Ok, let me just say right now, I'm a fledgling hobbyist who reads enough to grasp the general idea, but is likely to miss small, but critical details without first hand experience. I have 2 acres of land with a 1.25ish acre woodlot (flat and reasonably square, but damp), primarily filled with 40' - 60' tall silver maple and some dying ash. I am building a treehouse w/zipline and a workshop, and since I need to cut down some trees to do so, I figured I may as well use my own trees for the interior woodwork and siding.
I'm going to have a portable mill come in to saw up my logs, but I need to get them out and stacked for him to saw efficiently. (apparently that's important) As of right now, I have none of the equipment necessary to make this happen except a chainsaw. What I do have is plenty of spare time, a teenager sized kid I don't mind working into exhaustion, and about a $1000-$2000 for buying equipment.
Things that may matter:
* I intend to pick up a small manual mill later this summer/fall to do milling primarily as a hobby, retrim my house and provide wood for a couple of friends that do custom woodwork.
* I am going to start tapping trees for syrup production, so a vehicle of some sort to haul a 50 gallon drum around for collection would be useful.
* I need a different lawn mower, cause the 8hp/30" rider I have isn't cutting it.
So, how would you guys go about this?
On the extreme end of labor, I could use a log cant and winch to haul logs out, but without raising at least one end, I suspect I'd end up grinding a lot of dirt and debris into the logs.
I could get a older 1970s - 1980s garden tractor to mow & skid logs. Still need a cant hook I'd imagine, probably with a stand.
I could get a cheaper lawn tractor/mower, and an older ATV for skidding logs.
I could drop and buck all the logs, then rent some piece of equipment to do the moving in a day or so. But it would need to be a smallish machine to get back among the trees.
I could hire someone to do this all. But that would pretty much eat up any savings that would be achieved from using my own logs.
Any other ideas? Advice?
Also, what kind of cant hook/peavy should I be looking for? I'd rather not spend $300, but I don't want something that bends the first time it's used on something heavy.
Thanks.
As for the cant hook, you can't go wrong with LogRite. They are a sponsor. Look to the left side of your screen. I have four different brands of cant hooks, but the LogRite is the one I will always pick up. A log arch and a four wheeler and/or garden tractor would probably service your needs. I would lean towards an older large garden tractor with belly mower if you want one machine to do it all.
Wudman
With the amount of land that you have its more likely that you will be hauling around a 30 gal drum than a 50 gal drum, many of the 4wheel ATV's will handle that. Go to a junk yard and get an old smoothly curved car hood for a skid plate. cut a hole in the nose of the hood to run your skid line through. Get a decent come along, a LogRite cant hook, and short log chain or a 3/8" choker. Use the skid plate , chain or choker and the ATV and/or the come along to drag the logs to the milling site, and the cant hook to position the logs, both at the milling site and for getting on the skid plate. If your lawn area is smooth enough, gang reel type mowers that can be pulled by an ATV would work.
what diameter is your maple? I procured an older Kubota B6100 4WD for yard work and love it. Tills the garden, mows the grass and pulls random things in the yard. Point being if you have large diameter maple you would need a decent tractor to pull them around.
I would suggest finding a local with a big tractor, and for his/her services for dragging your trees, they can have the tops/non saw log portion for firewood. Have the kid(s) even buck it all up for them and they will be happy.
Here's my garden tractor skidding story. Really a pole wood skidder.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,81964.0.html
You could rent a skid steer for the large logs.
Logging is dangerous business so don't let your son get too close. Give him you cell phone and have him keep a close eye on you, at a distance. That way if something happens he can call for help.
How about sawing the logs were they fall with a chain saw mill?
Ask a lot of questions and work safe..!
If you are going with a garden tractor (rather than a subcompact tractor, which will cots a good bit more), it's probably better to go with a gear transmission than a hydrostatic. If you do go hydrostatic, remember that not all HST transmissions are created equal. Some of them will not take much pulling before you just wear them out, others are significantly tougher (unfortunately, I don't remember the model designations of the transmissions to tell you which are the good ones).
A logging arch will greatly increase what you can pull. If you can't find one cheaply enough to fit your budget, you can make one fairly inexpensively if you are a good scrounger and know how to weld. Just remember that while an arch can allow you to pull heavier logs, most of them don't make it any easier to stop - and be especially careful coming down hills.
The Wheel Horse standard with the high/low and 1 1/8" axle ain't bad for a stock transaxle.
The standard Cub Cadet is weaker than the above but if ya replace the axles and differential out of the hydro (fine spline) that set up is at least as good as the above WH.
The ultimate is using a Dodge differential in the Cub Cadet but that is expensive.
You could install the drop axles and bull gear from a Cub onto the Cub Cadet transaxle. 😉
The above is only for the old time cast iron garden tractors.
Give me a pile of junk and time..! Heaven I say.. ☺
If you want to drastically in trade the log hauling ability of any machine you choose to drag get to drag logs with, I would use the forum search tool for "log arch" and see what material you can round up to build an arch. Will save you a lot of time and head ache in the "long haul"! Work safe! 8)