quads for woodland work

[Rob Stringer]

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of using 4wd quads for woodland work and how useful they are for this. I've seen there are various timber trailers,arches,winches etc. available for them and thought they could be handy for extracting coppice material, getting into awkward places etc. Also handy that they can be easily towed to site in a trailer. As they are fairly small with around 500 cc engine I'm having trouble visualising what they can tow comfortably. I have an 8' by 4' light weight twin axle trailer with an unladen weight of around 300 kg, guessing they'd struggle with this? Any information or advice would be much appreciated.

[Andy Collins]

Ok read this thread http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/large-equipment/7031-atvs-quads.html then if you have anything further to ask I'll tell you what I can

[Stephen Blair]

quads are excellent pieces of kit, they are good with trailers, but dont like wet ground, your trailer will be ok but the axles will be a pest in the woods with obstacles, my mate is selling a 400cc bombardier for £1800 if you are interested in one, it is imaculate and has only ever been used as a toy not a work horse

[Charlieh]

my 500cc honda will tow my 7ftx4ft trailer heaped chest high with timber from hedgelaying without to much bother on moderate terrain, once it gets very muddy or theirs no ground vegetation then its greatly reduced my trailer is about 150kg empty so yours must be built very heavy, its good with the skidding arch as well and im in the process of building a forwarding trailer with a removable swing lift crane on it, for shifting bigger bits without to much strain,

 

there are a couple of threads on here about peoples use of quads for work and also there are a few vids on youtube of atv timber trailers to give you some idea of capacitys

[Justme]

I used to use my 250cc 2wd to pull a caravan chassis trailer full of about 1500kg of timber out of my wood through a boggy field & the mile back to base (off road). If you have enough weight on the drive wheels it will keep going. On the exit point of the woods it would be on its back wheel only as I put the power in. Other times I just used to load the front & rear racks with about 300kg (but no side slopes or you will tip). Again as long as the weight was mainly over the back wheels with just enough on the front to keep it down it would pull fine even in & out of our drainage ditches & boggy bits.

 

At this point it would be best to tell you that I used to own a quad hire centre & used to live on them so could make a 2wd do what most would get a 4wd stuck in. As in most things the most important bit is the nut holding the controls.

 

 

With a 400cc plus 4wd & a proper off road articulated axle trailer you could pull far more than the makers recommend. The limiting factor is the terrain (and driver), fit a winch & they are un stoppable.

[Rob Stringer]

my trailer is about 150kg empty so yours must be built very heavy

Thanks for the replies, re the quote above its a twin axle and has brakes which probably explains the extra weight. A quad could easily be towed to site on the trailer, be handy if I could hitch same trailer on to the quad when I get there!

[samarb]

Wouldnt be without my 350 in the woods it pulls everything i need and is smaller than 500 so can get to hard to reach spots.

[Charlieh]

its just being careful when the trailer is loaded i sank mine up to the axles yesterday, i had to off load all the timber about 8lengths of alder so not even enough to cover the trailer floor, the winch (2300lb rated) wouldn't touch it with the timber on, and just got me out once empty, if your going to use your road trailer, fit the widest tyres you can get on it

[Luke Quenby]

A proper atv trailer will serve you a lot better than a heavier road one with road tyres, much lighter and much lower ground pressue on the tyres means less ruts everywhere and more luck going forward, but definatley a quad is a great tool in the woods, we run a 400 Honda Formeman. To think of the some of the stuff that has been put through and it hasn't ever failed yet! But the right trailer is really important.

[Xerxses]

I found this ATV transport and timberextracting multipurpose trailer... what u reckon?

Would it do the job? Anyone tried it or seen it?

ATV Trailer Log Loader Woodlot Equipment and Logging Equipment Canada USA Ontario Alberta

 

I think it's pretty spot on....if it doesent end up beeing a poor performer on ALL tasks...