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How to move logs

Started by Peder McElroy, March 12, 2010, 04:56:30 PM

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Peder McElroy

Does anyone have any good ideas on easy ways to move logs eather to my mill site or around my mill area without a tractor. Thanks  Peder

mad murdock

Elephant?!? ;) like they do in Thailand, or a real strong back!  I do not know how you would move logs around without some sort of tractor/forklift/bobcat, or something.  If you had a decent sized truck about the size of a army deuce and a half, or so, you could put a bi-pod type boom on the front of it, and run a winch and cable with a set of tongs to move a log around.  About all the ideas I have, FWIW.
Turbosawmill M6 (now M8) Warrior Ultra liteweight, Granberg Alaskan III, lots of saws-gas powered and human powered :D

J_T

Log arch and four wheeler    ???
Jim Holloway

sdunston

I made a log arch you could pull it with a 4 wheeler or garden tractor


Sam
WM LT28, American fordge 18x8 planer,Orange and white chainsaws, NH TC33, IHT6 dozer, IH-H tractor and alot of other stuff that keeps me agravated trying to keep running

Bodger

If there was an easy way...the government would be doing it.
Work's fine for killing time but it's a shaky way to make a living.

jimparamedic

I've seen bale spears in the back of one ton truck  and removable wrecker booms
adapt and over come

NWwoodsman

 A pevee works pretty good if you have the back for it. But real a pevee works wonders.

Jason

ARKANSAWYER


  I move the mill to the logs.
   






Logrite Mega Hook 78 (known as the ARKANSAWYER SUPER STICK, code name A.S.S. 78)




ARKANSAWYER

r.man

one of the big makers of bandsaws  also sells log handling equipment and one of the small ones has a extra handle for moving logs by hand where machinery cannot get in for one reason or another. it was basically a small arch with log tongs attached and a log handle with a tee end. it looked promising and would be fairly easy to replicate in a basic way if the factory built was out of your price range. i will try to find out which manufacturer it was and post it later but i don't know how to do links yet. do you have access to a atv or a lawn tractor?
Life is too short or my list is too long, not sure which. Dec 2014

Dan_Shade

there are a few tricks

if you need to turn a log, roll it onto a small branch/rock/knot at a balance point, and you can swing the log around.

if you need to change the direction that a log is rolling (often the one end will "gain" on the other end), you can put a peavy in the ground, and then turn the other end, so that the one end rolls against the peavey, and the other moves forward.

a log arch makes moving logs pretty easy

A small log carrier, or a tie carrier makes moving small logs "easy' if two people are available.

There are a lot of tricks to moving logs with no equipment.

Start with a few cant hooks, and go from there :)
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.

Dan_Shade

I downloaded a copy of this book once (but I can't find it)  I'm pretty sure that it has a pretty good set of examples of moving logs by hand.   http://www.logosol.com/_store/catalog/index.php?cPath=225
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.

bushhog920

i broke down and got a bobcat w/rootgrapple, you can gently set the logs on the mill, turn around in one spot, too many advantages to list love the machine.

sigidi

Quote from: Peder McElroy on March 12, 2010, 04:56:30 PM
Does anyone have any good ideas on easy ways to move logs eather to my mill site or around my mill area without a tractor. Thanks  Peder

Peder I have been using my 6-18 Lucas for almost 6 years and just upgraded to a 10-30. I have on a very few limited occasions made use of machines to move logs around, but for almost 95% of the time I move everything with 4 bits of gear (well I suppose 5 if you count both tapers) from left to right;



The block on the floor is an off cut from milling - hard to see from the pic but it is 'L' shaped and I use it as a chock to stop the log rolling, at times I use it at one end to counteract the large end of log rolling further than the short end and thus pivoting/turning the log. With this in mind I also use it sometimes to make the log pivot/spin, to stop it from rolling back against me when I need to take another bite with the cant hook, to stop it rolling down my log tapers when loading it onto my log bunks. It also has one other use, I use it as a pivot point in conjunction with the iron bar so I can 'slide' the log sideways once loaded to get it to be in line with the travel of the blade.

The two tapers are used to 'pick' the log up onto the bunks, also to support the middle of longer logs when milling (this limits how much the middle of the log drops once the majority of the log is removed) another use, if the log needs 'spinning' a large amount, I roll it up onto a taper (placed somewhere around the balance point for the log) then by hand I can 'pivot' the log using the taper as the pivot point and therefore spin a very large log on my own using little force.

The can't hook is self made and the work horse of my log moving arsenal, I have moved some bloody big logs with this hook. The handle is 50mm (2") dia with 3mm (1/8") wall steel pipe around 5' 6" long, the hook is made from 10mm (3/8") flat bar. More often than not I move logs down slight gradients into the mill but also at times I have moved some hefty logs up hill just with leg strength/power. The best I've moved up hill has been a spotted gum log 5.9m (19') long with an average diameter of 600mm (2') and a rough weight of around 2,000kg (4,400 lbs) in this instance I didn't do it by myself, I chained the end of the handle to the back of my little truck, then used the truck to 'roll' the log, while the chock was chucked back under the log to stop it rolling back down hill. The bend in the cant hook handle is from trying to bite off more than I could chew, I had an egg shaped log and needed to move it, so I dug the old hook into it, squatted under the handle, put the handle on my shoulder, then stood up (with some considerable effort :o) the net result of my efforts was a bent cant hook and a smug looking log :(

The last piece is a good old 6' iron bar it comes in really handy for all sorts of things but mainly as backup to the cant hook. When rolling a log and needing to take another bite, (if the log isn't too big) I use the bar in my left hand to 'hold' the log in place while I take the next bite of the hook using my right hand, also to dig under one end of a log and 'slide' the end over etc. it has much the same use/function as the chock, but is quicker to use on the logs I can use it on. The chock is best used on really big logs, like 600mm 2' plus, under that the bar is much quicker. Also if and when, on rare occasions I have help, the helper can use the bar, while I use the hook.
Always willing to help - Allan

Ironwood

Stack the logs on R X R ties on a moderate hill, have wedges to stopp'em and removeable 4x4 to bridge over to the mill when you need another. 

Ironwood
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

Planman1954

Here's my limited experience in moving logs around my sawmill. I have no tractor like you. I did have a trailer to haul logs in though...it is a dual axle, about 10' long bed. It's 45 years old (my father had it made) and its still going strong.
Anyway, having logs loaded by others with equipment is what I typically do, but I have loaded them myself with a winch mounted on one side, and a couple of 4x4's on the other side leaned against the trailer. The logs roll up over one side, and fall down into the bed.
But the main reason for me writing was to let you know an EASY way to offload them from a trailer right where you want them by your mill. Pull your trailer up paralled to your mill, and pull up just enough to where the log can be pulled off and drop right where you want it to roll up on your mill. I then get another vehicle (my wife's Navigator)  and back it up to the trailer with both vehicles are facing away from each other, hook up a chain to the Navigator's hitch and wrap the other around one of the logs on the trailer, and then pull forward gently and the log is pulled off the trailer and falls right where I want it. Then on to the next log until all are offloaded. It's quick and simple.
Norwood Lumbermate 2000 / Solar Dry Kiln /1943 Ford 9n tractor

shinnlinger

Peder,

Do you already have a mill or are you thinking about it?

THere are posts on here addressing just that issue, and that is no matter how automated you mill is, someone has to fell the trees and get them to the mill.  and then, even if you have a swing mill, some one has to sticker and stack all your product, which invariably will be far from where you ultimately want it and need to be moved.

When some realize that, they realize a mill is not for them.  Others realize that they really need a tractor with FEL or somesuch to assist in the before , during and after mill, so rather than postpone the inevitable and save their back, they acquire said tractorish vehicle.

One exception I can see is an urbanish setting where you have a small manual band mill and are friends with the tree service folks.  YOu buy a decent trailer and load it inexpensively by parbuckling.  At your house, you have the mill set up so you pull the trailer alongside it and use it as your deck as you mill.

Dave
Shinnlinger
Woodshop teacher, pasture raised chicken farmer
34 horse kubota L-2850, Turner Band Mill, '84 F-600,
living in self-built/milled timberframe home

Puffergas

On the road a farm wagon works nice and no title, lights or brakes needed just a slow moving sign.

Best way to move and sort logs in the yard is a pond. I can move a large log with my index finger. Mill set next to the pond with a winch or sling loader or maybe a boat trailer to move the log to the mill.

The Amish have the log trucks load the mills log deck. They stack them kind of high so you have to be careful when rolling a log on to the mill.



Jeff
Jeff
Somewhere 20 miles south of Lake Erie.

GEHL 5624 skid steer, Trojan 114, Timberjack 225D, D&L SB1020 mill, Steiger Bearcat II

r.man

peder
  realized today that the arches i was trying to find are logrite and they are a sponsor of the forum. just click on their logo. the other thing that i remembered today was giving an old two wheeled power cultivator, they look like troybilt tillers except they just pulled a plough or harrow set,  to a former classmate of mine. he wanted to bring firewood logs to his house from his bush. afterwords he said it was fairly slow going but it sure beat pulling them by hand. hope you get something set up. good luck.
Life is too short or my list is too long, not sure which. Dec 2014

quiwig

any big trees around the mill? you can hang a cable off the tree with a pulley and hoist with the wifes car

Magicman

Remember, they are far easier to roll than to drag.  I've used a 3/4" nylon rope and the truck many times to roll 30"-36" oak logs and position them at the mill.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

guitarguy

Peder - I have an old Ford pick that came with my mill that has a heavy duty frame mounted to the bed of the pickup and a 5000lb 12v winch mounted to this frame just behind the cab.The bed of the truck has a 1/16" thick steel bed liner that rolls down over the bumper so logs don't get hung up as they are being winched in.The truck is a 2wd automatic. I added an extra battery to give the winch more capacity to draw from.I tried to add a photo but must be doing something wrong.Anyway, I have been using this setup for years to move logs around  -cheers - Dave

Peder McElroy

Thanks Dave.  I too have been trying to load some photos with no luck. I think the photos have to be reduced somehow. As for the log moving,yesterday I started to build myself a log arch and hope to finish it tomorrow. I had an old trailer on my property and with a little
revamping the arch is built with the weels and just the toung is left to finish. Looking for some 2 1/2" square stock. Peder

Puffergas

I think the photo can't be over 45Kb or something like that.


Jeff
Jeff
Somewhere 20 miles south of Lake Erie.

GEHL 5624 skid steer, Trojan 114, Timberjack 225D, D&L SB1020 mill, Steiger Bearcat II

captain_crunch

 If it will help you convey your Idea E-mail them to me babjfoster(at) msn.com and I will take a run at them tonite. Just make sure you Mention Sawmill in subject so Wifie don't junk em.All I can get away with for size is 450X350 pixlels(or what ever you call them critters)
M-14 Belsaw circle mill,HD-11 Log Loader,TD-14 Crawler,TD-9 Crawler and Ford 2910 Loader Tractor

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