Well, now this contraption is for the fellow who has little time and has to do a lot of stuff. :D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13641/tractor%20all%20in%20one%20tool.jpg)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13641/tractor%20all%20in%20one%20tool%20side.jpg)
Ill bet by the time he hooks that thing onto his 3 point he cant left it or pull it!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D,,,bedway
Aw, it can be coaxed to do a little something every now and then. :o
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13641/log%20skidded.JPG)
Used it all Sat afternoon. Fellow brought a 18' trailer load of oak, pecan and cedar short logs. Unloaded his trailer with different methods of the tools (front and back), moved his trailer around the yard to better position his exit strategy, then straightened up ground I dug up pulling logs, etc. smiley_divide
Interesting idea with the boom (paint it red in hopes ya kin quit bumpin in ta it ::) :) ). However, the boom looks a bit on the light duty side, from my experience skidding logs. But if it works for you, that is what counts.
Those logs would skid better on snow and frozen ground. ;D ;D
I think that boom looks about right. You need something to tear first. :D :D
That's pretty slick - you can clean the yard with the box blade when you're going back for the next log too!
What size tractor ya handling that blade with? I know its more than my kubota could handle. I have a device that i built with a trailer hitch on it that doubles as my log getter! Bout the biggest log ive pulled with my bota is a 24 inch12 footer.,,,,bedway
2" X 1/4" angle iron, which is doubled from the end to the angle brace, should hold up to anything my little ol' tractor can handle (and has, and then some :D).
The hitch is mostly just to move trailers and the mill about the compound. Not needing to spend the time changing 3pt implements, and needing weight to counter the front end loader/forks, it all works out pretty well.
I like the idea, I have a old reese type hitch center section welded to the top of my box blade too. and recently added one to my front loader bucket. I have a home made set of pallet forks, which are 2x2 tube 3/16 wall with 2" angle welded to em, I notched the angles so chain will set into it and use that for skidding. I lift shorter lengths of logs with the forks simply back into/under log lift & go. drop off same way drop down & drive out. I chain bigger logs witjh chain across the forks under log and then around log, the chains support log some and pull which keeps it centered in between the forks, but lets it MOVE/SWING about around stuff with out being firmly attached causing damage to forks or tractor. Only one log has gotten best of the setup, 30' 30" DBH hard maple log which was pretty much the limit of my 28hp CUT tractor anyway, it wouldn't LIFT the but end but I managed to get up far enough to get the cross chains on and one tie up chain and drug it out far enough into open area to buck it in half. I want a grappel attach with bruch bucket one day I'll make one up after I get a floor and good welding table made up...
mark M 8)
Why tc,
I think that contraption is slicker than a snotty doorknob. 'Ole Red' (my MF-165) needs one. Got an IMCO box blade to build on.
Quote from: Slabs on January 29, 2007, 07:51:32 PM
Why tc,
I think that contraption is slicker than a snotty doorknob.
Well now, anyone with enough children/grandchildren certainly knows how that is. :D
Hey SPIKER
Pictures; pictures; pictures!!!
We would like to see your apparattus too!
Quote from: Slabs on January 29, 2007, 08:28:42 PM
Hey SPIKER
Pictures; pictures; pictures!!!
We would like to see your apparattus too!
I don't think I have a pic of that there "thingy ma gig" I just played about re-sizeing a bunch of pics of wood and the like I'll post on here had to re-download xdat in the post about pics . it works better than most others I've used if ya can get a rythem going with it...
mark m
If you had a set of forks you could drop on the blade, carry those logs instead of dragging in the dirt - That would be the cats meow - But, you probably know that. :)
Yep. ;D I have those on the other end.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13641/close%20up%20tractor%20stacking.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13641/fork%20bracket.JPG)
It was a load of 'speciality' stuff. 4'-6', knotty, burl, crotch oak, pecan and cedar, with a few 8'-10' straight cedars. He had had back surgery, and showed up about 3:30 pm. He had 4 or 5 tarps covering the load with about 100 or so bungee cords, ropes, etc. It warn't goin' nowhere. :D
Trying to get it all off before dark thirty, and ended up dragging some of it off the trailer. I did lift what I could easily get to. Going back, I would have taken the time to fanagle everything I could to lift it off. With his back, he was...constrained.
DanG nice trailer, though. Specially built, 18' 14,000 lb, run either standard hitch or fifth wheel. Nothing to unload logs, though. :D
He does intricate bandsaw Lord's Supper hangings and the like. He had traveled a little over 50 miles to bring them to me.
Well, some of those short logs were too short to fit on the forks. So, necessity got me around to actually doing what I had been thinking of doing. :D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/13641/new%20fel%20log%20handling.jpg)
You will be making those forks adjustable in a short time if you saw much of the short stuff. I stack blocking, survey sticks, crotch slabs, gunstocks, and anything else short on pallets as I saw. Easy to move and if you watch how you sticker you can stack pallets on top of each other.
Ok took a couple shots of the fork thing-a-ma-gig I made a long wile back, it is 2x2x3/16 square tubing with 2x2x3/16 angle iron supports with chain groves/hook slots cut into the angles the length of the unit. holes in very end of each fork to prevent pulling IN of the forks if I chain across and lift heavy stuff. (planned on using some round bar but never made that part.) was planning on a pivot point but came up with simply using the chain as shown and an anchor chain to prevent pulling away and this lets the log move back & forth and slide easier and not bind up on the fork ends. works pretty good.
works great to remove transport brush/tops ect, I pile them into piles 3~4' high and cut down to less than 8' long (trails are usually less wide but dragging on sides a bit is ok I've found.)
I get a bunch of piles around woods of these branches tops ect and then back into them with forks down lift and drive away. some falls off if they are not piled up well but comes off easy when needed and usually don't have to get off tractor. I start a burn pile bringing new brush in and simply back up to the pile drop the forks drive out leaving the brush in or near the fire, pull out turn around I finish pushing in with the front end loader (F.E.L.)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12855/S7000116b.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/12855/S7000117b.JPG)
mark M