Author Topic: Making a Bombardier log skidder (Read 18047 times)

Sliver · « **Reply #20 on:** October 21, 2009, 10:18:41 am »

A few more pics of the skidder build. Everything is done now except for the Butt plate

. The blade that I made came from the scrapyard for a total of $30 in materials. I found an old 3pth scraper blade cut out some cheekplates,and welded some heavy angle iron onto the back to re enforce it.(5lbs of 6011 rods

).
A couple of questions for sprucebunny. 1) How big was the log that you tried out on your rig?
2) any problems skidding or any tips to make things go easier?
I still havn't had a chance to try it out yet( It looks too nice to wreck)

beenthere · « **Reply #21 on:** October 21, 2009, 11:55:04 am »

That outfit is looking great. Real anxious for you to try it out on some logs, and let us know how it works.

Other than scratching the nice paint job, what is holding you back?
Start small and work your way up.

sprucebunny · « **Reply #22 on:** October 21, 2009, 06:48:00 pm »

Looks good.

I don't have a good way to immobilize the machine to use the winch. Newer machines have a disc brake on the driveline. Best way to over come that is back up to a stump. Second best; move vehicle while winching.

Be very careful about 'side-loads' with that machine.... make sure the pull is as close as possible to directly rearward.

Ironwood · « **Reply #23 on:** October 21, 2009, 07:45:23 pm »

I am not planning on "snow activity" w/ this one, but will be putting winches, roll bar, and front blade on it as well. Yours looks great, I have yet to decide if mine will be power angle. I may cut a 6' meyer snow plow in half so it's not too high. I may alos put a quick removing lower cutting edge that could have some teeth, as it is likely I will be scruffing some light underbrush at times.

Ironwood.

Sliver · « **Reply #24 on:** November 05, 2009, 01:11:18 am »

Well I finally got a chance to try it out. I cut down a dead cherry tree about 16" at the bottom and tried winching it about 20 feet over to the machine. It worked great for the first 15 feet and then the winch stopped!!!

thats when I noticed a pool of oil under the machine(about 5 gals worth). Well here is what happened. When I was hooking the hydraulic pump up I had to switch the lines (intake and output)around for it to work. I thought that it was just a matter of clockwise vs counter clockwise. Well I was wrong

. This all worked fine in the garage, but as soon as I put a load on the system it immediatly puked the mechanical seal on the pump. Three hours later I had the pump in my hand and I was off to a local hydraulics shop to find out what happened. Well the guy there wanted $75 just to look at the pump to tell me if it could be changed around internally. I was not too keen on that--there are 4 bolts on the pump body and a total of about 6 internal parts-- to give someone 75 bucks for three minutes work is way out of my budget. So to make a long story even longer I took it apart myself switched the internal seals around and rotated the pump body 180 so the suction line was the 1" opening and the output was 3/4". Stuffed it back in the machine, filled the reservoir back up and it worked fine

. I dragged a little ford 1500 tractor, with the bucket all the way down front wheels in the air, across the yard. So I'm back in action and will try to post some pics of the rig at work.

fishpharmer · « **Reply #25 on:** November 05, 2009, 04:53:45 am »

Glad to hear you could fix the pump yourself. I am looking forward to the pictures.

beenthere · « **Reply #26 on:** November 06, 2009, 11:06:39 am »

Quote from: sprucebunny on September 10, 2009, 05:44:54 pm

So .... how does it work

I finally found a tree big enough to use the winch on my J5 and it's great

SB
Did we get a pic or two of that?

How have your woods roads and trails fared through the summer? Last I heard you were doing a lot of work on them and prolly spent a good time out there this summer.
Any update?

Glad to hear about Sliver's success and back in business. Hope to see those pics soon too.
Prolly found plenty of places for that $75 you saved.

Sliver · « **Reply #27 on:** December 13, 2009, 05:40:32 pm »

Hello everyone.
Its been a while since I last I my post(my computer died and I just got a new one). I went out yesterday to try out the skidder on some trees. I was out buzzing through the fields making sure everything was ready to work and the engine quit

. I dragged it back to the garage with the tractor and found out that it wasn't getting any fuel. traced back through the system and found the intake pipe in the fuel tank was plugged with a little knob of silicone(nearest I can figure it was from where the screws on the fuel sender go into the tank). put it all back together and it ran like a charm. Good thing too, cause when I was leaving the farm a kid had put his truck in the ditch at the end of the road. Being the good guy that I am I turned around to go find him and slid off the road myself

(glare ice under about 2"wet snow). The skidder plucked my little rav4 out like it was nothing. The young kid's truck was a little different. It was in deep(he missed a corner) and all tht was sticking out was the back end. It took a couple of tugs but I was able to drag a full size dodge (left in park with the doors locked) up out of the ditch onto the road.

. I promise my next post will be a lot less words and a lot more pictures of me skidding logs

motohed · « **Reply #28 on:** December 28, 2009, 04:42:41 pm »

Ok I am still waiting for an update on this machine of yours Sliver !

I know where there a re a couple of these things , so if your's works well I may just build one for my self .

motohed · « **Reply #29 on:** January 06, 2010, 07:30:45 pm »

Still waiting , tap tap tap !

Sliver · « **Reply #30 on:** January 06, 2010, 09:48:35 pm »

Hey Motohed,
Glad to see you are interested

. I have been busy with work and the holidays. I am going to take er out for a rip tomorrow and should have some pics and a play by play for you around this time tomorrow night. I will probably start out with a few small ones(fill all 4chokers??

) and if that goes well hopefully try it out on something a little bigger around 24". I do all my skidding tree length and bust it all up on the landing in the spring.

motohed · « **Reply #31 on:** January 07, 2010, 04:11:19 pm »

We all will be waiting !

Sliver · « **Reply #32 on:** January 07, 2010, 09:53:57 pm »

well I went cutting today for a few hours while my son was at school. Man does this thing pull hard

. I ripped a 14"ironwood out(already laying down) that had frozen into the ground, and pulled out a nice size beech treelength. A coupla maples and an ash just to round things out. I made the little pile of wood in the pics in about three hours. Going down the trails in second gear with or without a load on(about as fast as a brisk jog). Third gear is just too fast and bouncy

.About the only issue I had was when I first started I thought I should pull from a lower hitch point(you can see it in the pics. I found that it was better to just pull with the top pulley as it made the front end light and much easier to steer. All in all a great improvement over the ford 1500 4x4 tractor that I was using--not as nimble in the woods, but way more grunt and terrain capability. Motohed if you have any specific questions let me know enjoy the pics

Coon · « **Reply #33 on:** January 08, 2010, 11:37:36 am »

Glad to see the unit in action. Like anything you have to make minor changes to get things to work the way you want them to. That setup you have there would be perfect around here.

How does your blade system work..... Have you tried decking logs with it yet? pushing snow?...... we need the low down here....

Brad.

Sliver · « **Reply #34 on:** January 08, 2010, 12:48:12 pm »

Hey Brad. The little blade that is on it in the pictures is one that I made for it specifically for pushing the logs up into the pile. So far it works good. It moved the whole pile back each time I plowed into it. If you look at some of the earlier posts you can see that it is a 4way? plow-- pressure up down and side to side. I do have the original plow that was on it, it is five feet wide and about three feet hight and made heavy enough that you could bulldoze with it

. All in all I am pretty happy with the performance and just need to get used to the handling characteristics of a tracked vehicle. What else could you use to skid trees out of the woods for a total investment of about 2k.(+time

)

4genlgr · « **Reply #35 on:** January 08, 2010, 01:55:35 pm »

neat rig i have followed this thread as it went along and i have had some concerns about the stability of the machine. it seems very narrow in the pictures and pulling from the top pullley looks like it could easily have enough leverage to tip it over. i know "line up straight with the wood" but we all have corners in our roads and if a tree fetches up, odd things happen.
just a caution stay safe

motohed · « **Reply #36 on:** January 08, 2010, 02:18:52 pm »

Good job , Sliver ! I will be following your progress .

Hilltop366 · « **Reply #37 on:** January 08, 2010, 06:22:44 pm »

Glad to see you got it working!

Copes · « **Reply #38 on:** January 10, 2010, 09:02:18 am »

Siver, I have enjoyed following this thread. I have looked at a few SW plows but were told by a local that they are not great in the bush, made for concrete sidewalks. I realize they would work best on packed down trails but how do they do pulling a log up a snow coverd hill? There is no flat land where I live. I have a very small 4x4 tractor with a norse winch that struggles on the snow covered paths even with chains. Is the SW plow a large improvement over your small tractor? Have you had a chance to take it into some deep snow, say 2ft. There is one for sale locally for $4500 bucks, in very good condition. Seems like a lot seeing what you paid for yours.

Sliver · « **Reply #39 on:** January 10, 2010, 09:26:04 am »

Copes.
The situation you are describing sounds just like what I was facing the last couple of years I looked for a long time to find the one I got. There seems to be few around for 3-4500. I think that 2k is a fair price for one that is in working order(not pretty but mechanically sound). As i have just put this thing together this year I haven't really tested the limits of what it can do yet. the hills on my property are not really that steep but when the snow was deep (2ft+) the little tractor would barely make it up the hills even with no load. I had to go up and down a few times just to be able to haul the logs. what a pain. You already have the norse winch! and the machines are only WORTH what someone will pay for them. As for deep snow-- drop the blade thats what they were originally meant for. I would think(also hoping) once the trail is packed you could maintain it like your own wilderness sidewalk.

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Author Topic: Making a Bombardier log skidder (Read 18047 times)