using 4x4 to pull trailer in the woods?

[luftwaffe]

Get any similar size trailer to give you a feel for how you think it might go, riko or otherwise, and a few loads not just the one,.... cant you hide the said tractor at the back of the wood at night etc and park it a local farm at weekends, ask the locals I'm sure someone will help.

[Chopperbob]

Hi, we use a 4x4 and trailer for most stuff, it's fine whilst sticking to the tracks etc but will defiantly struggle as soon as we go completely off-road whilst towing, bogs down straight away and can get real messy real quick.

Saying that if we take the tractor we take a much bigger trailer so gets stuck just as quick.

I do like he sound of an alpine on flotation tyres so it has very low ground pressure ( could be put on a trailer and taken away with you at night etc)

[tz1_1zt]

or if we do drop the idea - the question becomes - we've got a tractor and a forestry trailer - how do we get it on site?....... ive been pondering this problem for a while now and i just dont see a workable solution that wont cost us arm and a leg.

 

We sell the American Logrite Arches, and have supplied a few of their big Fetching models for thi skind of work; Fetching Arch - LogRite Tools LLC

 

The Fetching arch has a big wide wheel base and good size tyres, will pick up a seriously big trunk or lots of smaller trunks at once. You then pull the whole lot out of the woods using a winch. They don't fall over sideways and safely stop and drop when you stop winching. A petrol PortableWinch works well with these because the anchor point can be moved quickly to avoid obstacles.

 

PortableWinch, Fetching Arch and rope makes for a very efficient, safe and capable setup at around £3.5k. I can send more details, or follow link in signature for more info.

[jay2578]

Yes a 4x4 will tow a trailer in the woods

[Dan Curtis]

Have you considered getting the trailer and fitting a winch to your truck? You could stick to the rides and winch the more inaccessible timber to yourself for loading. In really wet conditions with as little as an extra hank of rope, a few big slings and shackles you could even set up a skyline to bring timber out of lumpy, boggy areas with the truck out on drier ground. You'd need a decent winch but it would be cheaper than going the tractor route.

[Tom D]

or if we do drop the idea - the question becomes - we've got a tractor and a forestry trailer - how do we get it on site? - i know this will sound like a stupid question but some of our sites are as far as an hour away and we would be reluctant leaving machinery overnight as we worried about vandalism/theft. (lots of sites are pretty urban or near urban for us). so if the tractor is too slow to drive (plus you cant take forestry trailer on road) then you will need to load both the tractor and trailer onto something else and drive it there?? surely we will need some very clever trailer for this anyway? (ive seen set ups for alpine tractors and trailers that load onto one trailer but that would mean buying 3 items rather than one). ive been pondering this problem for a while now and i just dont see a workable solution that wont cost us arm and a leg.

 

This is the fundamental problem with small scale woodland work, its so hard to make it pay when its too far for big machines and the small ones don't get the job done quick enough to break even...

[openspaceman]

Originally Posted by blacknora View Post

or if we do drop the idea - the question becomes - we've got a tractor and a forestry trailer - how do we get it on site? - i know this will sound like a stupid question but some of our sites are as far as an hour away and we would be reluctant leaving machinery overnight as we worried about vandalism/theft. (lots of sites are pretty urban or near urban for us). so if the tractor is too slow to drive (plus you cant take forestry trailer on road) then you will need to load both the tractor and trailer onto something else and drive it there?? surely we will need some very clever trailer for this anyway? (ive seen set ups for alpine tractors and trailers that load onto one trailer but that would mean buying 3 items rather than one). ive been pondering this problem for a while now and i just dont see a workable solution that wont cost us arm and a leg.

 

This is the fundamental problem with small scale woodland work, its so hard to make it pay when its too far for big machines and the small ones don't get the job done quick enough to break even...

 

All problems I unsuccessfully tried to address while I was contracting. And yes my tractors were horribly vandalised. Now I see tractor-loader-trailer combinations travelling to work sites each day from a secure place, they exceed the speed limit but this seems a small risk in comparison and the modern tractors are a dream to drive on the road compared with a 1970s County.

 

I could see the trend soon after I started contracting I give you a timeline, all open to correction and addition:

 

1870s Timber reaches its maximum value in real terms (some 60 times the current real value), it is the universal fuel, structural and utility resource. Small distributed local woodland resource can be worked by a couple of men and a horse, onward transport limited to a 2 tonne two horse cart means the harvesting cost of a single tree is competitive with that from a large clearfell. Sawmills in every town so transport distances short.

 

1900s Coal becomes cheap to transport on railways, coke from gasworks fuels steel output steel already dominates industry, Concrete from portland cement becomes competitive. Wood no longer dominant structural material for building or transport, mechanisation driven by wars increases production and manpower increasingly moves to industry. Scares about coal production being limited by supply of imported timber leads to massive subsidy for reafforestation, especially absorbing labour during the depression. Tarmacked road network begins to impinge on wildlife migration, ultimately leading to massive meta population loss in small woodlands.

 

1970s when I started work, a number of centralised industrial wood processors making use of the new small dimension softwood resource. The short-lived era a motor-manual chainsaw harvesting and agricultural tracor extraction has just begun. Maximum lorry payload now 20 tones ( artic gross at 28) and 6 wheelers with grabs with payload of 12 tonnes are just about economic. Local mills closing but still abundant so small blocks can still be harvested, increasing amounts of softwood thinning. Niche markets enable sorting to sell higher value things like psr, bars, turnery poles to markets up to 100 miles away.

 

Mid 1980s Win-blow provides a fillip for struggling sawmills but size of resource to be harvested triggers import of large numbers of scandinavian forwarder and harvesters. Lorry payloads increase to 29 tonnes so this becomes the minimum load worth harvesting. Landowners happy with small payments for thinning as small machines gently driven at appropriate times not disruptive to other woodland uses. Money is tax free.

 

Early 1990s GATT is the death-knell of small sawmills and even makes some older pulp mills uneconomic. All niche markets using wood for thinks like brush handles close because of competition from imports and substitution by plastics.

 

2000 on harvesters have driven down harvesting costs to make motor manual felling uncompetitive, any ethos of growing quality timber goes out the window with onset of cutter select thinning. Woodlands producing less than 1000 tonne coupes shut the gate. Machines have to work whatever the ground conditions to amortise capital cost. Need space for 5 artics a day to remove produce. Produce assortment reduce to sawlogs, bars and pulp.

 

FC reinvents itself as a conservation and recreation body (IMO once there was no perceived strategic need they should have been dissolved and work distributed to planners, NE and EA). Rise of the "trusts" employing only green wellybooted graduates who will not entertain the old woodlanders for work, The rise of the conservation volunteer and woodland arbwork and loss of the knowledge that most woodland species of flora and fauna depended on a traditional harvesting regime rather than cutting to waste.

[hawk eye]

I have a forestry trailer in arbtrader if anyone is looking for one would be perfect for 4x4 or small tractor.

Ian

[Stoke Wood Project]

@openspaceman

Loving your words. Especially the last bit. So true!

[difflock]

Ah yes, the Conversation volunteers.

PS

When will this "fad" for Austrian sythes fade away?

I noted that even the NT has become infected by this invasive pernicious disease.

m