couple pics... post what your currently cutting

[Southside]

It's a 170 with a grapple and winch, 5.9 Cummins.  I will get a few pics.  Was running it Friday in some decent sized pine, small by todays standards, but she will move some serious wood.   

[barbender]

I didn't realize that Franklins were set up that way, too👍

[Walnut Beast]

 

 

 

 A little hand cutting on some hard dead Elm. And a little quick digging to add some length to get warmed up for many more. 

[Stephen Alford]

   Mr Barbender thank you for the pics. By the look of the groves worn in your rollers the ol girl has pulled a fair bit of wood in her day.
   What is the story on your D1 Mr Walnut Beast. We used to cut a shovel like that for cleaning the mud out of the lags on dozers and excavators.

[g_man]

from WalnutBeast

"There is no way I would trust that dowel for a connection of winching on the size of stuff I’ll be doing"


I also got this response -

Surprisingly, a rolled up magazine or newspaper works well also.

Yeah. The magazine was a discovery when recovering a car from a ditch.

There is not as much breaking force on that dowel as you might think but it isn't for every application.

gg

[Southside]

That's all compression force on a cylinder, good luck putting enough pressure on that dowel to hurt it. 

[C5C Tree Farmer]

My Franklin has that same oscillation in the center and like you said, what a difference that makes.  It does take some getting used to when on side hills with holes and such, you get a pucker factor thinking bad things are about to happen when in reality all four wheels are firmly still planted on the ground due to the set up.  

I have one of each and prefer the front cradle set up on the Tree Farmer. When the front wheels are winched off the ground on the Franklin the cab clunks off to the side. When this happens on a side hill and the cab tips to the downhill side it is a bit of an adrenaline rush.

[Southside]

Which model Franklin do you have? 

[Old Greenhorn]

................
There is not as much breaking force on that dowel as you might think ........

Of course this is true, but even if the dowel, stick, or rolled up whatever were to magically evaporate, the 'knot' will just jam together and being very hard or impossible to get apart. The dowel just makes a space so the two slings came be taken apart easily. It's a slick idea and I will use it going forward. I have always avoided putting slings together like this because they won't came apart easily, if at all. Now I can do that. Thanks.

[newoodguy78]

I’ve never used an actual dowel,but I’ve used the nearest stick many times in the same application.
In my experience the slings or straps break first every time. I will admit the times they broke everything was being pushed beyond its limit. Sometimes you’ve got to do what needs doing with what’s at hand.
Like OG mentioned the worst that happens is it slips out (which is pretty unlikely) and you’ve got a longer strap with a knot in the middle.

[Resonator]

Good to have the ends separated by something. I know if you knot nylon tow straps together and pull hard enough, the friction with make the webbing stick together.
The D ring I use is rated for I believe 15,000# WLL, so I know the strap will break before the ring will fail. And since I don't have a winch (not yet anyway), I'll usually hook straps, cables, chains, or whatever I've got together on a long pull. And then stop and back up subtracting lengths when the log is pulled onto the trail.

[C5C Tree Farmer]

Which model Franklin do you have?

I have a Franklin 100XL-N. Perkins power and 18.4 x 26 tires.

[Southside]

This is my 170

 


 

Runs on the same style rubber as BB'S, only 30.5x32

[Walnut Beast]

What a dandy Southside!!! Thanks for posting! Love that older stuff! I don’t think your going to have much trouble moving logs. A little paint and it would look good as new!

[Southside]

That's one gallon of Home Depot mixed paint I really stretched to cover the whole machine 7 or 8 years ago. 

[Walnut Beast]

Probably a dumb question Southside after having and using that grapple do you think you could live without the grapple 

[Southside]

Myself I think a small scale operation needs a grapple and a winch, I would not want to be without either. 

[barbender]

 Yeah I wish I had a grapple, too. I was digging around on the internet years back and found literature on a bolt on grapple Pettibone made for my machine. You just raised and lowered it with the winch. Still better than jumping off when you don't need to😁
 
 They also made a front end loader for it, and I wish I'd run across one. It was no joke, I think someone had a picture on the Forum once where they were lifting an old COE 2 ton about 10' in the air. It would be really handy for what I'm doing right now.

[barbender]

That Franklin is sharp Southside, those things were built like tanks. It's a shame all of those American and Canadian foresty equipment manufacturers folded or were bought out.

[47sawdust]

I've got 2 nylon straps that are probably knotted for life,just happened 2 weeks ago.
I wish the g man would have posted that trick 3 weeks ago.