jms 900 sr

[logman81]

Thinking about buying a used one and wanted to know if anyone had one and could give me their opinion on them. I have a 4x4 atv that can pull it and I'm thinking it would be good for my landscape and tree service. 

[Ed_K]

 I bought a new one from Bailey's and mounted it on an old boat trailer that I modified into a 4' x 8' cordwood trailer. As soon as I had it all together I found out it 's reach was to short to even pick up logs beside the skid road. I also found out that the yamaha big bear couldn't handle it so I got a M.F. 1433 tractor and even that had a hard time when loaded good and going down hill. At one of the forestry shows I bought an r-flex 380 trailer from Anderson out of Canada and mounted the 900 onto it. This trailer was even bigger than the boat trailer and the 1433 was useless, that's when I upgraded to the Landini 4x4 with winch and hauled the 380 with it. Ever since I got the 900 onto the flex 380 I've been modifying the loader, bigger pistons, longer reach and lots of beefing up. It now reaches 13' and that's to short. Plan on having some sort of winch to pull the logs closer to the trailer so you can pick them up.

[logman81]

Thanks Ed k I don't think I'll run into that problem like you have. I have been talking with a couple other owners of them and they love them just the way they are. I'm not doing logging like you are I'm more in the landscape/tree work side of things plus some small backyard logging. I have  both a atv that I have modified to work in the woods and a older duetz allis tractor I can pull it with. So it would mostly be use as a back saver rather than for any kind of major production. I'm thinking having something is better than having nothing at all in my opinion. 

[logman81]

how big of a log can it get on the trailer without to much difficulty?

[logman81]

 

 

[logman81]

Thanks for your help

[Ed_K]

 The best I've done as far as weight was a 20" x 8' red oak. I had to take the bolsters off the side I was loading then get the back up onto the trailer then grab the front side and pick it up and set it close to the head board. I like using it to load chunks of firewood that are to heavy for me to pick up and put them on the splitter.

[mike_belben]

youre not gonna want too much weight behind a quad.  i know theyve got impressive demos on youtube but no one ever makes a demo vid showing the shape of a 4wheeler after a few years of being shackled to that load. yeah they have the power to pull but not the mass to stay together long term under that yoke of burden.  quads are thin wall tube and little chinese bushings and not cast iron and bronze.  hey i abuse my old kingquad senseless so i am all for doing what youve gotta do, but it was $900 and i can recover when it folds in half or breaks an internal shaft and explodes the gearbox.

 when its time to replace the quad go with a compact tractor that weighs at least 3k.  

[logman81]

Thanks Edk that's not to bad and figured as much. It's not going behind my quad even though I've used it for light duty logging and have addressed weak points on it and made it stronger to handle it. It would be pulled behind my duetz allis 5230 tractor that could handle it much better if I decide to go forward with it. I did recently come across a old loader/winch combo that is a bit bigger that I could build a trailer or maybe find one without a loader and mount it on that so I'm looking into a few different options. It's mostly going to be used on tree service and firewood removal jobs and small lots.

[wisconsitom]

Sounds like logman's got it under control, but something you said, Mike, makes me think back to some blathering I was doing on this board maybe two years ago or so about how I was going to be doing lots of thinning and TSI work with some kind of side by side, UTV, what have you, and that at that time, I was leaning towards a big, slow, hydrostatic machine of this type.  This was at a point when my largest piece of equipment was probably a wheelbarrow.

Luckily, my son and I were chatting up there one day when he said to me, "dad, I think we really need the tractor first, then worry about kid's rides and stuff later.  Man was that correct!  Ended up with Bobcat compact utility tractor with front loader, and my world immediately improved.

Handy, handy things, those CU tractors!

[mike_belben]

yes sir, been there done that. 


logman the trailer will make it possible for you to move in the ballpark of maybe 7 to 10x more wood than the same machine can skid, per pass, if the ground is navigable for the trailer.  that is my general observation from skidding and also trailering with everything from gokarts, quads, garden tractors, lawnmowers, bobcat, tractor.  have not built a dray suitable to go behind the dozer yet but i suspect the 7-10ish is scalable. 

my current 2wd tractor is an old 2 cyl 26hp and it moves 1 cord per pass on a trailer without full power.  wheelies at probably 15hp and then i steer it home like a slomo sled puller with cutting brakes. any more ballast would probably break the trans housing. 

[PoginyHill]

youre not gonna want too much weight behind a quad.  i know theyve got impressive demos on youtube but no one ever makes a demo vid showing the shape of a 4wheeler after a few years of being shackled to that load. yeah they have the power to pull but not the mass to stay together long term under that yoke of burden.  quads are thin wall tube and little chinese bushings and not cast iron and bronze.  hey i abuse my old kingquad senseless so i am all for doing what youve gotta do, but it was $900 and i can recover when it folds in half or breaks an internal shaft and explodes the gearbox.

 when its time to replace the quad go with a compact tractor that weighs at least 3k.  

The other risk of a heavy load is stopping. An ATV (or any light puller) hauling a heavy load will easily jackknife when trying to stop quickly. Nearly done so myself more than once. Not a good feeling.

[logman81]

Hey thanks everyone you all have been very helpful and have some good points. I also found something else of interest but would require alot more work and a trailer to put it on.

 

[thecfarm]

I would like to see that thing in action.

[mike_belben]

The pickup truck receiver makes me think that the crane may also be a backyard cobbling onto that old 3pt winch, which gives me concern of it snapping off the top of a winch that was never made for it to be there.  

If it was manufactured that way disregard.


On a trailer itd be pretty cool, to have a fast winch with a lot of cable, AND a grapple to load.  But in tractor and trailer configuration itll have a lot of tongue weight and the tractor will need a real stout drawbar, plus a front end loader to keep from doing wheelies. A small dozer or crawler loader with pto would handle it better.


Its way to heavy too far back from the axle to work well as a 3pt attachment imo.  Id expect a big log to rip top link brackets or pins apart.  On a 2wd tractor with no loader i dont think that could drive up a hill without a drum of concrete on front.  My backhoe attachment isnt nearly that far back and even with ~400lbs on front i float the steers up mild slopes.

[logman81]

I'm honestly not sure if it is factory or not it looks to be but I could be wrong I can't find a single thread of info on it. My tractor does have a loader and is 4x4 with good agricultural tires and I have forks to load the front down should I need more ballast. I was thinking it would work nice on a dump trailer and run it all off a gas power pack. Run the winch with a hydraulic motor with a flow control to have the ability to adjust how fast the winch works? The price is almost to good to pass up but I'm not sure which direction I want to go. 
The loader trailer is a lot more money but it's turn key and go but may not be as capable on big logs but I guess I could break them down with a chainsaw to handle it. I'm mostly looking for a way to move tree service waste over customers yards and haul firewood from small lots.

[chevytaHOE5674]

That looks like an old Farmi winch with a loader welded to the top.

[mike_belben]

are you going to be using this behind a truck down the road or just in the woods behind a tractor?  


if the answer is tractor, i would machine a belt or sprocket to go over the PTO up stream of the winch and take power off the tractor to run hydraulics.  behind a big tractor itll be pretty effective, since you can twitch to it and load right there.. be awesome actually.. if it dont snap the mast off.  

[logman81]

I was thinking maybe both but im not sure.

[47sawdust]

Looks like a good way to get killed.