Tractors and wood! Show your pics
- Thread starter Bota4me
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- John Deere 3033R, 855 MFWD, 757 ZTrak; IH Cub Cadet 123
I'm probably a rare bird, in that regard. I use my tractor for many other things, literally every weekend, since I have it. But if not for my firewood usage, I might still just have my old 1963 Cub Cadet 123 garden tractor. It did literally everything else I ever needed... except moving logs.
I had a dump wagon for that tractor, which is much less handy than an FEL for moving dirt or mulch, but I'm not sure I'd ever have even bothered to explore the FEL option, if not for moving heavy firewood rounds... and then later full logs.
HawkinsHollow
Veteran Member
If that trailer was $3600 in 2016, it is probably $4500 now. WAY more than I want to spend on a trailer. Don't get me wrong it is awesome, I just don't have that kind of money right now.
Your system works for most logs, but a log arch would work for all logs. I still have a good number of mill logs in my yard but I am trying to stay ahead of it. Not sure I have the resources to get a log arch trailer put together right now. But if I keep on milling I feel like it is something I will have to make eventually to keep this mill fed. I have been lucky to get some good logs delivered from tree services but it is very hit or miss. I think with a log arch trailer you could get unlimited logs, you just have to just put in the work.
Portuguese Farmer
Silver Member
Dry the wood through summer, anything larger than what you see gets split, the burner is french made don't know if it's available in the states
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John_Mc
Elite Member
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2001
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- 4,684
- Location
- Monkton, Vermont
- Tractor
- NH TC33D Modified with belly pan, limb risers & FOPS. Honda Pioneer 520 & antique Coot UTV
Even in my NH TC33D (relatively undersized for logging) traction has not been a problem unless I have heavy, dense snow piled up enough to bottom out with the belly pan. If it gets away from me, I can just push through the light stuff. The big, heavy snow piled deep can slow me down too much to be worth working, unless I keep it packed down. If I know I'll be doing some logging, I try to stay ahead of things by running enough on the trails to keep them packed down.
Tractor has "Euro-style" studded rear chains (similar to Gordon's) and filled rear tires. No chains on the front, and the R4 tires are well worn, so I do occasionally need to add some brake steering.
As long as I have the trails packed down, I find it easier to skid in the winter (and less damaging to the trails).
- Joined
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- Philadelphia
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- John Deere 3033R, 855 MFWD, 757 ZTrak; IH Cub Cadet 123
I’ve pulled single logs into this trailer that exceed the GTWR, so no need for a log arch for any particular log, I don’t leave anything useful behind. What log can you image I’d pick with an arch, that I cannot without? I think I’d be apt to avoid using the arch on the largest and heaviest logs, not the other way around.
Keep in mind, I move more logs per year than most full-time burners do in a decade. The only place I’ve found where an arch would be a huge benefit is in stacking many smaller logs, since that’s a bit tedious without the arch to lift them up over what’s already in the trailer. But since most of what I haul is large and heavy enough to preclude stacking, I’ve just never had enough justification for building the arch.
HawkinsHollow
Veteran Member
Hmm, ok good to know. 20-28" logs are kind of my wheelhouse, any bigger and it gets to be a pain on my mill. Maybe a combo of a good winch and a non-expanded metal ramp will be the ticket. I was not looking forward to fabbing up an arch anyways. Ain't nobody got time for that. What would you recommend for a ramp system that would work better than what you have?
Sawyer Rob
Super Member
I brought these home today,
They even loaded them for me,
SR
They even loaded them for me,
SR
Rockbadchild
Elite Member
wow look at the size of that thing, what is the diameter 30 inch or so ?I brought these home today,
They even loaded them for me,
SR
Sawyer Rob
Super Member
Rockbadchild
Elite Member
yeah for sure … I thought so, I counted 6 planks at 5.5 inch each but figured the picture was angled a bit so I hold off 3 inch on my prediction.
It wouldn't even fit on mine!
- Joined
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- Philadelphia
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- John Deere 3033R, 855 MFWD, 757 ZTrak; IH Cub Cadet 123
For many years, I was cutting on the land of an older friend, and he had 30 acres of mature PA hardwoods... mostly oak with ash and poplar. We'd leave the poplars rot in the woods, grab all the oak we could, and take the ash and others (sassafras) as we had time or space for them.
Anyway, he was getting up in years, so I'd leave all the really friendly sizes for him, and bring home the stupid big'uns for myself. Lots and lots and lots of trees over 36" diameter, in fast most of the dying ash were right around the 40" mark, making me think they must've all started around the same time.
The largest single rounds I ever brought home were from a 60" diameter white oak that was rotten in the center from the ground up to a height of maybe 18 feet. I left the rotten part in the woods, but brought home everything above that. We figured single rounds at Ø49" x 20" must have weighed over 1400 lb. each. It was fun getting them onto the splitter.
I used to take pics of this, but once it became routine and less novel, got lazy about that. Here's an old one of my buddy skidding some of mine out of the woods, he has since passed.
Here's some even older, with a 36" bar on my saw for scale, and my old 855 struggling to stack some "medium" (36-inch? tractor tires are 33") rounds after bringing them home. I don't move rounds anymore, only whole logs now that I have a tractor that can actually lift them.
Good winch is a must, but to be honest, I'd buy one that's faster and less strong than what I have. I bought a 7500# job, which is more likely to break the trailer than anything else, if it ever hits a snag and exerts maximum pull. I only bought that model because I got more than half off, due to a clearance sale, and I had plans to "downgrade" it with gearing out of their faster 5000# variant... but never did.
As to the tailgate, you don't want anything that's going to act as an air brake, speaking in sailing or aeronautical terms. If it's solid, you'll likely want it to be removable for driving. However that might also go along with making it easily-replaceable, since it's going to take a beating. One easy option is plywood or aluminum plate, and some carriage bolts with fender washers and wing nuts. Install it when pulling logs, remove and stow it when driving.
Using a scrap of loose plywood has always worked well enough for me, excepting the fact that I sometimes forget to bring one with me. Thankfully, nearly every time that has ever happened, someone else on-site has had something I could use.
Rockbadchild
Elite Member
how old you think these are ? have you ever count it's rings ?
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- John Deere 3033R, 855 MFWD, 757 ZTrak; IH Cub Cadet 123
Not usually. I had tried a few times in the past, but it’s between tedious and impossible on some of that really old stuff. I’m surrounded by old houses (late 1600’s and up), and live in one myself, but somehow find old trees much less interesting… they all burn the same!
I do recall that the 6 ft. diameter white oak I mentioned above was taken from a local church’s picnic grove, and we have documentation showing it was already a large tree by the early 1800’s, as the minutes recorded at the picnic talk about it being hosted under the shade of that tree. I think one of the guys at the church tried counting rings from the not-rotten part of the tree, but don’t remember the result.
There are a few discs cut from large or significant trees in the area, one at a church just up the road, where someone has tagged various rings with years and significant events such as the Civil War or Rev. War. Those are neat… but I’d burn ‘em.
Rockbadchild
Elite Member
yeah I was just curious, a search I did suggested that white Oak as generally 5 to 10 rings per inch so at 55'' it would be anywhere between 250 to 400 years old, that 6' would be between 360 to 720 years old, that's pretty insane to me...Not usually. I had tried a few times in the past, but it’s between tedious and impossible on some of that really old stuff. I’m surrounded by old houses (late 1600’s and up), and live in one myself, but somehow find old trees much less interesting… they all burn the same!
I do recall that the 6 ft. diameter white oak I mentioned above was taken from a local church’s picnic grove, and we have documentation showing it was already a large tree by the early 1800’s, as the minutes recorded at the picnic talk about it being hosted under the shade of that tree. I think one of the guys at the church tried counting rings from the not-rotten part of the tree, but don’t remember the result.
There are a few discs cut from large or significant trees in the area, one at a church just up the road, where someone has tagged various rings with years and significant events such as the Civil War or Rev. War. Those are neat… but I’d burn ‘em.
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- John Deere 3033R, 855 MFWD, 757 ZTrak; IH Cub Cadet 123
That’s cool. But that tree was only 6 ft. diameter at knee height, where I left the stump. The diameter at breast height (DBH) usually used by harvesters was probably only 60 inches on that tree.
I do remember measuring the rounds I brought home from above 20 feet height were all around 49 inch diameter, because I did a quick calculation on the 20” lengths I was cutting when it was time to move them onto the hydraulic splitter, and figured they must weigh 1400-1500 lb. each. I ended up “noodling” them into 6” slabs, probably around 220 lb. each, and much easier to move onto a splitter.
Another thing I’ve noticed, having spent most of my life working on very old houses, is that the growth ring count of old wood is literally double or triple that of newer wood. The reason isn’t so much about the age of the wood, but the conditions under which it grew, any tree having grown up in a forest having much denser ring count than a tree that grew in a yard or field. Managed lumber, as we have it now seems to be mostly grown as a crop in a field, and thus the trees put on a lot of girth quickly each season. But a 300+ year old tree probably spent at least most of its early life growing under dense forest shade, so the ring counts are probably denser as you move in from the outside.
Sawyer Rob
Super Member
I'm glad it was only "suggested", because this white oak had just over 100 rings,
It REALLY depends on the climate and where it grows.
A lot of this one is going into a building,
and it made a lot of firewood too,
SR
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Oh, and I guess I shouldn’t admit this, but I just broke up and tossed a 2” thick slab from a 30”+ red oak in the fire pit last weekend. I‘ll check today to see if any of it survived the fire, since everything was wet at the time.
I guess that’d been a good one to count. It was growing on the edge of the 150 acre farm on which my house is located, but now part of a neighbor’s property. It died last summer, or so I was told, another neighbor cut it down and left the logs piled for me.
I guess that’d been a good one to count. It was growing on the edge of the 150 acre farm on which my house is located, but now part of a neighbor’s property. It died last summer, or so I was told, another neighbor cut it down and left the logs piled for me.
dodge man
Super Star Member
I had a couple of hours to cut some into rounds today. The big log my saw was sitting on was heavy enough my tractor could barely pick it up.
