4X4 at bottom has a 2" hole made with a 2" hole saw, 2" deep, chipped out the hole so it fits over the ball on ATV. This way the weight is still on the ball, not much on the rack. Top 4X4 has a holding bracket so it don't bounce off the ball when the suspension move up. Not for fast speed & it does lock up the rear suspension, but at slow speeds, no prob. 4'" wide inside, 7" outside. Bracket to hold it at the top to the rack. Slide the aluminum angle over the rack & ball, slid in the piece of plywood. put in the bolts, I go hand tight. Good to go. Log splitter hitch just cut a piece of a 2X6 down to 4" wide, screwed & braced it a little higher than the log splitter tongue , just have to lift it an inch or so to go on the ball, I leave it mounted to the ATV & split wood. The tongue jack on the splitter is a finger pinching "mo-fu'r". It fold up easy now, out of the way, no pinched finger or fighting to let it down to the ball on the ATV.
It skids logs better than using he atv trailer ball, lifts them higher so the front of the logs don't dig in. Gotta pay attention when skidding the big ones, font tires pop up off the ground sometimes. Strong enough for moving the empty road trailers around too. A lot easier on the yard. Just used it to park the trailers out of the way for winter.
Thanks for putting that up Dave! My splitter runs to close to the grizzly. Something like u got will change all that! Great post!
How is this working out for you Dave? Do you think the wood and connections will hold up? Or do you think you may find one built out of steel would be better? Great idea by the way!
Worked well for 3 years. Thought about having an aluminum one made up but I think steel or aluminum might be to rigid & too strong. Metal might make something on the ATV break. I'd rather have the wood break than something on the ATV I had to replace the bottom 4x4 when it cracked out. The wood absorbs some shock & is like a shear pin. Just screws holding it together so it also gives a little. Worked this year with no issues & did skid out some 20" heavy logs.
Ever consider making a groove where it connects to the top rack so the rack can float freely up and down and not lock up the suspension? You'd probably need something a little more stout than SPF lumber, but good hardwood boards should be able to resist the tendency to split especially if you tied them together at the top. You'd have to make some sort of a strap to hold the 4x4 tight to the ball to keep it from popping off but that wouldn't be hard. You could remove the ball and use a bolt to mount the bottom part. My splitter is a muther to get on/off the Honda. Wheels are turning... I need another project like I need a hole in my head though.
Yea tried that, movement problems but your idea should work Would get wear on the moving part on the rack, but a sleeve over the rack on the wear spots. Might have to work on that one Good idea, better mouse trap
I was about "this" close to going out and building one last night, but I need to whittle down the honey-do list a little before I go making stuff for my 4-wheeler that I don't really need and won't even use for a couple months. I'm thinking a couple bolts with wing nuts at the top of the groove would make things plenty strong. Some paste wax on the inside of the groove to keep things moving freely. Wrap the rack in electrical tape and then put a sleeve (cut a slit length-ways in some PVC) over it. Might have to use a heat gun to soften it up a little too. Paint it all black to match the quad.
Fancy would be making something that hooks up to the frame...metal and welder and whatnot. This is poor man's engineering with scrap lumber, nuts and bolts, black tape, and PVC pipe.
Build it in steel and use springs to allow it to move up and down? Never weighed a log, but I wouldn't doubt one around 20" would weight in at 2000+ lbs.
I've skidded a lot of logs with my ATV and your right, getting the end of the log up off the ground makes all of the difference. I need to build something like that.
