Building a pto powered logging winch Finished

[jimparamedic]

here's mine and I use the cat heads too




I have also added a 7 foot blade instead of the stands that are in the pic under the whench

[DanG]

Welcome to the forum, and congrats on that Grandbaby, Mulelogger!  You may have to bring the winch to the camera this time.

BP, I can get a pretty good deal on cable up at Mr. Hootie's old place, but I don't know about the shipping.  Find out where your County buys theirs and check there.  If that's a no-go, I can check here.  They had a real bargain going a while back.  Don't know if there is any left.

[Banjo picker]

Thanks for the offer Dang, I will see what I can find here first...but one of these days I want to get down there and visit with you and Tom a little bit anyway..freight wouldn't matter then.   but I know several contractors that have cranes and I'll see it they have any that they have taken out of service as well as your sugestion.... 

Jimparamedic is that pto powered or hyd...there is a lot to look at in that first pic...Tim

[Larry]

What size cable are the rest of you running...Mulelogger said he was using 1/2 in...I don't know if I can get anything bigger than that through the hole in the drum anyway...

I started with 3/8" but broke it too many times and went to 1/2".  The smaller it is the easier pulling through the woods.  In the picture that may have been 9/16"...heavy.

I've found brand new winch line at scrap yards but in shorter lengths.  A friend said elevator maintenance crews scrap it because of age.  Auctions are good also.

[pineywoods]

Using a hydraulic motor is a great idea...wish I'd thought of it.  Putting one on my winch is on the to-do list but keeps getting pushed off.


Backing up to a tree is a very bad idea.  Chaining the front end of the tractor to a tree is a even worse idea.  These old screw winches got nuff power to pull a tractor in half.

Good snatch blocks are your friends.

Cheap protection from a broken cable is a expanded metal shield.  I attach one to the ROPS...with a bit of baling wire or something.

Here's the result of backing up to a stump. would you believe $425 for a new gear?
http://www.forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,21646.msg307411.html#msg307411

[Bro. Noble]

BP, we have a Tulsa winch that we have rigged up on our PTO.  We do just like you are suggesting-----put it out of gear,  pull out the line,  put in gear and pull the log in.  We have used ours for about 15 yearswith no major problems.  My son usually runs it and stays on the tractor while winching with hiss hand on the pto lever.  If I were doing it again,  I would fix a brake on the winch or else put stationary hooks on the winch frame to transfer the chockers to.  The only thing keeping the drum from reeling out the cable while skidding is the worm gear in the winch and the pto brake in the tractor transmission.  After years of hard pulls, the pto brake has worn out and is a major job to repair.  We still use it but have to reel the log in a few times if it is a very hard pull.  The winch orginally had a brake on it,  but it would hang and make it hard to pull out the cable so we scrapped it.  

[mulelogger]

Thanks for the congrats everybody! This is our first grandbaby   so there may be more pics of him than the winch.

[northwoods1]

I would use 1/2" line on a winch like that and if your worried about line speed keep the spool full of cable the increased diameter of the drum will make a big difference in speed. Not all cable is appropriate for pulling some types will not hold up hardly at all. It can't be a fiber core and some types of cable do not have the individual strands in line with the cable, that type of cable will not hold up for long in a logging application.

[weisyboy]

9/16 plow steel cable for my money mate.

you will still break it.

althow i haven't played with 3pl winches out winches were always bolt on and ran off the pto.

when the cable starts firing you know its gunna break.

[northwoods1]

9/16 plow steel cable for my money mate.

you will still break it.

althow i haven't played with 3pl winches out winches were always bolt on and ran off the pto.

when the cable starts firing you know its gunna break.

I have run a lot of 9/16" line over the years but it is heavy if you have 100' + of that on a real beast to pull out. I'd think with a tractor/winch setup like this you would pull something apart before the line broke,,, I don't know how you could even break a quality 9/16" line that was purpose built logging line like I described unless it was frayed on the end or had a damaged spot. Even with the biggest line skidders I have ever used. If you go with a 1/2" swaged line that is a 9/16" line which has been swaged to 1/2" diameter. A little easier to handle but the biggest benefit is you can get more cable on the winch of a higher tensile strength. I run 1/2 line and chokers on all cable machines now it is just so much easier to handle.

[weisyboy]

we used to run 3/4" cable on the big dozers, we snapped them heaps of times.

but thats what you get when you have 15 ton and 115hp pulling logs 9' at the stump.

those cable can do some dammage when tehy get lose under that mutch tension.

[Banjo picker]

Most of the wood I will pull will be under 24" dbh....some a little bigger...Tim

[Stephen Alford]

Hey BP, that winch is going to be very helpful to you.  This one has 1/2" skidder cable as well. One source of grief was the way the cable went in the drum then a setscrew went in to hold it in place. When the cable would pull out and your hands were froze it was a pain. If yours works the same way the problem can be fixed by melting a brazing rod into the end of the cable for about 3 inches.  When the set screw goes in the cable stays on.  Free spooling is controlled by having a piece of pipe threaded on the outer end over one side of the drum. A piece of hardwood dowel  goes in the pipe,cut off about 1/2  inch above pipe. A pipe cover is put on the end of the pipe over the dowel.  Pressure by the dowel is controlled by adjusting the cap.  This is an old pic but thought it might help. Look forward to seeing your setup in action.   

[Banjo picker]

Thanks for the idea about the set screw, that is exactly how the cable goes in mine, and I was wondering if that was gona stay put...I'll apply your suggestion....

I am looking forward to getting back to work on it as well...I had to work around the house yesterday putting up weather stripping around the doors ....It needed doing and I was going to be in trouble with the wife if I hadn't of done it...anyway I will have to find a hydraulic motor before I go much farther anyway....Tim

[bill m]

After a pretty good talk with Mulelogger, I have decided to definately go with the hyd motor set up....But as to Bill's comment of stripping the teeth when unspooling    I still have the dog to either put the drum in gear or not...seems like the thing to do would be to just disengage the dog, let the drum free wheel when pulling the cable to hook up..get back to the tractor engage the dog...get on the tractor and start the hyd motor...that way I can have the best of both worlds--wont have to run the hyd. backwards to unspool....Am I missing something???---And I do know thats entirely possible.... ;

What I was referring to is if you have tension on the cable you can not disengage the dogs something will break. You have to run the winch backwards until all tension is off of the cable before you can disengage it.

[Larry]

I was thinking about this Hydraulic Motor.  It and 10 others are on the back page of the Surplus Center catalog all similar.  The GPM is a bit high for small to mid size machines.

Wanta you guys think?

[jimparamedic]

PTO power no problem yet with no reverse

[Banjo picker]

Bill I  understand what you are talking about...you were talking about getting slack when you had a log on it...Like I said I was missing something...   I am going with the hydraulic motor so that should not be a problem....I guess my subject is somewhat off base now, but oh well ....I just need a winch that will work, be safe to operate, and won't bust itself or my tractor....

Larry I hope someone can give us a thumbs up on that motor, it looks pretty good and is not much more than I have found on Ebay, and then you usually don't get the specs of the unit....Thanks for finding that....

Jimparamedic I have opted out of the straight pto to the winch...for now....Tim

[Banjo picker]

I need a little more help now.  I have my hydraulic motor  is a char-lynn 103 1039-010.. it looks like a real hoss...I have my cable I bought a roll of 1/2" ( 6x21 I think) off craigslist...now I need to settle on what size chain and sprockets to go with...I am leaning toward the #60 chain...any one have any thoughts on that...Tim

[mulelogger]

Hey Banjo picker, sorry about not already sending you some pics of my winch.I tryed to take some pics but you couldn't tell anything by the pics I took.My winch looks very much like jimparamedics first pics.I use #60 chain and 4 inch sprockets on both the winch and motor.So far I'm very pleased.Good Luck.Let us know how it goes.