Wood puller

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
I picked up this Echo chainsaw winch years ago, I do not remember where. If you can find a stump or rock to hook on to, it can pull quite a lot. It is very heavy however.

100_2125.JPG
100_2121.JPG
100_2127.JPG
 
My old Oliver/White Loader. Three buckets is a full cord. Has hauled a lot of wood for the neighborhood out here. 20150615_121305.jpg
 
I thought about a tracked bobcat, but they are crazy expensive. I'm going with a tractor soon.

There alot of wood that the average tractor cant lift and theres places where the tractors going to get stuck. The trac is where its at it when those situations are apparent
 
2BF560C3-14AF-44C0-8C66-9A5308910AD8.jpeg
A886221E-48B7-443B-A65A-00D96C02D323.jpeg
The truck isn’t around anymore but I have a newer version of it a 05 Cummins, the tractor has been a big time saver moved about five truck loads of ash today. The grapple is amazing for moving logs.
 
8E495C8F-EFC5-49D5-BA40-6021B0E9E734.jpeg
D6BA2D69-4187-4D22-903E-CD2E19C563D1.jpeg
I love my grapple. Makes moving any size object or load so much easier. My daughter calls it the claw. She loves watching it do it’s thing.
 
View attachment 241013 View attachment 241014 I love my grapple. Makes moving any size object or load so much easier. My daughter calls it the claw. She loves watching it do it’s thing.

Could you explain the hydraulic circuit on that, heavy hammer? I only see four lines running along the right arm, which is what you would normally need for just the four lift and roll cylinders. Where are the lines for the grapple channel? How many connections do you have between loader and tractor, six?

The reason I ask is that I imagine this could be done by sacrificing the roll channels on a machine with only dual valves. I could put an electric solenoid on the loader itself, and toggle the bucket roll valve between roll function and grapple function. I’m wondering if this is what I see on the lower cross bar of your loader.
 
Ashful if you look at the top pic you will see the diverter valve I believe it works by splitting the one valve into two. I do not have a true third function kit. I can only do two of the three functions at once. I'm no hydraulic expert but I believe that is how it works. I'm not saying a third function kit would not have worked for my tractor but when looking into them I read some tractors have not enough flow to truly run all three functions at once. I didn't look into an aftermarket kit since the tractor only had 9 hours on it and I figured with my small operation and not being a professional operator the diverter would work fine. Plus as I said that is what the dealer offered for their third function.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jkbemdavis
A neighbor down the road bought up 6 - 8 spreaders at farm auctions. Fills them up in the spring and lines them up behind the barn. Come winter he just pulls one out and parks it next to the OWB.
Now that would save a lot of unloading, piling, etc.
 
Now that would save a lot of unloading, piling, etc.
Only applicable if you have a smoke dragon.
If you have a gasifier you need dry wood,but only about half of what you use in a smoke dragon.
 
Dear me Ashful! You should change your name to Paul Bunyan!

And I see you work with Babe, the Green Oxe.

Hah... I’m 175 lb soaking wet, and spend most of my week behind a desk, no Paul Bunyan! It’s just about working smart, levers and other simple mechanics, like the cant hook.

... and when those fail, hydraulics!
 
I don't have a tractor (yet), but on my wood trailer (just a cheepo Harbor Freight with wooden sides) I put a cheap (HF again) worm drive hand winch, which I removed the handle from and use a power drill to turn.

That, plus a set of homemade log tongs does fairly well at dragging them up to the trailer's tailgate, although it needs help on larger logs.

For really big/stubborn logs, I hook a proper log chain to the hitch on my truck and pull them with that.
 
Breed of tractor will vary but this is the standard woods rig in this part of the country.

When I have some more room I'd like to get a dump trailer and a flat trailer.