First, some background. My DIY lumber milling plans are finally beginning to take shape! I have a Granberg Alaskan mill on the way, which should arrive sometime next week. And I have no shortage of logs to start off with - I have two 35+ foot red maple logs, and one 20 footer, about 20" avg diameter, and another 6' long and 36" diameter. I also have one each 25', 20", black cherry, and black locust, and one MASSIVE green ash log - 25', 32" diameter. Problem is, all of them except the ash are still out in the woods, and the equipment in the above pic belongs to my dad and will remain in use all winter: he stores his sailboat and cradle on the trailer all winter, and he uses the FEL to plow his driveway. SO, I plan to cut them up into ~9' lengths and drag them out with a smaller tractor while the ground is still frozen. Id like to roll them up onto a dray so they don't pick up as much dirt when I drag them out. I had a light bulb come on this weekend while I was organizing things in my workshop. This is one of the legs of my sawbuck. With a couple slight modifications, I could use the same sort of design for a dray. So i have a general idea of what it will look like, but I haven't settled on the actual dimensions or tie-down/towing hardware. I'm interested in seeing and hearing about what you guys have come up with, what size you made it, how you use it, anything you'd do differently, etc. Mine would only ever need to handle 8-9' logs, but they'd be 20" diameter and up. Thanks!
The dray we use is about as simple to build as anything. It also can be extremely low cost. As to the size, make it so it is the same width as your tractor tires or whatever you are pulling it with. I threw this one together a few years ago and it works like a charm. We pull it behind a Yamaha Grizzly 700. Most times we don't even use 4wd. Also, the only cost to us for this was only to buy the bolts and the 2 eyebolts. Notice that we cut the front of the skids so nothing would cut in. You could also do the same with the rear and hook a chain on in case you wanted or needed to pull it backwards because you'll find out quick that reverse gear doesn't work well with these. lol One thing you see in the picture below is that the bolts stick up and that was planned. It helps while rolling the logs onto the dray and if they were a bit longer would also help a lot holding the log in place. One word of warning here though. Yes, we could have cut out so the 2 x 6 crossbars were lowered right into the skid. A friend did this....and the first time he used it, it broke right where he made the cut out. If one uses logs for the skids and they are maybe 6" or more in height, then cutting out for the crossbars would be fine but here, we just used some old (very old) landscape timbers. Loading the logs is simply using a cant hook. Here we couldn't even tell we were rolling them up because we built the dray so low to the ground. You can see that it would be very easy to load another log on top of these two.
Shaun Curry, I must admit I am a little envious of you. What a great machine. I had a buddy with a Wood-mizer and I enjoyed each time I got to help him.
I wonder if a two piece system with shorter runners might be a little more manuverable and less likely to get busted or twisted out of shape going over rough terrain and around corners? I wish I had my old horse drawn setup put together so I could take pictures but that's as I described with the addition of chains in an X formation from the back of one set of runners to the front of the next set. This allows it to steer the back set while giving it the freedom to follow the ground as well.
I sure would like to see some pictures of that if you ever get around to it. I was wondering about single vs tandem sleds as well. A 2 sled system would be adjustable for any length log. Logging trailers are sort of designed this way as well. I wasn't sure how well it would steer, but the chains sound like the perfect solution. There are a couple of antique horse drawn sleds in my great-grandparents old barn. I was wondering if they might have been used for logging. I'll bet they were - gotta get some pics of those.
I'm gonna see if I can find the link Shawn... there's a guy in Canada who sells log/cargo sleds that are pretty slick. It's 3/8" (I think) Delrin plastic sheet material with a couple HD tiedown rails to roll logs up and onto, to then secure. If I hadn't already had a couple skis to use I prolly woulda bought one. I'll see if I can find it... Shawn Curry ... here's a pic and some copy. Here is a pic of a big (for me) birch we hauled home to the mill on Sunday. This is the bigger of 2 nine ft logs we took from one tree. This on was 19" at the top end. We went 30 klm one way for this trip. . Cut it on top of the river bank . Hauled the sled up the bank with the winch. Rolled the log onto the sled then slacked it carefully down over the bank onto the river. Hooked up the Yamaha VK540 and headed for home. Took most of the day but was a lot of fun. Great winter so far. Lots of snow and cold Quebecnewf Shawn Curry ... here's a pic of another set-up using the same idea. The thing I'd like using this kind of "slide" is it'll pack the chit out of a main trail, every trip out, making it easier for the machines to bite. Shawn Curry ... here's the last info I could find... These sleds are made from something called "puck board" trade name . It is a poly product. Some guys build them out of something called UHMW or HMW. THe side of the hill thing . Not so much. You are limited in the side slope you can cross with a load on. This is true of most things including ATV tractor loader etc etc. With this type of load you go down the hill or try to get up the hill but not across the hill These are the sleds I used before I switched to the plastic sleds Quebecnewf
The last pic really reminded me of what I saw in the barn. So I started looking for pics of horse drawn sleds. I came across some cool old plans: The wheels are really turning now...
That's the stuff right there Shawn. I have one with a tongue between the front and the back and one with the chains. I'll see if I can dig them out this weekend and snap some pics.
That could be a bit of a trick but there are ways. Personally I'd line them up alongside a stout little tree then use a rope come-a-long on a Y shaped rope and bring the log right up set of ramps. I'll diagram something in Paint quick as it's clear in my mind but I can't describe it very well.
I had no idea what it was called (parbuckle) but I was hoping it would work like you describe, essentially pulling against each other as it rolls up the ramp. I've used the same setup to load logs on a trailer as well.
Sam beat me to it. I'd probably use ramps and parbuckle method. I think for this year I may stick with Dennis' design, and save the bob sleigh version for a future project. The higher priority goal right now is get-er-done while the ground is still plenty frozen.
I wish I still had my team of Belgians now. It wouldn't be a fast method but it sure would be fun! Pete: Tony:
