Winch, log trailer with grapple or both ??

[eyi]

Hi all,

I'd appreciate your thoughts on the following. I have a L 3800 hst, bushhog Sq, pallet forks, 2 420 honda atv, rachet rake, on a 100 acres land with sugarbush and a mix of soft and hardwood.

I have many mature poplars and firs to harvest. So far i made my way hauling some on the snow with the ATVs and stacked it with the forks but it's slow and i am considering to upgrade my setup.

I'm thinking about a 3 pts winch and/or a log trailer with a grapple on it. Do i need both ?

I have also seen log trailers with both a grapple and a hydraulic winch on it, would it be a better choice ?

What do you guys think about it ? Sorry if it is a basic question but i am an almost beginner.

Thanks for your attention

 

[Tor Arne]

How is the terrain where you are going? Relatively flat will a timber trailer With a grapple work well, in steep tereng will a winch be preferable

 

[eyi]

Relatively flat

 

[roadhunter]

Log trailer with grapple would sure be handy.

 

[andy1981]

Many of the trailers you are describing a very pricey, so a lot depends on your budget. A 3 point log winch will most likely hold more cable and have more pulling capacity than one of those trailers that are equipped with a winch. A 3 point winch will be alot more affordable , although I would love to have one of those trailers.

 

[motownbrowne]

I get by pretty good with just a 3 point winch. I'm planning to modify a hay wagon into a simple log trailer. Basically no deck and some uprights on either end. Hay wagon running gear is pretty cheap. I'll load it with my pallet forks.

 

[Grandad4]

The PTO operated logging winch is very effective for getting timber out of the woods. I used one at our place for several years and did work that would be difficult or impossible without. It pulls much faster than a hydraulic winch, which gets the work done sooner. Mine had 260 ft of cable and there wasn't any place on my property that couldn't be reached from near a trail, so the tractor never had to sneak between trees or over soft ground. The winch could haul several logs at a time. If I were doing 100 acres of logging with my tractor, I would think the ideal setup would be the winch in back and a grapple in front.

 

[CobyRupert]

Here's my :2cents:

1st: Winch. (A must IMHO)
2nd: (If in budget) A grapple would be nice for moving the tops and brush into the burn piles.
I got by with just a set of forks for loading/stacking the logs once winched out and brought to a landing (spot) and cut to length.

Think about what it takes (in your particular case) to make the fewest moves you need to make the fewest trips, and/or the fewest hitches/unhitches, etc.... Sometimes you'll be trading one for the other (trips vs hitches).

I was selling 8' pine logs (6"-12" diameter), so at first I use to load 16' and 24' logs on a converted hay wagon "running gear". This often involved having to first pull them (one at a time) to where the forks could get perpendicular to them, then having to unload them, then cut them down to 8' either on the pile (a bit dangerous climbing around) or cut them into 8' and now re-scoop them and move (3)-8' lengths onto pile. The plus of this is the wagon could hold 8-10 logs a trip (which also made unloading 3-4 at a time tricky w/ only forks)

When I got the winch, production time was cut to about 1/3 of using a wagon. Just drag the cable with 4 choker chains and gather 4 logs at once. I then had to decide what made most sense. Bundling 8 logs (with a couple pulls, but more hitching/unhitching per trip) Pulling 8', 16' or 24', 40' lengths?
For me I'd cut two 40" pines into 4 logs (2- 24' & 2-16') for one trip, pull up next to the pile at the header, and make my 8' cuts with one end of the log raised raise as high as possible. I'd then have (10)- 8' logs arranged in 3 lengths that I could stack on pile w/ 3 scoops of the forks.

It really did take awhile to figure out the best method.

 

[Gordon Gould]

What are you doing with the logs ? Do you pile them in a landing and have a log truck haul them to a mill or do you truck them to a mill yourself. Or maybe you have your own mill on sight.

I harvest a lot of fir saw logs on my own place. Not big trees, they average 10 to 16 inches with an occasional 2 footer . I have a 3pt winch and bucket grapple on a L3010. I do my own trucking to the mill with a one ton truck. It is close by. So a small operation but affordable equipment. The winch gets the logs out of the woods and to the landing and the bucket grapple loads the logs into the truck and handles brush.

It really depends on what your woods and woods roads are like. My woods are tight and roads are rough and hilly. Many are roads/trails are dead ends because of terrain so jigging a trailer around wound be a pain. If you have nice loop roads a trailer might work good. I could never justify a trailer/loader with low value logs like fir and aspen anyway.

Even if I had the trailer I would want a 3pt winch I think. So much more nimble in the woods than trying to use a trailer winch I would think.

 

[dickfoster]

Hi all,

I'd appreciate your thoughts on the following. I have a L 3800 hst, bushhog Sq, pallet forks, 2 420 honda atv, rachet rake, on a 100 acres land with sugarbush and a mix of soft and hardwood.

I have many mature poplars and firs to harvest. So far i made my way hauling some on the snow with the ATVs and stacked it with the forks but it's slow and i am considering to upgrade my setup.

I'm thinking about a 3 pts winch and/or a log trailer with a grapple on it. Do i need both ?

I have also seen log trailers with both a grapple and a hydraulic winch on it, would it be a better choice ?

What do you guys think about it ? Sorry if it is a basic question but i am an almost beginner.

Thanks for your attention

He who dies with the most tools n toys wins the game.