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Chain chokers

Started by EricR, June 28, 2012, 10:47:10 PM

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EricR

I am looking to switch from cable to chain chokers and I see that everyone wants to sell you these hammerlocks to connect your cable slide and keyhole grab hook.  These hammerlocks are expensive and was just wondering what the advantage is vs using just a shackle. 

stavebuyer

The hammerlock is hardened, won't bend, will hold up to more abuse than the chain choker itself and is re-useable . The soft metal hardware store shackles won't hold up.

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sawguy21

The hammerlocks are also more convenient to use. Leave the cheap hardware store shackles on the shelf, they are an accident waiting to happen.
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lumberjack48

I would like to know why you want to switch ?
Third generation logger, owner operator, 30 yrs felling experience with pole skidder. I got my neck broke back in 89, left me a quad. The wife kept the job going up to 96.

Corley5

I've used them both and would stay with cable  ;D :)
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jd540b

I have used both as well and prefer chains for many reasons..... 1) I hate wearing gloves and chains don't get fishhooks and last WAY longer than cable chokers. 2) Chains don't get memory bends in them that come back and smack you in the head when you don't get them hooked all the way! :) And 3) Chains are nice to select cut with because you can pull a tree up to the trail say, then unhook it from the mainline but leave the choker on the tree-then it's really easy to gather them back up on the way to the yard or reach out for another tree without fighting with all that spaghetti of cable chokers.  Just my experience and preference......doesn't make it right or wrong, just what I prefer. :) :)

Mark K

Never had the chance to use or see cable chockers. Can they be removed from the main line? Everybody runs chain up here. I have eight keyholes on my mainline when I bought the skidder it had ten. It would be like spaghetti with eight cables I would imagine.
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rvolek

 I just switch from cable to chain. You can get the hammer locks at Bailey's for around $12.
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lumberjack48

I used chain with my father in the late 50's to early 60's behind a horse, tractors and a crawler. It was 1965 i got a chance to work with a Timberjack. I couldn't believe how light to handle and fast hook-en cable was compared to chain. 

Yes, you can remove chokers from mainline using this type of slider, a sleeve hook or a New England style chain hook.

Cable chokers don't turn in to spaghetti on less your hook-en wrong.
They can only be hooked from the right hand side or left hand side of the log. If there hooked both ways they turn in to noodles. I've learned this the hard way, they got so bad you spent all your time untangling them. I've had to throw 6 chokers away at a time, until a guy gave me heads up what was casing my problems.

The trick to be able to grab a 6" top with out losing it with cable is, not double raping it [ this kinks the choker up ] Theres nothing worse then losing trees that were hooked. I know this one reason you hate cable, i know i did until i learned a little trick. [Do this] back up to your pickup, one choker at a time hook it behind the ball hitch, winch in until it tightens up, not to tight, you can always do it a little more if its not enough. This puts a little kink about 2"s from the end, it doesn't bother getting under trees. Its so nice not to watch the chokers sliding off the trees.

Again its all method, if a guy doesn't have a method to his madness nothing will work. I had hooks to hang chokers on, when running 8 chokers we hung the top 4 chokers up until they were needed. On a clear cut i usually had a 8 tree turn ready to go depended on tree size. If i needed the skidder operator to help hook, that was one wave of the arm, if i didn't wave stay on the skidder. I worked 30 years on the fastest easiest way to get trees on the landing, with out working hard. The best day i had with one skidder, me on a 266 Husky, the wife on the S8 IH, we put up 52 cords of TL Aspen, 4 loads,  they hauled it as fast as we put it on the landing.

With that all being said, chain would be way to slow for my method, 75% of my jobs were selective cutting.

http://store.chainsawr.com/collections/log-skidding-chokers-cables-hooks-and-etc



 



 




Third generation logger, owner operator, 30 yrs felling experience with pole skidder. I got my neck broke back in 89, left me a quad. The wife kept the job going up to 96.

stoneeaglefarm

26 years of working woods in N.H and I can just throw out a idea on cables and chains, I tried the cable chokers, 7 slides, Work great for a short time till they start to burr up then you spend half the day bleeding and the other half pulling them thru brush, I Then went with half cable and half chokers chains, Well, The end result was this. I have never run a cable slides behind any skidder in the last 17 years, Get good 8 foot chockers made out of good steel and other than losing one once in awhile I can only offer the facts that throwing chins to trees is alot easier and hurts alot less and is also less money invested, Cables curl up after just a short time and do not do well in alot of rock or hard ground. Try them both like I did and I betcha you never go back to cable slides.

lumberjack48

I didn't use those, i was just showing what you can use if you want to drop and pickup chokers.
30 years running cable chokers i never had problems with burrs or chokers coiling up. They coil up and get burrs when there hooked from the left and right hand side of the tree or there being pulled over the spool. I never pulled the chokers up into the spool, i used 1/2" by 7' chokers, when pulling plantation pine i used 7/16 by 6' chokers with 1/2" mainline.

I used this style slider



 
Third generation logger, owner operator, 30 yrs felling experience with pole skidder. I got my neck broke back in 89, left me a quad. The wife kept the job going up to 96.

nhlogga

Quote from: jd540b on June 29, 2012, 04:41:56 PM
I have used both as well and prefer chains for many reasons..... 1) I hate wearing gloves and chains don't get fishhooks and last WAY longer than cable chokers. 2) Chains don't get memory bends in them that come back and smack you in the head when you don't get them hooked all the way! :) And 3) Chains are nice to select cut with because you can pull a tree up to the trail say, then unhook it from the mainline but leave the choker on the tree-then it's really easy to gather them back up on the way to the yard or reach out for another tree without fighting with all that spaghetti of cable chokers.  Just my experience and preference......doesn't make it right or wrong, just what I prefer. :) :)


I couldn't agree more. It does suck when ya loose one cause they are expensive compared to cable chokers.
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jd540b

I keep a can of orange paint in my pickup and give them a dose often.  Helps to find them when they wander off-especially in the snow!

lumberjack48

My father is a life time logger, you should have seen his barbed up tangled up choker mess. He didn't even cut the pigtail off the mainline, it had 4" barbs, you needed welding gloves to work with it. This is just the way he is, don't fix it until its broke.
He wanted to start with the top choker when hook-en. So with 8 chokers, you hook the top 4 to start with, then when you stop to pickup 2 more you have 4 chokers stuck in the first 4 trees. I watched them jerking trying to get-em out, then unhooking the first 4 to free-em. This style of hooking doesn't work, thats the way he did it, i tried to change his way ::) ::)

I learned how to take care of the rigging when i was a choker setter and rigging man in Montana. If you didn't take care of the pigtail you got 1 week off, if you set chokers from the left hand side that was a week off. If the chokers or mainline stated getting burrs, you were to replace it. The woods boss would check them randomly, so they better be in good shape. I ran 16 chokers behind that D8, they were not spaghetti noodles.

I worked with the skidder in selective cutting and clear cut timber.  I planned every turn, when running 6 chokers, i liked to lay 6 down. If there wasn't 6 to fall, like in select cutting, theres 3, i'd go a little deeper and find 3 more, lay them down, touch the limbs up waiting for the skidder. Go back to the first 3 standing trees, wave my arm in a circle meaning turn around and back up to where i'm standing. I'd grab the 4 th choker and hang it up, this is to make sure my top 3 chokers are free. Then grab the 3 chokers run-em down to the 3 i fell, hook-em up, give her the i'm clear signal. Winch them up to the 3 standing trees, grab the saw and lay them down on the 3 just winched up. Give her the wave to get off an hook-em while i'm limbing them. When done limbing give her the all clear signal, which is the right hand over head wave. Now one more signal, pointing down at the ground meaning i'll be there the next-ed turn or pointing where i'll be. I liked to make 6 turns an hour, but sometimes 4, maybe 3 all depends on the timber, limbs an size.

I kept the job easy and had fun doing it, the skidder should never be bound up in the woods or over loaded. The wife was the first operator i had that didn't turn around on the landing when skidding 100 to 200 ? yds. She'd drop an unhook, winch up an backup to where i was felling, she liked to pull wood. She said its faster to deck 3 or 4 turns on the pile then one.

I kept my rigging clean an straight, no spaghetti chokers, they all had a nice curve to the left, all most hook them self.
Third generation logger, owner operator, 30 yrs felling experience with pole skidder. I got my neck broke back in 89, left me a quad. The wife kept the job going up to 96.

Ed_K

TJ48, please explain the left - right on hooken. I'm standing at the butt end and the skidder is at my back, which way did you put the cable?What about double herringbone drops?I've always used chain.
Ed K

JDeere

I am surprised at the differing opinions on both sides of this issue. I had used chain chokers for years as that was all I ever knew. When working a couple years back, 2 loggers I worked with said to try cable chokers and I did. I will never go back to chain chokers on a regular basis. You lose one and you have just lost your profit on that twitch and probably the next one as well. I run 13 cable chokers and a hook at the end for a chain choker if I need it. I don't have a problem with them coiling up, but they do wear out quicker than chains.
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lumberjack48

When facing the butt of the tree with choker in right hand, slide choker under right hand side of the tree. If there set this way every time they don't coil up.

When the wife started running the skidder i never thought nothing of it. In about a week the chokers stated getting a different coil to them. So i asked how was she setting chokers, here to find out she's left handed. We had words, i told her she had to set them from the right hand side or take a week off  8)  Of coarse i was kidding [some what] she had to get it right or it doesn't work. I kept an eye on her, i had to holler a few times, but she got it.

I just asked her if she would like to use choker chain. She said you mean use chain for chokers, how do you push chain under a tree, i don't think so. That was her answer.

I always had a choker bell on the end of the rigging and a free choker hanging on the arch. So if i needed to run out and grab a another tree i had a free choker.
The way i lay my timber in a clear cut, i can usually hook all 6 chokers before she got off the skidder, this would make her mad.
Third generation logger, owner operator, 30 yrs felling experience with pole skidder. I got my neck broke back in 89, left me a quad. The wife kept the job going up to 96.

Ed_K

LJ48,thanks for clearing my mind  ;D .If I told Rita weekoff you'd thought a tornado just set down GONE  :o.
Ed K

bill m

Hooking cable chokers from the left or right has nothing to do with them coiling. When a cable is over stretched around something the strands on the outer radius of the bend in the cable are stretched more than the strands on the inside. The same thing happens to a winch cable. The cable does not rotate on the drum so the cable is always stretched the same way repeatedly. After time it will coil and can never be straightened. Both cable and chain chokers can break but chain is easier to fix. Both can be lost. Cable will wear out, chain will not. Chain is more expensive but will have to be replaced less. I am still using chain chokers I bought in 1991, I don't think you could do that with cable.
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sawguy21

I have only worked with cable chokers, nobody used chain because of the weight. They usually got bunged up from being dropped by a careless pilot, I was not impressed torching the tangled mess to salvage the sliders.
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lumberjack48

Quote from: bill m on July 03, 2012, 09:37:30 PM
Hooking cable chokers from the left or right has nothing to do with them coiling. When a cable is over stretched around something the strands on the outer radius of the bend in the cable are stretched more than the strands on the inside. The same thing happens to a winch cable. The cable does not rotate on the drum so the cable is always stretched the same way repeatedly. After time it will coil and can never be straightened. Both cable and chain chokers can break but chain is easier to fix. Both can be lost. Cable will wear out, chain will not. Chain is more expensive but will have to be replaced less. I am still using chain chokers I bought in 1991, I don't think you could do that with cable.

I would like to know why my chokers have a little curve at the end, When my crews chokers look like coil springs, what am i doing different ?

My mainline stayed straight, i usually got 6 months out of a 1/2" or 9/16" 75 footer. I used all 75 feet about 70% of the time, no cross line or backlash on drum.
The only time i had a mainline coil up on me was when i put a Swaged line on. We used it about a week, the wife told me to put the old line back on, i gave the swaged line away.
Third generation logger, owner operator, 30 yrs felling experience with pole skidder. I got my neck broke back in 89, left me a quad. The wife kept the job going up to 96.

log cutter

If you chokers get to kink up just use a choker straightener on them.
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HiTech

       I prefer chain type chokers. When I bought my skidder it had cable chokers on it. They are now hanging in my garage waiting to be used for something. I prefer to use the 5/16" chain chokers in Grade 100. They are light and very strong. Also I prefer 9/16" winch cable...it is also light and easier to pull out. If whatever I have hooked to doesn't come, I get off the skidder to go see why, instead of just winching till I break the cable. I have around 120' of winch cable and at times have used it all. lol Especially on side hills or steep ridges. My partner runs 65' 3/4" swaged on his skidder and says that is too much cable. lol No two people have the same likes or dislikes...whatever works for one doesn't work for the other. To me parts or accessories cost too much to just destroy.

lumberjack48

Most of the time i ran 1/2" mainline with 7/16" chokers with timber running 4 to 12 trees to a cord. Theres no reason to be busting rigging up. When i ran two skidders, i never did find an operator that could really get it, including my brothers and my father. I ran 9/16" line with 1/2" chokers on it, they were retying the line all the time and asking for chokers. They needed 3/4" swedged cable with 9/16" swedged chokers. But then something would break in the winch, theres no winning with bullier's.

At the end of the day they couldn't understand how the wife and me could pull more wood. Its petty easy thinking, if the skidder isn't moving its not pulling wood.
Third generation logger, owner operator, 30 yrs felling experience with pole skidder. I got my neck broke back in 89, left me a quad. The wife kept the job going up to 96.

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