Really there is two kinds of "dirt" when you drag logs out of the woods: mud and dirt. Mud is an issue and there is no getting around it; it will dull your saw quickly. If I am working in the mud I try and do all my cutting when its still wet as it does not dull your saw as quickly. If it dries...oh my, what a pain! But dirty wood, or wood that is just dragged across the dirt like we have now in this drought is not a big deal at all. Its so lightly covered that wind and rain blows a lot of it off the logs in a pile. Just lifting up the log causes most of it to shake off. Commercially, they do not care about mud or dirt on the outside of the logs; what they will not accept however is logs that have dirt or mud on their ends. That is because as the logs go through the saws, it dulls them quickly. The debarkers remove the bark obviously, and with it the dirt and mud, but as of right now, they have no way to clean the ends of the logs and just expect loggers to provide that for them. Cutting slices off the ends is an easy way to do that.
I don't bother with the hassle of using a cone, most of the time the trees skid right over the ground without digging in enough to stop the winch line. If it does, cutting a lever from a hardwood sapling is enough to get it under the tree and pop it up, or around the obstruction. Another trick is to place the choker low on the tree and as you winch it in, it causes the tree to roll around the obstruction.
I don't have a feller-buncher, that was just a photo of something I WANT to build at some point for my bulldozer. As for the problem of loading long wood, I had the same issue as you until I bought my log trailer so I can feel your pain. But I did a lot of research on different ways to solve my problem, the same problem you have. What I found is to go back a little bit in time and see what our forefathers did. They lacked technology (expense) and made up for it in makeshift, will-do ways. This is a link to a book I found from the mid-1940's based on farmers get the most out of their woodlots. It has quite a few different methods for skidding and loading wood. I can't recommend one over the other, but I merely present so you might have some options you never considered. I seriously considered the gin pole method. This is a link to page 53, but I encourage you to look over the entire book. Logging farm forest crops in the Northeast.
Thanks for the link LT. I'll try a small tripod first, I think, and see how it goes. Speed of loading isn't the issue... just need something light to move around that can lift up to 1000 lbs.
On the above picture, there is another method that takes even less power. That is from the top pulley that is on the tree, run the cable out away from the truck. Now rather than using log tongs, just wrap that cable around the log and fasten it to the bottom of the truck rack or frame. Using tractor or horse or strong woman, just roll that log up onto the truck. Of course, you need 2 skids for the log to roll or slid on while going up. This way you need not lift the log; it will just roll or slid up the skids. It works and we've loaded many trucks doing this with light equipment. We also found it to be a bit faster than the method shown in the picture. Yup. It is old-school method.
That is pictured and described in the book two pages back backwoods Savage. Stinny they show a real picture of a home made tripod (jammer) one page back. Logging farm forest crops in the Northeast.
One thing I thought was neat regarding this book that I think many on here might be able to utilize is a "lizard" as pictured in Figure 59 of this link. I thought about using it for big logs being towed behind my bulldozer. It would keep the edge of the tree from cutting in and be readily made in the woods therefore saving the hassle of dragging around a cone everywhere you go. Logging farm forest crops in the Northeast.
LodgedTree and Backwoods Savage ... rolling logs, or anything long and round like that... called parbuckling... works much better using 2 cables rather than just one because the log easily gets off balance while rolling up and is a PITA to deal with if heavy. Here's how I do it here using the ATV as muscle...
I don't use the skid cone a lot , mainly used when I don't have a lot of room or straight line , it keeps other trees from getting caught between the winchline/choker and the buttend stickout (if that make no sense let me know) .
Nice Stinny. I love your woodlot, you can see the rockwall in the background. Do you know which side was field at one time, or was both sides? I say that because the old duffers had a lot of things to do and lugging rocks out in the middle of the woods in a straight line was not one of them. Nice Ash too. Are you selling them for regular logs or mat logs?
All firewood. I stack them during the winter and then use the tractor with a small claw to move them around, once the ground hardens up. I've only got about 7 cords now but am lucky as we only use maybe 3 cords/yr. The entire lot used to be a farmer's field... as you know in Maine... full of rocks. 3 sides of the wooded area has walls along them. I was told that all of the farmers stopped farming around here about 60-70 years ago. The trees just came in naturally. 70/20/10 %... ash, oak and maple. When we first looked at this place, my wife spent all her time in the house... and I wandered in the woods... 13 acres of hardwood (6" to 24"), on a very slight slope away from the house... a green floor of ferns everywhere. Couple of logging paths already opened up. I couldn't believe it. And, she loved the house... win/win.
I've got a set of those log grab chains and the hammer to go with it it was my great gramps we call the hammer Thor he used to use it behind his TD6 International dozer to pull some pretty big timber
It is the same way here. 90% of the land base used to be fields around 1900 and now it is 90% woods! I have cut down some trees and can trace the age of the trees to about 1900 too. A lot of it has to do with the change from Agriculture to Industrial based economy, as well as the switch from horses to tractors. Here a lot of the wetter ground a horse could slog through, but when those old steel wheel tractors came onto the scene, without four wheel drive and without pos-i-traction, those wetter fields were left to grow into trees. My forester told me that as a rule, after field is left vacant, the woods in Maine grows up into evergreens first because it grows fast and has ample light, but after awhile the hardwood begins to take over. I have really seen that in my lifetime. I am only 42, but when I started logging, we were a softwood woodlot primarily, but now it has really morphed into hardwood. Considering the loss of the softwood market somehow we managed to sneak by and still have a viable woodlot. We still have a lot of spruce and hemlock, but fir has pretty much petered out and been overtaken by hardwood. But then again so has the forest versus field issue. Back in 1992 we planted a lot of our fields into forest because the paper industry was full bore ahead and farming was at its lowest, in 22 years it has completely flip-flopped and I have people begging for what few fields I do have. I would have never thought I would have seen such a vast shift in only 22 years, so now I am clearing forest as fast as I can and putting it into more lucrative fields. Kind of sad you are putting such nice logs into firewood. Ash is paying really good right now, not to mention mat logs which those would qualify for.
I could have used something the other day. I cut a big Ash, perhaps 3 feet on the butt, hollow-hearted so it was destined pulp, but still heavy enough that it cut a foot deep gouge in my skid trail. I got it about half out but then it would not go anymore. So I turned my bulldozer around and hooked onto it by the blade and lifted it off the ground. That always works, BUT man is it ever hard on the bulldozer's idlers. A lot of weight and torque, especially when you turn. And as everyone knows you should never operate a bulldozer in reverse as it is extremely hard on the sprockets. But in logging you do what you must, wear or no wear.
Yep sometimes you just have to get it done.... Speaking of dozers I played on a new JD 750 today for a bit
More uses for the logging winch The wind is blowing towards the truck , the lean is towards the truck and the heavy side is towards the truck but that's not where I want these spruce to go . So I hook up the line , move the truck , notch , back cut then pull Handy thing them winches .
