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Building a quick and dirty skyline

Started by WV Sawmiller, January 26, 2019, 06:59:51 PM

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WV Sawmiller

   The tree trimmers cut a big dead ash on the corner of my property in front of my house across the creek and right next to the road. I had them leave the butt log as a saw log and I got over there on the road bank and cut about a pick up load of firewood from the tops and limbs. There is probably that much more I will cut in the nest few days/weeks. I tossed the wood down the hill next to the creek bank. The creek is a little too wide right now and much of the wood was too heavy to toss across the creek. The creek is about a foot deep and if I am careful I can wade across it in 15" rubber boots. I had an episode of cerebral flatulence and decided I would make a skyline like I see on TV for the guys logging out west and such. I got lucky and bought a 1/4 cable about 200' long for $20 at a flea market a couple years ago so I figured I'd use it. I ran the cable across the creek and hooked the hook end around a 14" poplar on the bank there then hooked the other end to my JD 750 and pulled it tight. This made for a real nice tight line. I hooked a snap on pulley over the cable and used a 1/4" chain to hook a snatch block under that with a heavy nylon rope through the pulley on the snatch block. I had not found a good basket to hang under it. I had planned on loading the wood on one side of the creek and getting my wife or granddaughter to pull it across the creek and unload to the house side. I ended up tying bundles of firewood with the rope. pulling down to lift the bundle then pulling it up and walking across the creek, grounding the bundle and untying the rope, crossing back and repeating. It worked but I had to keep constant pressure on the rope to keep the load in the air and holding the rope while crossing the creek gave me the stability to cross the slick round rocks. It was not as efficient as it should have been. I think the next time I will use a cargo net, sling or basket of some kind and a simple double pulley rig like I use to lift my deer to skin. Those are pretty cheap and readily available and I can lift and lock the load in the air then have a helper pull the load across the creek, unload and I can load the next load. I will probably fine tune and use this process more in the future. I can hook the cable to my ATV winch, secure the ATV to a tree then tighten and use that where I can't access with the tractor or truck which has the weight to hold it.


 Loop end of my cable hooked to my tractor for tension.


 The other end is hooked to a base tree in line with/over the load to be moved.  Then hook on the pulley on the cable and ready to use. The whole process just takes a few minutes to set up. Ideally and with better preparation and load holding equipment such as a sling or basket I could have pulled the load directly to the trailer behind my ATV.

   When I finished moving the firewood I backed the tractor up to remove the tension, waded the creek and disconnected the hook end and hooked it around an upper ash sawlog about 14-15 ft long and pulled it across the creek while I was in the area.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

lxskllr

I like that. I think I'd like to set something up I could do by myself. Not sure exactly how atm, but just musing... Perhaps a basket type setup, maybe triangle shaped with the point down. Fix that point with a pin and a length of throw line attached to it. Using two heavier ropes, have one attached to the loading side for retrieval, and another going across the gap, through a pulley, and attached to the retrieval side. Load the basket, pull it across, pull the pin with the throw line to dump, then retrieve the whole mess to do again.


Over engineered, and probably wouldn't work as well as I imagine, but it would be a fun little project to try  :^)

WV Sawmiller

   If I waited a few months the creek would be dry enough I could just step over it. In fact we discussed just leaving the firewood there till then but the skyline still makes it easier and safer to carry a bigger load each time than I could normally carry. I'm thinking something like a cargo net hooked to game pulley set up and attached to the pulley on the line and a rope tied to that if the skyline is too tall or the terrain is too tough to cross just pushing the load. If the cable and pulleys were heavier I could use something like this to help pull logs down some of our steep slopes. I've been struggling to get some basswood logs down and I might have to try setting something like this up there if I can't get them down safely without it. I'd have to use a snatch block or something at the bottom in the woods instead of my tractor or ATV in case my load got away from me. I'd hate to have a heavy log hit my ATV.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

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