Winch, log trailer with grapple or both ??

   / Winch, log trailer with grapple or both ?? #31  
I own a 3 ph winch and love it. I use to own a wallenstein grapple trailer, thought I would love it, but it was more a pain then a help. The trailer was clumsy in the woods and tight trails. It was time consuming positioning the trailer to load logs in the woods. I had to load a few logs then get back on tractor, move to load logs, then move again to finish loading. Then all the time to unload. The hyd winch on the boom was nice, but slow. I too thought I could hold the log at waist height to block up firewood, but the grapple head was a free floating head, so as soon as one side of the log got light, it shifted with the floating head. The grapple trailer was so time consuming compared to the 3 ph winch.

with the 3 ph winch, I was already hooked to the logs, so just skid it to the landing. So much faster and less monkey business then unhooking the log along the logging road and comming back to load on grapple trailer.

your L3800 would not handle much of a load to be productive with a grapple trailer in my opinion. A large grapple trailer with long reach boom would give good efficient production, but you ain't comming close to handeling that much weight behind a 4000lb tractor.

I would go with the 3ph winch atleast for starters imo.

I am on steep hills, narrow dead end logging roads, and do over 400 cord firewood a year with my tractor, winch, loader forks set up. Works great. The grapple trailer did not work efficiently, so I sold mine and never looked back.

to answer your above question, I have skidded around a mile one way and haul between 2 to 3 face cord behind my 50hp kubota in a hitch. I believe your L3800 could pull 2 face cord at a time, but would struggle to lift the weight of it on the 3ph with the weight of the winch and logs. Would have to have good traild as well. My opinion through my experiences. Results may vary.
 
   / Winch, log trailer with grapple or both ?? #32  
That's what the OP was looking for!
Ray, how about showing off your firewood operation? Splitting, delivery,etc. 400 cord must keep you busy!
 
   / Winch, log trailer with grapple or both ?? #33  
What is your average skidding distance ? How many good size logs do you think a fairly small kubota L3800 could safely skid at a time ?

You've got a bit more tractor than I do. I've got a NH TC33D with a Woods 1012 loader and a Uniforest 35E logging winch. The number of logs I can skid varies quite a bit depending on what I'm skidding. With my chains on, I have skidded four 12" x 9' oak logs without a problem. However, I'm generally skidding much longer logs - then the limit is what I can fit around the corners of my trails, and I usually only have one or two logs on at a time. I tend to skid very short distances: I winch the logs out from where they fell to the side of the trail. If it's going into firewood, I'll usually cut them up right there and throw them in the trailer (possibly splitting them first). Sometimes I'll skid the logs a few hundred feet down the trail to concentrate them in an area where I've got some elbow room (not really a "log landing").

I prefer this method, since it keeps the splitting mess out in the woods and minimize the amount of dirt picked up in the bark of the logs. If it's a sawlog, or for some other project, I have skidded them a couple thousand feet back up to my house/shop, but that is rare. Usually I'll throw them on an old beater trailer. Most of what gets pulled out of my woods rolls out on wheels - it's much easier on the trails that way.

I'd love to have a forwarding trailer, but that's just not in the budget. It probably wouldn't get used much anyway, since most of what I'm hauling is split firewood or short rounds. What I'd really like is a narrow dump trailer like the old CAM Woodsman (no longer manufactured).
 
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   / Winch, log trailer with grapple or both ?? #34  
That's what the OP was looking for!
Ray, how about showing off your firewood operation? Splitting, delivery,etc. 400 cord must keep you busy!

I am not too good putting pics with computers, but I try to post a few here.

20150503_084913.jpg20150705_113300.jpg20150404_165448.jpg20150404_165421.jpg20150705_122537.jpg20150802_185538.jpg20150802_185910.jpg20150705_122557.jpg

I should get some more pics of the full operation. Maybe someday I will get around to it.
 
   / Winch, log trailer with grapple or both ?? #35  
   / Winch, log trailer with grapple or both ??
  • Thread Starter
#36  
The quality of information here is very impressive !

Thanks to those who answered this post and those who will.

Regards
 
   / Winch, log trailer with grapple or both ?? #37  
I own a 3 ph winch and love it. I use to own a wallenstein grapple trailer, thought I would love it, but it was more a pain then a help. The trailer was clumsy in the woods and tight trails. It was time consuming positioning the trailer to load logs in the woods. I had to load a few logs then get back on tractor, move to load logs, then move again to finish loading. Then all the time to unload. The hyd winch on the boom was nice, but slow. I too thought I could hold the log at waist height to block up firewood, but the grapple head was a free floating head, so as soon as one side of the log got light, it shifted with the floating head. The grapple trailer was so time consuming compared to the 3 ph winch.

with the 3 ph winch, I was already hooked to the logs, so just skid it to the landing. So much faster and less monkey business then unhooking the log along the logging road and comming back to load on grapple trailer.

your L3800 would not handle much of a load to be productive with a grapple trailer in my opinion. A large grapple trailer with long reach boom would give good efficient production, but you ain't comming close to handeling that much weight behind a 4000lb tractor.

I would go with the 3ph winch atleast for starters imo.

I am on steep hills, narrow dead end logging roads, and do over 400 cord firewood a year with my tractor, winch, loader forks set up. Works great. The grapple trailer did not work efficiently, so I sold mine and never looked back.

to answer your above question, I have skidded around a mile one way and haul between 2 to 3 face cord behind my 50hp kubota in a hitch. I believe your L3800 could pull 2 face cord at a time, but would struggle to lift the weight of it on the 3ph with the weight of the winch and logs. Would have to have good traild as well. My opinion through my experiences. Results may vary.

In my mind this is very good advise and it comes from experience.

I cut my saw logs to 10 or 12 footers and occasionally a 14 footer because that is all my truck will handle and the mill I use won't take 8 footers. So they are actually cut to 10'6", 12'6", etc for the mill.

Loading InWinter.JPG

I cut a tree in the woods, limb it out, and then figure what I can get out of it for saw logs. I cut it so I can get 3 and sometimes 4 saw logs out of each length I skid. So the skid lengths tend to be between 35 and 42 feet. After the tree is cut to length where it fell I winch it to the trail side and leave it and go cut the next tree. I might get enough for several hitches bunched up.

BetterFir4.JPG

CorduroyCutLd2 (1).JPG

Then I position the tractor to gather a hitch from the trail side logs

CorduroyCutLd2 (2).JPG

Turn_8.JPG

I get a hitch with what comes easy rather than trying to get the biggest hitch possible. Things go smoother and faster that way for me. It also depends on the trail conditions and terrain. I would rather have a hitch I can pull thru a mud hole or up a short steep pitch than have a bigger hitch that I can pull but have to drop and winch thru the tough spots. It is faster to keep going. Most of the time I skid between 1/4 and 1/2 mile. Sometimes more sometimes less which is really nice. I have an L3010. A little smaller than your tractor. Here are some typical hitches. Again I want the pull to be easy not a challenge.

BigFir6.JPG

HairPinTurn.JPG

Turn_9.JPG

WinterCorduroy.JPG

Working with a small tractor in the woods is slow work. If you are in a hurry you won't be happy no matter what equipment you have. Just my 2 cents.

gg
 
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   / Winch, log trailer with grapple or both ?? #38  
I'm on very hilly terrain and have Wallenstein plate. I shoulda got a winch, but just got the plate. It works but man a winch would've made stuff much easier. I just hook to them with a chain/choker and drag them to my landing. Its only 10ish acres so the drag is never that far. I do have a grapple on the front for moving, and stacking though. Grapple also makes the tractor into a $40K orange saw buck.
 
   / Winch, log trailer with grapple or both ?? #39  
Working with a small tractor in the woods is slow work. If you are in a hurry you won't be happy no matter what equipment you have. Just my 2 cents.

gg

If you're in a hurry you won't be happy and you won't be safe. Nothing wrong with slowing down and working at a reasonable pace. You're safer and your equipment is less stressed.


As always, Gordon, great pictures. Thanks for sharing. I'm getting ready for firewood season myself. Just got the winch oiled up and installed on my Kubota. Added a 2" hitch receiver, which I've been meaning to do since I got it. Mine's got legs instead of a blade, so I could actually hitch a wagon to the drawbar with the winch all the way up, but it was really a PITA. This season will be better. I also added a towbar to the front of my Jeep, which is my firewood UTV. My thinking is that I can tow the Jeep behind the tractor when I go to cut. That way I've got everything I need once I get out there.
 
   / Winch, log trailer with grapple or both ?? #40  
Nice picts, Gordon, I skid in a similar manner... I would hate to be without my skidding winch!

SR
 
 
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