winch cable like a spaghetti

[Skidder Kev]

We have used old crane cable once had it on for 2 weeks and had to cut and reknot it every 2 days.  That was the end of that.   free or not we wouldn't run it again. 

kev

[cutter88]

I'm not at all putting you down because I have did it many times my self but there's only one way a cable goes all loopy like that, it's from improper winching and the cable gets hot like winching on a 90 angle...

[Kodiakmac]

We have used old crane cable once had it on for 2 weeks and had to cut and reknot it every 2 days.  That was the end of that.   free or not we wouldn't run it again. 

kev

Maybe it was because it was old (used).  The spool I bought was new cable - military surplus.  The spool ends had RCEME stamps and stickers.  I never broke a cable, but it certainly did get frayed.

[teakwood]

to cutter88: no problem with telling me that. i dont have a problem with good crictics, i can learn something from it and your probably right. I have just 100hours of skidder operating. nobody was born as an expert. Sometimes when a package of logs gets stucked i use an other choker around a standing tree to reajust the direccion, so probably thats what curled up my cable. Every day i learn something new and surely i am many hours away to be an expert skidder driver. Keep the inputs coming! Thanks

[coxy]

I know a lot of loggers some old some young and have never seen and expert just some are better then others  :D :D ;D always try to learn from your mistakes you will make a lot  a day logging is a day of learning  ;D ;D  jmop

[BargeMonkey]

 I was screamed at from the age of 12 on about hurting winch cable.  :D  cutting row planted wood ? Like what your pictures show, you arent able to tip 5-6 butts close to the same way and grab a close bundle at 1 time ? Your marking length on the stump ? I questioned why you wherent pulling the tops for firewood but realized where you where.  :D :D :D

[teakwood]

Bargemonkey: of course i try to fall them near each other and bundle them up for one pull but sometimes one is a little bit farer than the others so i have to zigzag the line. but to get a nice haul i need to pick up at least 12-16 logs (because they are still young and small) with 8 chokers! My traveldistance to landing can get up to 1.5milles. and yes i cut them to length on the stump the rest stays there to rotten. No need for garbage on the landing (Costa Rica, tropics, no need for firewood)

[Kodiakmac]

Bargemonkey: of course i try to fall them near each other and bundle them up for one pull but sometimes one is a little bit farer than the others so i have to zigzag the line. but to get a nice haul i need to pick up at least 12-16 logs (because they are still young and small) with 8 chokers! My traveldistance to landing can get up to 1.5milles. and yes i cut them to length on the stump the rest stays there to rotten. No need for garbage on the landing (Costa Rica, tropics, no need for firewood)

Holy Mackerel!  That's what's wrong...your mainline is simply dying from old age! ;D

[teakwood]

What old age?? She is just one month old! I know that is not ideal to have such long distance to the landing but my business is to small to buy another equipment like a forwarder and the whole area is to steep for trucks (semi with shipcontainers) its 120acres and just one landing place.

[cutter88]

to cutter88: no problem with telling me that. i dont have a problem with good crictics, i can learn something from it and your probably right. I have just 100hours of skidder operating. nobody was born as an expert. Sometimes when a package of logs gets stucked i use an other choker around a standing tree to reajust the direccion, so probably thats what curled up my cable. Every day i learn something new and surely i am many hours away to be an expert skidder driver. Keep the inputs coming! Thanks

:) I still make my cable have pig tails a few times a year sometimes it's plain unavoidable like that pic the guy drew that shows the right way he must be in different bush then me cause they never end up all perfect like that for me hahahaha

[Kodiakmac]

What old age?? She is just one month old! I know that is not ideal to have such long distance to the landing but my business is to small to buy another equipment like a forwarder and the whole area is to steep for trucks (semi with shipcontainers) its 120acres and just one landing place.

Just kidding you.  A 1.5 mile skid must seem like forever!

[redprospector]

I still make my cable have pig tails a few times a year sometimes it's plain unavoidable like that pic the guy drew that shows the right way he must be in different bush then me cause they never end up all perfect like that for me hahahaha

Hahaha! If the woods I work in were perfect I would have posted a photo of the "right way"  :D
I'll make two turns before I'll hitch up the wrong way though.

[BargeMonkey]

 Its an art to learning cable, knowing how to hook, roll a tree around a stump, it doesnt come over night. Having that much cable going on and off the drum all the time is going to wear it pretty good, other than bunching youve got a tough situation.

[treeslayer2003]

Its an art to learning cable, knowing how to hook, roll a tree around a stump, it doesnt come over night. Having that much cable going on and off the drum all the time is going to wear it pretty good, other than bunching youve got a tough situation.

your right there.......i get agravated with my son, but like the ol man said i been doin it over 20 years.......i agravated him to i bet lol.

[thenorthman]

I put a twist in every log, limb and buck as I fall em, so that way the limbs I missed on the bottom are now on the top... usually... The sometimer help I have don't always figure that out, even after 2-3 years... ???

[barbender]

Teakwood, with a skid that is 1.5 miles, I would consider making a "pre-landing" at the cutting site. Then, instead of trying to get the maximum amount of trees hooked in the woods, and damaging your cable from winching it around stumps and trees,  you could get reasonable amounts of trees and drop them on the "pre-landing". It helps to have logs laying perpendicular where you drop the wood, so you can get your chokers hooked again. Then, when you are ready to make the 1.5 mile skid, you can hook back up, I would try to get 2 trees in a choker or however many it takes to get a full skid behind your machine. Don't hook up so much you are overworking your skidder, but on a skid that long I would want the maximum amount of wood behind the machine.

[treeslayer2003]

if you do that, drop them on a 2" stick or sapling so you can get the chokers under them easily.

[barbender]

Also, if you are using all of your 150' of cable, I would consider hiring a second person to hook chokers. You might only hook 3 trees winch them in 30', unhook, hook up 3 more, winch them to the others, and repeat until you have enough for a full skid. You could do this type of work for a day or two, and then have a day where you just made the long skid out to the landing. I would get a set of two way radios to communicate I cate between the choker setter and skidder operator, it can be very dangerous if someone winches at the wrong time. Also, there are radio winch controls available for this kind of work. I don't know how much they cost, but that could be an option.

[teakwood]

Thats what i do. I always work with an other person, you can not hook up the whole cable by yourself and the terrain is also steep and we have hot climate. i would be death after 3hours. We hook up3-6 trees (depends on how many trees are laying in that alley) winch them and repeat this until i have a nice load of logs and then i make the skid to the landing, meanwhile the help try to make packages of two or three logs by hand, so when i come back we us one choker each bundle. I never unhook some logs until the landing, with so many chokers and logs i would loose to much time. Most of the time the distance is around half a mile, the 1 1/2mile skid is the longest i have on the land. I was thinking about winch radio control but get rid of the idea, its to dangerous. on my steep grounds i have to be on the machine to control her so she wont tip over or fall down the hill. you see the radio controls alot in europe, thats because the wages of helps are pretty high and the skidders have a shield in the back they can put into the ground, so the skidders are better secured than ours with just the brakes to winch.

[teakwood]

hi guys. i atached the cable to a tree and stretched the whole lenght of it, so it was in a beautiful height to oil it up. Almost all curls are gone and the cable spooles and handels alot better with some oil on it. Great tip, thanks alot.  The chokers look like apaghettis to, hard to undo them. should i oil them up to? or you guys just buy new ones after a while?

[thenorthman]

Naw forget the chokers, a little oil or grease on the sliders helps sometimes, the chokers spend about half of each pull plowing dirt anyway, they are bound to break sooner or later.

Besides some day you may want to take a flight on a malaysian airliner... take one of them bent and twisted chokers in yer carry on, if the plane goes down the stupid thing should hang up on something.

[Kodiakmac]

hi guys. i atached the cable to a tree and stretched the whole lenght of it, so it was in a beautiful height to oil it up. Almost all curls are gone and the cable spooles and handels alot better with some oil on it. Great tip, thanks alot.  The chokers look like apaghettis to, hard to undo them. should i oil them up to? or you guys just buy new ones after a while?

Heee, heee!  When I worked in the McBride BC area we used to say "She's kinky as a Yukon choker", because the farther north you got the trees were smaller and the chokers got more twisted.

[lumberjack48]

  The chockers can only be hook right handed or left handed. If there hooked left and right handed they'' coil up like a spring.

  I ran cable 30 yrs, i tried swedged cable one time. Its was to stiff and wanted to coil up. I used reg 9/16 mainline, lasted us about 6 months, pulling 100 to 200 trees a day. I never oiled the cable, cut the end off about once a week. I had a single bit axe welded on the frame to cut the cable off with. A few blows with a five lb. hammer it was cut off, put the chocker bell on, tie a figer 8 knot, put the vise grips on as close to the knot as you can. When pulling it tight make sure to keep your fingers out of the way. After a few turns cut the pig tail off.

[Maine logger88]

Good too hear from you LJ48!

[barbender]

Good too hear from you LJ48!

X2  ;)