What machinery is best to move stuff on a slope

[woody paul]

Zip line is the way to go on budget, moved a lot of timber on a steep site years ago. Tightened line with land rover winch and then hauled it down with rope as tug line on little loader. 

 

[dan blocker]

57 minutes ago, Gimlet said:

A four-legged machine that eats hay and farts and has Clydesdale stamped on it's arse.

Always great to see horses working but I would of thought extracting up hill on a 1:1 is a non starter and downhill stopping the timber overtaking the horse much the same. If the OP is just extracting enough wood for his own use and is obviously happy felling, snedding and converting wind blown/ dead/ dying timber across the site then consider getting someone in for a day with a decent winch setup to extract what’s on the ground. Speak to them first and agree in what form the trees are left in because they’d be better winched out in pole form to a landing. I would generally winch uphill on steep ground to maintain control. Many moons ago when working for my father particularly with chestnut on steep ground the bigger poles were converted where they fell and put on a sledge and winched out or if really steep ground the whole pole was converted and thrown/ rolled downhill by hand😳, ball aching but character building stuff apparently🤔. Machines, kit and techniques have moved on but the basics are there to fall back on. 

[openspaceman]

13 minutes ago, woody paul said:

Zip line is the way to go on budget, moved a lot of timber on a steep site years ago. Tightened line with land rover winch and then hauled it down with rope as tug line on little loader. 

 

There was a system similar to a zipline that used a webbing strap with studs in it, This was reciprocated by pulling it about 6 metres, it then returned by a thick rubber bungee, the tag lines attached to the logs had sliders which had a one way ratchet so the logs moved down about 6 metres at a time with several attached at once. I only saw it at a APF show.

 

Similarly one of the small woods charities used  a log flume like those you see on building sites to load skips.

 

It's surprising how big a pole you can pull downhill with tongs , problem is walking back up the hill.

[Stephen Blair]

Get some big plastic pipes, cut them in half and make a log chute.  But you best be able to stop it at the bottom !

 

Get someone in with a good machine for the job and pay him rather than invest heavily in machinery you won't be able to operate safely and efficiently.  A good operator on a 3 ton machine can move a lot of timber in a day.  Straight up and straight down.  Passing lengths.

 

Logging and hillsides are 2 difficult tasks on their own, put them together and it's even harder to do especially without damaging things and people.

 

Good luck !

 

 

 

 

[Pete Mctree]

Either zip it downhill on a rope (gravity is cheap) or pull it uphill with a winch. Simple solutions are usually the best in the woods

[Guest Gimlet]

Winch gear up and zip-wire timber down with a gravity brake.

To get it all set up, buy a great gentle draft gelding to transport a donkey engine, associated clobber and fuel to the top of the hill, do the rest of it yourself with the pull of a handle and use the time you save to plod across the countryside in your spare time on Dobbin...   Maybe..

Edited July 26, 2021 by Gimlet

[Slad]

On 25/07/2021 at 13:06, Big J said:

1 in 1 isn't drivable. 

Looking at your picture, the slope is only 1:1 in places, the rest is less steep than your 1:1.45.  For that, the local farmer can get his very large, very wide tractor + mower up most of it, but it's a beast and I can't afford one. I agree with you about it not being drivable though.  

 

Getting pros in is a good idea, but I want to do as much myself as possible.  I could get them in for a bit and learn from them, but I'll never have the cash for the pro machinery.

 

AHPP - yes, that's the sort of thing I was thinking.  Unless it's for milling, the wood can be cut so it isn't too big.  Googling Norwegian reeve now 

[AHPP]

The tight zipline is tied to a tree at the top of the woods, left of photo and tensioned by a car or something at the bottom of the woods, right of photo. Low stretch best. Dyneema rope can be had second hand from the fishing industry.

The hill man slings up wood with disposable chokers (orange in photo). Several can be clipped to the main rope, either in the loop or above the knot. The thin blue rope is your haulback. Once you've clipped on enough choked wood, wrap the haulback a turn or two round a tree near the choked pieces.

The bottom man pulls the main line with a capstan winch (digger tracks stood off the ground make good capstan winches). The choked pieces will lift off the floor and the green and black prussik (klemheist in this photo) will keep them up.

The hill man, once the pieces are high enough, lets the haulback wraps off and the winch will switch from lifting to dragging downhill. 

The bottom man, once the pieces have arrived, unchokes everything, puts the chokers back on the main crab and pulls a few tens of feet of mainline onto the uphill side of the red pulley by pulling it through the black and green prussik.

The hill man pulls the whole mess back up the hill with the haulback and hopes to christ it doesn't snag on stuff. It probably will. Once he's got it, he'll have however much mainline the bottom man pulled through to walk the main crab and the chokers to the next batch of pieces and start the cycle again.

 

It might work without the prussik. You'd need scrap of hanging tail rope on the main crab so the hill man can pull the crab and chokers down. Once the bottom man is winching, the hill man could manually hold the haulback back as much as possible and quickly wrap it to a tree if the mainline needs to do a bit of lifting instead of pulling. Play it by ear.

 

Hope that helps. Have fun. Bear in mind all this stuff will be under tension with wood and metal rigging stuff attached. Stand in safe places where you won't get hurt if anything breaks.

Edited July 27, 2021 by AHPP

[AHPP]

23 hours ago, openspaceman said:

There was a system similar to a zipline that used a webbing strap with studs in it, This was reciprocated by pulling it about 6 metres, it then returned by a thick rubber bungee, the tag lines attached to the logs had sliders which had a one way ratchet so the logs moved down about 6 metres at a time with several attached at once. I only saw it at a APF show.

 

Similarly one of the small woods charities used  a log flume like those you see on building sites to load skips.

 

It's surprising how big a pole you can pull downhill with tongs , problem is walking back up the hill.

Can you remember any names, inventors or anything else about that that might help me find some pictures of it please?

[openspaceman]

9 minutes ago, AHPP said:

Can you remember any names, inventors or anything else about that that might help me find some pictures of it please?

Sorry no and I have googled a few search terms with no luck either.

 

I attended every APF show from1974 to about 2000 so if anyone has a collection of show programmes...