Skidding Tongs on a Couple Chunks of Elm

A couple years ago, my daughter scored a trailer load of elm from a co-worker that had a trimmer cut and block it up. All we had to do was dolly them up the ramps and head out. Some of the cuts were kinda knarly but what the heck. There was at least 12 or 14 of this diameter, then the load was rounded out with smaller stuff on top. With tandem 6,000 lb axles, it was loaded a bit on the heavy side... but not over. Welllll, maybe just a tad over, but the haul was only ten miles or so.

Here I'm just transporting to the splitter with the little 'bota and the tongs.



Yes, the little guy has lived a rough life at the hands of a registered tractor abuser. On the second engine and still chugging away it's certainly earned its keep. Of course the first engine was bad when I got it...



IIRC that's a 14" push block on the old splitter....



....and a 16" wedge doing its thing.



I don't remember exactly what the diameter was, but somewhere around 30"-ish. I think this was three years ago, because last week I got into a pocket of this wood while hauling a little jag into the basement.

Is that a good daughter or what !!!!

 

BIG!

 

double nice score

 

Yeah, me too. We use these tongs and larger ones when we load full length logs with a crawler or a trackhoe. I ain't a fan of skidding logs at all anyway. Well...... I DO have an old home made winch we used to skid logs up the steep creekbanks when there was no other way to retrieve them....but I was a wee lad then and was usually stationed on the lever that made the winch work. I was big enough to pull the lever but not big enough to drag the cable....

Skidding always seems to imbed the bark with dirt, rock and other debris....and everybody knows what that does to chainsaws or sawblades. I don't know how many times the old man had me peel bark with a double bit axe before we'd even roll a log onto the headblocks.

On a sidenote, I used that old winch two years ago to pull a buddies 4000 Ford and 12' bush hog out of his lagoon. Sunk above the floorboards and the bushhog was partially sunk in the muck.

 

"Skidding always seems to imbed the bark with dirt, rock and other debris....and everybody knows what that does to chainsaws or sawblades."... that's one of the biggest reasons I geared up to slide logs out on top of snow. This year tho, kinda tough... no snow.

 

Huh, I don't have this problem. When I skid logs out, I get them up pretty high so they don't get dirty. And I only skid out 8 ft logs. That's about all I can get on the sawmill anyways.

 

Yeah, I can't pick mine up and drag. I have to get em on a nose sled and a set of skis so they don't roll. Works well, is enjoyable but time consuming. I really like being down in the woods in the winter so... it works.

 

Best way to get out of the house in the winter!

 

" Of course the first engine was bad when I got it..........." Sure it was, sure it was. We believe you.

 

I'm sure you are using either a tractor mounted or pull behind log arch or possibly an actual skidder ?? I can see how that would be a great advantage, but in the steep terrain off of the creek banks and down some of the rougher terrain the timber just wasn't accessible on wheels...which is why the old man built the winch. All we had back then was a few tricycle tractors and no way to load except sideways up ramps onto a 20' trailer built out of a Mack truck rearend. BUT we either had to get the logs to the trailer or the trailer to the logs.....

We do things a bit differently now but not so much for the sawmill as the home place has been long gone and I just recently got my own first mill in operation (50" circular). So until just a year ago, I hadn't sawn anything on a mill since '82. But we still haul logs in lengths up to 26' when possible because so much wood can be transported with so little effort by comparison to blocking onsite. Of course those jobsites seem to have been becoming less frequent lately.

 

Honest Injun it was !!!! Cross my heart and hope to di.... Welllllll maybe it was.....kinda was anyway..... it would run if the weather was warm or hot but the compression was so low it wouldn't start below freezing. Then another Kubota was given to me after it was burnt in a shed fire, so instead of a rebuild on the original, I just swapped engines. It's quality of life has gone downhill consistently since..... One of these days the straight pipe will go away and the hood and muffler will go back on, but heck, like this it looks like a racing tractor....

 

I fabbed up my own skidding rack for the 3 pt on the back of my tractor. I also have a hydraulic top link. With this combo, I can get one end of the log 2-3 ft off the ground (depending on dia), so only the last foot or so gets dirty on one side (again only with 8 ft logs). Hatchet takes care of that in a couple whacks lol.

My tractors small enough I can get into some tight spots (its only 24hp) and my property is hilly, but not so steep that I cant find a way to drive to most downed trees. I just try to make sure I fell them in the right direction. I wish I had a pic of the tractor pulling a log but I cant find one right now. I will try to remember this weekend.

 

Capital idea!

 

That certainly is a slick idea, Backwoods Savage... A trailer with no wheels and not nearly as high as a trailer deck too !!! One great thing is with this set up you don't have to worry about being pushed by the load down a hill or even worse being jack knifed while being pushed by the heavy load in slick terrain either. The dray is its own brake.

That's cool too, Spencer. I've seen others that have put similar ideas to use and they all seem to work quite well. One of the coolest things about FHC is the way it seems to be agreed there is not necessarily only one right way to accomplish a goal as you and Backwoods Savage just illustrated with the pics and/or description of your ways of doing essentially the same thing. Great ideas. See, you CAN teach and old dog new tricks.....

 

That certainly is a slick idea, Backwoods Savage... A trailer with no wheels and not nearly as high as a trailer deck too !!! One great thing is with this set up you don't have to worry about being pushed by the load down a hill or even worse being jack knifed while being pushed by the heavy load in slick terrain either. The dray is its own brake.

I have used a choker to drag logs and if there is any slant on the path, the logs roll off to that side. Does the dray eliminate that problem if there is a slight side slant to the path? How does it do when going down hill when you only have a rope connection between the dray and the tractor, in my case it is a garden tractor?

 

I may try to make a dray and give it a tryout. I am working in the woods by myself most of the time so no one available to ride the dray
I will have to look around for some of the details of construction.