Special delivery arch

[Reddog]

I intend to mount a brake controller on the tractor so I can apply braking pressure as I need it on the downhill.

OWW,
You could also look for a sliding reostate. Then if you need to stop and hold on a hill you can leave the lever set to keep the brakes applied. The brake controller will not keep the brakes applied unless you have the lever held over.

[OneWithWood]

My original thought was a sliding reostat for just the reason you state.  I happen to have a couple of brake controllers from previous apps which is why I am leaning that way now.  I will do some more research on the availablility of 12v sliding reostats to see what is available.
Any suggestions?

[pineywoods]

OWW trying to use electric brakes for a parking brake ain't such a good idea. First off, if you leave them energized for more than a minute or 2 you gonna see smoke. The sliding rheostat in a brake controller won't handle more than about 1/4 amp, it controls some electronics which provides the 15-25 amps the brakes need. The brake mechanism doesn't use the solenoid to apply the brakes. It's just a sort of trigger that uses the rotation of the wheel to apply the brakes. In other words, standing still, you got no brakes untill the wheel turns at least 1/8 of a revolution.. Mounting a regular brake controller on the tractor...now that's a DanG good idea. I'm putting one on my Kubota cause I sometimes pull a flatbed trailer with a dozer on it.

[DanG]

I agree with Piney.  The electric brakes on the arch is a great idea, but the parking brake isn't.  To my way of thinking, if the tractor won't hold it with its parking brake set and the loader bucket grounded, you simply don't have a large enough tractor to do the job safely.  Don't let efficiency get in the way of safety!

[Reddog]

Well first if you are burning up electric brakes, you need to use heavier wire.
All you are doing is energizing a magnet on that circuit. The worst that should happen with leaving the brakes set is a dead battery.

Second is being able to adjust the brakes on a steep descent and not need a prehensile tail to hold the lever and drive at the same time.

I trust oww to use his 450 if the skidding is that steep.

[DanG]

I trust oww to use his 450 if the skidding is that steep.

Yeah, I'm sure that OWW would put the dozer to use if the situation called for it.  But at the same time, an awful lot of people read this forum, and most of them don't have the equipment or the experience that OWW has.  I can just picture some poor guy getting an arch and heading down the mountain with it behind his lawn mower.  "Hey, it's 20 horsepower, right?  I'm cool!"  I just think we owe it to the public to express all of our misgivings about these situations.  These are not Tinker Toys we're playing with.  If we can keep somebody from getting hurt, by speaking up about undersized equipment and oversized logs, we will have done a service.

[Maineloggerkid]

I agree with DanG, I have seen alot of people that aren't knowlegable in forestry attempt things that should have killed them, simply because they had no clue it could be completely wrong.

[OneWithWood]

I think I need to clarify a couple of things.  The brakes have been installed to slow or cause drag when traversing a down slope.  The brakes on the arch are in no way inteneded to be a parking brake.  If for some reason I need to stop on a down slope the bucket gets dug in, the tractor brake gets set and I block the wheels.

What I am attempting to accomplish is some measure of control traversing relatively steep slopes with a sizeable following load.  By being able to apply braking power to the arch in a measured manner I am hopeful I can create enough drag to keep from overpowering the tractor, or worse, lifting the tail of the tractor or pushing it sideways. 

I will be putting a controller on the 450 crawler for the same reasons. 

I could easily do all this with just the crawler by paying out cable and winching it in but I want to miimize rutting on the trails.  The more I can do with the tractor the better.  The tractor has IR treads and is much easier on the ground than the grouser cleats of the crawler.    The current game plan is to fall selected trees and winch them up to the trail using the crawler, buck to length and bring the butts out on the crawler forks then make however many runs with the tractor and the arch to bring out the uppers.  Anyway that is the current plan and as always is very subject to change.  One thing I have learned about the IR treads is that muddy surfaces tend to pack the tread and then it slides as on ice.  When the ground is frozen neither the crawler or the tractor are any good on the slopes.

[DanG]

Thanks for the clarification Robert.  I knew all along that you would be doing this right, but I could just envision some newbie getting into trouble with too much log and not enough tractor.

[stonebroke]

If the ground is frozen chains really help.

Stonebroke