Forestry winch recommendations

[difflock]

I observed my father, on the saw, with his brother on the International B250 tractor, cutting down large ash trees some 50+ year ago, and the urgency of the "GO GO GO" at the crucial moment.

A gear low enough to prevent inadvertent catostrophic stalling made for somewhat limited "get-away" speed.

And was educational.

[Brushcutter]

22 hours ago, Martin du Preez said:

Any recommendations for a forestry winch? Don’t want to spend a fortune, just the odd assisted fell

 

 

I have a franagard 6,5 tonne. It's fully manual which makes assisted felling a pain.  I use iglands krpans and uniforests over the years. All have their pros and cons.  I like the big krpans personally which radio remote and auto brake. Makes pre tensioning for felling very easy.  Not used a franagard or an igland with a radio remote only the manual which is less good than a remote.

 

Get the biggest you can afford. If you have a 6 tonne which and only put out half the cable you could have 3 to 4 tonnes of pull. They do constant pull winches now they get round the drum wire gearing. 

 

Tractor wise I've had a 9t winch on a 100hp tractor with a loader and grab. It was a bit lively sometimes. 9 tonne on 125hp tractor was really stable. 6.5 winch on a 75-100 is a solid base.

[monkeybusiness]

This is an 8.5 tonne Tajfun and it is a brilliant winch - fast and powerful. We usually run it on this little 90hp Same as it can get just about anywhere but you wouldn’t want to work it hard on anything smaller as the torque makes the tractor lift a wheel when really pulling - you’d soon flip a little tractor.

 

[John Shutler]

I've got an 8.5 tonne uniformest, remote control, powered outfeed etc. either goes on my t234 or n174.

 

if space is an issue I've got a 4.5 tonne fransgard which goes on the back of a Massey 35 which you can sneak in to most places 

[MattyF]

23 minutes ago, monkeybusiness said:

This is an 8.5 tonne Tajfun and it is a brilliant winch - fast and powerful. We usually run it on this little 90hp Same as it can get just about anywhere but you wouldn’t want to work it hard on anything smaller as the torque makes the tractor lift a wheel when really pulling - you’d soon flip a little tractor.

 

Have the same winch , it’s a beast ! 

[difflock]

I am now suffering from winch envy, thanks for that  mates!

[Stephen Blair]

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, John Shutler said:

I've got an 8.5 tonne uniformest, remote control, powered outfeed etc. either goes on my t234 or n174.

 

if space is an issue I've got a 4.5 tonne fransgard which goes on the back of a Massey 35 which you can sneak in to most places 

My big winch is a 6 tonne Farmi, all manual, so I would have been envious of your uniforest.

 

Thing is modern kit seems so expensive to someone who has been out of the sharp end for over 15 years, I think I gave £1500 for the Farmi.

[openspaceman]

11 hours ago, woody paul said:

When I work for someone he alway hung a large pulley block on were winch cable joined pull rope to give extra weight to it so if winch didn't keep up weight of rooe/pulley block took over. 

When I first came across 12 tonne 360 machines , Hymac 580 IIRC, we were felling elms and the driver would tension the rope and drop the bucket on the rope to do just this.

 

 

[swinny]

I have the 8.5t tajfun. Pictures on my old mf399 just a manual as don't use much and I'm a skin flint