Short story long, finally got a large spot in my processing area. Which means I can finish the stack thats near it and not cause a traffic jam. Soooo, that means it’s time to get the maple out of one of moms flower garden. Been laying there too long Should’ve paid to have someone take it away LOL Wanted to get this ugly piece out in one shot. Not happening. Snapped the rope trying. It’s time for a new synthetic line. It’s had a hard life, did well. Kept fixing and snapping the rope so I had to chunk em. Noodled some of the decent stuff. A lot of the rest I’ll have to trim down just to get it in the log arch. Then dispose of it in the forest. I’m not fighting all those crotches.
Tip the trailer up and truck in neutral and pull the trailer under the log then make the winch work. Years of working with dad on wrecks and his wreckers. Noodle those crotches and make good wood out of them.
Those pieces of crotch wood are awesome on those long cold nights. A much longer burn time due to the density. I keep a big bin of nothing but “chunk wood.”
The winch isn’t mounted to the dump body tho. I didn’t trust the body to handle those types of loads. It’s tougher than I expected but not that tough. Plus any weighty load would just pick up the dump body. I have access to more wood than I know what to do with. It’s taken years but I’ve learned it’s not worth fighting the subpar stuff unless you need it.
Dont blame you. Looks like you and i have the same attitude toward gnarly sugar maple. Your poor equipment isnt fond of it either from the looks of things. Good job Joe!
Well hold the phone. Sugar? Thought it was silver. Sugar is better than silver right? May have to put more effort in it than I thought LOL I mean I’ll get some more out of it. I’ll be noodling em a bit just to lift them with the log arch. Dump trailer doesn’t go in the woods in the process of making them small yet I’m sure I’ll find some worth working. Not all of it tho, that’s for sure.
Yeah thats definitely sugar. Yes, waaaay better than silver. PITA to noodle ,but dries in a year and high btus. I dont take silver unless real straight primo and easy to get. Without equipment i frown on big logs.
Good to know. I still have some of the branches over there. Was gonna bring them to the neighbor,,,,,maybe I’ll keep them
Nope, no way, never. I thought the same when I first got a winch. Old school, that’s me. Never thought I’d like the synthetic line, never thought it could hold up,,,,at all. It does have cons. But the pros certainly make up for it. Have three winches now and all synthetic. I’d never go back to cable. This is the original 1/4” string. Rated for probably 7000#. I’ve seen new 1/4” string rated for 15’000#. No 1/4” steel cable in the world can come close to that. I suspect what happened to this line is not a fray or snapping due to overweight per say. I think what happens is the synthetic with time and hard use gets crushed on the spool. The heavily worn part didn’t break. The stuff that gets crushed on the spool let go. That piece of string has done an awful lot of pulling in the two years I’ve had it. I’m not dissatisfied at all.
Those Maple pieces are tough to work up, but they're worth it. Sugar Maple is great firewood. My 12K winch has the 1/2 synthetic rope/cable too & I love the stuff. Skidder runs 5/16 steel & it's no comparison.
