- Messages
- 8,471
- Location
- 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.

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.
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.

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.