Took a trip to OH this weekend to pick up a new wood gettin toy and visit some friends. My friend walt has one of these and I've seen it in action a couple times. Turns out they're made by a friend of his right in his hometown. It comes with this captive ring to which you can mount a grab hook or other hardware. This log was the acid test - I couldn't drag it without the arch. No problem now.
Looks like a nice homeowner sized one. Way too many I have seen might be appropriate for a wood business but are too big for the average homeowner to attach behind a garden tractor.
I can't speak to how it does with hills cause all my land is very flat. It does have a bit of a perch at the top of the rod though - it kinda locked itself up there on the last log I just pulled. I had to put it in reverse twice to get it to disengage from there. Not yet - actually I'm not sure if I'll even bother to put it on there now. The factory one seems fine so far.
Sweet! I'm really happy with it so far. It handled extremely well - I managed to pull a couple 16' logs out of some tight spots that I wouldn't be able to access with the lawnmower + wood trailer. Once I was on the trails with it I could even pull in 2nd gear. The logs stayed relatively clean too. The ash is the one from the earlier pic.
When you pull forward a ring that is attached lifts the chain around the log as the rings slides up along the rearward slanted part of the frame (I think?) Here's a detail from a screen capture of a photo above:
Looks right to me Brian. On a downhjill that helps too. If a log starts trying to catch up with you and push you, it drops back to the ground and loses its ability to shove the tow vehicle around.
Ah, OK, didn't really notice how large the flat spot on the top of the rod is. A video I watched the ATV was going slow and the log was riding up and down the rod, with the log lifting and slamming back onto the ground. That wouldn't be a good habit going downhill with a weak transmission on a cheap garden tractor. That large of a flat spot or perch looks like it would (tend to) stay there. It's an interestingly simple way to keep the front end of the log off the ground.
l Careful when pulling heavy like that...make sure If you are going to shift gears that you still have enough power to keep the RPMs up pretty high. The Rancher has a centrifugal clutch that can slip if you don't keep it locked by having the engine speed up (especially when pulling heavy) it is wet clutch, so the engine oil helps to cool it, but it can be overheated. When you check your engine oil, smell it, make sure it doesn't smell burnt. If it does then either the clutch has been slipping and getting hot, or the engine itself is getting too hot. Which brings up another point, make sure the fan is working. They can get pugged up with mud and then when it tries to kick on, the fuse blows, most people never notice. When you are working the quad hard for a while in 1st or 2cnd gear I would expect you should be able to hear the fan cycling on/off, especially when you are stopped...if not check the fan is free, then the fuse.
Dave is thinking, oh, that poor, poor bike... The fan is working correctly, but the only time she came on is if I was idling for a while setting up a log or something. I used the kill switch the one time and let it run till it shut off - maybe 2 mins. I think I pulled that particular log the whole way in 1st. The others were pulling easy enough where I felt like I was over-revving in first. Plus a bit of speed was helping to keep the front end of the log lifted as high as possible. If I do break it, well I guess you might have heard I make some excellent ribs.
