Garwood winch

[Kodiakmac]

Look, I'm an old dog who's been bush-whacking for longer than I want to admit...but you guys amaze me.  Really.

Any chance you could get together and come up with a simple design for a cheap, effective, home-made 3-point hitch skidding winch that any putz with average skills and a welder coud put together in a short time?  Seriously

[pineywoods]

Look, I'm an old dog who's been bush-whacking for longer than I want to admit...but you guys amaze me.  Really.

Any chance you could get together and come up with a simple design for a cheap, effective, home-made 3-point hitch skidding winch that any putz with average skills and a welder coud put together in a short time?  Seriously

How about this ...








Runs off the tractor hydraulics

[mike_van]

Kodiacmac, I made my own some 10 years ago. Started with an 8,000 lb. Tulsa winch off a wrecker. I had a hyd. motor driving it, but never got the right one. Too slow & not enough 'snot' I had it for sale for awhile, some lookers, no takers. End of this summer, I had it in my shop, went from hyd. to pto drive. The changeover was just incredible. I've skidded out 100+ trees since then with no problems. I lost my reverse drive by going to pto, I have to watch out I don't get in a spot where I can't backup or lower the hitch to let the strain off the cable. So far, so good. 

  A few pics   

     The last pic. shows the butt & part rootball from an oak I winched up a pretty steep bank. The cut is about 40", the whole piece some 7 ft long. 

     The frame is channel iron from an old highline crossarm, galvenized, but it was free. I've got 125' of cable on it, twice I had to add on to reach a log.

[Ironwood]

Guys,  ALL great ideas.

Larry,

I like yours on the ground, are there studs or cleats that bury in the ground if it starts to pull you in reverse? Just a thought. I think I may do a hybrid of the Larry and Mike Van units


   Ironwood

[Stephen Alford]

The hydraulic winch has worked well for me . I have had it for about 17 years and because it is hydraulic it has been on more than one piece of gear.  Needs evolve and found myself needing the back of the tractor for other stuff and wanting the winch at the same time. Being able to use powered spool in and spool out with freespoll has been very useful. The thing I never got to incorporate yet is some form of fairlead to keep the cable coming on stright to reduce wear. Added a couple of yarding pics to the gallery.

[beenthere]

Stephen
Is that pulpwood you are bringing in?   or for firewood?

And do you just winch it in, or try to back out with it on the front like that?

[Stephen Alford]

Hey BT; our forestry sector has pretty much flatlined. Firewood is the primary product these days especially in any stand improvement work. Over the years that winch has pulled just about everything . Generally speaking the twitch is pulled together and hauled ahead. the tractor is turned and the wood sorted and hauled to the landing with the grapple. Then the slash is picked up and piled or spread depending on objectives.