Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[wolc123]

It's been years and 3 tractors ago, since I had a JD 750, so I don't remember what type of bar it had for hanging suitcase weights... if any. But I do recall it had independent rear brakes, so there should be no issues with steering. Heck, even my 3033r is steered almost entirely by rear brakes, when floating the plow in heavier snow.

It has a rack on the front, and I have a 200 lb steel plate that I ought to be able to bolt onto that. I think that will be plenty to make steering better with the bushhog and carry quite a bit more wood with the carryall. The brakes do work pretty good in it (one side better than the other). I usually make my (circles) with he bush hog towards the good side.

I won’t do that until next spring though. This winter, I’ve got to put it back on the drawbar of my Farmall Cub for added rear ballast for snowplowing. I had made a wood adapter from treated pine for that but the wood snapped in two when I was moving my boat with a ball attached to the plate.

Ive got a wide, thick white oak board that should be much stronger, to make a new adapter from.

 

[FriendwithTractor]

The Great Firewood Gathering Session has passed. It started with roading my Kubota 3 miles:

That was an interesting experience, but it went smoothly both ways. The grapple was handy in getting the logs to the processing area, and the tractor also safely pulled down a hung-up tree.

All who needed wood, got wood. So it worked out. Mostly Red Oak, not as productive as we've been in the past mainly due to the tree hanging up, but that just means we can do it again.

 

[John_Mc]

This winter, I’ve got to put it back on the drawbar of my Farmall Cub for added rear ballast for snowplowing. I had made a wood adapter from treated pine for that but the wood snapped in two when I was moving my boat with a ball attached to the plate.

Ive got a wide, thick white oak board that should be much stronger, to make a new adapter from.

I’m curious why you don’t attach the ball directly to the drawbar and avoid having wood in the towing connection.

 

[2diamondfarm]

I bought it last year. Had a rough start. Had a machine failure that took 5 weeks to resolve, then got Covid and Lyme disease. This is the first year of full use.

You are correct. I stated by renting a Dyna and we produced two years of firewood for our use in two days. Went to rent it again and cost had almost doubled. It no longer made sense to rent, so started looking at purchasing a smaller processor. It penciled out that I could pay for one in about 5 years if I sold 125-150 face cords a year. Ended up purchasing a Red Runner Deluxe with a live deck.

This launched my little side business…Woodbusters.

How do you like that Red Runner ?
looks like a good price point for a processor

 

[shooterdon]

How do you like that Red Runner ?
looks like a good price point for a processor

It has its quirks but works well.

The chain lube system is not very good, but I can fix that.

The cut length system does not work well. The constant bumping as the log is fed causes clamp movement and tightening the clamp bolts enough causes them to strip. I have modified that with lengths of steel that are hose clamped to the round adjustment bar. That had worked.

The outfeed conveyor gets torn up if you do not keep the slash cleared from under the low point and there is not much clearance, so you need to address it about every face cord of wood.

The weak point is the subframe for exit conveyor. Bent it up badly in the first few months and replaced under warranty...that took weeks to get resolved. The new one is slightly bent after processing over 200 face cords. I will be removing it and reinforcing it this fall/winter. Not a big deal.

The support for the infeed conveyor is Mickey Mouse. Again, something I will fix before next spring.

The saw dust chute is constantly getting plugged up. It is too small and cannot be easily fixed. I made up a tool to clear it. Wish the saw was more aggressive.

I plan on getting some RV scissor jacks to raise the unit about 6-8". This will improve the issue with frequent slash removal and give a more comfortable working height. With the added height, I should be able to put a tote under where the slash is deposited and dump the tote instead of using a hoe to clear it. They will also allow easy levelling of the unit.

It is supposed to have 27 tons of splitting force but it seems less.

IMO it is a better option than the Range Road Eco300 that I was going to buy from a local dealer. The Eco300 does not have an infeed conveyor and that killed it. Also, the Red Runner is already plumbed to hook up the hydraulics for the live deck.

 

[2diamondfarm]

It has its quirks but works well.

The chain lube system is not very good, but I can fix that.

The cut length system does not work well. The constant bumping as the log is fed causes clamp movement and tightening the clamp bolts enough causes them to strip. I have modified that with lengths of steel that are hose clamped to the round adjustment bar. That had worked.

The outfeed conveyor gets torn up if you do not keep the slash cleared from under the low point and there is not much clearance, so you need to address it about every face cord of wood.

The weak point is the subframe for exit conveyor. Bent it up badly in the first few months and replaced under warranty...that took weeks to get resolved. The new one is slightly bent after processing over 200 face cords. I will be removing it and reinforcing it this fall/winter. Not a big deal.

The support for the infeed conveyor is Mickey Mouse. Again, something I will fix before next spring.

The saw dust chute is constantly getting plugged up. It is too small and cannot be easily fixed. I made up a tool to clear it. Wish the saw was more aggressive.

I plan on getting some RV scissor jacks to raise the unit about 6-8". This will improve the issue with frequent slash removal and give a more comfortable working height. With the added height, I should be able to put a tote under where the slash is deposited and dump the tote instead of using a hoe to clear it. They will also allow easy levelling of the unit.

It is supposed to have 27 tons of splitting force but it seems less.

IMO it is a better option than the Range Road Eco300 that I was going to buy from a local dealer. The Eco300 does not have an infeed conveyor and that killed it. Also, the Red Runner is already plumbed to hook up the hydraulics for the live deck.

Was the dealer in Michigan ?

 

[shooterdon]

Was the dealer in Michigan ?

The Range Road dealer (Running Gears) is in Harrison and the Red Runner dealer (Lumberjack Shack) is farther away in Imlay City.

I ended up buying a Range Road live deck from Running Gears in Harrison. The price was better than the deck offered by Red Runner.

Both good folks to deal with IMO.

 

[wolc123]

I’m curious why you don’t attach the ball directly to the drawbar and avoid having wood in the towing connection.

The bolt patterns were different on the plate and the drawbar plus the wood spacer brought the ball height up where I needed it for my boat and log splitter.

There’s a place for pressure treated pine and a place for white oak and this was the latter. I finished up the new white oak adapter spacer today. The busted pt pine one made a good pattern for drilling and marking the curves. All better now and this one should last as long as the rest of the tractor.

 

[WinterDeere]

Love the homegrown tail lights, on that rig. Everything about it screams time capsule, you can tell it was owned by someone who lived through and was affected by the depression, and that's a very cool thing.

 

[wolc123]

Love the homegrown tail lights, on that rig. Everything about it screams time capsule, you can tell it was owned by someone who lived through and was affected by the depression, and that's a very cool thing.

How do you like my glass doored portable power tool cabinet converted from a garbage picked dining room china cabinet ? It’s even has a light in it that works. It is great to be able to see that everything is in its place.