How I move logs.. without equipment.

[BobL]

If it works for you, go for it. I think it is great to show some ingenuity. Thomas Edison's first light bulb did not burn. WD40 took 40 tries to get it right. You may have to make some adjustments as you go, but negative comments don't help much.

When I post an idea, I'm looking for the negative comments also. I don't want just the guys who like the idea to pat me on the back. If some one sees something potentially dangerous, I want them to say something, before I tear my truck up or get hurt, Joe

Delivering negative comments are the stock in trade of older farts (like me) - but generally we have been around a while and there is something (maybe not always that much) useful in what we say.

Ignoring negative comments are the stock in trade of young farts (like I was one once) - but generally we already knew it all and if not we have to learn it for ourselves, and occasionally breaking the boundaries finds a new way of doing something.

I hope it doesn't change too much.

 

[gemniii]

For moving logs without mechanized engine driven equipment I rely on lever systems. Around my workshops I've been using a pallet jack and cant hooks to move logs across the parking lot to my mill. I find it difficult to move logs over 12' and 24" in diameter. Got to get one of my tractors down to Mississippi.

To get big things on my truck I picked up this crane:

View attachment 295099

It's from Harbor Freight and good for 1,000 lbs. I mounted it on a frame composed of 2x6's and 3/4 PT plywood, it slides onto my truck bed and I stabilize it with straps and a chain that's hooked on my 5th wheel mounting rails. This keeps it from flipping over and I don't have it permanently mounted in my truckbed taking up space. The picture shows me testing the concept but I have loaded a planer that weighed about 500+ pounds. Picking the planer up in a vertical lift without using a ramp.

 

[woodchuck357]

For hauling single logs short distances, I have a trailer hitch welded to one end of an eight foot piece of channel iron with chain hooks welded along it. The channel gets chain boomered under the log in three places. An old trailer house axel and wheels cut down so it will roll up into the pickup bed gets chain boomered just behind the balance point of the log. Tack a 2X4 with trailer lights on the rear of the log and head for home. A small notch in the log helps the axel stay where I want it.

I usually just use sapling poles as levers to get one end of the log high enough to start the axel under the log, then use come-alongs to pull the axel to near center.