Easy log skidding with tractor

[bigfoot and bananaman]

Hey I'm just trying to post stuff so I can post on the trading post so I thought I would show the super simple way to skid logs with a tractor.
Get a 3 point hitch receiver
Flip it backwards so it's flush on the bottom
Get some thick flat bars of steel and weld them on the top
Cut notches in the bars so a chain can sit on them
Use the 3 point to lift logs and drag them out of the woods

 

[RobertTX]

Hey I'm just trying to post stuff so I can post on the trading post so I thought I would show the super simple way to skid logs with a tractor.
Get a 3 point hitch receiver
Flip it backwards so it's flush on the bottom
Get some thick flat bars of steel and weld them on the top
Cut notches in the bars so a chain can sit on them
Use the 3 point to lift logs and drag them out of the woods

What you are talking about is very dangerous. If you are pulling tree or log like that and it hangs up, the front end of the tractor can lift and flip very quickly. The only safe response to this situation is to kill the engine or hit the clutch. Braking will not help. This is the reason the drawbars are low. Many people have been killed like this.

 

[rwoods]

What you are talking about is very dangerous. If you are pulling tree or log like that and it hangs up, the front end of the tractor can lift and flip very quickly. The only safe response to this situation is to kill the engine or hit the clutch. Braking will not help. This is the reason the drawbars are low. Many people have been killed like this.

The design is not much different than commercial skidding hitches and skidding winches. If you are going to skid logs efficiently, you have to lift them. Does it pose a danger? Most definitely, but you minimize the danger by proper front end ballast and experience.

I think the use of a receiver hitch to build this is rather creative.

Ron

 

[picker77]

Don't do this. I lost one of my best friends in the 80's when he was snaking logs out of the Idaho panhandle woods using a home made rig much like this. The pull point was clearly (as this is) above and behind the axle. Log hung up, tractor rear wheels will NOT spin with that much down-force on them for traction, so the entire tractor instantly pivoted around the rear wheels in a giant wheelie. No ROPS, naturally, back in the day. He was not what I'd call "experienced", but I doubt experience or reflexes would save a situation that happens that fast. Wife found him hours later when he didn't come in for lunch.