Id get the grapple without hesitation. Not only is it awesome for logging, you’ll use it so much more than you realize for lots of other chores. The winch is good for logging and if you get stuck... but since you have such steep slopes and are in VT, i imagine your mainly granite or limestone mountains and not a lot of sloppy mud.... so its really just for logging. Get the grapple.
Here's the winch mounted to the back blade on the M Here's the beginnings of a log deck in a hayfield last spring. We pulled about 5 cord worth out of a swamp, skidded them up the road & decked them here in about 4 hours. 1/4 mile pull. Here's the mini skid with some Pine logs being operated by my grand son. The big winch I just pull the logs tight to the back blade, lift & go.
This is another thing I have considered (and apparently forgot about), and it would be cheaper than an actual forestry winch. I have a 6' box blade for my tractor. I could weld up a riser to be able to mount a winch on top of it, and the riser and winch would give me extra weight on the back. Would just need to come up with a design. I am looking at the Everything Attachments Wicked Root Rake Grapple. Either the 55" or the 60". Anybody have one?
Yes & no, I paid $ 3k for that winch. It's a mile marker 12k with a Honda engine. Electric winches overheat too fast. This thing just pulls & doesn't care.
For sure with a winch it matters a lot; electric ones overheat quickly and I don't like them much. If it were me I'd still like a grapple. They are fantastic and hard to beat. But, in your case I'd highly recommend a combination of a grapple and skidding, but, not skidding on the ground. Build yourself a dray (very cheap to build) or get a wagon. Load the logs using the grapple and then unload them later using the grapple. Much faster and easier than using a winch. One can grab a lot of logs at one time using a grapple but they can also be used to move some of the big rounds. Building a dray is simple, easy to build and doesn't cost much at all. In addition, you can build it any size you want. The one below was built for around $10.00
The dray or sled is a good idea. Cheap and effective and can be constructed and loaded to meet the strength of your tractor. Will mark up your trails a bit tho. If that’s a factor use it just to pull the logs to the trail and take over with the grapple there. I’ve seen a few mentions of electric winches overheating. I use two on separate implements and have no problems with that. I did read about it while researching winches and their use online. Must have got lucky,,,,,,or I’m not working hard enough.
I had a little ATV 1.4 HP winch on the tractor and it would oevrheat and stop. It didn't cost much, but now that I've bought a bigger saw for some bigger wood a gas powered winch is next if I'm gonna get serious about getting maple out of the maple swamp in the Winter. Right now the bigger saw is for some huge oaks and they're not in the swamp.
12 vdc From the little I used it I decided it was too small for what I was doing. Even though I wasn't trying to move logs more than about 800 pounds. 14 inches x about 15 feet, maple.
I have a 3500lb Polaris (Warn renamed I believe) on the atv. 4500lb Warn on the log arch. 5500 lb. Superwinch on the trailer. The 3500 is not very impressive. The 4500 performs good in its application. Haven’t found a tree the 5500 couldn’t pull yet. It’ll pull the dump trailer and my Ram 2500 crew cab right off the road if the tree doesn’t move. First pull ever on the 5500 the next day after finishing the build. Passed the test without a grunt. Hardest work it ever did was pulling a couple pine tree stumps out of the ground. Chocked the trailer tires and eventually had to put the truck in four wheel and park. Trailer was riding over the chocks and pulling the truck. I did reach the overload limit on the winch here where it clicks off an says no mas. Hadnt charged the trailer battery in months. May have something to do with it. Started the truck and those few charging amps were enough to start popping roots. 4500 log arch pulling one in. No sense trying to jockey an arch over a log if you have a push button. FWIW the synthetic rope is awesome stuff. Didn’t think I’d like it,,,old school mindset. Wouldn’t use anything else now.
So I've given a bit more thought to this, done some more research. I have very limited trails and rather rough and steep terrain. Right now the property is covered in oak tops, left over from logging two years ago. All still very solid. The problem is that most of them are in a place that is generally inaccessible without a lot of work. I can get my tractor to within 50 feet of some of them, but it's much further to a lot more, up to 200-300 feet in some cases. This would be the same situation for any future work, not just retrieving those tops. My usual practice is to carry my saw and wedges to the tree, buck everything up where it sits and then carry or roll each piece to the nearest trail. Predictably that turns out to be a lot of effort for little return when you're carrying each piece of wood 200-300 feet up or down a steep slope and over rocks. My goal is to bring the whole thing to the trail. Nothing more, not interested in skidding anything back to the house. Once I get the tops or logs to the trail, I can buck and split them right on the trail, and then either bring the splits or rounds back to the house, or stack right in the woods and let it dry for a year or two. So far I think the winch option seems to be winning. I really would like a front grapple but it would see pretty limited use. The winch would get a lot more use given the scenario above. I've looked at the standard 3-point logging winches, and considered a homemade assembly with a box blade and either an electric or hydraulic winch, but the limitation is always the cable length. I discovered several variations on portable winches, both cable and capstan (rope) style, and I am leaning toward a capstan winch powered by a gas engine, for various reasons. I like the idea of having the unlimited length of rope to work with, and not be limited by the connection to my tractor. Norwood makes a hybrid version of this which is kind of interesting, it hooks to the tractor but uses hydraulics to power the capstan drum. Still uses rope to pull the load. I am still thinking about a solution but I have a lot of wood to pull out this fall and I will have to make a decision in the next couple of weeks. Thanks for the advice and assistance.
Sounds logical. 200-300 is a long way to winch. Especially with electric. Wouldnt want to try that. That’s gonna get hot. In this scenario a couple options to consider beyond the capstan. First, easiest and cheapest. Get your 300 foot rope and a snatch block. Attach block near trail, connect rope to top and tractor and drive. Tree will come to the block/trail. No winch required. Cheap enough you could still buy the grapple. Second option. Buy a hydraulic winch with the biggest spool you can find. Replace the large cable or rope with 1/4” synthetic. Standard 1/4” synthetic is rated for 7000lbs if memory serves. That’s enough to drag your tractor up a mountain. Should be able to fit all sorts of that small line on a big winch and no overheating. I know there’s a company that markets 1/4” synthetic rated for 15,000lbs. With that you can drag two tractors and the tree up the mountain LOL Biggest problem I’m seeing you want to avoid is 300+ feet of rope getting all tangled. Lots of rope to be hauling around and not getting knotted up. Winch would solve that. Capstan and tractor not so much. Heck I can tangle up a 12’ power cord just taking it out of the packaging.
I am in a punch for time here, so I will be quick. I live on steep property myself. I have a 38 HP tractor, a 3 pt Norse Winch, forks and a grapple. I have not used the grapple in 2 years. It is heavy and traversing down the hills is sketchy with any weight on the front. The winch is on almost year round. I am lucky in that my pulls are down hill, but either way, you can release the winch and reset the tractor 150 ft away and pull to you and take off. The grapple is heavy and once off level, you either drop the load and reset your center and try again. If you are in a thick area, the logs if long will get tangled and you will fight and hate your life for 20 minutes. If level ground, the grapple wins, but hills are tough.
got forks, then all you need is a claw or two coming down from the top of the fork frame or if the clamp on ones top of the bucket. takes one remote on the hydro circuit or could be done with a small 12v air compressor , with that I not sure how much force /grab power would be there - depends on air pressure and rams ( same as hydro) air is dang fast though in comparision to hydro, more or less open or closed not really featherable like hydro. Just a couple thoughts but then I have the tools to fabricate stuff like this. I saved my claw assembly when I sold the ss ( needed a bit bigger one- haven't replaced yet- one of these days , but I could use a bigger tractor as well choice choices..........
