot.

Then I limbed it out, cut off the butt rot, and was ready to winch it to the tractor.

gg

 

[Skeans1]

What the other guys said and most important to me is it allows you to control how the hitch bunches together. You don't have a lot of leeway with a winch. You need to get the hitch snugged up to the tractor in order to lift it. I don't think you could do that with cable chokers on a tractor winch ????

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gg

You could with bells on there, I couldn’t imagine personally ever packing chains and being able to swing one around a log well being in the air. As far as control that would depend on the type of mainline being used, for timing there’s a skidder style where you could run multiple bells on the mainline and then there’s the cat hook that doubles as it’s own choker. I also couldn’t imagine trying to set a chain in the brush it looks like a pain where a cable you can push the job through the brush under the log making for quick turns, if you want to roll a log you set the knob and bell to that side for the roll.

 

[John_Mc]

Have any of you used a hydraulic top link on your winch? It will allow a bit of extra slack in the cable if you find your logs are not quite loose enough to unhook. W.Jones

I have. That few inches of travel can make a difference.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

With my winch, I've never had a problem, even one time, with not enough cable to release the load...

SR

 

[Gordon Gould]

You could with bells on there, I couldn’t imagine personally ever packing chains and being able to swing one around a log well being in the air. As far as control that would depend on the type of mainline being used, for timing there’s a skidder style where you could run multiple bells on the mainline and then there’s the cat hook that doubles as it’s own choker. I also couldn’t imagine trying to set a chain in the brush it looks like a pain where a cable you can push the job through the brush under the log making for quick turns, if you want to roll a log you set the knob and bell to that side for the roll.

I will have to check those out - see how they work.

Our trees are like tooth picks compared to what you have to work with and tractors are small compared to skidders, etc. A whole different set of methods and tools can be successfully used. Your right you can't push a chain under at tree easily. But the chokers have a pin on the end to push under and if that won't work you use a choker hook. I have one but don't have to resort to using it very often at all.

There is no problem rolling a log with a chain choker I do it all the time. Put the hook where ever you want when the choker tightens it bites in or put an extra wrap the other way to get a bigger roll.

I have two size chokers, a bunch of 6'-6" and a couple 8 footers which don't get much use. How long are your chokers ?

gg

 

[John_Mc]

With my winch, I've never had a problem, even one time, with not enough cable to release the load...

SR

It's not the amount of cable, it's how tightly you connect the chokers to the chain grab slots when you are not pulling from the main cable.

I tend to not use the cable for skidding.

 

[Skeans1]

I will have to check those out - see how they work.

Our trees are like tooth picks compared to what you have to work with and tractors are small compared to skidders, etc. A whole different set of methods and tools can be successfully used. Your right you can't push a chain under at tree easily. But the chokers have a pin on the end to push under and if that won't work you use a choker hook. I have one but don't have to resort to using it very often at all.

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There is no problem rolling a log with a chain choker I do it all the time. Put the hook where ever you want when the choker tightens it bites in or put an extra wrap the other way to get a bigger roll.

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I have two size chokers, a bunch of 6'-6" and a couple 8 footers which don't get much use. How long are your chokers ?

gg

I’d bet our short small ones are 20’ with the big 5/8’s being 30’ they wrap up short enough you can carry them on your shoulder. I’m not always working in big stuff I do cut smaller stuff that requires cable on steep ground that’s all hand fell where we’ll leave one cat on top of the hill and use the mainline like a skyline to bring the turns up to make the accessible. I don’t have any pictures of the last thing we set up, but I can tell you this it was fun. Had two blow down cedars spanning a 80 foot across draw still attached to the root ball down off the flat 60 feet or so the only way to set something like that up is with cable because you’re standing on a suspended log over a cannon setting the choker. With a situation like that you need a cable choker to be able to swing around from the bottom to catch and grab for hook up.