Extraction options on a very challenging site

[doobin]

They will not thank you for leaving a birds nest to deal with.

 

Round here we call that pick-a-stix, but the principle is the same!

[Gray git]

I did spot a tracked barrow with a winch fitted onto it powered by the barrow hydraulic's On eBay a while ago and thought it would be good for this sort of thing. I think it had been built for pulling cables underground if I remembered right, sort of a poor man's iron horse if you like.

[timtree81]

I would go down the quad route , if money is an issue you can pick up second hand quads for as little as £1200 even 4x4 ones , as long as it has good Tyers you will not go far wrong moving 12" poles on steep / slippy ground

[oakleaf50]

Have a look at these: just got this last month.

Made a little video

[oakleaf50]

I am about to start managing a number of small woodlands on a farm. The site consists of a steep valley with a railway line cutting across the bottom of it. There is only one decent track which runs across the bottom of one compartment. Access to the rest of it is mostly on what are basically animal tracks. There are a couple of overgrown rides that I will be improving, but most of timber (including the best stuff) is not accessible from these. It is a very mixed broadleaf woodland and initially most of the timber i will be cutting will be poles of under 12". Unfortunatley everything will need to be extracted up hill out of the valley.

 

I have done lots of research into the different options available, and am willing to invest in equipment as long as I am going to make my money back, but as I will be starting with small scale firewood sales, cleft gates, fencing and other craft items, the initial return is going to be small. It may make the most sense to contract in some horse loggers or someone with a compact tractor extract but at the moment there isn't a decent sized area to store a large amount of logs, it would be better if I could extract and process as I go.

 

I have used a tracked barrow in very difficult terrain, which has proved to be a fantastic tool for moving small amounts of wood around, but would probably be too slow to make it commercially viable. Have seen pictures of an iron horse dragging pretty big butts. Could a convensional tracked barrow handle this? Or has the iron horse got more power? I've also used simpson 1ton capstan winch which is great for dragging logs short distances to be forwarded out but wouldn't be any good over longer runs.

 

Logging arches look great, but i doubt I could drag out much weight up those slopes by hand. When i start adding the price of a towing vehicle to devices like this, it starts to look quite expensive. Really i'd like a compact tractor with a skidding winch but i'm worried that it wouldn't be able to cope driving sideways on a slope (but what would?) or moving about within the woodland where there are no tracks

 

Sorry for the rambling post. I'd really appreciate any advice on any of these extraction methods or any other ideas.

 

Peat

Have a look at this, I got mine couple of month ago

[Peat]

Looks good. Wher'd you get one of them?

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

Could you not fell a load and get someone to winch it all uphill to the edge of the wood, but leaving it just within the edge of the wood so you can deal with it as and when you get chance? sub 12" poles shouldn't be too bad to handball if you're converting it on site.

 

If it's steep, I'd not worry messing around with tracked barrows or ATV's.

 

ditto 100%

[LeeWill]

I know someone selling an iron horse for 3500.... the right track is needing some slight work (dog tooth clutch isn't engaging and and brake shoe keeps jamming on making it difficult to steer, but that's all easy to fix out, no major problems with it) If I had spare cash at this time of year I'd buy it myself. If you pm me your number, if your interested, I'll pass it along. It also comes with a logging trailer and silky trailer. I've borrowed it a few times and when it's in good condition it will work all day, lovely wee machine.

[LeeWill]

Sorry, He says it's 3750 plus VAT

[oakleaf50]

Looks good. Wher'd you get one of them?

 

 

We have started importing the into the uk.......