Has anyone ever setup a small scale skyline rig for hauling firewood up a hill? I have an area to cut, however access is an issue. A four wheeler might work but I don't have one at the moment. I am thinking about rigging up a skyline to get the logs up to a small landing. Max distance is about 200 feet, vertical gain is about 30 feet. Max load would be under 500 pounds. I am a certified rigger and I am trained in high angle rescue. I do have knowledge of the forces involved but I have as of yet have not applied my knowledge to this partiucular kind of situtation. I have a couple hundred feet of 1/2" 7x17 EIPS, I would rig a low end anchor off a stump, the high end would be supported by a large pine tree on th landing that would be guyed to another anchor point to control deflection. The carriage would be two 3/8x4" blocks connected together with a rigging ring. One block of the carriage would ride on the 1/2" skyline, the other block would be reaved with the winch line off my truck. The truck would be parked on the landing. I would choke a long then use the winch to pull the line in, hopefully lifting up the end of the log while dragging it up hill. I know the ideal situation is a winch on the yarder to control the carriage, and a winch on the carriage to control the logs. Not reall something I am equiped for at the moment.
Your rigging experience will help you figure it out as you go. Keep your log weight down to the 500 lb range, and you should be able to do it easily. A skidding cone would be really handy in this app, so the front end of the logs won't dig in. I don't think you'll get any usable lift at that end because of the slope. I do a bit of rigging with ropes/pulleys to do my log stuff. You can do a lot with them. Looking forward to pics of your op when you get going.
Brought home some goodies from work. A truck load of pallets and 600' of 9/16" cable. Don't have any 9/16" blocks. I am leaning toward acquirng a pair of mckissik sheaves in 9/16" and making a skyline trolley.
How long an actual skyline cable when it's installed, do you think? That's some beefy cable. How much weight do you think you want to lift?
If I recall I paced it off at about 250'. Going for max of 500 pounds. Things get freaky when you start rigging cables tight and then hang a load off them. Assuming one maintains a perfectly tight/straight line and loads 500 pounds on the span, the cable will potentially see ~29,000 pounds of tension. Obviously cables in the real world stretch as they load and this stretch decreases the included angle there by decreasing the mechanical advantage the load has on the cable. For a real world example, string a rope tight between your truck and a stump, now go to center span and pull perpendicular. For about the first foot or so your truck moves fairly easily. Same principle. Hopefully get some time this weekend to do the Flemish eye work. I can post a step by step if y'all are interested...
I guess you figured out how much the spool weighs from moving it - consider what it will take to get it up on a tree. What you're talking about in the first post is double blocking - this is what usually causes a cable failure You're going to need some comealongs to get the cable set between the two trees. If you have a straight shot to the landing get the cable set and use two slip open snatch blocks, one riding on the cable the other tethered to the pine tree. I use a short piece of chain to choke the logs - it will be become the double block at the first snatch block - rope or cable run through the snatch block tethered to the landing tree - no need to use the winch just drive (4 wheel may be necessary depending upon traction conditions)
About half of parents 10 acres that I've been cutting on for 33 years has very steep slopes/a couple ravines running through it.Will be watching this thread closely...... Normally I've just parked as close as possible at top of a hill or flat spot,either walked down the slope,bucked things to length/carried it up hill to tractor/cart or truck or left it long then used winch,comealong/cables/log chains etc for skidding..... Already got my cork boots,leather shoulder pad for carrying saw.....
Like in the movie "Back To The Future", my drawings are not to scale. If you still have some standing trees left, keep one standing tree up by the road or where you want to land the logs. Put a short straps around the standing back spars and spars tree, hang blocks off the straps, run the skyline down to a stump or tree at ground level and to whatever your going to keep it tight with. The standing trees take very little of the pulling strain. Skyline/scab block set up. I prefer a short cable spreader as it allows the blocks to stay in led easier . One block goes over the skyline and your yarding line goes through the lower block and down the the log that you're going to choke with the yarding line. Always try and choke the log close to either end. That way the choked end will be off the ground and should not hang up as much. (dig into the ground) Before you start falling, plan your logging area. Leave some standing trees at the back end of the trees that you want to yard for back spars , these back spars mean less side pulling and will result in less hang ups. This simple back spar set up is used with full size grapple yarders. A word of caution!!! Nobody should be within the falling radius should one of these spars fall over. They do occasionally come down and when they do, they come down fast! Most importantly be safe and HAVE FUN! Too bad I'm not a close neighbour as I have lots of blocks and rigging junk. Allan
Really good info Allan! I also wish I was closer as I've got a bunch of 6" sheaves/polished pins (HD pulley wheel) and some 3/4" turnbuckles. I'm looking forward to Dan's pix as he gets to it.
Thank you all for the information, especially Allen with his experience having done this first hand. I had actually scribled a picture like his first one, but I couldn't get it to load with my first post. I had planned on rigging the blocks close with a shackle but the info about a short cable is great to know and I will certaining try it. Work-work is still kicking my azz, hopeing for things to slow down next week so I can get back out into the woods for some fun-work.
For the spreader , a swivel shackled between the 2 blocks will also allow the yarding block to stay in led . http://www.riggingwarehouse.com/products/RIGHARD01/RIGHARD01@@2e33/RIGHARD01@@2e33@@2e01.aspx
This is great information. Definitely look forward to seeing pictures of it in action when you get set up
Yeah I have a couple some alongs for tensioning. I have a chain with shackle setup to attach to the landing end of the sky line. I will get most of the slack out with the truck winch before I attach the come along to the anchor and then to the chain with a grab hook. That way I am not using up all the come along pull just taking the caternary out of the line. For running the cable, I can access the down hill side by boat. I am leaning towards floating the cable in on a mini barge along with a spooling stand. I will run a much lighter weight 1/4" cable down to the 9/16" spool then use that messagner line to haul the cable up to the landing via the truck. I think it will work okay. I am working in a blow down area, as long as I walk the messanger cable across the top of the logs I don't think I will have too much trouble with hangups when I pull tension. Still him hawing about how exactly to terminate the low end. Could just cut the cable off the spool, I have enough of it. Then just splice a flemish eye and rig to the anchor.
I've used my blocks in similar fashion - usually I just use rope with a small section of chain to attach the log and attach the snatch block with a nylon strap & shackle. If it's a straight enough/clear shot I'll pull everything close to the road, other wise I use two blocks and pull everything to the first drop point then move and pull to the road. It's amazing what you move with decent rope
Yep, ropes can be plenty strong enough and I like working with them a lot more than cable. For a skyline setup like Dan's gonna do... definately cable for that, but rope for the actual lifting line for a 500 lb load... no sweat.
