trail clearing technique and tools

[ArlyA]

The owner of it got it used, a few years ago and never used it, now is selling the house and moving. If you wanted to take your side-by-side into the woods and grab a load of wood, seems like this setup would be ideal.

For the sake of trails, this would be nice to move downed trees out without bringing your tractor out to the work site. We are looking at used tractors so that lowers its value to us.

 

[2manyrocks]

You might look into what they cost a few years ago and make an offer on that basis because he might not have as much invested as he is asking?

 

[John_Mc]

The one tool I wish I had was a tree pusher jack. I have a Hi-lift jack so all I would need would be the attachment to slide over the top of it. It would sure help with those smaller trees that you need to fell in a certain direction.

Tree Pusher, Log Lifter And Stump Remover | FM3-LP | Forest Master

So wedging it over doesn't work for the trees in question?

 

[IndyIan]

So wedging it over doesn't work for the trees in question?

Something like a 7-8" dbh hardwood, leaning into a clearing but still 40-50' tall is not a great candidate to use wedges on IME, with too small a stump, to cut and wedge with a fullsize bar. I was just clearing beside the phone line beside the road, so the tree had to go into the woods, so I had brought a ladder and a rope and my son to get a couple of those down. That jack would probably work for those type a bit faster and be a one man job.

 

[airbiscuit]

I have one of these. I took the handle off, and hooked it up to my cordless drill. It works amazingly well. I have winched tractor attachments onto my trailer with it.

 

[ruffdog]

So wedging it over doesn't work for the trees in question?

Something like a 7-8" dbh hardwood, leaning into a clearing but still 40-50' tall is not a great candidate to use wedges on IME, with too small a stump, to cut and wedge with a fullsize bar. I was just clearing beside the phone line beside the road, so the tree had to go into the woods, so I had brought a ladder and a rope and my son to get a couple of those down. That jack would probably work for those type a bit faster and be a one man job.

I feel I would have more control of the direction by exerting 2 ton 6 ft from the cut. Like IndyIan, if I need to, I can put a rope 30 ft up and yank it where ever I want.

 

[ning]

I feel I would have more control of the direction by exerting 2 ton 6 ft from the cut. Like IndyIan, if I need to, I can put a rope 30 ft up and yank it where ever I want.

How do you get the rope 30' up, especially on say a 6-8" trunk?

One use case I can see with the jack is that it doesn't need an anchor.
With these smaller trees that make wedging difficult I usually use my rope come-along -- the stretch in the rope is a plus in this case because with decent tension on the rope, it continues to pull for just a bit longer than a wire cable, but you still need an anchor in the direction you're felling, and if there's no good tree that way, and you can't get a truck or tractor there... the jack could be useful.
Useful enough to pay for one? Not me, on this land, but I can imagine a place where it could be useful - especially if you're working on someone else's property and can't position a truck just anywhere.

 

[ning]

I'm far from recommending this, but Professional With Crane Dump Loader Timber Crane Atv Trailer Log Atv Log Trailer With Crane Made In China - Buy Log Trailer,Atv Log Trailer,3 Tons Timber Trailer Product on Alibaba.com

specs are seemingly non-existent, and this one requires a tractor's hydraulics
Axles probably don't move. $650 is it made of plastic lol

 

[ruffdog]

How do you get the rope 30' up, especially on say a 6-8" trunk?

One use case I can see with the jack is that it doesn't need an anchor.
With these smaller trees that make wedging difficult I usually use my rope come-along -- the stretch in the rope is a plus in this case because with decent tension on the rope, it continues to pull for just a bit longer than a wire cable, but you still need an anchor in the direction you're felling, and if there's no good tree that way, and you can't get a truck or tractor there... the jack could be useful.
Useful enough to pay for one? Not me, on this land, but I can imagine a place where it could be useful - especially if you're working on someone else's property and can't position a truck just anywhere.

I can either climb, toss a hook, or use a ladder. All worth the effort near a building or fence.

I do quite good dropping trees 95% of the time but a tree jack would just add another tool in the shed.

 

[John_Mc]

The owner of it got it used, a few years ago and never used it, now is selling the house and moving. If you wanted to take your side-by-side into the woods and grab a load of wood, seems like this setup would be ideal.

For the sake of trails, this would be nice to move downed trees out without bringing your tractor out to the work site. We are looking at used tractors so that lowers its value to us.

I'm not familiar with that brand. I use my own Metavic trailer pretty extensively. If the focus is on getting the logs out of the woods, they work wonders, but you need to be doing a fair amount of it (and/or find a used one at a good price) in order to justify the cost. If your use is just to move logs out of the way to clear trails, this type of trailer probably does not make a lot of sense. For that, I'd be looking at a grapple on a tractor

There are less expensive models on eBay. See this Link: ATV/Small Tractor Logging Trailer. You can also save eBAy fees by buying from the seller directly: Jason Zuleger at jasonzuleger@gmail.com. He imports them, and can have them delivered to a number of ports/warehouses throughout the US. NOTE: I've never seen one in person, so I'm not sure what the construction quality is like. I do know they come with "some assembly required".

 

[ning]

I'm not familiar with that brand. I use my own Metavic trailer pretty extensively. If the focus is on getting the logs out of the woods, they work wonders, but you need to be doing a fair amount of it (and/or find a used one at a good price) in order to justify the cost. If your use is just to move logs out of the way to clear trails, this type of trailer probably does not make a lot of sense. For that, I'd be looking at a grapple on a tractor

There are less expensive models on eBay. See this Link: ATV/Small Tractor Logging Trailer. You can also save eBAy fees by buying from the seller directly: Jason Zuleger at jasonzuleger@gmail.com. He imports them, and can have them delivered to a number of ports/warehouses throughout the US. NOTE: I've never seen one in person, so I'm not sure what the construction quality is like. I do know they come with "some assembly required".

Those look like the alibaba ones, with a "minor" profit added

 

[John_Mc]

Those look like the alibaba ones, with a "minor" profit added

Never thought I'd hear myself saying this about something selling on alibaba, but I like the way the hydraulic lines are run on the alibaba units better than the eBay one I posted about. The eBay units just seem to have lines draped all around. That does not seem to be a layout done with working in the woods in mind. Hard to tell without seeing either of the units up close and in person, however.

 

[Rockbadchild]

These trailer are ideal for firewood or if you have a portable saw mill, for trail clearing I would much rather the flexibility and control of a tractor espicially a tractor equipped with a grappler. With a tractor you can grab stuff, back up with it, move it out of the way, push stuff and rip stuff. With this trailer you are pretty limited on what you can do and the fact that you would have to back up ether in or out makes it inconvenient. My 2 cent.

 

[ArlyA]

Seen on Boundary road trails this week. Two came down but only one photo taken. We had wind.

 

[2manyrocks]

These trailer are ideal for firewood or if you have a portable saw mill, for trail clearing I would much rather the flexibility and control of a tractor espicially a tractor equipped with a grappler. With a tractor you can grab stuff, back up with it, move it out of the way, push stuff and rip stuff. With this trailer you are pretty limited on what you can do and the fact that you would have to back up ether in or out makes it inconvenient. My 2 cent.

I see this the same way. This kind of trailer wouldn't be that useful for us on hilly terrain where the 99% of the wood isn't near the trail, and there are few spots to turn a trailer around.

 

[John_Mc]

These trailer are ideal for firewood or if you have a portable saw mill, for trail clearing I would much rather the flexibility and control of a tractor espicially a tractor equipped with a grappler. With a tractor you can grab stuff, back up with it, move it out of the way, push stuff and rip stuff. With this trailer you are pretty limited on what you can do and the fact that you would have to back up ether in or out makes it inconvenient. My 2 cent.

I have a tractor with a grapple as well as a self-loading forwarding trailer. I don't tend to use that trailer with my SxS, since the trailer weight plus a full payload is about 7 times what the SxS is rated to pull (I went small and light with my SxS, since I had the tractor for heavier work.)

I find the trailer a great complement to my tractor. The tractor has a grapple on the FEL. I use the grapple for shuffling and stacking logs, but generally don't use it to haul logs any significant distance. The grapple will not hold near as much as the trailer (or what I can skid behind the tractor with my logging winch), and carrying long logs sideways down my woods trails is rather awkward.

My typical process is to make a first pass with the tractor and logging winch: felling trees or cleaning up storm damage, winching them close to the trail, and cutting to about 12' lengths, possibly shuffling them around a bit with the grapple if needed. When that work is complete, I'll make another pass with the tractor and forwarding trailer to pick them up and bring them back home or to the log landing where I'll process them.

Unless I was in the firewood business, it would be hard to justify the forwarding trailer financially just to move firewood logs. (I got my trailer used. The new price is quite a bit more than the Alibaba or eBay offerings. Even used, my justification was not purely a financial one. I've wanted one for as long as I have been working in the woods, and it is certainly easier on my trails than skidding all the logs out. It also makes it much easier to pick up logs donated to our local WoodBank.)

 

[ArlyA]

Out today getting two dead falls off. One was so large an green, should have bought a pole saw. Baby Makita's did get the job done. What weather to be out and working in. Less than 40 when we got there. Was so chilly in the morning hand to switch to winter oil.

 

[ruffdog]

arly...it looks like much of the dead falls are ash? Is EAB just hitting you there? If the wood isn't too punky, that would feed a woodstove nicely.

 

[ArlyA]

arly...it looks like much of the dead falls are ash? Is EAB just hitting you there? If the wood isn't too punky, that would feed a woodstove nicely.

All maples. Seems the ash are mostly gone.

 

[groundcover]

Had a blow down on one of my trails , finally got to it .