I certainly agree about the grapple....whenever I see pictures like yours, I start looking, and then never pull the trigger. I have the front end loader on the tractor and the bolt on would be fairly simple to attach....and I'm totally convinced that I'd use it all the time. No more piling the brush on the pallet forks, on top of the chain, and then looping the chain over. So many uses....I'm baffled that they are not more standard on the utility tractors. I think a decent bolt on can be had for less than $3K....and at some point.... I know the worse part of my wood cutting day is all the bending over to cut logs on the ground. Just hard on the back after many hours of it. Well, cutting the small branches off the top before I skid that out of the woods might be more annoying. I try to collect everything 1" and bigger...I hate to leave stuff in the woods.
How do I pick up logs?
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Hi jotul8e2 I too am feeling the effects of age and looking for a better way. We currently use an ATV with a trailer, it holds about 1/4 of a cord cut to 24" lengths or we haul back 8ft long logs which hauls more but getting harder on the body. Either way big logs are getting harder to move. We use neat hand grabbers, don't know the official name but have a handle and two claws that close like a vise when pulled on by the handle. We use the small hand ones to pull small logs and I have a giant one that is about 2ft long and can grab with two hands and pull logs 12" or more across if you can physically handle it. It at least saves your back from not having to bend over.
In looking for a better way I bough a 3pt hitch logging winch for my small tractor. Ive only used it once now and its more time consuming (could just be me) than hauling back with the trailer, but its a lot easier. Not worth the effort for small logs so will still use the ATV/trailer setup too.
A friend of mine has a really cool setup. He like others here who posted cut to stove length and split it in the woods. He then uses pallets that he built wood frames on to keep the wood on the pallet. He then uses forks on his tractor's FEL to carry the entire pallet of wood back to the house. He has about 20 or more of these, then in the winter when he runs out of wood he goes and gets another pallet with the tractor and drops it off at his back door by the wood boiler. Great idea, you doesn't have to handle the wood more than once.
One last suggestion to "LIGHTEN" the load. Knock your trees down in early spring when the leaves begin to bud. Then leave them on the ground during the heavy bug season and let the leaves suck the trunk dry of as much moisture as they can. WHen you see the leaves turning brown start limbing and bucking. You'd be amazed how lighter it will be.
~ Phil
In looking for a better way I bough a 3pt hitch logging winch for my small tractor. Ive only used it once now and its more time consuming (could just be me) than hauling back with the trailer, but its a lot easier. Not worth the effort for small logs so will still use the ATV/trailer setup too.
A friend of mine has a really cool setup. He like others here who posted cut to stove length and split it in the woods. He then uses pallets that he built wood frames on to keep the wood on the pallet. He then uses forks on his tractor's FEL to carry the entire pallet of wood back to the house. He has about 20 or more of these, then in the winter when he runs out of wood he goes and gets another pallet with the tractor and drops it off at his back door by the wood boiler. Great idea, you doesn't have to handle the wood more than once.
One last suggestion to "LIGHTEN" the load. Knock your trees down in early spring when the leaves begin to bud. Then leave them on the ground during the heavy bug season and let the leaves suck the trunk dry of as much moisture as they can. WHen you see the leaves turning brown start limbing and bucking. You'd be amazed how lighter it will be.
~ Phil
A friend of mine has a small hydraulic boom crane attached to the bed of his truck. He can lift an 8' log with his lifting tongs and swing it right into the truck bed, or onto his trailer if he has it with him. Seeing him do that got me thinking. A long time ago, I made a rack for carrying my Old Town guide canoe (115 pounds). It slips into the receiver of a frame-mounted hitch and goes up to a tee about 5' above the bed. I have an old HD 1-ton chain hoist that I am going to hang from the tee bar and hoist the heavy stuff up to the bed level and just push it in.
If it works well, I'm going to weld up a swing arm that will allow me to swing wood in from the outside without having to take off the tailgate every time I use it. Just like my buddy's crane, but powered with the hoist rather than with a ram. I'll show pics when it is done, I should be able to lift logs up to 5' long and 500 pounds or so (or maybe even more, I'm not sure how much abuse the hitch can take).
I am also going to cut apart an old truck rack I made for my last truck (won't fit on the new one) and use the steel to weld up a copy of the LogRite Buck Arch. If the Logrite claims are true, I should be able to lift, suspend, and move logs up to 1800 pounds, 22" in diameter, and 16' long using either the lifting tongs or a choker chain.
If it works well, I'm going to weld up a swing arm that will allow me to swing wood in from the outside without having to take off the tailgate every time I use it. Just like my buddy's crane, but powered with the hoist rather than with a ram. I'll show pics when it is done, I should be able to lift logs up to 5' long and 500 pounds or so (or maybe even more, I'm not sure how much abuse the hitch can take).
I am also going to cut apart an old truck rack I made for my last truck (won't fit on the new one) and use the steel to weld up a copy of the LogRite Buck Arch. If the Logrite claims are true, I should be able to lift, suspend, and move logs up to 1800 pounds, 22" in diameter, and 16' long using either the lifting tongs or a choker chain.
A few years back, PBS (IIRC) ran a show, abt an hour long, showing how a VT farmer took some ash logs and scrap steel, and built a "stone boat." A very heavy duty sled similar to Savage's, but with upward-curved bow and strips of steel on vee-shaped longitudinal runners. Design could easily be modified for skidding logs. I'll bet some horse-loggers use something similar, to reduce effort and damage.
If you can roll them, use a small sapling to roll them into the trailer. Trick I've used tons of time up to about 36" rounds
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