# 3pt tractor winches



## homemade (Mar 10, 2011)

Ok. So I dont know if this is conciderd "loging talk" but has anyone seen or used a 3pt hitch winch for a tractor to get wood out. I've been concidering makeing my own from a bed winch of an old knuckel boom truck. I work in some swampy areas that i won't think about taking the truck and trailor or even my farm tractor and trailor. Some way to retreve good wood with out waiting till winter for the freeze would be nice.


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## floyd (Mar 11, 2011)

Ever hear of farmi winch? 3 pt winches. Think they have a set of outriggers on it as well.


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## 56himmelreich (Mar 11, 2011)

*3pt winches*



homemade said:


> Ok. So I dont know if this is conciderd "loging talk" but has anyone seen or used a 3pt hitch winch for a tractor to get wood out. I've been concidering makeing my own from a bed winch of an old knuckel boom truck. I work in some swampy areas that i won't think about taking the truck and trailor or even my farm tractor and trailor. Some way to retreve good wood with out waiting till winter for the freeze would be nice.


 
Have used farmi winch for 30 yrs on jd850 will pull and move logs any place you want to and just about any thing else you need to move.


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## jbirdmotox (Mar 11, 2011)

Here are a couple pics of my Farmi. It's the smallest one they make I believe.


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## 371groundie (Mar 11, 2011)

not a good shot of the winch but its a farmi 351. the tractor is 40hp. 

working alone i could put out about 30cd or 1500 bdft. a week. that was loggin like it was my only goal in life. i was makin money. 

most people cant make a tractor move enough wood to pay for itself. but i was motivated.


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## czar800 (Mar 11, 2011)

I made this one to pull wood out, it has work real well.

YouTube - ‪homemade Winch 2‬&rlm;






http://www.arboristsite.com/firewood-heating-wood-burning-equipment/60112.htm


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## Turkeyslayer (Mar 11, 2011)

My winch has impressed the hell out of me with what it can pull!
http://www.arboristsite.com/firewood-heating-wood-burning-equipment/116946.htm
This is a pic of one of the white pines I pulled out of a ravine last winter. 33" at the butt,20" at the small end, 55' long.


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## homemade (Mar 12, 2011)

czar800 said:


> I made this one to pull wood out, it has work real well.
> 
> YouTube - ‪homemade Winch 2‬&rlm;


 
Love the rear axle design. Do you know what the gear ratio is on that axle? My friend has a junk yard so getting one wouln't be a problem just need one with a low gear ratio (high number) so I wont be dogging my tractor so much. Want to run it at an idle-ish so I'm not buring too much fuel, and safty and so on. 

Yes i heard of the farmi winches but can't justify spending that much money for wood to heat my house. Btw, my tractor is a 1967 David Brown 770. 32hp to the pto


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## dancan (Mar 12, 2011)

jbirdmotox said:


> Here are a couple pics of my Farmi. It's the smallest one they make I believe.


 










Nice compact setup !


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## czar800 (Mar 12, 2011)

homemade said:


> Love the rear axle design. Do you know what the gear ratio is on that axle? My friend has a junk yard so getting one wouln't be a problem just need one with a low gear ratio (high number) so I wont be dogging my tractor so much. Want to run it at an idle-ish so I'm not buring too much fuel, and safty and so on.
> 
> Yes i heard of the farmi winches but can't justify spending that much money for wood to heat my house. Btw, my tractor is a 1967 David Brown 770. 32hp to the pto


 



Its a ford axle and the ratio is 3:55 it is fast. can you see from the video how I used a master cylinder to brake the wheel opposite of the cable. That setup lets you pull only when the brake is pushed, slip the brake the slower it pulls. Sorry never got a video pulling bigger wood out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRVsgHZHjd4&feature=related



.


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## homemade (Mar 12, 2011)

Ok one more question on the rear axle winch. what happends when your winch/pto operator doesn't pay attention and ends up running the log tight. will it snap the rope, or kill the tractor. but then again. Ya gotta sacrifice some safty when cheap it the goal.


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## czar800 (Mar 13, 2011)

homemade said:


> Ok one more question on the rear axle winch. what happens when your winch/pto operator doesn't pay attention and ends up running the log tight. will it snap the rope, or kill the tractor. but then again. Ya gotta sacrifice some safety when cheap it the goal.


 



The winch is not run by turning on and off the pto it is on all the time. So the side with the rope and tree your pulling is stopped because it has the (load) and all the power is going to the other side (no load) until you brake the (no load) side, which in turn puts the power to the side with the rope (Load) I think that if you did hold the brake on and run it tight that the brake would slip.. Never did it.


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## homemade (Mar 13, 2011)

yeah after i posted it i double checked the vid and it makes sence. i though after i seen it the first time you had the spiders welded together so it was pulling on both rims all the time


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## chip221 (Mar 14, 2011)

*Need a snatchblock too*

Here is a pic of the winch I made a few years ago (it isn't complete in the photo so don't pick too much). I had a free winch and some scrap steel. I bought a rebuilt hydraulic motor to directly couple to the winch input. I went high torque and low speed...it would be nice to find a 2 speed motor someday. I run it off the tractor hydraulics so If it hits a tough spot it'll just throw the hydraulic lever back to neutral.

The best tool I have though is a 12" snatchblock. It lets me position the tractor in better places where I can have a better view of the log i'm winching, or just keep me from dragging the tractor down the hill backwards while i'm pulling the log uphill.


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## LumberjkChamp (Mar 14, 2011)

371groundie said:


> not a good shot of the winch but its a farmi 351. the tractor is 40hp.
> 
> working alone i could put out about 30cd or 1500 bdft. a week. that was loggin like it was my only goal in life. i was makin money.
> 
> most people cant make a tractor move enough wood to pay for itself. but i was motivated.


 
Nice setup there. I've got the same tractor except with the R4 tires. I'm looking to winch it up so I can increase my production. That's a bunch of wood you moved with yours. I'd like to see those numbers with mine. But, the winch is the trick.

Mine is an '01 (bought new) with 1100 hours on it. It runs good, no problems at all, but I treat it like a baby. How about you? Any issues? I might have to do a clutch in the next 500 or so hours. 

It isn't a bush tractor (yet) its mostly used for mowing, light tillage, pushing snow, and firewood. 

I also like the old leaf springs in the bucket. I'd do that myself but I would be worried about sticking them into a truck/trailer bed when loading. I don't have the need to stack too many logs. Looked at some quick attach forks this weekend and the guy wanted $650 for 'em. I figure I'd do the leaf spring thing first.


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## 371groundie (Mar 21, 2011)

that ones an 2004 purchased new with the winch. it had r4s when we tested it out, but we got the ag tires for the extra grip, and had the dealer weld caps over the valve stems. and set the tires as wide as posible. 

the rock arms are under powered. lift is 1500 lbs, and the winch is around 500. it doenst take much to add up to 1000lbs of tree butts.
the only damage to the tractor has been cosmetic (lights, reflectors, paint, etc) and i got a stick up into the fan once. that plastic fan didnt stand a chance. 

the springs in the bucket are very nice. they are wider than forks so its easier to balance long logs. all my trucking is done by trucks with self loaders. only ever loaded cut and split firewood with the bucket, but you do have to be concious of the springs. 

its a great machine, but its not a skidder. if i had any doubt if i could pull somthing i just took it easy. low gear, idle, let the clutch out. then speed up once things are moving. i pushed that machine to its very limit, but never abused it. about $500 bucks worth of paint and lights and i could sell it for close to what i bought it. 

ps: noticed a typo in my previous post, i meant 15k bd ft. i was moving three wheelers a week. a wheeler holds around 10cd or 5k bdft.


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## LumberjkChamp (Mar 21, 2011)

Thanks for the reply, 371. I agree, they're not skidders. But, for $3000 in a winch, its better than nothing. I understand about the rockshaft arms being underpowered. Although, one of my mowers weighs in at about 1000 lbs and it lifts it fine. I'm not sure I'd want to lift more on a tractor this size. The front end gets light in a hurry. I suppose if you're skidding big trees you could winch 'em in top first to help lighten the load -try to strike a balance.


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## 371groundie (Mar 22, 2011)

the bigger stuff definately pulls better from the bar at the bottom of the winch. mostly i just pulled from the top pulley on the winch, but big stuff (2ft plus diameter) i would get hooked on the lower bar and it was much easier to move. 

also the rock arms move towards the tractor as they lift. so if the winch wont quite come up, try backing up just a little bit. sometimes thats all it needs to lift that last little bit, and then it will hold.


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## LumberjkChamp (Mar 23, 2011)

371groundie said:


> the bigger stuff definately pulls better from the bar at the bottom of the winch. mostly i just pulled from the top pulley on the winch, but big stuff (2ft plus diameter) i would get hooked on the lower bar and it was much easier to move.
> 
> also the rock arms move towards the tractor as they lift. so if the winch wont quite come up, try backing up just a little bit. sometimes thats all it needs to lift that last little bit, and then it will hold.


 
Those are good tips. There is no question that the winch is the way to go if someone is going to attempt to make any type of reasonable production moving wood with a tractor.

Just earlier this evening I was pulling a heaping load of wood in a 6x12 single axle trailer and darn near buried myself going up a muddy hill. Frost is still 6 or so inches down so that helped me stay afloat. It would just be much easier to skid to a central area early in the winter and then process everything when I can't get in the woods.


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## czar800 (Mar 25, 2011)

.



At the very end of video I put my 026 with a 18" bar on the log to size it.



YouTube - ‪Homemade Winch 1‬&rlm;


YouTube - ‪Homemade winch 2‬&rlm;



YouTube - ‪Homemade winch 3‬&rlm;



YouTube - ‪Homemade winch 4‬&rlm;
















.


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## LumberjkChamp (Mar 26, 2011)

Czar800, very nice. I think I saw the first vid. a while ago after you had just made the winch. The one where you were just test pulling with a small branch. Its nice to see it pulling some wood. Looks like it works well. Did you keep track of the amount of time it took to build? Also, are you set up to skid the logs after winching them to you?


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## czar800 (Mar 26, 2011)

It took about a day to make after i gathered all the scrap. I don't really skid any wood, I winch to where i can get my skid loader and load into the dump trailer.

I was mad when i pull it out, my cable that i use on it had been taken off and used for something else (by my dad) was broke and i lost about 40'. It made me sick thats whey in the picture I didn't get the wood to the road, it is real soft and wet where i have been cuting and 40' would help a lot.


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## rwoods (Mar 29, 2011)

homemade said:


> Ok. So I dont know if this is conciderd "loging talk" but has anyone seen or used a 3pt hitch winch for a tractor to get wood out. I've been concidering makeing my own from a bed winch of an old knuckel boom truck. I work in some swampy areas that i won't think about taking the truck and trailor or even my farm tractor and trailor. Some way to retreve good wood with out waiting till winter for the freeze would be nice.


 
I build one many years ago by attaching an old 9000# electric worm gear winch to a box blade. I replaced the electric motor with a high speed hydraulic motor off an airplane. I built a pair of double pulley snatch blocks and used it to pull up small stumps in my back yard. The box blade could be chained down and it would take the load off the tractor. It worked great until I pulled the worm gear through the housing. It is not the optimal design for skidding with the tractor due to the weight.

I was working on a new one last season until I got hurt. It is simply a hydraulic winch off a 5 ton Army truck that I was putting on skids that would attach to the 3 point hitch. It will pull between 10 to 15 tons. The tractor is used to move it around and to power it. For heavy pulling I intended to chain it down and park the tractor to the side away from the line of fire. As you can see from the photos, I didn't get too far. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish it this summer. Ron


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## rwoods (Mar 29, 2011)

rwoods said:


> I build one many years ago by attaching an old 9000# electric worm gear winch to a box blade. I replaced the electric motor with a high speed hydraulic motor off an airplane. I built a pair of double pulley snatch blocks and used it to pull up small stumps in my back yard. The box blade could be chained down and it would take the load off the tractor. It worked great until I pulled the worm gear through the housing. It is not the optimal design for skidding with the tractor due to the weight.
> 
> I was working on a new one last season until I got hurt. It is simply a hydraulic winch off a 5 ton Army truck that I was putting on skids that would attach to the 3 point hitch. It will pull between 10 to 15 tons. The tractor is used to move it around and to power it. For heavy pulling I intended to chain it down and park the tractor to the side away from the line of fire. As you can see from the photos, I didn't get too far. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish it this summer. Ron


 
pictures:


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## rwoods (Mar 29, 2011)

The angle legs are just to hold the winch while I'm working on it. They would rip off in a heartbeat. Ron


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