I fought the log and the log won

[Den-Den]

You don't know how big of a log you can load until you try one that you can't load, I did that today.  A post oak 10 ft long and 42" +- diameter at the top.  Tried to parbuckle it up onto my trailer but did not succeed.  No one was hurt and only minor damage to equipment so it was just a learning experience.  For those who say "no pictures means it did not happen"; it did not happen.

[Bill Gaiche]

Sometimes the evidence needs to be not photographed. bg

[drobertson]

I hear ya! loading rails are critical, I can only suspect you had failure on the ramps?

[gww]

I cut a 26 inch log but I thought it was 42 inches till I measured it :D
gww

[sealark37]

I established my limit some years ago at 33" on red oak.  I walked like Grampa McCoy for a week.  Regards, Clark

[Ocklawahaboy]

better a failure loading it onto the trailer than a failure going down the road, resulting in the sudden unloading of the log(s).  I have two severely curved loading ramps in my yard that resulted from such a failure.

[deadfall]

I couldn't resist reading this topic title.

Over half my lifetime ago, we had an LT30 with the loading hand winch.  The very first job we got was a share job to resaw some timbers from a demolished warehouse that was removed from along side the I-5 freeway in the middle of Portland, OR to build the new Portland Convention Center.  The client, an artist, had traded art for the beams and they came in on a very long trailer.  It was a bunch of Doug fir 14X34s, 52 feet long (quite the sticks)!  I don't remember if the first piece we cabled over to "roll" up the ramps was bucked to 12 or 16 feet.   In any case, 14X34s don't really roll (who'd'a thunk it?).  The first time a section of beam flopped, we had some nicely curved ramps. 

They don't grow Doug firs like those anymore.  It turned out that when they wrecked the concrete parts of the building, they filled the deep checks that followed either side of the beams along the heart with concrete and basalt aggregate, there would be no sawing near the hearts.  We drove splitting wedges into the checks, which all ran somewhat at angles, and we had to do plunge cuts with a chainsaw to connect the splits to get the things halved into two 14X17s.  With those halves on the mill, we slabbed off the sides with the split hearts.  What was left after that was mostly CVG fir with very few tiny knots here and there. 

Later on, a restoration job on a big old 1894 two story schoolhouse required some 2X16 joists replaced.  Guess who had some 2X16s?  I put the flagpole up there too.  (The ball on top the pole is 12 inches in diameter.)

The artist took one look at those heart slabs and said, "I want those!"  I became great friends with him and his wife and I inherited this piece of his artwork when he died.

[dboyt]

Glad no one got hurt.  I had a close call a few months ago when a friend decided to "help" a log roll up a ramp just as it let go.  It took fifteen minutes to get the log off his leg.  Miracle that he got out with just a few bruises.

Then there's the question of what do you do with a log like that once you get it home! Did you plan to quarter it with a chain saw?  Deadfall, that's quite an introduction to sawmilling you got.  Nice work!

[Den-Den]

There will be a rematch; just have to quarter the log in place and transport in two trips.  I have a trip planned soon so it will have to wait.

[Ocklawahaboy]

Glad no one got hurt.  I had a close call a few months ago when a friend decided to "help" a log roll up a ramp just as it let go.  It took fifteen minutes to get the log off his leg.  Miracle that he got out with just a few bruises.

I've had a few folks think they would help the manual winch out by standing on the low side of the log and pushing. I stop all movement of the log until the situation is corrected to avoid the problem you described.