Son of a Beech ;)

[peakbagger]

Well my big beech rounds have reappeared from under the snow pack. I had dropped a 15" beech when the early snows hit in November and unlike a similar size one I had done two weeks before this one, it didn't get split when it was cold (probably frozen). The snow finally receded and the ground was just dried up enough that I took a walk with the Fiskars. I walked by a lot of piles from trees I dropped and mostly split at the same time including yellow birch, maple and white birch and another beech that I had mostly split the big stuff. There were stragglers I had missed so I split as I go and didn't have much of an issue splitting all species although the smaller diameter beech ominously was a bit more difficult. I got to the 15" beech that I had dropped and partially bucked and started whaling away on the big rounds. it was definitely not like last November. It took multiple hits to get splits and most of them were stringy no matter what approach I used. I gave it 20 minutes and decided that these are going to get stacked and stay rounds until I get a gas powered splitter or wait until next winter. This lines up with my past beech adventures, split it when I drop it in cold weather or wait a couple of years.

Given that I need to really focus on beech for timberstand improvement the writing is on the wall to get a gas powered splitter unless I get creative and build a splitter that run offs my Unimog hydraulic tool circuit. I did drop a lot of trees of various species in the woods that also were buried so in the short term I am going to try out my new capstan winch and drag them out of the woods to a landing and then cut and split the species other than beech and then start piling the beech rounds in nice sunny spot in single row.

 

[SpaceBus]

Well my big beech rounds have reappeared from under the snow pack. I had dropped a 15" beech when the early snows hit in November and unlike a similar size one I had done two weeks before this one, it didn't get split when it was cold (probably frozen). The snow finally receded and the ground was just dried up enough that I took a walk with the Fiskars. I walked by a lot of piles from trees I dropped and mostly split at the same time including yellow birch, maple and white birch and another beech that I had mostly split the big stuff. There were stragglers I had missed so I split as I go and didn't have much of an issue splitting all species although the smaller diameter beech ominously was a bit more difficult. I got to the 15" beech that I had dropped and partially bucked and started whaling away on the big rounds. it was definitely not like last November. It took multiple hits to get splits and most of them were stringy no matter what approach I used. I gave it 20 minutes and decided that these are going to get stacked and stay rounds until I get a gas powered splitter or wait until next winter. This lines up with my past beech adventures, split it when I drop it in cold weather or wait a couple of years.

Given that I need to really focus on beech for timberstand improvement the writing is on the wall to get a gas powered splitter unless I get creative and build a splitter that run offs my Unimog hydraulic tool circuit. I did drop a lot of trees of various species in the woods that also were buried so in the short term I am going to try out my new capstan winch and drag them out of the woods to a landing and then cut and split the species other than beech and then start piling the beech rounds in nice sunny spot in single row.

You could look into a skid steer FEL mounted splitter.

 

[peakbagger]

Given the slope of the property a skid steer would be useless in most locations. The access roads zig zag up the slope until it tops out to flat woods but I don't expect I will ever get to cutting in that area. The only option I see is the capstan winch to drag the wood down to the roads and process it there. Its somewhat open hardwoods without a lot of understory so pulling the logs whole out of the woods looks like the best approach. It very bony soil so its not going to rut up severely and some management approaches encourage scaring up the soil to try to encourage new seedlings that eventually can be managed. The key is to avoid creating erosion.

To date I can only go up part way up the property as even with my SEE in the lowest gear with diffs locked, the wheels just spin when I try to go up a seasonal road versus a road to the landing I have some chains that need to be cut down to fit my tires before I try again.

 

[SpaceBus]

Given the slope of the property a skid steer would be useless in most locations. The access roads zig zag up the slope until it tops out to flat woods but I don't expect I will ever get to cutting in that area. The only option I see is the capstan winch to drag the wood down to the roads and process it there. Its somewhat open hardwoods without a lot of understory so pulling the logs whole out of the woods looks like the best approach. It very bony soil so its not going to rut up severely and some management approaches encourage scaring up the soil to try to encourage new seedlings that eventually can be managed. The key is to avoid creating erosion.

To date I can only go up part way up the property as even with my SEE in the lowest gear with diffs locked, the wheels just spin when I try to go up a seasonal road versus a road to the landing I have some chains that need to be cut down to fit my tires before I try again.

I meant like maybe using a skid steer splitter on your unimog loader. Drag the logs to the MOG, buck and split in place.

 

[peakbagger]

Sorry I misunderstood. I have been looking at splitter options for the mog. I probably would do a normal splitter design that I could tow off the pintle hitch and then just feed it from the hydraulic tool system on the mog. I only got the jack hammer and the rock drill but there is a 50 feet hydraulic hose reel on the back equipped with quick connect hydraulic hoses to run all sort of tools. The same system feeds the front end loader. All I would need is a valve and a cylinder and some fittings. Worse case if I wanted a super splitter, I could get some hose and run it off the backhoe hydraulics but expect its overkill. I don't want to tie up the bucket as I would probably put the splitter next to the bucket and push the splits into the bucket to move the logs around.

Unfortunately all sorts of plans and not enough time to do it.