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pulling logs

Started by bedway, July 06, 2006, 06:45:35 PM

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bedway

just finished pulling up a couple 12 ft. oak logs from the woods. i pick up one end with my 3 pt. hitch on my kubota and drag it. im sure im not the first one to brain storm this but heres my question. has anyone ever made up a set of wheels you could slide under a log and quickly strap to the log. then pick up the other end of the log with the 3 pt. hitch and off you go,, no dragging period!  smiley_idea

Radar67

Bedway, check out log arches, just what you are wanting. Future Forestry has one.

Stew
"A man's time is the most valuable gift he can give another." TOM

If he can cling to his Blackberry, I can cling to my guns... Me

This will kill you, that will kill you, heck...life will kill you, but you got to live it!

"The man who can comprehend the why, can create the how." SFC J

PineNut

I came by a wrecked tow dolly used to tow autos behind motor homes.  Took extra parts off of it and added provisions to keep the log from rolling off of it.  Pick up one end of the log and roll tow dolly under the log.  Chain the tongue to the log. Pick up the other end of the log with the tractor and take off. Problems: the wheel base is a bit wide and I haven't taken the time to cut it down. Have hauled tree length logs with it with no problem, just need 40 acres to make much of a turn with long logs. But the price was right.

solodan

Look at the arches from Future Forestry The fetching arch is what I use for pulling medium size logs, up to 25".
setting the arch up in the middle of the log allows for getting the whole log off the ground. You could also put the arch on the small end and pick up the other end with the 3 pt. hitch like you said. They make pretty tight turns, something most arches seem to fail at. I have pulled 16 footers through the woods with an atv and can make as tight of turns as the atv will allow. 8)

bedway

pinenut,, thats exactly what im talking about. im not looking to invest several hundred dollars in one. just something quick and dirty so that the other end of the log is not draging on the ground. we have nothing but sand and rock her in northwest pa. and draging the logs just tears up the ground, not to mention the mess on the log. think ill keep my eyes open for some wheels and scrap steel, i got the welder and the motivation :)

Tom

You may be pleasantly surprised by the lack of damage you will do with a skid.  Make a flat skid with a lip on the front and a way to strap it to the log.  It will work in the front or the rear.  Don't expect it to follow like a trailer.  An old automobile hood makes a pretty good one and so does a piece of plywood if you need something in a hurry. :)

bedway

tom,,,i most definately like the way you think. i get the bigest kick out of rigging something or constructing something out of nothing to get the job done. ive been known to build something,,that will build something to get the job done. went down to the junk yard this morning to snoop around for stuff,they were closed >:(

Raphael

Here's my junkyard solution...  Now I just need the three point hitch to handle the other end.


... he was middle aged,
and the truth hit him like a man with no parachute.
--Godley & Creme

Stihl 066, MS 362 C-M & 24+ feet of Logosol M7 mill

stumpy

I came across a pickup truck bedliner. I was going to throw it out, but decided to cut it in half, cut a hole in the front ent and 2 holes near the back.  When I get a login an area that I don't want to damage, like a customers grass, I run a chain thru the front hole, roll the log onto the bedliner, hook on the tongs, and it drags very easy and there is no damage. I use the holes in the rear to hook a ratchet strap to keep the log from rolling off. You'd be amazed at how easy a big log drags when on this bedliner.
Woodmizer LT30, NHL785 skidsteer, IH 444 tractor

David_c

Quote from: stumpy on July 11, 2006, 08:59:34 AM
I came across a pickup truck bedliner. I was going to throw it out, but decided to cut it in half, cut a hole in the front ent and 2 holes near the back.  When I get a login an area that I don't want to damage, like a customers grass, I run a chain thru the front hole, roll the log onto the bedliner, hook on the tongs, and it drags very easy and there is no damage. I use the holes in the rear to hook a ratchet strap to keep the log from rolling off. You'd be amazed at how easy a big log drags when on this bedliner.

Helped a freind pull a moose out of woods a few years ago. There were 6 of us and took forever. Wasn't easy at all. When we get it to wieght/tag station there is old couple with bigger moose and took less than half the time for this couple to get it out of woods using an old bedliner.

Raphael

Great idea about the bed liner... It's certainly a lot easier to get in position than our 5/8" steel 'stone boat'.  I'll have to hold onto my liner when I finally get around to replacing it with spray on.
... he was middle aged,
and the truth hit him like a man with no parachute.
--Godley & Creme

Stihl 066, MS 362 C-M & 24+ feet of Logosol M7 mill

bedway

you guys are makeing more sence all the time. i like this skid plate idea. im brainstorming it now to see what i have around here. :) the idea of keeping it small and simple works for me. just dawned on me,,my son in law owns a pizza shop and has all kinds of extra stainless steel table tops laying around. smiley_lit_bulb

Ironwood

Bed liners are Slippery that's for sure. I had a hood from a 1973-1979 ford pickup. When flipped over the leading edge was great for keeping stumps and logs from digging into the ground, not to mention the steel was thick enough to take the abuse!! As I recall I rolled the logs sideways over onto the front area and then chained it up through a hole in the leading edge.

                       Reid
There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love to do, there is only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.- Wayne Dyer

Blake22

Hey Tom, that thing ain't a car hood when it's upside down. Remember when it snowed a little bit down here around christmas in '86 or '87. We tied a ski rope to a old gas burner tractor 'n that hood was a snow board in our pasture. 'Til my daddy caught us. If we'd had a bedliner he mite not have caught us.

I use a bedliner to clean-up the trimmins from shrubery. And I use a liner off a toyota for a roof on one of my treestands.

On that arch you need a steering alxe for those tight spots. A buddy of mine that's in the tombstone business has a boom trailer that will steer when they get in tight spots in graveyards. Or a big-a$$ caster would work. Maybe not. ;)
Blake

Max sawdust

Sorry, I have to tell a funny story.
Before I had my tractor and Farmi winch, I was trying to move some rather large oak I had felled.  Only thing I had was a come along and my ATV.  Being like many on this forum, I wanted something now and did not want to spend a penny :D

I was unable to move many of these logs to the landing with the ATV, and could not get the pickup in to some of them so I had to come up with something else ;)

To lift the log I set a step ladder over the log and used the come along to raise it to slide something under the log.  First a made a wooden set of wheels with a wooden axle :D  (It is still laying in the woods I will have to get pictures some day.)  Well, much to my dismay the wooden wheels did not work so good ::)  So I grabbed my old 6 foot leaky john boat, cut  the transom off and it became a decent log skidder for use with the ATV.  At the landing I used a pulley high up in a tree to "lift and stack" the logs so I had a neat pile ;D

If their is a will there is a way ;)  Albeit not the most efficient way ::)

Max
True Timbers
Cedar Products-Log & Timber Frame Building-Milling-Positive Impact Forestscaping-Cut to Order Lumber

Dakota

This is pretty close to what you describe.  It was cheap to build and works great.  Email me if you're interested in parts etc.


Dakota
Dave Rinker

Ironwood

Bedway,

Your post remiinds me of this baby. Your not likely the first! ;D




I am the one standing in front of the wheel. My four year old Ethan and I just welded this puppy up.  ;D

                 Reid
There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love to do, there is only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.- Wayne Dyer

thurlow

Great picture, Reid;  what was the name of your mules?  The reason I ax............that one directly behind you looks very familiar.  And...............what were you doing welding on a puppy; I'm telling the Human Society or PITA or Aspic or somebody.
Here's to us and those like us; DanG few of us left!

Ironwood

 ;D


This is actually something I have just welded up. I was "Bach'ing" it this week so one night I worked from 3pm-3am building this arch to pull behind my GATOR HPX. I have a BIG one, and needed the smaller to get into the woods with. ALL the material was second hand and there are numerous areas where square tubing is welded in and ready for modifications (removable handles at the front tongue, top for removable reverse arches to carry Ironwood 12' furniture stock above, ect...) I did splurge on REALLY heavy duty skidsteer tires as the terrain is excessively rocky and there are tons of tapered sharp small stumps. The rims are off and old wheel horse tractor. The rims are removeable via a three point quick pin so I can use the tires on other light trailers ect (they were $70 each so I won't be buying spare sets for other trailers, I have only one HPX so I will use on one impelment at a time ;D) After 3 hours sleep I was an hour from home testing it for 8 hours while pulling 16' cherries, I will paint it soon. I will do some mods. but basically it passed with flying colors. It suspends the log fully off the ground. The tongs slide off the rear after removing a 5/8" trailer pin and small tube (no need for a second set of tongs to lift the logs via the truck crane ;D)



      Reid
There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love to do, there is only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.- Wayne Dyer

bedway

reid,,im impressed!..i see the tongs in the back, but how is the log suspended in the front. how heavy would you say your tongue weight is (log not included of course). can it be manurvered by hand? i get the biggest kick out of b uilding things from scratch. very nice job!   bedway
:)

Ironwood

Bedway,

Log is balanced so very little tongue weight. Easily manuvered by hand (see box tube section barely visisble at front) I will be making a handle that extends thru the box channel at the front. Tongue weight empty, ...... 30-40 lbs. Handles above the tires as well . I won't get it completely modified until Sept. Reid
There is no scarcity of opportunity to make a living at what you love to do, there is only scarcity of resolve to make it happen.- Wayne Dyer

Sprucegum

Thurlow

Ya better take another look at that mule - If you were standin' that close you would understand pretty quick !  ;D  ;D

sprucebunny

Hey, Reid, that's cool ;D Sure looks like a combination of two different models that come in a lovely light green from Oregon ;D

Great idea making the wheels and tongs removable .
MS193, MS192 and an 026  Weeding and Thinning. Gilbert Champion sawmill

Frank_Pender

Real familiar looking Reid.  Nice job. 

Bedway, I came up with a device that slips under the log and acts like a dollie.  I took two spindles and welded three inch channel made into an L shape, with each leg of the L being 8" long.  I then welded one flat side to each of the spindles.   I then made a whoop out of some 5/8" x 3" flat stock so that logs up to 16" in diameter could fit between the wheels.  I then would balance the log and pull the log with a rope from  a back yard that had some very nice Birch logs, 12' long.  The overall width was just at 32" to fit through the gate of the yard.
Frank Pender

Dan_Shade

Frank, how high do you need to get the log up to get your dollie under it?

I made a thing similar to this, but i have to get the log 16" up in the air, which can be a little precarious with a handy-man jack
Woodmizer LT40HDG25 / Stihl 066 alaskan
lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

RSteiner

I built an arch that looks similar to Reid's.

The only real difference is I mounted a boat winch on the rear where the tongs are above the tow pole.  I also have a couple of hooks on each side to sling the log with a chain.  The winch pulls the log into place and picks up the rear end.

The front of the tow pole has a couple of hooks on each side a couple of feet back to hold the front of the lof off the ground.  Most of the time if you position the log right the front end is light enough that once you get a chain under it and hooked to one side you can lift the front by hand.

The tongue weight can be adjusted by where you position the log on the arch.

Randy
Randy

jack

hey What about a mobile home axle and put two up rights on the axle,  then a tongue on it.....chain binder with chain.  lift the log with the tractor.........roll the axel under the log  chain bind it to the log,  and bind a tongue to the log and to the tractor.......simple.   might want to get wider tires tho......for the soft ground.
JAck
GRAB life by the Belly fat and give it a twist!!!!!

Went from 5 employees to one, sorry to see a couple of them go.  Simplify life... building a totally solar run home, windmill pumps my water, and logs keep me warm.

Terry

Hey Jack, you gotta check out my album and see if my contraption is what you described. When I show up to get a log in my old 1970, 1/2 ton pick-up, they ask how you gonna get that log outa here. 30 min. later i'm beeping the horn and waiving good-bye. Just yesterday evening I went and got a pine that the wind had blown across the road, it measured 32 feet long and 25" dia. at the butt. So far, thats the longest one i've hauled. 8)
Life is short---Live It !!!

Dan_Shade

I hope you don't pass a DOT guy with that rig, Terry!
I guess it depends on what the trailer laws are where you live.  that contraption wouldn't be legal in maryland.
Woodmizer LT40HDG25 / Stihl 066 alaskan
lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

Terry

  Hello Dan, yes you are correct, my rig would not be Legal anywhere. But hey, it gets the job done! As far as the DOT, there to busy chasing Big Rig's out on I-40 to bother with me out here in farming country on our LOCAL County Roads. Dang, my rig is mild compaired to some of the farming equipment we see on the road. Besides, I have no intentions of hauling logs from Maryland, it just wouldn't be worth it. You have a great day and thank's for your support.
Life is short---Live It !!!

snowman

Pulling logs is great if your selling logs but if your making lumber carrying logs is the way to go. I buck them up in the brush and carry them to my mill with forks on my bucket whenever possible. Of course theres some length limitations on this but since i was mostly cutting 14s and under it worked well for me last summer. It's not exactly high production but the end result is CLEAN logs! Now that it's winter though with good snow and frozen ground im skidding tree lengths and filling my log deck fast and from now on im going to skid in winter, mill in summer.That's the best solution if you live in the right part of the country .

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