Cable chokers or chain chokers ?

[BargeMonkey]

i tried cable chokers in vermont, my opinion is the cable gets kinked. you have to pull from the end. i use 3/8 grade 100 with 6 slides and very rarely use all of them if the choker wont go around i use 2 tear drops.  and still have 4 more for more other trees. in my opinion cable chokers are a joke. square chain chokers work in peeling wood, but can be hard on the hooks. i like to work from the end of my cable to the top. just my way but it has worked for 23 years. everyone has their way, so just stay safe and log on. good luck to all!!!

smiley_clapping

[so il logger]

Run what you like.... cable choker's have my vote  8)

[sawyerf250]

@lumberjack48 l was looking through your gallery pictures and noticed you have a pic of the "New England Style" choker like l use and didn't know if you might post that and a picture of the hey hole sliders that those work with? l don't know how to load photos off of another site or even how to upload them on here?! lol People seem not to like the cable because they get tangled, using that style made it easy for me.

[jd540b]

Seems like alot of the cable choker guys have had issues with "pushing chain"....maybe thats some kind of Darwin thing....ya know....just saying....:)

[jwilly3879]

Seems like alot of the cable choker guys have had issues with "pushing chain"....maybe thats some kind of Darwin thing....ya know....just saying....

:D

A choker hook works good. So does laying the choker on the ground before dropping the tree.

[lumberjack48]

I never used the New England style chocker. When i had a tree i wanted to pickup alone the skid road i'd leave the top choker open. Drop the drag about ten feet back, pull ahead, grab the saw, get off the skidder, grab the choker, hook it up on the tree, then fall the tree. Get back on, while pulling ahead winch up and hit the throttle and head for the landing. If i had three trees to pickup alone the way out i'd leave the top three chokers hung up and use as needed on the way out.

                             Heres a New England style choker



 

[log cutter]

Chain chokers are like grits.....its a regional thing.  :D

[lumberjack48]

  I never had a problem with cable chokers tangling up [ unless ] they had been hooked wrong. If chain was faster or easier to use, you can bet thats what i would have been using. When cutting row cut or selective cut pine, ten tree to the cd stuff, i used 75 foot, 1/2 inch mainline with ten, six foot, 7/16 chokers. I had a place to hang chokers on both sides of the arch. Other wise i used 75 foot, 9/16 mainline with six, six foot 1/2 inch chokers.

[CCC4]

Chain chokers are like grits.....its a regional thing.  :D

Hey now GRITS are hard to beat...just like cable chokers if used properly...

[thenorthman]

I beat cable chokers all the time ;D ruttin fussen gall dernend bark and hag swarpin mud bang...

As far as grits goes... I don't want no trouble now... ;)

[Straightgrain]

I find myself switching over from 3/8" chain to 3/8" cables; the local logging supply store is making 3 for me now, but I have to figure out where/how to stow them on the winch/tractor where the chains simply lay in the box-shaped area on both sides of the lower pulley.

I used my 1/2"X10' cable-choker on the 36" dia butt of a School-Marm yesterday and it worked where trying it with chains would be like putting a banana peel on a water melon.

Based on what I learned from this thread (thank you), I'm getting two New England Styles made (@ 60") for my key-hole sliders, and a 72 inch-er made with two nubs and a bell/hook, to attach to the bell/hook on the end of my 10mm mainline (all midgets).

Grits recipe: 2 scoops of grits, 1 pint of maple sirup, 1 stick of butter....1 roll of TP ;D

[BaldBob]

This thread reminds me of an old joke: An old logger goes on his first plane ride carrying an old choker. The stewardess stops him and says he can't bring that on board. He tells her that its safety equipment. " If I need to jump out, this is sure to hang up on something before I get very far."

[coxy]

its amazing how much grits gets talked about in all the posts  :D :D  don't not know what grits and chokers have in common but its funny  :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

[thenorthman]

I find myself switching over from 3/8" chain to 3/8" cables; the local logging supply store is making 3 for me now, but I have to figure out where/how to stow them on the winch/tractor where the chains simply lay in the box-shaped area on both sides of the lower pulley.

I used my 1/2"X10' cable-choker on the 36" dia butt of a School-Marm yesterday and it worked where trying it with chains would be like putting a banana peel on a water melon.

Based on what I learned from this thread (thank you), I'm getting two New England Styles made (@ 60") for my key-hole sliders, and a 72 inch-er made with two nubs and a bell/hook, to attach to the bell/hook on the end of my 10mm mainline (all midgets).

Grits recipe: 2 scoops of grits, 1 pint of maple sirup, 1 stick of butter....1 roll of TP ;D

This is nearly useless without pics but I'll try anyway...

Wrap em 2-3 times making a ring abut 8" in diameter or so, then take the end with the bell and wind it around the coil a few times, going through the middle not all the way around, the springyness of the cable will fight against itself and hold it there. If it don't work first try, wind it the opposite way.

I keep 3-4 chokers in the "trunk" of the skidder which is like 2'-1.5' along with 2 snatch blocks, a tow chain or two, ms 260, some garbage, a handful of wedges (mostly broken) and sometimes a 1 gallon thermos of H2o... some days there is still room to think in there.

[thenorthman]

This thread reminds me of an old joke: An old logger goes on his first plane ride carrying an old choker. The stewardess stops him and says he can't bring that on board. He tells her that its safety equipment. " If I need to jump out, this is sure to hang up on something before I get very far."

I think of that everytime a jagger stabs me in the side... or one gets hung up on those little y crotch twigs and gum up everything, or when a jagger snags my gloves and pulls em clean off my hands... when I have to fight to get em off...

[Walnut Beast]

Chain's are something you put on tire's around here. I can not see myself ever replacing cable choker's with chain choker's. Most tree's are heavy enough here that we have a hard time forcing a cable choker under them. There may be one a day where I could wrap a chain around it, if it happened to land just right. It's awfull hard to push a chain, but if a guy could pick the end of the log up and put a chain around it then it may work ;D 8)

For all you big time logging boys! Why or what's the reason they don't use this single leg hook choker vs the button one? Maybe they do. They are a little more expensive.  I know the loop would be a little harder to get under the log but about the same as a logging chain hook. These are used for rebar,  pipe also overhead lifting  

[mike_belben]

Its either stahls or northamericansupply that sells that style and many other chokers.  Its hard to imagine something better than a standard choker bell setup.

[Southside]

That hook would get broken or smashed closed before very long.  I have had bell chokers get smashed before. 

[Walnut Beast]

Good point. I've got got 140 ft of half inch cable at the rigging place getting some stuff made up out of it and getting the bell style and thought about that other one also. Even know I have the winch I need to get out further so getting a couple 50' ones made swaged with thimbles

[Walnut Beast]

The rigging place I went to carry some really really  big stuff and in house strap making also of all sizes so getting a tree saver made or get something off the shelf. They make some monster stuff in that also. Seen a buddy that I hadn't seen in years getting a bunch of  straps for his 53' trailers 

[B.C.C. Lapp]

I've used them both.  Chain chokers are better. No question in my mind at all. 

[mike_belben]

i snapped a 9/16 choker last week being dumb and just bought boss a replacement at the co-op a few hours ago.  most productive $22 in the woods.  

i kinda have to use chains on my own stuff for lack of having an arch.  they dont push very well but dont give splinters or get all coiled up after some abuse either.  i guess im split down the middle. 

[Old Greenhorn]

We stopped at C. Stahl's last week and Bill picked up some replacement chain chokers. One if them had the links made out of square stock, so I asked him about it. He said they are supposed to take a better bite, so he thought he would try one. Anybody try those and have an opinion?

[47sawdust]

No personal experience.As you say ,better grip ,lighter weight and pricey.

[B.C.C. Lapp]

We stopped at C. Stahl's last week and Bill picked up some replacement chain chokers. One if them had the links made out of square stock, so I asked him about it. He said they are supposed to take a better bite, so he thought he would try one. Anybody try those and have an opinion?

I have some. They are  good for spring when the barks loose. They also work better than round chains if the logs have ice on them.  The only down side to them at all is that they are much slower to get out of the slide.  They kind of hang up more.   Try them and you'll see what I mean right off.