I'd love to stop cutting every log I process into individual rounds, to load them onto my trailer and haul home, but need a way to easily get logs up onto my Big Tex Vanguard 70TV trailer:
![[Hearth.com] Got trailer... need winch](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/193/193468-7f85711a50e1fc3fc1b52a89fb1d6c69.jpg?hash=UZMnPEEXY- "[Hearth.com] Got trailer... need winch")
Since I mostly haul larger stuff, I always run out of weight capacity (7000# gross minus 1850# curb = 5150# payload) at a single course of wood, so there's not much need for stacking. This makes a simple winch on the front of the trailer, with a snatch block from front top rail pretty practical for dragging wood up into the trailer. Log diameter varies 24" up to 48", and will be cut some even fraction of the 16' bed length, depending on weight and diameter (I skid them out of the woods with a Ford 3000 tractor).
Obstacles:
1. I do not believe the front wall or rail of the trailer can handle the pulling loads. A winch mounted on the tongue assembly may do well, but the resulting downward load of feeding the cable up thru a block on the top rail will also likely cause damage.
2. Without some sort of rig to lift the log, I'll be dragging it up the tailgate a bit. The choker on the log will always want to spin toward the top side of the log, I suspect. The solution may be as simple as covering the expanded metal on the tailgate with wood when skidding, or another block mounted up high farther toward the rear of the trailer. Looking for ideas.
3. I'd rather not run high-amperage cabling from the battery of my truck to the trailer. Knowing duty cycle will be low, the average current draw will be a fraction of the actual running current draw, and I may do well with a battery on the trailer being charged through the parking light circuit. No issues on resolving this myself, but would like to hear experience from those who've actually done this, or similar.
Since I mostly haul larger stuff, I always run out of weight capacity (7000# gross minus 1850# curb = 5150# payload) at a single course of wood, so there's not much need for stacking. This makes a simple winch on the front of the trailer, with a snatch block from front top rail pretty practical for dragging wood up into the trailer. Log diameter varies 24" up to 48", and will be cut some even fraction of the 16' bed length, depending on weight and diameter (I skid them out of the woods with a Ford 3000 tractor).
Obstacles:
1. I do not believe the front wall or rail of the trailer can handle the pulling loads. A winch mounted on the tongue assembly may do well, but the resulting downward load of feeding the cable up thru a block on the top rail will also likely cause damage.
2. Without some sort of rig to lift the log, I'll be dragging it up the tailgate a bit. The choker on the log will always want to spin toward the top side of the log, I suspect. The solution may be as simple as covering the expanded metal on the tailgate with wood when skidding, or another block mounted up high farther toward the rear of the trailer. Looking for ideas.
3. I'd rather not run high-amperage cabling from the battery of my truck to the trailer. Knowing duty cycle will be low, the average current draw will be a fraction of the actual running current draw, and I may do well with a battery on the trailer being charged through the parking light circuit. No issues on resolving this myself, but would like to hear experience from those who've actually done this, or similar.
