atv or compact tractor type grapple/log trailer

[Sandhill Crane]

The same Beach/Oak forest as photos shown above.

 

[sb47]

I'm lucky to have a tree company just a mile down the road and they donate and deliver most of my wood. Sometimes he calls me and I have to bring my trailer to his yard and he loads me with his skid steer.
I found that it's much easier to process by working off the trailer. I set the splitter right behind the trailer and cut the logs right on the trailer and roll the round to the end and from there it's easier to take the rounds from the trailer to the splitter.
I don't have to dead lift from ground height and that makes a world of difference.

 

[sb47]

Our mailbox is on the opposite side of the road as out home. From the mailbox I could almost spit and hit three or four tops, and can see ten or fifteen. Their house is three hundred feet from the road (as is ours), and our driveways two to three hundred feet down the road from each other (opposite sides). Cutting in their back yard is .3+ round trip on the quad with the log arch. It's not like it is five miles away, I almost see it from the kitchen window.

Lots of good ideas and approaches, and that is why I put it out there.
A few thing mentioned I had not thought of.
In many ways, this is a process of elimination.
In the end it will be interesting to see what plays out.

During this delivery season (delivery of firewood with a 5500 12' flatbed and pallets) I've been unloaded by a skid steer, a tele handler, a 30 hp tractor (didn't work so well), and a 50 hp tractor. All better than by hand, but I've pretty much eliminated all of them from my wish list for various reasons just from watching the operators. A skid steer could maybe edge back in there, as it would be most compatible with both firewood processing from purchased logs and processing tops.

I used to have permission to cut down and dead stuff on a sanctuary for personal use. At that time I bought a used quad and a Thule tandem axle atv trailer, later adding a LogRite arch after cutting a large blow down Cherry into rounds (what a shame), but it all made for minimum impact scrounging. Did that for many years, but management changed and so did the rules. A couple years ago I picked up a Kory 3000 nursery wagon as a rolling staging rack for rounds, but soon after eliminated that idea, and logs go from a cutting bench straight to the splitter when processing cord wood. Anyway, this past week I have dusted off the arch, and put all of them to use to haul wood from the neighbors. The Kory wagon may need some small bunks made as others have shown in their posts. It's rated at 3,000 pounds. Piling and strapping small size 8' lengths for now. Piece by piece. I sold or gave away all the wood racks (second and forth photo) I had, or I could have cut and staged round in them in the woods and moved full ones with the piggyback lift. Oh well.

FLRA_Dave: Thanks Dave for sharing. That's what great about this site. I've eliminated the grapple/trailer... and added a mini excavator to the wish list. Yeow! I don't thing I'll tell my wife yet.

Thanks guys
(these are old pictures)
View attachment 676943 View attachment 676944 View attachment 676945 View attachment 676948

I like that little orange trailer you have. Nice low deck for easy loading and unloading.

 

[NSMaple1]

Something else I do depending on what I'm cutting, is pile long length smaller diameter stuff on my trailer on high wood bunks. The trailer bed is 8' long (x2'x2'), so I can throw longer stuff on there too like 12' or longer. I keep the front ends all even just back far enough so they don't contact the back of the ATV. When I get all loaded up & driven back to my piling/cutting area, I cut them all to length right on the trailer. So it serves as a sawbuck too. Takes like 5 or 10 minutes to cut up the whole load, which is at least 1/4 cord. That can be a big time & handling saver also - bucking long stuff in place on a trailer. Fairly high bunks (6") and a wood trailer floor can help keep your chain sharp. For bunks I just throw some short pieces crosswise before I start throwing the long stuff on lengthwise. Trailer also has stake pockets, the stakes keep things from moving around.

 

[woodfarmer]

I went the route of a used 90hp farm tractor with a Farmi winch. Mainly because it was cheaper than a new compact tractor, much large capacity and I can tow equipment floats down the road loaded with logs.