Trencher converted to mini skidder?

[mcb]

Dang thats awesome. How bad did it wheelie? Have any trouble lifting the butts or was the winch height sufficient? Whatd you run out of first, power, traction or front ballast?


I hear ya on the money, im always in the poorhouse, medical and food for kids today is like payin a mortgage when i was a kid.


I wouldnt swivel the whole winch cuz then the motor sticks out pretty far and would hit the machine unless mounted way out on riggers. Id rigid mount the winches then mount a nylon or uhmw block with a 3/4" pass thru hole for the cable and just let it wear. Ziplines use this setup. I havent had any trouble with bunching.

The grapple will really help. Youd be able to come at that tree from the side, bite it, lift and swivel it to line up best for a good skid. If youre makinv your own trails i cant suggest enough to add the tines for root raking to the grapple edge. Clears scrub in a few passes. I used $3 harrow spikes from agri supply but your machine would snap them in rocky soil.

 

[bigblue12v]

Dang thats awesome. How bad did it wheelie? Have any trouble lifting the butts or was the winch height sufficient? Whatd you run out of first, power, traction or front ballast?


I hear ya on the money, im always in the poorhouse, medical and food for kids today is like payin a mortgage when i was a kid.


I wouldnt swivel the whole winch cuz then the motor sticks out pretty far and would hit the machine unless mounted way out on riggers. Id rigid mount the winches then mount a nylon or uhmw block with a 3/4" pass thru hole for the cable and just let it wear. Ziplines use this setup. I havent had any trouble with bunching.

The grapple will really help. Youd be able to come at that tree from the side, bite it, lift and swivel it to line up best for a good skid. If youre makinv your own trails i cant suggest enough to add the tines for root raking to the grapple edge. Clears scrub in a few passes. I used $3 harrow spikes from agri supply but your machine would snap them in rocky soil.

Not horrible wheelies but pulling those tops out we had to trim them up a bit first as they were tangled up good. It would pull a wheelie until front tires were up a foot or so then the backs would spin a bit. It was usually bouncing the front end as the backs were grabbing and slipping. All of this at just off idle. Definitely no shortage of power with 60hp diesel on tap! If the winch was pulling really hard it would even start to lift the front end a little. Just needs more weight. Once I got those tops on the trail and broke free, they pulled real easy! It was getting them unstuck that was the problem. I think with actual logs no branches to tangle up, I think it'll do really really good! Wish it could get the butts higher but it's as much as it needs. Maybe safer at this height so if it starts to wheelie it'll set them on the ground.
Good idea on the ATV winch nylon guide plate. I like that better.
Root rake would be handy but I'm not sure what I'd use for tines. I love the grapple/rake combo you built that is top notch. Would appreciate more pictures that show more detail of that.
These will show lift height, these were red oak 16-18" diameter 8' long couldn't even tell they were there moving around my yard.


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[Marshy]

Awesome man. I bet your little guy likes riding in it. Time to find some chains to help with traction. Maybe fill the tires with fluid would help with front ballast too.

 

[bigblue12v]

Awesome man. I bet your little guy likes riding in it. Time to find some chains to help with traction. Maybe fill the tires with fluid would help with front ballast too.

He loves riding on it! He'll be 6 this weekend. Backs are getting enough traction to do wheelie so I think they're good on traction. Fronts are filled with fluid already, chains would only help if the tires would stay on the ground lol ballast first then I'll go from there.

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[Marshy]

Check craigslist for suitcase weights or go to your local farmer and see if he has any that he is willing to get rid of. They are generally 100 lbs each. 5-6 of those on the front would go a long way I bet.

 

[mcb]

I built ringshank chains from scratch out of cold roll straight rods on various dies i built, huge amount of work but hey, gnarly chains for ultra traction right?! Fail. Tried one chain and one lug at same time.. The chain tire crippled my machine.. Couldnt even drive up hills that i could skid up with bare rubber... Im dead serious. Every single time the chain broke ground and spun first then dug down and just spit dirt out. The chain concentrates all the weight onto points and they penetrate, then disturb the topsoil severely. You will never see chains on competitive pullers because they make traction worse, not better. Until youre in the frozen icy stuff, thats different story, you want the cleats to break into the ice and penetrate the top of the frozen dirt, which doesnt just give way because its all bonded by frozen moisture into a rigid tractable structure. For thawed dirtwork, those short fat paddles are the cats meow.




My grapple is pretty simple but i shoulda done 2 cylinders because the single one hits my frame at full lift. Use round tube for the top beam, its better at torsion. It did warp pretty bad into a smile from all that heat all on the same side. I cut out a bunch of crescents, stacked em, tacked em and drilled holes through entire pile. Then inserted rods thru the holes and welded the whole mess to the round top tube which just swings via tabs and bolts to make a hinge.














Note the bent crescent below and extra piece above. I had to weld in a 1/4 x 2 flat strip along the bottom to prevent that twisting.




This one shows the grapple linkage and revised top cylinder mount that i still bent to hell.






while funds prevent more winches, I think youll wanna weld some chain clevis hooks up on that top rail, 2 or 3 per side, cuz im sure this machine will pull all the wood you can fit across that buttplate once the weight its sorted. Using just the one center cable makes one log wanna stand ontop the other and kinda try to fight you in turns as they climb each other. Little separation will prevent it.

You could take of your front rims, lay them down, line with cardboard then a trashbag and pour concrete weights. $4/60lbs is cheap as it gets. Use pvc pipes in the pour to keep passage open for threaded rods to fasten to wheels. Front chains are also a good ballast, as is the grapple.. Make that sucker heavy, cuz they take huge abuse and its forward and low weight, just what ya need.

Man im stoked for you, makes me wanna start my next build! My wun forty been wun upped!

 

[jnl50201]

Has been a good read. Thanks. Can't wait for more.

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[1Alpha1]

That's really badass.

Nice fabricating work.

 

[bigblue12v]

Thank you guys! Right now is a really busy time of year for me and I haven't been able to get in the woods. Even my saws have went almost untouched for a month or so. I'll get back to it when I can. I just had all my wood cut ahead of winter so now it's work overtime and some other shop projects in the limited daylight after work.

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[bryanr2]

Ive been watching craigslist ever since you first started this thread. Here's hoping.

 

[bigblue12v]

Haha you'd have to get a smoking deal on one to make it a good option over a tractor. A tractor can be so much more versatile. This is a purpose built machine which makes it better in some ways but if I was spending what these typically bring, I'd probably get a tractor instead.

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[mcb]

Bump

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I built ringshank chains from scratch out of cold roll straight rods on various dies i built, huge amount of work but hey, gnarly chains for ultra traction right?! Fail. Tried one chain and one lug at same time.. The chain tire crippled my machine.. Couldnt even drive up hills that i could skid up with bare rubber... Im dead serious. Every single time the chain broke ground and spun first then dug down and just spit dirt out. The chain concentrates all the weight onto points and they penetrate, then disturb the topsoil severely. You will never see chains on competitive pullers because they make traction worse, not better. Until youre in the frozen icy stuff, thats different story, you want the cleats to break into the ice and penetrate the top of the frozen dirt, which doesnt just give way because its all bonded by frozen moisture into a rigid tractable structure. For thawed dirtwork, those short fat paddles are the cats meow.




My grapple is pretty simple but i shoulda done 2 cylinders because the single one hits my frame at full lift. Use round tube for the top beam, its better at torsion. It did warp pretty bad into a smile from all that heat all on the same side. I cut out a bunch of crescents, stacked em, tacked em and drilled holes through entire pile. Then inserted rods thru the holes and welded the whole mess to the round top tube which just swings via tabs and bolts to make a hinge.














Note the bent crescent below and extra piece above. I had to weld in a 1/4 x 2 flat strip along the bottom to prevent that twisting.




This one shows the grapple linkage and revised top cylinder mount that i still bent to hell.






while funds prevent more winches, I think youll wanna weld some chain clevis hooks up on that top rail, 2 or 3 per side, cuz im sure this machine will pull all the wood you can fit across that buttplate once the weight its sorted. Using just the one center cable makes one log wanna stand ontop the other and kinda try to fight you in turns as they climb each other. Little separation will prevent it.

You could take of your front rims, lay them down, line with cardboard then a trashbag and pour concrete weights. $4/60lbs is cheap as it gets. Use pvc pipes in the pour to keep passage open for threaded rods to fasten to wheels. Front chains are also a good ballast, as is the grapple.. Make that sucker heavy, cuz they take huge abuse and its forward and low weight, just what ya need.

Man im stoked for you, makes me wanna start my next build! My wun forty been wun upped!

Must be something to do with the weight, I dunno. We run chains on the skidders, WAY better traction, plus at about $4000 each for tires, the chains make the tires lasting longer.

 

[mcb]

Absolutely, a skidder is so heavy its like a compactor, the ground is getting compressed beneath it and the contact patch of those big tires is so large that a huge amount of ground has to give way for wheelspin.

A garden tractor is just way too light for summer chains, and the contact patch is tiny. The trencher may or not perform better with them. Would just have to try it.