Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[dodge man]

I was cutting logs into rounds yesterday and I thought the chips were awfully wet. Then I thought that looks like water coming out too. It was a partly hollow tree and part of it had split open and healed it had been on a log pile a few months and I assume rain water had gotten in through the old wound. It turned out to be a few gallons of water, a very dark brown.

 

[WinterDeere]

What trailer is that? or did you make it yourself?

They're made by Country Manufacturing, and I believe that particular model is rated 2 tons.

Compact Tractor Wagons | Tandem Axle Utility Trailers 2 ton Capacity by Country MFG.

www.countrymfg.com

I have the wagon version of the same:



I park that wagon on the patio outside my basement door, and fetch wood from it 3x per day. When it's empty, I drive it down to the wood lot, refill it from a shed, and then park it loaded outside the basement door again.



Real handy, is they can be easily converted to dump, which I did with mine back when I used it for moving lots of mulch and dirt:

 

[BackRoad]

Very slick dumping addition Mr. Winterdeere! Looks like it may be running off a rear remote? Are there 2 valves in your circuit, original operating the rear remote on the tractor and the one mounted on the wagon?


For Anyone:
Long wheelbase wagon vs. short wheelbase forwarding version:

Seems like maybe the short wheelbase might act more like a tractor trailer in turning (skidding tires) , where the wagon version is steerable with the front axel?

Guessing the shorter wheelbase might have a tighter turning radius, conducive for winding woods trails? (Is this accurate?)

Are there additional benefits or trade-offs of one vs. the other for woods and farm type activities?

 

[Gordon Gould]

They're made by Country Manufacturing, and I believe that particular model is rated 2 tons.

Compact Tractor Wagons | Tandem Axle Utility Trailers 2 ton Capacity by Country MFG.

www.countrymfg.com

I have the wagon version of the same:

View attachment 2073326

I park that wagon on the patio outside my basement door, and fetch wood from it 3x per day. When it's empty, I drive it down to the wood lot, refill it from a shed, and then park it loaded outside the basement door again.

View attachment 2073329

Real handy, is they can be easily converted to dump, which I did with mine back when I used it for moving lots of mulch and dirt:

View attachment 2073327 View attachment 2073328

Those are nice trailers but if you are going to use a trailer in the woods or on rough terrain you will want a different type hitch. My trailer has a rotating hitch to allow rolling motion between the tractor and trailer but even that was not enough to prevent serious binding which would lead to damage. I had to add a piece to allow vertical motion also.

The easy solution for this problem is to use a Pental hitch. Just food for thought.

gg

 

[DarkBlack]

The downstairs stove (Fischer) will take a 34". I cut at 28-30" for that. A full load is a lot of heat!

Isn’t your TW-2 a 24” splitter? What are you using for 28-30” rounds?

 

[DarkBlack]

I wasn't aware of this debate it seem evident to me that the bark is a good sealer and make the water drip on both side instead of retain it ... I would agree, bark up when stack in the elements and bark down when under a roof, although inside a shed I would argue it doesn't really matter much which way, it doesn't see the sun and it's out of the elements. Personally I think orientating your wood stack to the dominant wind and having enough gap for air to go between the rows has a greater impact then putting the bark down.

Through the years I’ve experimented with stacking bark side up , and bark side down wood stacking in the open.
I’ve concluded it’s almost a draw.

Bark side up really only protects the very top layer. What rolls off the bark of the top layer, inevitably gets absorbed by wood layers underneath. There’s always exposed wood on pieces underneath.
The top layer gets by far the most drying sun of any layer, after a rain event. The sacrificial wood side up top layer drys better, than the sun hitting the bark side.

This all depends on if the rain events are dominantly wind free, vertical rain. I’m in an elevated location and get many wind driven rain events, where bark orientation is pretty much a non-factor.
To me, stacking in the sunniest area oriented with the most summer drying wind exposure, is much more important than bark orientation.

 

[WinterDeere]

Very slick dumping addition Mr. Winterdeere! Looks like it may be running off a rear remote?

If I were plumbing it today, I might consider going that route, as my present tractor has a rear remote channel. But at the time I assembled this, my tractor only had Power Beyond, which is a live loop between hydro pump and transmission. So, I used a typical live-center log-splitter valve.

Honestly, the way I did it is probably more convenient, if you have a live loop feed (eg. Power Beyond) on your tractor, since standing at the tailgate while dumping is better than way forward and blind at the tractor.

Are there 2 valves in your circuit, original operating the rear remote on the tractor and the one mounted on the wagon?

Nope, only valve is on the wagon.

Seems like maybe the short wheelbase might act more like a tractor trailer in turning (skidding tires) , where the wagon version is steerable with the front axel?

My wagon is steerable, and very highly so. Look at the way I jackknife it into position at the house, and miss that window sill by a mere fraction of an inch! You can't do that with a regular fixed-axle trailer.

Guessing the shorter wheelbase might have a tighter turning radius, conducive for winding woods trails? (Is this accurate?)

I had worried about that myself, as maneuvering my wood lot is tight. But I've found this steerable trailer is actually better, because it follows exactly in the tractor's wheel marks, rather than having to swing wide just to avoid the trailer cutting the inside corner. My damn loader forks stick so far out in front, heck even the bucket does, that "swinging wide" just isn't an option in my storage area.

Are there additional benefits or trade-offs of one vs. the other for woods and farm type activities?

The reason I bought the steerable wagon configuration is that I wanted to put 4000 lb. of wood in the wagon and just park it. I didn't want to be dealing with the danger of the thing going wheelie as my family unloaded wood from it in less than perfect fashion, while it's sitting un-hooked on the patio. Since then, I've found many other uses for it, like filling it with dirt from a dig site, and leaving it parked full of dirt while I work on various underground utilities around the yard.

 

[WinterDeere]

Those are nice trailers but if you are going to use a trailer in the woods or on rough terrain you will want a different type hitch. My trailer has a rotating hitch to allow rolling motion between the tractor and trailer but even that was not enough to prevent serious binding which would lead to damage. I had to add a piece to allow vertical motion also.


View attachment 2073856


View attachment 2073855


The easy solution for this problem is to use a Pental hitch. Just food for thought.

gg

Your hitch is definitely better than mine, if going on extreme side-roll angles. But my drawbar is hinged two ways back at the wagon (up/down + side/side), and easily goes from below grade to chest height with no binding. For side roll, they just made the receiver super-loose, like a 2"+ opening for a 3/4" or 1" drawbar thickness, and with a 5/8" pin hole. So with a 5/8" pin in my drawbar with 1" or 1-1/4" hole, it can roll side-side more than my comfort factor will allow, which has been good enough for my needs.

I'll try to remember to get a photo, the next time it's hooked up. Like I said, yours is definitely better at the hitch, but what I have has always worked perfectly fine for my less-extreme articulation needs.

 

[John_Mc]

Those are nice trailers but if you are going to use a trailer in the woods or on rough terrain you will want a different type hitch. My trailer has a rotating hitch to allow rolling motion between the tractor and trailer but even that was not enough to prevent serious binding which would lead to damage. I had to add a piece to allow vertical motion also.

View attachment 2073855


The easy solution for this problem is to use a Pental hitch. Just food for thought.

gg

You were nice enough to send me pictures a few years ago of that extra pivot. I copied it for the hitch on my forwarding trailer, which was getting some damage from driving through ditches and over rough terrain. Mine did not come out as good as yours, but it does work: no more binding.

 

[Gregster613]

If I were plumbing it today, I might consider going that route, as my present tractor has a rear remote channel. But at the time I assembled this, my tractor only had Power Beyond, which is a live loop between hydro pump and transmission. So, I used a typical live-center log-splitter valve.

Honestly, the way I did it is probably more convenient, if you have a live loop feed (eg. Power Beyond) on your tractor, since standing at the tailgate while dumping is better than way forward and blind at the tractor.


Nope, only valve is on the wagon.


My wagon is steerable, and very highly so. Look at the way I jackknife it into position at the house, and miss that window sill by a mere fraction of an inch! You can't do that with a regular fixed-axle trailer.

View attachment 2073873 View attachment 2073876
View attachment 2073874 View attachment 2073875


I had worried about that myself, as maneuvering my wood lot is tight. But I've found this steerable trailer is actually better, because it follows exactly in the tractor's wheel marks, rather than having to swing wide just to avoid the trailer cutting the inside corner. My damn loader forks stick so far out in front, heck even the bucket does, that "swinging wide" just isn't an option in my storage area.


The reason I bought the steerable wagon configuration is that I wanted to put 4000 lb. of wood in the wagon and just park it. I didn't want to be dealing with the danger of the thing going wheelie as my family unloaded wood from it in less than perfect fashion, while it's sitting un-hooked on the patio. Since then, I've found many other uses for it, like filling it with dirt from a dig site, and leaving it parked full of dirt while I work on various underground utilities around the yard.

WD, Man that is good backing up! It must take quite a bit of practice to be able to do that! Without scraping any of the house. I'm pretty sure I "couldn't" do it!