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Is the LogOX Hauler worth it?

Started by Puget-Sound, December 08, 2019, 11:09:48 AM

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Puget-Sound

Does anyone have experience with the LogOX Hauler? I've always handled firewood the hard way, so I'm looking at saving my body some wear and tear. I've already got a small tractor and a small arch.

The LogOX has a lot of youtube reviews but they appear to be sponsored posts (free tool for a review). It looks like a superior tool to a pickaroon but with no way to handle one, I'm not even sure it's long enough for my 6'2" frame.

hedgerow

It looks like a handy tool. It does have a pretty high price. The two biggest body saving tools I have for me are my skid loader with a grapple fork for bucking up rounds and my homemade splitter that is set up with a high working height so you can stand up straight while running it and it also has a log lift so no bending over to pickup rounds.

Jeff

Buy yourself a proven tool from Logrite save the gimmicks  for the wannabes.
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TKehl

Depends on what you are wanting it to do.

As a cant hook, I think the Logrite is better.  Has an extra attachment available so you can roll a small log up onto it and cut up and out of the dirt.   ;)  

For picking up rounds, it looks cumbersome and heavy compared to the 12" Husqvarna timber tongs.  What a difference they make on my back!  The tongs are also less than half the Ox.  

For carrying, the best advice is to move your equipment closer.   ;D  I use smaller equipment if I can't get close the log.  This puts puts most all the wood within toss/fling distance of the trailer.  IE, I don't carry the wood if I can avoid it.  2 wheel dollys are also pretty handy moving rounds.   ;)
In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent. Loretta Lynn

Hilltop366

It looks heavy compared to a pickaroon or log tongs. I do not have log tongs but did make a pickaroon a few years ago, I can say with out a doubt that the pickaroon up to a certain block size is a back saver for me after the blocks get too big it gets hard to handle with one arm and starts to strain my shoulder so I will use the hookaroon to roll or drag the larger block close to the splitter the splitter then pick it up with both hands, it also increases my reach and saves lots of foot steps.

I have a peavy with a log stand but rarely use it, I find it too time consuming and will usually just cut partway through the log going down the log and then kick or roll by hand to finish the cuts. Only in large logs do I use the peavey and then they are too heavy to get up on the log stand so I just use it for rolling the log.

I got some rear forks for my tractor and now I use that to lift logs to move and for blocking so the peavy sees no use.

Another option for lifting wood blocks, no personal experience but I have heard they work well.

https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/home/fireplace/71646-firewood-gripper

barbender

I looked at that a bit, one of the log splitter manufacturers is pushing them pretty hard. It struck me as something that I would use for half an hour and set it and the scabbard off to the side because they got in the way more than anything, and then be disgusted with myself for wasting so much money 😁 I've never used a LogOX, or timber tongs- but timber tongs look much mor useful to me.
Too many irons in the fire

gspren

I use the 12" timber tongs a lot, I tried the 8" but the 12" is much more useful for me.
Stihl 041, 044 & 261, Kubota 400 RTV, Kubota BX 2670, Ferris Zero turn

Tam-i-am

A lot of people ask us the best way to move firewood and tools to save their backs.  When I tell them my answer they often argue with me but here it goes.

Unfortunately most of the time our firewood ends up on the ground.  In my opinion lifting one piece at a time makes the job of stacking the wood a very time consuming process. 

We burn a lot of firewood and I stack the majority of it.  Honest the most efficient way is still to load up your arm and put it on the pile.
The LogOx and a hookaroon/pickaroon is going to take forever.  (I like my hookaroon for pulling the wood down off the pile for the furnace).

The fireplace gripper is even more time consuming as they take a bit to put them on.

Several people have mentioned the hand tongs.  Several companies make them I am partial to the ones made by Husqvarna but Ochsenkopf makes a really nice pair also.
https://www.husqvarna.com/us/accessories/lifting-hooks/hand-lifting-timber-tong/574387502/

Sorry I could not just get to the tongs on a separate page - scroll down the tongs are just below the felling lever.
Tools for lifting

I have never used a pulp or grab hook but even that seems like a better idea than the LogOx or Hookaroon.
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47sawdust

For smaller pieces I like the 12'' tongs,mine happen to be Husqvarna.For larger rounds I use the tongs on one end with a handy hookaroon on the other.At some point I hear an inner voice say "when's that rotator cuff gonna blow?"
 I 2nd what TKehl said, I've gotten to the point where the bucket on the tractor is never far away. ;D
Mick
1997 WM Lt30 1999 WM twin blade edger Kubota L3750 Tajfun winchGood Health Work is my hobby.

trapper

I like a pulp hook. saves a lot of bending over when splitting and picking rounds off the ground.  I like the logrite hookeroon for pulling wood off the pile
stihl ms241cm ms261cm  echo 310 400 suzuki  log arch made by stepson several logrite tools woodmizer LT30

JJ

I use a pulp hook, lighter and can throw with it.
Keep the point sharp.

       JJ

stavebuyer

I like the Logrite Hookaroon for reaching. Around the splitter I like the pulp hook. I mashed the end of my fingers more times than I care to recall rolling and positioning rounds on the splitter. Even when I didn't mash them they would split from all the use. Pulp hook really helps.

John Mc

Quote from: gspren on December 09, 2019, 01:44:30 PM
I use the 12" timber tongs a lot, I tried the 8" but the 12" is much more useful for me.
Just the opposite for me. I tried the 12", found it too cumbersome. Switched to the 8" tongs. I can pick up rounds up to about 12" diameter with the 8" tongs. They fit nicely in a holster on my tool belt or on the belt of my chaps (I was always setting them down somewhere and forgetting where before I got the holster). If I get much more than a 12" diameter hardwood (I cut mostly oak, beech, maple, hickory for firewood), it's too much for me to easily deal with one-handed anyway, so the +/-12" max is not much of a real limitation. I generally use it to pick smaller rounds off the ground and load up my free arm with as much as I can carry, then pick up one last good-sized one to carry in the tongs.
I've used it for about 15 years now. I'm probably responsible for selling a couple dozen of them: each time I lend them to a friend, they seem to have their own the next time I stop by.

They were really hyping up the Log-Ox a while ago, giving one to just about any you-tuber with related content and a decent following. (I was left with the impression that Log-Ox was just buying favorable reviews.) Some of them raved about it, but if you checked their other videos, they had never used anything else - never tried a good quality peavey, or any other log lifting tools. Those with experience with other tools basically had the response of "meh... I guess it works", but you rarely see it in use in their subsequent videos.

I tried the Log-Ox once. Found it too cumbersome to deal with in the woods. Maybe it would be worth dealing with on the landing or if I had a dedicated firewood processing area where I did my cutting and splitting, but I'm certainly not going to carry it around in the woods with me. I'll be sticking to my Husqvarna 8" Timber Tongs, and my Logrite Peavey.
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.   - Abraham Maslow

TKehl

I can't say the same, but mainly because my dad is so cheap!  How cheap is he?  I didn't know there were handles for chainsaw files until after I was well out of college.  I always wondered why Stihl put the file holder on the bar guard when the files just slid right out.  It was an epiphany when I realized there were handles and you didn't have to hold them by the metal, and a second epiphany realizing they made the files snap into the plastic cover!  This was followed by sadness and disbelief that I had done without this $3 part for decades, and dad much longer!   :o

Anywho, showed him the pickaroon to unload trailers and, "Eh, the garden hoe does almost as good."  Showed him the tongs and his eyes lit up.  Has he got one though?  Nope.  New car, new ATV, newer tractor and batwing brushhog, and just bought the neighbors farm, but $50 to make firewood pickup easier is too much!   >:( :D  Guess I should get him a set for Christmas.   ;D
In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent. Loretta Lynn

Hilltop366

You see, with all the money he saved by not buying file handles, pickaroons and tongs he bought the neighbours farm. ;D :D :D 

hedgerow

TKehl 
Your dad sounds like a guy that drove truck part time for my folks for years when I was a kid. He farmed also. He would carry his coffee in a mason jar wrapped in tin foil. Never bought any thing on the road. He would always tell me when I was a kid to watch and count your pennies the dollars will that care of them self's. He was always buying another 80 of land. He was a very rich man when he passed. 

TKehl

And don't get me wrong, I appreciate and emulate the thriftiness.  I mean I air my mower tires up about once an hour as I figure the gas tank will run out by then anyway and the gas and air line are right by each other.   :)

It's when things go from thrifty to cheap, that drives me crazy.  LOL

He will only buy vehicle batteries on the first few days of the month, to get the extra few weeks worth of warranty...  I get it on equipment that is rarely used.  But when he is jumpstarting equipment we use several times a week to get to the first of the month, and then ends up several months later still jumpstarting it... (and I know he isn't short on cash), that's when I shake my head.   :)

Something else he has taught me is that working smarter is cheaper long term than shoulder surgery.   ;)  That was his excuse to get power steering on the four wheeler and a new zero-turn mower stating that levers would be easier on his shoulder than a steering wheel.   :D
In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent. Loretta Lynn

Magicman

For handling firewood and short stuff, I use this Timber Tongs from Wood-Mizer and my Logrite Hookaroon.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

John Mc

Quote from: Magicman on December 11, 2019, 10:53:47 AM
For handling firewood and short stuff, I use this Timber Tongs from Wood-Mizer and my Logrite Hookaroon.
Those timber tongs are similar to the Husqvarna 8" (20cm) Tongs. (If you are looking for them on Amazon, dont fall for the 20cm Husqvarna tongs selling for $95. These are the same product as the 8" tongs. They should be selling for right around $50.)

Oregon makes similar size/style tongs, which work well. Fiskars makes some 9" Log Tongs. I've never used them, but have had good luck with other Fiskars products. Stay away from the Timber Tuff brand of tongs. They stink! (as does most of the other Timber Tuff products I've tried.)
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.   - Abraham Maslow

Magicman

I wonder about those extra "hinges"?  I know that it would add leverage to the gripping but using mine, I can't see where it would be necessary.  Mine easily grips and picks up everything.  smiley_headscratch 
I guess that the two different designs would need a "head to head shootout" test.  :P
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

TKehl

We may get that.  LOL  I have the Husky ones, but the WM ones look like I might be able to fling with them a little better.  Often I pick up 2-4 pieces of smaller wood and hold with my left arm, then get one more in the tongs, flinging it as I go to the trailer.  ** Thinking **   ;D  Didn't know they made them until you mentioned it.   ;)
In the long run, you make your own luck – good, bad, or indifferent. Loretta Lynn

trapper

what are your favorite pulp hook designs?  i would like a spare
stihl ms241cm ms261cm  echo 310 400 suzuki  log arch made by stepson several logrite tools woodmizer LT30

John Mc

Quote from: Magicman on December 11, 2019, 01:31:26 PM
I wonder about those extra "hinges"?  I know that it would add leverage to the gripping but using mine, I can't see where it would be necessary.  Mine easily grips and picks up everything.  smiley_headscratch  
I guess that the two different designs would need a "head to head shootout" test.  :P
I don't think the extra hinges are a leverage thing. I think it is because they change the way the tongs open. Both of the arms swing, instead of one remaining stationary and the other swinging. I think those extra hinges would make for a different motion when picking up rounds, but can't say for sure, since I've never tried the Woodmizer style of tongs.
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.   - Abraham Maslow

ButchC

Quote from: John Mc on December 11, 2019, 12:29:45 PM
Stay away from the Timber Tuff brand of tongs. They stink! (as does most of the other Timber Tuff products I've tried.)

Agreed
Timber tough = Habor Freight for wood cutters, just save your money until you can afford better,,,
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John Mc

Quote from: trapper on December 11, 2019, 11:07:21 PM
what are your favorite pulp hook designs?  i would like a spare
This Pulp Hook with replaceable tip is my favorite as far as pulp hooks go, but I'll admit I don't use it heavily - I'll grab my tongs before I grab the pulp hook. The little tab on the end of the tip makes all the difference: A light swing, and it sticks in the wood, allowing you to lift a firewood round or grab the end of a longer log with one hand.
Plain tips tend to back out of the wood more easily. There are some instances where that might be an advantage, but you still want a well-designed tool for this. Peavey Mfg makes a decent smooth-tipped pulp hook, if you are looking for that style. Personally, I prefer having the tip with a bit of "stick" to it.
This is another area where the Timber Tuff tools absolutely stink. I was helping a friend clear storm damage and process it into firewood. As we were picking up logs, I asked if he wanted to use my pulp hook. "No, thanks. Those things are worthless." After watching me with mine for a while, he gave it a try and liked it. Then he brought out his Timber Tuff neither of us could accomplish anything useful with it. We tried sharpening and reshaping the hook, but it didn't do much good. It was not all that much help even for just sliding logs out of the back of his pickup.

Yet another design is the Husqvarna lifting hook. The handle on this is parallel to the body of the hook, rather than set at 90˚. It makes a decent tool for lifting small longer logs: I'll pick up one end with my tongs, and the other with this hook. Just don;t expect to swing it and stick it in a log; that's not how it's used. It's mostly intended for smaller diameters. With the combination of the two tools, I can move a lot of small diameter stuff quickly (for example, loading 4" x 8' logs into a trailer, or lining them up for later pickup with my forwarding trailer or grapple). I find I don't use these much - probably because I'm not handling those size logs much. One advantage is that it will fit in the same style holster I wear on my tool belt for the 8" log tongs, and the handle lays flat against my side. A regular pulp hook works better on the landing or in my firewood processing area, but carrying a pulp hook around in the woods is a problem.
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.   - Abraham Maslow

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