Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[Creamer]

That's the way I did it for quite a while...
Drive to log.
Hop off tractor and hook up chain.
Hop on tractor and drag to landing.
Hop off tractor and unchain log.
Hop on tractor and drive to log.
Repeat 40-50 times...
Tires you out and takes twice as long (or longer) than the tongs.
I can unhook the tongs without getting off the tractor most times, too, which is nice.

You forgot the following (especially with bigger logs)

Like Oldpath is mentioning - log is on the ground and you can't get a chain under it
Log rolls as you go around the corner and chain comes unhooked - get off and rehook (probably two times off the tractor as the first time something isn't quite in the right position)
Get to destination and unhook chain but it has locked up and you can't get it out from under the log so you drive tractor around the side and lift it a little and get off to retrieve chain


I am hearing you big time!

 

[CincyFlyer]

Always impressed with those of you that have woods with little to no understory of brush. You can hardly walk into ours without clearing brush first. Brush is often easily over your head to the point you can not walk. Not so much with mature forest.

I have a few thousand honeysuckle plants (and I've removed many hundreds), so I know what you mean.

 

[MossRoad]

I have a few thousand honeysuckle plants (and I've removed many hundreds), so I know what you mean.

Here's how I deal with honeysuckle on the edges of my woods....

 

[BrokenTrack]

I log in multiple ways and have a few means in which to do so. Lately it has been with my bulldozer and log trailer.

At first it seemed kind of slow because I seemed to have cut and cut, and while the logs were piling up, it only matters when the logs are piled on the landing and ready for the truck.

It almost seemed I would be ahead time wise if I just cut the trees tree length, dragged them out, and bucked them and on the landing. But after sticking with the log trailer plan of logging; it became apparent that time wise, that is not the case. Because almost all the work is being done in the woods: Fell, limb, and buck; once the logs are loaded on the trailer and hauled to the landing, there is nothing else to do. It just seems slow because so much work has to be done up front before the wood starts to move out of the woods.

The logs are super clean too, and piled nice and neat for my trucker to grab. It is obviously slower than using my skidder, but using my dozer and log trailer consumes a lot less fuel: 5 gallons a day instead of 40! I have a Kubota tractor and winch too, but it has been awhile since I used that in the woods: 1 year go probably.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Log rolls as you go around the corner and chain comes unhooked - get off and rehook (probably two times off the tractor as the first time something isn't quite in the right position)

DANG! What kind of hooks do you use, or how are you hooking ??, cuz I've never had a log come unhooked going around a corner...

SR

 

[Oldpath05]

Pretty useful item. Especially when you have wood on the ground and then you get an ice storm or rain followed by cold. Mine just has a dowel handle. Your pulp hook idea gives a lot more pulling power. I like it.

View attachment 536943

gg

Guess I'm not the only one with a tree on the ground problem. Nothing like a pulp hook for a good handle to yank on. I usually have the most problem on logs, seems like when they fall, they just land right flat on the ground and that's when getting a choker chain under really bothers for me so I made that 18" quick disconnect rod, solved a lot of digging, prying, pushing and I dont ever notice the log right flat on the ground till I'm starting to hook up, the next one I make I'll use a 1/4" stainless rod, be nice and shinny that way.

 

[Creamer]

DANG! What kind of hooks do you use, or how are you hooking ??, cuz I've never had a log come unhooked going around a corner...

SR

Wrap around the tree a couple of times and hook back to the chain with a standard chain hook. It would be better if I had an open hook so it pulled tight but I don't. I usually hook to a pin in the drawbar but over the drawbar mounted in the 3 pt as I lift the end of the log with the 3 pt to get some weight on the back of the tractor for traction.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Wrap around the tree a couple of times and hook back to the chain with a standard chain hook. It would be better if I had an open hook so it pulled tight but I don't. I usually hook to a pin in the drawbar but over the drawbar mounted in the 3 pt as I lift the end of the log with the 3 pt to get some weight on the back of the tractor for traction.

It is pretty understandable why you lose a few using a grab hook that way. If you just have a grab hook end you could try making a slip loop. Loop the chain back on itself a little more than the circumference of the log and hook the grab, making a big loop. Make a slip loop by passing both chains back thru the base of the big loop you made. Hard to explain but you end up with a connection that will tighten on itself and only takes a little more chain than a double wrap. If you don't have enough chain for that you can make a small loop with the grab and pass just the main line chain thru it for a lasso type thing.

gg

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Wrap around the tree a couple of times and hook back to the chain with a standard chain hook. It would be better if I had an open hook so it pulled tight but I don't.

You can buy the proper hooks for skidding logs and put them on your chains. They are sold separately...

It might be worth your time to get a couple.

SR

 

[NPurdy1112]

Cut down a black cherry tree. Have a friend coming to see if he wants any of it to have milled. If not it will be firewood.