Logging winch design

[tslbogger]

Hi

What do you think about this winch design? (Upper link is missing on this drawing)

Hydraulic winch Tulsa 8000 lbs

3/8 wire 150 feets

Will be use at home on our land to recover broken or deads trees with my Case DX26

I allready have the winch and 12 volt hydraulic valve and some pieces of tubing.

Your opinions are welcome.

I can change the design at this point...

 

[CalG]

Waiting for that hydraulic winch to spool in will try one's patience.
That's a problem with recovery / hoisting winches. If it's got the guts, it's too slow.

pto versions really are best. Like the commercial units.

And I'm not sure a good logging winch can be built for less than it can be purchased for. Cost per pound etc.

 

[Billrog]

I've skidded hundreds of trees with my home made outfit and only a 4000 # 12V winch not real fast but adequate . I think you'd be happy to have a fairlead for the cable , depending on your terrain . Can't find a good pick of mine but you can see the fairlead as I'm skidding trees from above ,below and often from the side.

Before I made a log trailer I'd skid 4 or 5 good size logs tree length if I had any distance to go.

 

[tslbogger]

Waiting for that hydraulic winch to spool in will try one's patience.

First layer speed should be 82 fpm.

I cant justify to spend as much money a pto winch worth.

The hydraulic winch with the motor was real cheap and I have some material on hand.

I will use this winch for maybe 2-3 times by year to recover trees in bad spots or to control falling route.

 

[Rustyiron]

Looks good and be sure to bring us along with pictures of your build.
I built a hyd log winch with similar speeds and I'm happy with it with the tractor at an idle. In my dense and rocky woods approximately a foot per second is plenty fast.
Occasionally I miss the opportunity for more cable capacity but making a pull over 100' (on my woodland) is a challenge mapping out the cable route that won't fight me with hangups or a lot of damage to the trees on that path.
Put a valve on the winch that's accessable from the ground. I find that most of the time that's where I operate it from over being in the seat.
Another minor thing is your drawing shows a typical 3pt. pin. Use 2 sturdy tabs with a pin going through them with the tractors lift arm in between. Too much forces for a "one sided" attached pin.

 

[ptsg]

I second what Rustyiron said. Definitely support the lower pins with two ears/tabs per pin.

Do you have a way to free spool the winch?

 

[tslbogger]

Unfortunatly, no way to freespool without modification of the winch.

I plan to use a wireless remote to control the hydraulic valve on the winch.

I will add mounting tab on the 3 pt

 

[Billrog]

A wireless remote is very handy . I don't have to go back and forth to the tractor to reset the choker to put a roll on the log .

 

[Gordon Gould]

Looks good tsibogger. I agree with the other on the clevis type connections to the 3ph. You will most likely be adding hooks and brackets to hang your chokers, snatch block(s), cant hook, and etc. If you haven't thought about those details already it might make it easier later if you do.

You might consider making your receiver tube flush with the face of the blade. Having something for the logs to snag on can be a pain. Having to pin the receiver tube behind the blade is a pain too but to me the lesser of two evils.

gg

 

[tslbogger]

Having something for the logs to snag on can be a pain

Never think about this one.

I will check how I can mount it flush and keep some strenght .

 

[Gordon Gould]

Keep it low too - so you don't lose any ground clearance. This is what I did.

gg

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

Made like the yellow one works real good. Forney is good too.

 

[tractorcrazy]

Waiting for that hydraulic winch to spool in will try one's patience.
That's a problem with recovery / hoisting winches. If it's got the guts, it's too slow.

pto versions really are best. Like the commercial units.

And I'm not sure a good logging winch can be built for less than it can be purchased for. Cost per pound etc.

I have a tajfun 10000 lb pull hydraulic powered by PTO it is fast about a foot every two seconds

 

[dougtrr2]

I would look at your cable path routing. As the block pivots will it drag the cable off the upper pulley? I know you would normally be trying to winch directly behind the tractor, but if you go for that one last tree off to the side will your cable jump off track.

Doug in SW IA

 

[tslbogger]

You mean the cable could get out of the second sheave when doing side pulling?

Norse winches are built this way. Maybe I miss a detail about their sheaves configuration.

I'm pretty confident the cable will stay put. I add a swivel cable guide to help the loose cable follow the right path.

 

[dougtrr2]

I was thinking more of it jumping off the top sheave. It seems like subtle changes in sheave groove depth, pivot points and distance between sheaves could have significant impact. Just something to watch and think about.

I do know it can get ugly when a cable comes off a sheave and wedges itself in place it was not meant to go. Had that happen on a self releasing snatch block.

One other item you might consider in your design, is a place to hang your chokers.

Doug in SW IA

 

[Gordon Gould]

I do know it can get ugly when a cable comes off a sheave and wedges itself in place it was not meant to go. Had that happen on a self releasing snatch block.


Doug in SW IA

If this is what happened to your SRSB then as you can see I had the same problem. Others running small diameter cable have reported the same thing.

I took a short piece of rod and bent it. Then braised/welded it onto the the block. Problem solved.

Just something you can try if the problem continues.

gg

 

[tslbogger]

I will make the groove deeper and wider to help keeping the cable in the sheave.

And maybe add a piece of steel to be sure the cable cant go between the sheave and the housing like Gordon Gould does

 

[John_Mc]

I have a tajfun 10000 lb pull hydraulic powered by PTO it is fast about a foot every two seconds

So, 30 FPM. That's slow by logging winch standards. My logging winch runs at 180 FPM with the spool half full, if my PTO is running at 540 RPM. I normally don't run that fast. 120-150 FPM is probably typical for me.