I am doing a lot of tree and downwood removal, clearing some woods around my home in Montana. I also want to pull out a number of small trees/scrub directly, i.e. pull them right out and put them on the brush pile with minimal cutting/handling. What is going to be the best equipment for doing this? I'm thinking a small winch truck with a long cable, because I cannot access a lot of the areas other than to pull in a cable and drag out the log. But from surfing the web, I don't see a lot about using winch trucks this way (I used an old one this way when I was younger, so it makes sense to me). I have a small farm tractor, but I think I prefer using a winch to pull, rather than dragging by driving the tractor -- I find that pretty inefficient and a little hazardous. Thanks for any feedback on what direction I should go.
Check out a PortableWinch .
Gas powered capstan winch .
Best tool I ever bought
Quebecnewf
kernag.welcome to the forum.
Nothing a matter with an old truck. My land would be kinda hard to get one around on it. Shorten it up about 6 feet would be easier,but still hard.
You say small tractor,how many hp?4wd? Got a loader for it? I push the brush into a pile with my loader.
Whats your budget? Whats the terrain like? Whats your mechanical/fabrication ability level?
Quote from: Quebecnewf on January 05, 2018, 06:40:27 AM
Check out a PortableWinch .
Gas powered capstan winch .
Best tool I ever bought
Quebecnewf
+1
Kernag,
What kind of terrain are you dealing with? What species of trees/brush are you dealing with? What are your goals? I'm in western Montana and deal mostly with lodgepole pine and some Fir trees and the terrain is fairly steep. I use a four wheeler in the summer and a snowmobile in the winter to pull trees out, most of which are full length. I just tip them towards my trails to avoid winching most of them, which I have a winch on the four wheeler or a chainsaw winch. I'm doing this for firewood and to clear the trails from these falling dead lodgepole.
Levi
I cleared a lot of land with a Farmi winch on the back of a 65 hp tractor.
Set of forks on the front lets you stack brush and move logs.
After years of doing this I finally bought a skidder.
I believe the winch on my tractor had 180' of cable.
You can reach quite a ways with it.
A used winch can be had pretty reasonable.
Forks can be found pretty cheap too.
Just have to look around.
Good luck with whatever direction you go.
One man's cheap is another man's unobtanium.
Back in the 70s we pulled a bunch of trees out of the ground with a 40hp tractor. Hooked up as high as you could and pull then drag to a pile. Yes I got swarped by a bunch of brush pulling them down but dad didn't seem to mind. He was the hookup man.
I've always wanted an older track loader with a winch on the back and a grapple on the bucket, that would do 95% if what I need
Thats how im trying to set mine up, take the chinstrap off the drott 4 in 1 bucket and make a grapple that goes with the drott moldboard so it can still push a little dirt around and grab brush/logs.
DaleK,
Good to see a Monty Python fan.My wife was singing the songs refrain to me this afternoon.We were out snowshoeing and I was staring up into the treetops looking at firewood.
For those of you not familiar who want a good laugh,do a search of Monty Python's Lumberjack song.
Back to the original post.....if your budget permits,4wd tractor with loader,winch,2 good chainsaws,safety equipment,common sense,and good advice will get you started and a long way toward achieving your goals.Slow and steady get's it done.
Quote from: DaleK on January 06, 2018, 09:29:14 PM
I've always wanted an older track loader with a winch on the back and a grapple on the bucket, that would do 95% if what I need
I never thought much about these except, "why would anybody want one?" Now that I have one - - what took me so long to get one?
Thats how i feel about all my junk! What kinda track loader you have and what do you think of it?
I have done some clearing with both a 955 and a 977 cat loader. They will push trees over that gives a dozer a hard time because of being able to reach up high on the trunk, same deal with an excavator, it will surprise you what a guy can do with one.
I saw a track loader on craigslist once that had a grapple on it, for a skidder and a log grapple setup instead of a bucket, would have ben handy for some applications.
I have a 47 hp Kubota and a wallenstine logging winch. Attached to the winch is a trailer. When you use a trailer you can take a bigger load. When you use a trailer dirt doesn't get imbedded into the logs which later dulls the saw when bucking up the wood. Here is a quick video of my set up. https://youtu.be/4XVMb-r8dho (https://youtu.be/4XVMb-r8dho)
Kernag you may wish to loosen the dirt around the tree roots of the trees you intend to pullout. Drilling (and boom)
Taking out a standing tree aussie style, close to only requiring a yard cart for the cleanup.
Blasting a standing tree - YouTube (https://youtu.be/2cq-QVicHUI?t=69)
He posted,spent 3 days here and have not been back. I hope it all works out for him.
I find in small scale logging everything counts. After you winch the logs road side then you need good logging hand tools. Good peavy, good pulp hooks, good saws, Here is a video of my hand tools that I use. Good logging hand tools (https://youtu.be/ahWSFJ1jH10)
Quote from: runmca on January 05, 2018, 01:47:01 PM
Quote from: Quebecnewf on January 05, 2018, 06:40:27 AM
Check out a PortableWinch .
Gas powered capstan winch .
Best tool I ever bought
Quebecnewf
+1
Sweet. I have a wallenstine on the back of my farm tractor. Hooks good the portable capstan winch is really sweet.