Firewood tractors

[XP_Slinger]

That’s some real nice logs

Thanks. Hope my big trees grade well for me. Never know until they’re on the ground.

 

[XP_Slinger]

I'm small time. Choking logs, no winch.
Beats heating with oil or gas though!
40hp, LS TLB 4X4View attachment 163868 View attachment 163869

I’m small time too brother. Nice set up!

 

[ajschainsaws]

Thanks. Hope my big trees grade well for me. Never know until they’re on the ground.

You found any material there for some handles

 

[XP_Slinger]

You found any material there for some handles

For sure, I’ve got lots of hickory that I’m not going to harvest. It’s not worth much at the mill and it’s good for the critters. I’ll likely knock down a couple smaller ones and get some billets drying.

 

[chipper1]

Started pulling logs on my land today. Very happy with the winch. Wish I bought one years ago.

My wife was impressed by pulling this set of 3...that noise that sounds like a honk is her...lol! She is now fully in my corner with the awesomeness of having a skidding winch...WIN!

I’m happy with this pile after only 4.5 hours of working as the feller and Skidder driver. Glad my wife was setting chokers and stuff, saved me a lot of back and forth between the tractor and logs. If we hit it for a full day tomorrow we should be able to get 30 logs out in a day.

View attachment 161920

Looks great, I've got an older uniforest myself, I think its the 40. It needs a clutch because the guy I got it from sprayed grease all over it when lubing the chain. It doesn't pull hard enough to stall the tractor, although when I tore it apart and cleaned it off real good it did, once lol. I may take a torch to it to see if I can get the grease out of it. If anyone has any ideas I'm open to hearing them.
It has done a lot of work for me, it's just working nowhere near it's max capacity. I use it a lot for directional felling and pulling trees thru a heavy canopy, it's paid for itself with the tree work I've used it on and it is a nice ballast for the loader as well, but it's a bit expensive for that lol.
How many sticks you figure to pay for it.

 

[XP_Slinger]

Looks great, I've got an older uniforest myself, I think its the 40. It needs a clutch because the guy I got it from sprayed grease all over it when lubing the chain. It doesn't pull hard enough to stall the tractor, although when I tore it apart and cleaned it off real good it did, once lol. I may take a torch to it to see if I can get the grease out of it. If anyone has any ideas I'm open to hearing them.
It has done a lot of work for me, it's just working nowhere near it's max capacity. I use it a lot for directional felling and pulling trees thru a heavy canopy, it's paid for itself with the tree work I've used it on and it is a nice ballast for the loader as well, but it's a bit expensive for that lol.
How many sticks you figure to pay for it.

I stalled my tractor once...oops. Been running it at about 1200 instead of 540 PTO rpm of 2200. I got all my trees marked yesterday, grand total of 166 trees coming out. I’d say 15% of that is 1 log trees, the rest are 2 logs minimum.

At that number if everything grades “pallet” at $300 per thousand bf I’ll pay for the winch and put $200 in my pocket, total on my loan was $5k to get some extras. I’m lined up to make some good money I think. Ain’t no way all my trees are pallet grade lol. I’ve got some really nice sugar maple out already, 4 sides clean, no end defects and very little heart wood. Good stuff

 

[chipper1]

I stalled my tractor once...oops. Been running it at about 1200 instead of 540 PTO rpm of 2200. I got all my trees marked yesterday, grand total of 166 trees coming out. I’d say 15% of that is 1 log trees, the rest are 2 logs minimum.

At that number if everything grades “pallet” at $300 per thousand bf I’ll pay for the winch and put $200 in my pocket, total on my loan was $5k to get some extras. I’m lined up to make some good money I think. Ain’t no way all my trees are pallet grade lol. I’ve got some really nice sugar maple out already, 4 sides clean, no end defects and very little heart wood. Good stuff

Thats great, it sounds like it was a good investment!
I find things I can do with mine often.
I bring my 4x8 trailer down hills with my zero turn, they are to steep to drive up with the trailer loaded. Then I will hook the trailer to the winch and load the back half of the trailer heavy, then I just winch the trailer up. I do this in nicer yards I can't skid the logs on.

 

[XP_Slinger]

Thats great, it sounds like it was a good investment!
I find things I can do with mine often.
I bring my 4x8 trailer down hills with my zero turn, they are to steep to drive up with the trailer loaded. Then I will hook the trailer to the winch and load the back half of the trailer heavy, then I just winch the trailer up. I do this in nicer yards I can't skid the logs on.

That’s pretty slick, definitely lots of uses for them. Couldn’t be happier with mine. My friend Mike and I are kicking around the idea of starting a low impact logging business when him and I retire from the military. We have a lot to learn but the winch has opened some doors to ideas we’ve never considered.

 

[chipper1]

That’s pretty slick, definitely lots of uses for them. Couldn’t be happier with mine. My friend Mike and I are kicking around the idea of starting a low impact logging business when him and I retire from the military. We have a lot to learn but the winch has opened some doors to ideas we’ve never considered.

Guys will load an old hood with rounds to skid the sounds across swappy areas too.
Not sure I posted this here, but I've needed mine to get out of a few sticky situations, just be sure the plow doesn't get down below the mud. I was able to get out pretty quick on this one with the cable doubled back through a pulley mounted about 6' up on a tree.
Look at the size of that log lol, it was just a little firewood at a gtg, they had a good laugh, this picture was posted a few times and not by me .

 

[weesa20]

Yup, mine has gotten me out more than once. Nice thing about the igland is the blade flips up for more clearance if needed.

W

Guys will load an old hood with rounds to skid the sounds across swappy areas too.
Not sure I posted this here, but I've needed mine to get out of a few sticky situations, just be sure the plow doesn't get down below the mud. I was able to get out pretty quick on this one with the cable doubled back through a pulley mounted about 6' up on a tree.
Look at the size of that log lol, it was just a little firewood at a gtg, they had a good laugh, this picture was posted a few times and not by me .
View attachment 164822

 

[chipper1]

Yup, mine has gotten me out more than once. Nice thing about the igland is the blade flips up for more clearance if needed.

W

That's one reason I liked those. I found this one used so I grabbed it up and split the cost with a buddy to clean up tops on his 50 acres. He ended up giving the other half to me when he didn't go thru with working out there so I don't have too much into it, if I fix the clutch it will be a good machine for many more yrs.

 

[XP_Slinger]

Got these out at the end of the day yesterday. Had my tractor sitting on an atv trail, used my snatch block to turn the cable 90* to the logs that were about 75’ into the woods off the trail. Pulled all three at once. Not a huge tree, 20” butt log, but had some weight to it being that it’s sugar maple. Tough going in the snow we’ve gotten in the last week, lots of brake steering to haul it out but I made it...4x4 someday. Going to grab 6 more of similar size today after I’m done with some appointments this morning.

 

[Slacker]

Got these out at the end of the day yesterday. Had my tractor sitting on an atv trail, used my snatch block to turn the cable 90* to the logs that were about 75’ into the woods off the trail. Pulled all three at once. Not a huge tree, 20” butt log, but had some weight to it being that it’s sugar maple. Going to grab 6 more of similar size today after I’m done with some appointments this morning.

View attachment 165424

I had to go turn the heat up just looking at that pic.

 

[XP_Slinger]

I had to go turn the heat up just looking at that pic.

Lol! It was actually a beautiful day yesterday. 25* and sunny, I love days like that in the winter, outside all day. Wouldn’t have the same feeling if I were from NC I’m sure.

 

[Ryan Browne]

Got these out at the end of the day yesterday. Had my tractor sitting on an atv trail, used my snatch block to turn the cable 90* to the logs that were about 75’ into the woods off the trail. Pulled all three at once. Not a huge tree, 20” butt log, but had some weight to it being that it’s sugar maple. Tough going in the snow we’ve gotten in the last week, lots of brake steering to haul it out but I made it...4x4 someday. Going to grab 6 more of similar size today after I’m done with some appointments this morning.

View attachment 165424

Very nice Josh! A bucket full of snow, or a log would be even better, will help give you a little better steering. Snow like that has me tapping the brakes on my Kubota too though. It's really adding up around here.

 

[XP_Slinger]

Very nice Josh! A bucket full of snow, or a log would be even better, will help give you a little better steering. Snow like that has me tapping the brakes on my Kubota too though. It's really adding up around here.

I scooped up some snow but it didn’t help much. Log would’ve definitely been better. Never did get in he woods today, had to repair a blown brake line on my truck. I did get a few logs loaded up to take to the mill.

 

[chipper1]

I scooped up some snow but it didn’t help much. Log would’ve definitely been better. Never did get in he woods today, had to repair a blown brake line on my truck. I did get a few logs loaded up to take to the mill.

You needed some of the snow from out here, it had the back end lifting on my little l3800 yesterday, it was 41 degrees.
How do you get those off at the mill.

 

[XP_Slinger]

You needed some of the snow from out here, it had the back end lifting on my little l3800 yesterday, it was 41 degrees.
How do you get those off at the mill.

Yes I definitely needed some snow like that. For the most part the mill will be picking them up. I have my friends trailer so I’m taking a few myself today. Mainly to watch the grading process to make me better at bucking higher quality logs and getting a little cash moving is nice too. Taking my best logs that are out at the moment, we’ll see if my logs are as good as I think they are. Was chatting with an old logger that’s logging my friends property and he was drooling when I showed him the pics of my pile. That’s a good sign lol. He was especially impressed with the sugar maple, said he hadn’t seen heart wood that small in years.

 

[Marshy]

Yes I definitely needed some snow like that. For the most part the mill will be picking them up. I have my friends trailer so I’m taking a few myself today. Mainly to watch the grading process to make me better at bucking higher quality logs and getting a little cash moving is nice too. Taking my best logs that are out at the moment, we’ll see if my logs are as good as I think they are. Was chatting with an old logger that’s logging my friends property and he was drooling when I showed him the pics of my pile. That’s a good sign lol. He was especially impressed with the sugar maple, said he hadn’t seen heart wood that small in years.

Smaller the heartwood the better. I had a conversation a while ago with someone who was explaining what makes the heartwood stay small. Wish I remembered why, it was interesting at the time.

 

[XP_Slinger]

Smaller the heartwood the better. I had a conversation a while ago with someone who was explaining what makes the heartwood stay small. Wish I remembered why, it was interesting at the time.

So far what I’ve observed is trees in wetter soil have more heart wood. Those that are on high groung with good drainage have all had very little heart wood. I’m sure there’s more to it and it Might be a coincidence but I’m trying to pay attention to the quality of logs that come from the different soil environments. I’m a nerd like that lol!