iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

Ideas for logging trail grooming

Started by dustintheblood, April 20, 2016, 11:33:19 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

dustintheblood

Hi everyone,

Just wrapped up a few days on a Cat 308 to do some improvements to the logging trails here on our own property.  Great unit - I got a ton done.  This is our own bush (~700 acres) that we use for sawlogs, firewood, skiing and hiking as well as maple syrup on some of it. 

Question is how does everyone do final prep on the trails?  The land's got some soil mixed between rubbly limestone and a few boulders courtesy of the last ice age.  I removed all the pin-poppers and rim-wreckers, scraped with the bucket tines and then back smoothed with the blade.  Where there was some 6"ish rocks, I just tossed them aside by hand.

To put a nice finish on them I was thinking of using the 8' farm field drag but it gets bunged up pretty quick with branches etc.  I have some old tractor rear tire chains that I am going to rig up as a chain drag as well.

Usually when doing a normal logging job, grooming's easy when you grab a gnarly top and just go for a drive with it but we're not cutting anything in the bush this year and have three able bodied boys to pitch in and help.  We don't want to pave it or anything  :D  but do want to knock out the speed bumps

Thanks so much!
Case 75C, Case 1494, RangeRoad RR10T36, Igland 4001, Hardy 1400ST, WM LT40HD, WM Edger, ICS DH Kiln

dustintheblood

This is what I'm working on.  The pic was earlier today after the first pass with the excavator

Case 75C, Case 1494, RangeRoad RR10T36, Igland 4001, Hardy 1400ST, WM LT40HD, WM Edger, ICS DH Kiln

coxy

some times I just get a bunch of tree tops and drag them around behind me does a good job

brianJ

Usually when doing a normal logging job, grooming's easy when you grab a gnarly top and just go for a drive with it but we're not cutting anything in the bush this year and have three able bodied boys to pitch in and help.  We don't want to pave it or anything  :D  but do want to knock out the speed bumps


Seems like you have your answer.   I know you werent cutting any trees thisyear but how about one or two for firewood,   It is hardly possible to be too far ahead in your firewood pile.   Thats how I see.

47sawdust

On a previous post someone used tires chained together in a triangle pattern to smooth a woods road.700 acres should keep the boys occupied for a while.
Mick
1997 WM Lt30 1999 WM twin blade edger Kubota L3750 Tajfun winchGood Health Work is my hobby.

sprucebunny

A section of chain link fence with boards and some rocks on it ?

An old bed spring ?

Some people use big old equipment tires chained together with a weighted board or a log crosswise behind that.

The first two are going to pick up some branches but maybe the boys can walk ahead and  remove anything over an inch.

You are lucky to have dry trails. When the state/snowmobile club fixed up the trail on my land, I used a roller I made out of steel culvert and boards to flatten the mud ::)
MS193, MS192 and an 026  Weeding and Thinning. Gilbert Champion sawmill

dustintheblood

Will be giving it a whirl this weekend to clean up at least one section to see how it goes.

Our township is called Stone Mills - for a dang good reason...
Case 75C, Case 1494, RangeRoad RR10T36, Igland 4001, Hardy 1400ST, WM LT40HD, WM Edger, ICS DH Kiln

roger 4400

Baker 18hd sawmill, massey Ferguson 1643, Farmi winch, mini forwarder, Honda foreman 400, f-250, many wood working tools, 200 acres wooden lots,6 kids and a lovely and a comprehensive wife...and now a Metavic 1150 m14 log loader so my tractor is a forwarder now

peterpaul

Tractor and Harley Rake angled to the side.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzxTa2odFFI   I haven't touched my box blade or york rake since I got my Harley Rake.  The video explains how it operates well but doesn't show how well it works with rocks.     
Woodmizer LT15, Kubota 4330 GST, Wallenstein FX 85, Timberwolf TW6, homemade firewood conveyor

Maine372

I don't know if this will work in your situation but ill throw it out there.

I saw a guy using an old buncher track for a drag and it did an awesome job on a gravel road. drive a pin out so its in a straight line, then use something rigid to hold the ends of the track apart (roughly how wide your road will be). the track pads were standing on end. they pulled this with the rigid piece ahead and the flex in the track, plus the u-shape pulling material to the middle, would basically crown the road for you.

now if you were to rig up that same thing and then pull on the middle of the track, you would basically make a v-plow. the flex in the track will follow the contour of the ground and it should push debris to the side of the trail rather than collect them in the middle. theoretically.

let me know if that description is confusing and ill try to draw a picture. I saw this before they started putting cameras on cell phones.

xalexjx

I usually use a d4 size dozer for clean up, depends on what the contract specifies, I dont normally like leaving a mess though.
Logging and Processed Firewood

711ac

Gettin the water off and away (ditching) from your trails is the biggest thing to get right first. Once you've handled proper drainage, the rest is "cake". Nice machine!

dustintheblood

Thanks for the tips everyone.  I setup a some large tractor tire chains behind a spreader bar that hooked onto the ATV hitch ball.  Made a few test passes and it seems to be working fairly well.  I'm going to try a weighted drag behind that to really help smooth out the humps.

The Harley rig's pretty nice looking but I'm not allowed new toys for a while (I'm on a time out  :D  according to my wife.  Plus I'm pretty sure the rocks here would give the rotary head quite a beating.

Will try to post some pics tomorrow of the before, during and after
Case 75C, Case 1494, RangeRoad RR10T36, Igland 4001, Hardy 1400ST, WM LT40HD, WM Edger, ICS DH Kiln

BEEMERS

a really good experienced operator on a small dozer can do amazing things in a situation like this..the rocks of course are the x factor..might be money well spent to have someone come in and let you know what they can do for what price.
key words..good,experienced,small...well,like 16,000 pounds small..maybe less if he has a case..but the dressers and john deeres..a few hours and a few hundreds sometimes with the right operator can save you money..and a lot of time and wear and tear, and do what you couldn't in weeks.

road_monkey

heres what I use.    a big old piece of I beam with 2 tractor weights bolted to it.   works great




 



 

RCBS

Echo CS-3400, 550xp, Jonsered 2166, L3130 Kubota, '78 JD 300 backhoe, Kubota RTV900, JD2305, lots of sharp stuff and several firearms

thecfarm

road_monkey,is that a trail or a road?? My truck road looks like that,well kinda,there are still rocks in the road,but my woods rails are rough. And I do mean rough. No way I could use that for most of them. I have rocks and stumps and uneven places to go through.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

dustintheblood

Quote from: thecfarm on April 25, 2016, 06:00:07 AM
road_monkey,is that a trail or a road?? My truck road looks like that,well kinda,there are still rocks in the road,but my woods rails are rough. And I do mean rough. No way I could use that for most of them. I have rocks and stumps and uneven places to go through.

thecfarm.... sounds like we have the same type of terrain.

We have three main types of rock here.

Limestone
Granite
Leverite


What is Leverite?    (too dang big to move, leverite there)
Case 75C, Case 1494, RangeRoad RR10T36, Igland 4001, Hardy 1400ST, WM LT40HD, WM Edger, ICS DH Kiln

g_man

On my woods roads and trails I find the best maintenance is to NOT use them when they are soft. If I mess them up sometimes I use the tractor with a rear blade turned backwards as a drag. On a bad spot I turn the blade around the right way and just work on that spot.  I find using my wheeler with a drag that can swing side to side gets caught on to many things. If the roads get real bad the best tool is my little dozer. I am no expert at all but can still do a decent job. Loosen a little surface dirt with the rake going up over the rocks to big to move then back drag to spread the dirt across the road fill the low spots.



 



 

gg

road_monkey

"On my woods roads and trails I find the best maintenance is to NOT use them when they are soft"
exactly.   that's why my roads are smooth. once or twice a year I go over them with my hillbilly grader or sometimes backblade.  most of my roads could be driven on with a car, all of them can and do get driven on with my golfcart.

dustintheblood

"On my woods roads and trails I find the best maintenance is to NOT use them when they are soft."

Wish that was the case for us, but with sap season it's muddy so we invest some decent time and manpower to make sure they're built up well on the trails to the pipelines.


The new road trails are coming along well.  We're doing a final hand-pick of the >6" stones and should have some new pics to post soon (the befores and afters).   

Snow in the forecast for tomorrow apparently.
Case 75C, Case 1494, RangeRoad RR10T36, Igland 4001, Hardy 1400ST, WM LT40HD, WM Edger, ICS DH Kiln

enigmaT120

Quote from: 711ac on April 22, 2016, 08:51:45 PM
Gettin the water off and away (ditching) from your trails is the biggest thing to get right first. Once you've handled proper drainage, the rest is "cake". Nice machine!

"Cake?"  Are you a Yehuda Moon fan?  That comic strip is the only place I've ever seen that expression used. 
Ed Miller
Falls City, Or

barbender

     Even with proper drainage, on a well ditched and builtup road, when you live in deep freeze country there is a few weeks during the spring thaw where you are going to destroy your road if you use it. Coincidentally, this is the same time period as when the sap is running :(

    For building a new road, it's tough to beat a dozer with a 6 way blade.
Too many irons in the fire

barbender

     Dustinthblood, what do you have available for pulling implements?
Too many irons in the fire

711ac

Quote from: enigmaT120 on April 25, 2016, 04:20:57 PM


"Cake?"  Are you a Yehuda Moon fan?  That comic strip is the only place I've ever seen that expression used.

Never heard of yehuda moon, just short for "piece of cake" :D

Thank You Sponsors!