farmyard wars log skidder..

[zopi]

hmm..that old toolbar would make a nice 3 point skidder..and the coulter arm would make a dandy short boom...and I've got a hand winch...let's see if I can scrounge enough junk to make this work...

I've been watching junkyard wars too much..and this project is going to show it...but it'll beat the tar out of choking up for a log arch or doing it the way i have been...and you guys will get to see my crappy welding skills.. :

hmm...need to scrounge an old boat trailer to make an arch with next...

Pics to follow...

[zopi]

Well, there it is...it's ugly..but it works..the winch won't see a whole lot of use, but I can hang a bunch of chain off of the bar,
and that little orange choker is da bomb. gotta go get a load of logs and see how it works snatching them off the trailer.

I'll add a hitch to it so i don't have to pull the bloody thing off every time I want to move a trailer..or get off the tractor for that matter...

[Fla._Deadheader]

You probably already know this, BUT, that sucker is gonna pull some MEAN wheelies.


  We don't want to hear from yer Widow  : ;)

[zopi]

Yup...always careful, hadda neighbor get squashed with a JD "A" model when I was a kid..This particular tractor doesn't do much in any gear but first and at low throttle at that..it'll pull a two bottom plow, but I've ridden bulls that were gentler..so I don't do
that... ;D This thing won't be used to lift much other than to clear the edge of the trailer or to keep the leading edge of the log from digging in..keep the angle of pull low to lever the front wheels down..

I've got to get some inner tubes for my Oliver..it's a little more user friendly...the farmall ordinarily pulls trailers..and thats about it..but with Ollie down..

i just can't run a place without a farmall.

[Jeff]

The one thing I'll never forget as long as I live is at 15 years old, walking out in the woods with my high school friend Mark Clark to see his uncle who was skidding small wood with his tractor and finding his tractor upside down and no uncle, then closer inspection finding him white and lifeless pinned under the steering wheel.

I dont like it.

[Jeff]

I see I mentioned this before in 2002

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,1557.msg7814.html#msg7814

[zopi]

That sucks...especially at 15...I'm not too fond of caves now...I was a rescue tech in a small town out west when I was about 17..we were working to get a body out of an abandoned mine shaft...guy was doing a little amateur spelunking..fell down a vent shaft to a lower gallery...I didn't realize it until one of the deputies said his name..son of my dad's best friend at work...needless to say I called for a relief tech...

Old equipment is inherently dangerous..you have to keep your head in the game and know the limits of what you are doing...take this thing for example..it will never see the woods..probably never leave this lot(or flat ground)..if i'm fetching logs from the woods i'm doing it with my truck...and 16k winch..but it's not practical for snatching logs around the back yard..

although it's nice when I'm able to borrow the JD skidder.. ;D even that thing isn't safe...it's pretty easy to slide off in a hole with..

[thecfarm]

Looks like it will work.Just be careful as you all ready know.I would cut that channel iron to go inside of the rear wheels by about 6 inches.The way that I am I would be hitting everything that I went by if I had it like that.

[zopi]

I had thought about cutting the channel, and i will likely do so, but only to about the middle of the tire..my tractors are matched width..i'm less worried about snagging stuff with the implement, than backing up on stuff..i'd rather hit something with channel iron than ride the tractor up in something short..that can put you on your head in a hurry..I won't even drive that thing over a 4x4 on the ground....(but Ive got a 4x4 i'll ride over some stuff.. ;D)

i'm really preferring the Oliver with this thing..it's closer to the ground..

[Norm]

zopi it will work but if you catch anything while skidding a log it'll pull over the tractor before you can react no matter how slow you are going.

You've got a beauty of a tractor there but it's not for log work.

[zopi]

zopi it will work but if you catch anything while skidding a log it'll pull over the tractor before you can react no matter how slow you are going.

You've got a beauty of a tractor there but it's not for log work.

yeah..I much prefer the oliver...slung lower and alot heavier..I have to get an inner tube this week or next week when my mill arrives, it is being delivered to  the local equipment dealer...they have a forklift...

The story of that tractor is a neat one i was looking for anything from cub to super C and saw this one in the trader..it was being sold for a man by his son..the old man bought the tractor new in '49 and has been farming with it ever since, last spring he plowed his garden with it and climbed down and called his son to come and get it...said he almost fell off it and wanted a smaller tractor for his garden...he'll be 92 this year. The belt pulley had been removed from the back of it and it has a disk of metal on a spline sleeve with two hooks welded on..I asked what it was for, and the guy said that it was a starter..the flywheel used to be bad so he needed a way to start it....noooooo kidding...well, the price was a bit steeper than i wanted to pay,
butI though that was pretty neat, and the tractor didn't have any other problems i could see..so I said that if I could start the
tractor with it i'd write him a check...so I put the tractor in neutral, set the brake and opened up the governor..stuck a bar in the hooks and snatched it around...it started and purred like a kitten.

you could crank it from the front of the engine, but the old man had installed a hydraulic pump to run the lift..driven off the front pulley...works like a charm.

heh..second owner.

My oliver is a '55 Super 55...it was a freebie..usually means boat anchor in my experience...but that little bugger runs like a dream.

[stonebroke]

I think I would weld up a weight rack and put as much weight on the front end as I could.

Stonebroke

[Robert Long]

zopi:

As already stated........be careful, it's not a skidder and it will flip fast!

Rework that thing keeping in mind it's safe operation first.

Put the weight to the front, install a roll bar, and try to get the pull load between the front and back tires and yet it still is not a skid machine for a bush or pulling logs.

Robert ;)

[zopi]

I think I would weld up a weight rack and put as much weight on the front end as I could.

Stonebroke

it's in the works...gotta buddy who works construction and heavy equipment...he's watching out for some weights for me...there is already a bar on front.

[DR Buck]

That thing scares the crap out of me!  Anytime you're dragging something with the lift point higher that the drawbar you're messing with death.  Especially with no ROPS on the tractor.   Every year the farm bureau publishes the number of tractor roll-over deaths.   Most could be prevented by not doing stuff like this.    I'd hate to loose a new forum member, so take the torch to it and let us rest easy.   

[Reddog]

zopi,

What makes the Farmi skidding winches work, is the fact that the blade will hit hit the ground. This keeps the front from coming up so far as to flip.
All you would need to do is add a couple legs on the out side of the channel iron.
Looking good.  8)

[J_T]

Put some wheels on it about 8" off the ground  ???

[stonebroke]

Wheelie bars!!!!!

[zopi]

OK..point taken.

[Corley5]

I've skidded lots of logs with a narrow front H Farmall without a problem but I knew what problems there could be and I skidded off the drawbar  ;)   An H was Grandpa's main woods machine for 40 years until he got the 300 Farmall.  He rigged up an outfit that went on the 2pt for skidding.  It raised one end of the logs off the ground but had a chain that went to the drawbar also that lowered the pull point some.  Weight on the front, take it slow, stay off sidehills and uneven ground and be careful. 

[york]

I guess now,i have seen it all....please get that mess off your tractor,before the neighbors see it......

[beenthere]

zopi
I'm not insulted by your rigging, and glad you showed us your 'design'...shows you just don't sit around and complain... ;D ;D ;D

Would like a pic of it in action 

Good thing I don't have a welder, or ther'd be a lot of junk things tacked together 'round here.   :D :D

Years ago I picked up what is left of a 3pt tool bar, minus any of the tools like cultivator shovels or spring tooth rippers attached. It is just the solid 3"x3" steel bar, about 7' long with the 3pt iron on it. Keep thinking there will be a use for it someday, but so far haven't had a brain drain that comes up with something I can use it for. (hmmm..I've been thinking of adding some weight to the rear of my broom tractor for brushing away snow...but that would mean cutting it up.....hmmm - maybe will happen).

[zopi]

for the record..it works fine..no more tendency to be tippy than pulling the plow with it...especially considering the use of belly chains to take most of the longitudinal strain.

I unloaded a 22"x 20 ft long white pine with no issue...it is a little light in the front as I knew
it would be, I have weights in the works.

consider...this tractor will never see the woods...it will never see a hill..it will never leave my yard, the intent of this thing is to easily unload logs and drag them to the mill...although the way i store my logs it will generally be easier to move the mill to the log..

I do things for a living that are much riskier, and much more difficult...getting shot at sucks.

rest assured, that I am not an inexperienced kid, despite my enthusiasm and yappy nature..I know very well my own limits and the limits of my equipment...

I have seen front end loaders on these tractors..and that scared me alot more than an attachment that will squat on a log  long before it takes the tractor over.

I do appreciate the concern, and I guess from another persons point of view I would say the same things...maybe a little differently..but the same gist.

I sure as hell would not let anyone else use it...but then the odds of anyone else driving my tractors is about the same as someone else riding my Harley...

and and I do not argue on the net.

If I have offended, then I apologize.

[stonebroke]

You might want to go to a tractor junkyard and buy actual tractor weights. They are designed to be put on and off by yourself and that way when you go not need them you can take them off so you can turn the tractor easier. Your right, this is not the most dangerous thing you do.

Stonebroke

[zopi]

I was planning actual tractor weights...cutting and welding large masses of metal is not in my
reach..

i'm actually planning to use my Oliver..it's got alot more weight forward and lower CG...

If the tractor can't handle it the 16k winch on the 400hp Dodge diesel can... ;D