Main line skidder cable

[rick f]

My main line frayed a whole strand yesterday. I'm thinking i'll have to get a new one very soon. Please tell me about them, swedeged vers reg cable. 5/8 x 85' reg  139.00    3/4 swedeged to 9/16 x 85 185.00+

I've got a 664 clark mostly used for firewood, about 100 cord a year

What would you get and why, please

[MEloggah]

The cable on ours is missing a strand the whole way. It looks funny but hasn't broke in over a year

[treeslayer2003]

pulling small wood, I would get 5/8 standard cable as it easy to handle and cheaper. a new small cable is better than a large wore out piece.

[mad murdock]

unless you need more length of cable on your winch, i would go with unswaged cable.  Save a bunch of $$.  you should be able to fit a 100' hank of 5/8' on your spool.  if you need more length, the swaged will fit more on for sure.   I bought mainline from Bailey's last time I needed cable, their price was surprisingly reasonable, even with freight.

[Maine logger88]

I personally prefer the 5/8 non swaged for usability and that's what I use on my 225 which it works great on. My 540 on the other hand will break a 5/8 standard cable with big twitches after awhile so swaged is what I have to run on that to get more life out of it I usually buy two cables a year one for each machine.

[lynde37avery]

5/8 is plenty good nuff. i buy one every 200 cord or 100 thou ft.

[Birchwood Logging]

I run 3/4 swedged on my 700 dozer with 8 bells on it I go through a cable about every month the 700 is pretty hard on cables but I pull 1500 bf twitches usually the 3/4 is heavy add 8 bells and a 2 foot pice of 1/2 chain on the end it will wear you out dragging it around

[thenorthman]

I run 3/4 regular, used to have 5/8's on there but the 3/4 lasts a whole lot longer.  I'm sure the swaged is nice and all but the sliders just tear everything up anyway.

Usually the last foot or so gets fairly hammerd so I keep an eye on it and hack it off when it starts getting more then a little sketchy.  If you get proactive on it you only loose a foot or two rather then the 3-10 feet when the line finally does break and take 3 or 4 strands with it.  If you've broke all the way through one strand now the chances are the line is pretty funky for a few feet as it is, now snap off a few more strands and see what happens...

[HiTech]

All depends on what you are going to pull. Large trees and a bunch of them at a time the 3/4 swaged is hard to beat. I run 125 feet of 9/16" cable. 40,000 lb. plus breaking strength. I have a small skidder also. A C4 and 5 sliders. There are times all 5 are full and times I only use one. I have tortured it a few times and it seems to hold on. A Gearmatic 119 winch. My buddy runs 65' of 3/4" swaged and wouldn't run anything else. I had my skidder backed into a tree plus the brake locked and pulled a 24" on the butt Yellow Birch up a hill and had almost all my cable out to get to it. No limbs were cut off...the whole tree. The reason I pulled the whole tree was it was on a boundary line and I don't leave tops or limbs on lines. It tends to pith landowners off. Once I got it to my skidder I didn't know if I could pull it or not. 1st gear hi range and it followed me till I got to a spot I could limb it out. The hill was more a ledge than a hill. lol No other way to get it. I have a brand new 125' 9/16" cable ready in case I need it and also a 75' 5/8" if needed. Put a little diesel on them when you fill up and they seem to last longer. I have seen some skidders where I don't know if a 1" cable would be big enough. They make some monsters today. lol

[coxy]

that's all I use is 9/16 swaged 75ft its on my case 300   pettibone501  518 cat all with 7 sliders  and 3 350 dozers with 3 sliders    just have to use your head 

[ST Ranch]

5/8 sweded and 10 sliders on myKomatsu D37E crawler- I find the swedged lasts longer when winching in from the side while using the fairlead a lot.
Tom

[rick f]

Thank you guys for the replys. I think i'll try a regular 5/8 cable and see how it works out.

[Stephen Alford]

 Hey Rick, I realize everyone has to use what works for them. I do a bit of firewood and use a 100' ...1/2'' mainline. Works on the tractor or skidder.  About 123.00. Easy to to work with. I do put a squirt of chain oil on the fairlead seems to help.