Skidder Winch or Quad and Trailer?

[Brushcutter]

Cheers Lads the idea of doubling up the stems per choker chain seems like the best bet. What size dodgy winch you trying to sell me Stephen:biggrin: bearing in mind I have a 80 hp Lamborghini to put it on and im not sure how well The Royal Mail are going to take to the idea of posting it from Scotland:001_smile:

 

Stephen has had a Holder Skidder with a two 4 tonne winches on the back in the classified section for a while now. It looks like such a fun tool to have and its very reasonably priced as well.

[woodland]

If you do go down the winch route, and are pulling out bundles ,try and get them butt first as tip first on small stuff can be frustrating on some stuff as the chains will slip a bit however you set them.

 

There are some chains made of square link that are meant to help but I never really found much difference.

 

on 80 hp I'd have said up to around a 5 tonne winch would sit nicely - much bigger and it would be a bit numb for thinning IMO.

Nice one Chris cheers mate, With out taking the p.ss is there a limit to how long the winch cable can be on a skidder?

[Stephen Blair]

Its a Holder skidder, as cutter says, its in classifieds. I used it the other day for pulling over a beech.

What to watch out for on taking your tractor into the woods is, it wont have any guarding, anythig hanging down will get ripped off and say good bye to your doors and mirrors lol.

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVDsG9fiUqI]YouTube - holder tractor winching[/ame]

[slack ma girdle]

If you want skidding on a budget try these

[Stephen Blair]

is that a little dumper mate, awesome!!

[slack ma girdle]

is that a little dumper mate, awesome!!

 

It was a dumper in a past life, with a groud anchor attacted to the tipping rams, and a hydraulic winch in the front. Not the fastest machine in the world but cheap to maintain and run.

[Stephen Blair]

bet you get a sore neck though reversing everywhere lol

[Chris Sheppard]

Nice one Chris cheers mate, With out taking the p.ss is there a limit to how long the winch cable can be on a skidder?

 

No prob Varies on manufacturers but generally you'll be around 70-80m but some big winches are over 100m. Unless you were on big bank sides, I usually found you could get reversed a long way in to stuff.

 

Do like that converted Dumper - like it a lot.

 

The skidding arch is another good idea but only any good if you can (and proper old school) but is limited by having to get backed up to everything.

 

as the others have said too, if yuo've already got the tractor available go far a winch - Quads have their place but a good winch is probably more useful in the long term

[Brushcutter]

If you do go down the winch route, and are pulling out bundles ,try and get them butt first as tip first on small stuff can be frustrating on some stuff as the chains will slip a bit however you set them.

 

There are some chains made of square link that are meant to help but I never really found much difference.

 

on 80 hp I'd have said up to around a 5 tonne winch would sit nicely - much bigger and it would be a bit numb for thinning IMO.

 

Its a 6 tonne winch on the back of the Vatra in my picture its about 85hp. It will power a 9tonne one but again on young ash thinnings 4tonne would be more than enough.

[Chris Sheppard]

Its a 6 tonne winch on the back of the Vatra in my picture its about 85hp. It will power a 9tonne one but again on young ash thinnings 4tonne would be more than enough.

 

Thats what I was gettign at - whilst 80hp would run bigger, in reality there's no need to go as big - used to run a 6 tonne 3PL Igland on the 1164 and that worked well on thinnings but as it was physically a big winch I'd not have wanted it on much smaller. It varies a bit depending on the manufacturers - for instance the Fransguards like yours are quite compact. Also, any additional weight in the winch is goign to mean a bit less weight per snig.

 

if it's not for full time pro use, there are some fairly sensible entry level winches of around 4 tonne for around the £1600 mark.