I am looking for something to use in my small firewood operation other then my kubota tractor to skid wood with and have run across a few of these. I know the j5's would be better but are much harder to come by. Anyway, are these capable machines for skidding wood after adding a winch or are they too small. I pull wood out in 12 ft lengths and was wondering what volume they can pull at once.
I have one it can pull, but they are also much narrower then a J5, from 60 inches for the J5 to 48 inches for the SW , makes the SW much more tippy. They don't ride on snow, much too heavy, but the advantage of the SW is the blade, it'll push snow out of it's way, but it is also not that hard to jack up in deep snow. If you are on fairly flat ground it should work out well. I use mine more to open and push the snow banks back then I do to pull wood even though I have pulled wood with it.
Not real well they had some axel problem you can do it as many did years ago. Around here they are exspencive and if i was going to invest i would get a small skidder.
http://youtu.be/JcdHsNzE2-4
I'm sure you guys have seen this short wood skidder
I had to post it, quit the little machine, this would have worked good in the selective cut pine i cut in the Chippewa National Forest, i cut many thousand's of cords of it. I worked the Cut Foot Sioux area a lot and up though the Avenue of Pines on hwy 46.
Might of seen it. Nice machine,but probably comes with a price tag that is hard to pay for too. Seems like a lot of the small scale stuff is some pricey. I could use it for what I do now,just firewood for me.
They will pull 20"hardwood out tree length, in moderate terrain, at a brisk pace. Try a search of "making a bombardier log skidder" If you have any specific questions let me know. Where are you located? I think the limiting factors would be snow depth and type of terrain. :o I finally found a topic I can contribute to ;D
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silver. im in massachusetts. thanks for the info. We dont get a lot of snow around here and the terrain is pretty tame. I am looking for something with a low impact and that is easy to maneuver. I think this might be the machine for me.
I have two of these and they PULL. They dont float on snow, they are more of a construction piece of equipment. The first two are a 32 HP Yanmar diesel. The others are a 20 HP with an onboard crane. They are around 60" wide and VERY stable. Ironwood
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