New Winch

Ryan Mooney

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Williamette Valley, Oregon
We had spent a whole day with a come-a-long reefing a not-overly-large but still fairly recalcitrant old mostly dead ash out of the creek a couple weeks ago and I decided that we needed a bit more technology applied to the situation (after staring at some of the big limbs left in there and contemplating my options on just how specifically to get them out of the mound of blackberriers they're in..).

After looking around a fair bit, and figuring out what the price performance point was I settled on a Tajfun (pronounce Thai Phoon) EVG-35A (https://tajfun.com/logging_winches/logging_winch_egv35a).

This is an 8000lb winch, which is the smallest they make, weights about 700lbs loaded. The next one up is a 10,000lb winch and weighs closer to 900lbs loaded which is a bit heavy for my smaller tractor (although it'd be fine for the big tractor). I wanted the small tractor to be able to run this because you idle a lot and the littler kubota kind of sips fuel, is easier to sneak into places, plus I don't see needing to pull a lot more than this winch can. My main concern was if the bigger tractor would rip it apart if I used it on that (it's nice to have options..) but the Tajfun rep said that shouldn't be a problem and it'd pull what it pulls just might look a bit funny on the bigger tractor (I'm ok with looking funny, I do it all the time).

I also looked at Wallenstein ($$$$ more, didn't seem substantially better built). Igland/Norse which have a lot going for them but don't seem to be widely available on the west coast (folks in the NE especially might consider those), MechMaxx/other chinese importers (lighter build, no lower pulley, cheaper/stiffer cable, but tempting at about $1500 cheaper..), Fransgard (couldn't find any dealers.. didn't look to hard at it), Farmi (ditto on lack of regional dealers ), hud-son Uniforest (nice looking piece of equipment, shipping was killer).

The main thing I'm not thrilled about with this winch is they offset the pto shaft fairly far from center which puts a bit more torque on that system, but it didn't seem like it was probably a huge problem in practice and everything in life is trade offs... so..

On the plus side it is fairly heavily built. Some parts of the 45A are nicer (the points to connect logs chains are a fair bit beefier) but I think for my needs this was big enough.

I also looked at some of the hydraulic/electric remote control winches (from the above vendors..) where you can stand off to the side and run them with a remote which would be REALLY handy for keeping an eye on things as you pull the log in.. BUT all the vendors are pretty dang proud of those and the price basically doubles. I figured if I ended up wanting remotes after using it some, it wouldn't be that hard to slap some electric actuators on this rig. It's currently controlled by one rope you pull to move a lever to activate the clutch to start it pulling in, and another rope to move a lever to activate the brake.. which stops it from spooling out.. so it's not overly complicated.

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No unloaded pictures, It took me a while to lever it around back to the back of the truck where I could lift it off with a ball hitch in the tractor forklift and a lift sling through the top 3pt connection (which is how they loaded it .. except they had a forklift with longer arms..). I had LOML stand off to the side and steady it with a chain through one of the chain holders and it went pretty smoothly..

By the time that was all done, it was getting on dark and one of the neighbors stopped by to admire the new toy... and after that was over it was close to pitch black so we headed on in.
 
Ryan, instead of wrestling that to the back of the bed, should have rigged a chain from the pins the 3pt lift arms hook onto and pulled it to the back of the truck. Please get in the habit of setting the emergency/park brake when dealing with loads in the truck or on a trailer. Growing up with a dad that owned and ran a couple of wreckers out of his Mobil station I am versed in pulling a cable and hooking. I might have told this before, but always heard a middle of night phone call knowing it was Sheriff's department calling dad to tell him where the wreck was. Loved going, sweeping glass and picking up parts until one cold, dark night. Dad stood on the bank and said, "strip to your underwear, take this J hook and make sure you get it on the axle. If you can't break through the ice, use the J hook." All fun left that night! He didn't even carry a towel to dry off with. Just throw your clothes on fast as you can! Snatch blocks are your friend and a logging arch will keep the logs cleaner. Look forward to following your journey!
 
Ryan, instead of wrestling that to the back of the bed, should have rigged a chain from the pins the 3pt lift arms hook onto and pulled it to the back of the truck.

I considered that.. but there are pin legs on the back side (for holding it upright when disconnected from the trailer) and a great honking blade on the front. I was worried that pulling sideways to much on the legs might bend them, and the blade would 100% have dug into the bed if I had flipped it around. I might have been able to get it up on skids.. but as noted it's dang heavy so lifting it high enough to do that would have taken it's own set of logistics.

What I ended up doing was levering each side up and a bit forward at a time which was tedious but not especially laborious and relatively safe as these things go. I should have driven it over to the other shop and used the gantry crane.. but that *barely* clears the side of the truck so I was a bit cautious about doing that. Plus I had the tractor I needed to lift it out on this side of the property and it's a touch soggy unless I go around the long way. It's all trade offs.. hah.

Please get in the habit of setting the emergency/park brake when dealing with loads in the truck or on a trailer.

Good advice!

I'm also a big fan of wheel chocks (HF had some not terrible looking ones on sale last week so I grabbed a few more). Neither is infallible but combined they do lower the risk. When I'm running something heavy on/off the trailer I also put support jacks under the rear to keep the front end from putting to much uplift on the hitch (there was a video going around a while ago where a fellow didn't do that nor did he chock the trailer tires and only had rear brakes and when he drove the tractor on the ramp it lifted his rear truck tires up off of the ground .. and away down the hill he went).

Also with the tractor I try to put down the loader and if I have an implement on the back (which I usually do) drop that as well (this is not of course always feasible if you're hooking something up or whatever.. but in general one or the other or both are on the ground before I leave the seat).

Snatch blocks are your friend and a logging arch will keep the logs cleaner.

Snagged a couple more snatch blocks from the local forestry supplier on the way home :). I've been eyeballing getting a self releasing version as well (releases automatically when the log hits it) but those are very not cheap so I think I'll see how it goes without for a while.

I've been talking with Darren about log arches... neither of us has one yet. They look like something buildable without to much trouble.

I'm mostly dealing with smaller pealer poles at the moment which are mostly light enough I can "get around the problem" and some trashier trees that are mostly for mushroom logs which I've been cutting to length first and it doesn't matter if they get a touch dirty (other than mucking up the forest floor of course). The mushroom logs I've been cutting into 3' and 4' lengths which I can then put on the front and rear pallet forks with a chain slapped around them to keep them in place easily enough. I might knock together a small skid boat for the front end of the pealer poles that's mostly how we hauled them when horse logging so I'm kind of familiar with that setup. Also the logging winch has choker hooks so I can hang a half dozen or so smaller or one or two larger logs off of the back of it and get at least the front end off of the ground that way.
 
Finally!!! got enough dry days in a row I was able to give this rig a workout over the weekend.

I have to say it is AWESOME!

I had some recently wind downed ash across the creek in the middle of a pile of blackberries I had mostly given up on getting out. This was where I had used a come-a-long to get the bigger pieces before which took pretty much all afternoon for two logs. With the winch I was able to grab all four remaining chunks including one that was half down and hung up in another tree and just yoink them out took maybe 10 minutes instead of all day. I spent longer figuring out how to get across the creek and back safely and organizing my tools than I did getting the wood out and hauled up to the barn.

I was also able to get a dozen firs cut and hauled in and good start at opening up/thinning the ash thicket a behind the campground clearing (we want to get some other non-ash trees started in some of those areas over the next O(20) years before the borers kill all of the ash). We only really got a few hours in saturday afternoon (after cutting the PTO shaft to length, stretching the cable with some old down logs, etc..) and sunday morning.. so I felt pretty good about it especially as I'm still kind of figuring out the workflow here.

Even the little B2601 turns into a log hauling powerhouse with this rig!

We now have several piles of limbs and trimmings in the 20' long/man high range for the chipper to work on... If it's to cold to innoculate mushroom logs we might do that next weekend (otherwise.. more mushroom log work).

I think I can also use it pretty nicely with some 1/4" chain for removing a lot of blackberry and rose trash as I can wrap the chain around them without getting to close and yank them out from afar with the winch! (I'll still have to get in there to remove the chain but once they're on the ground that's not so bad).
 
I do not have any experience using any of these brush grabber products (https://www.northerntool.com/search?s=brush+grabber). I use a small link chain and a piece of pipe (about 6-8" long). Pipe diameter is determined that I can slide the hook through it. Then I throw the chain around the brush, the pipe is on the chain at this time between the tractor and brush, then I take the empty hook and slide it inside the pipe and hook it on the top lip of the pipe. This allows the chain to tighten easily and pull brush out.
 
I do not have any experience using any of these brush grabber products (https://www.northerntool.com/search?s=brush+grabber).

I have one (well I actually have both their chain and the gripper thing cause I had hoped they'd work well..). They work .. ok.. for shrubs or small trees of just the right size. I actually had more luck with a double wrap of chain for most things though.

The choker chains I have all have hooks like the below on them - and they slide pretty easily, I was planning to try replacing the ends on one of my smaller but longer 1/4" chains with a one of these and seeing how it works.

I can see the pipe being a LOT less likely to slip off though, so I might have to give that idea a try. It seems like a good one. I'm 99% sure I have some scrap chunks in the shed that would be about right if I cut a piece off of them.

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