What I did today (pictures)

[Zachary Hoyt]

I was using the PTO winch for about the fourth time today. Cutting ash trees that were marked in a timber sale 4 years ago and were not cut. I've got a couple of ash orders waiting to be filled at the sawmill. The bank is maybe 30 feet high at guess, no way I could get the logs up to the top without a winch of some kind. Took a couple of years to get the winch on the frame and working but now it is very handy. I really like the IPTO on the 300 to run the winch, it is handier than the trans drive PTO on the H or the two stage clutch on the MF35.
Zach










 

[Justin SE IOWA]

I bet that winch is handy! I would love to have one! Nice pics
 

[Paul from MI]

I rigged an electric winch on my neighbors farmall BN. Not as nice as yours, but he really likes it to skid firewood.
 

[jm.]

Zach I have all the components here to build a winch like yours. I was thinking of mounting something like a grader blade on the lower rear so I could let it pull int the ground to prevent the tractor from strain. Do you have trouble with the winch wanting to pull the tractor. I plan on using a hydraulic driven winch but will us it pretty much as you are , in that I have 600 acres of old Iron ore pits with good timeber.
 

[dave2]

lookin good... A little modification could help ensure you enjoy doing that stuff a lot longer (or not have a kisser that looks like the front of the winch tractor )



Couple guys in the area make a decent chunk of change doin custom work the old way... Saves the forest from damage by the big machines. Forest gurus go in and cut/limb and they pull it to the access roads..


 

[Mike (WA)]

When I was in high school, we had a real nice grove of ash, up to 24" DBH. Dad found someone to buy the logs, and we spent a week or so logging it out and decking it. Dad calls the guy, he backs out- says his market collapsed, or some such. So we spent the rest of the fall making LOTS of firewood. I still like ash firewood best of all.
 

[John Fulton]

Zach,
Evidently you don"t have the emerald ash borer yet. I has hit pretty hard in southside Virginia. Ash is not a commercial timber crop here, but many acres of river bottoms are covered only with in green ash. Lowgrounds will probably come back in sweetgum, another non-commercial species.
 

[Will Herring]

Very nice work with that winch. I rarely pull trees with my WD, the last time was when we had an old, hard locust fall over on the edge of a field (and, of course, into the field). Chainsaw and log chains to drag it off for firewood for campfires and such.


 

[Phil Tibbetts]

This picture reminds me of cutting wood with my Dad years ago. The horse was a joy to use, so smart in the woods that he seldom needed any help going to the yard. And when we got done no damage to the trees we left.