NCL4701
Well-known member
Equipment
L4701, T2290, WC68, grapple, BB1572, Farmi W50R, Howes 500, 16kW IMD gen, WG24
Added a Farmi W50R to the stable of implements a few months back. I’ve rigged and pulled trees as a part of felling and skidding with farm/utility type tractors for many years. Always drawbar pulls. Have used electric self recovery winches such as are common on pickup trucks a fair amount for various chores as well. The Farmi is an exponential improvement. With a grapple on the front and Farmi on the back, manipulating trees and pieces of trees is very efficient.
While my prior experience is certainly helpful, a skidding winch on a utility type tractor is a bit of a different animal. I have no prior experience with them and don’t personally know anyone local to me that has experience with them.
Of course I’ve read the manual (attached) a time or three. Basics of operation “appear” to be pretty simple: pull in a straight line; redirect with snatch blocks if angled pulls needed; configure to keep heavy stresses such as hard pulls low (don’t over stress the toplink); stay out of the “danger zone” (clearly described in the manual); pull logs to the tractor, lift, drive away; if you need more line pull, throw a snatch block on the end of the line and find a good anchor so your line pull is doubled. But a recent post by @g_man about wrapping the cable to force a roll to get a log around a stump got me to thinking it might be useful to try to get some wisdom of experience for both safety and efficiency without having to suffer through all the hours to get it by myself. That and when I first got it I don’t think I knew enough to know what to ask. Now, some of my questions may be dumb, but at least I have questions.
So two prongs of inquiry:
1. If you have any swell tips or tricks for safe, efficient use I’d really like to hear them.
2. A few specific questions:
Do you ever lubricate the cable? I’m aware there are specific lubricants made for wire rope but the manual says nothing about lubricating the cable.
Do you ever wash / clean the cable? If yes: when, why, how?
I’m aware cleaning and lubricating wire rope is SOP for some uses, but this is a 11,000lb winch that lives inside when the weather is nasty. It isn’t the main tow line on a saltwater tug boat.
When skidding (not winching; driving with logs in tow), do you pull from the top sheave, the lower sheave, or the chain rack (the thing the manual calls the notched beam)? If it varies, what factors cause it to vary? (I’m aware of what the manual says and am not disagreeing with it. Simply asking practical application by those with experience.)
Do you ever operate the winch from the tractor seat? If yes, how do you route the ropes to make that practical? I have thought about mounting a couple little sheaves on the ROPs but haven’t tried anything yet.
Do you have any preference of PTO rpm aside from simply controlling return speed?
If you need to reel in a good bit of cable without a load, how do you keep it tight enough to not bind in a hard pull on a shorter run? (I have a couple methods, but not sure they’re all that great.)
For a long pull, how do you make sure you’re leaving a couple wraps on the drum and not pulling out too much cable? I step it off but maybe there’s a better method.
Just to be clear, the questions are about a skidding winch on a farm/utility tractor like this:
It’s not about a winch like this, whether mounted on a tractor or not.
Nothing against the electric winch. It’s kind of a ton and a half pickup v a ton and a half dump thing. Lots of similarities and overlap, yet not quite the same thing when you put them to work.
In the interest of kicking off the tips, here’s one for folks like me that had a little or a lot of rigging prior to an upgrade. Some of my rigging was sized for a smaller tractor and was pre-winch. If you upgrade your max line pull, it’s a good idea to review the specs and condition of all your rigging to make sure it can handle the increased potential pressure with an appropriate safety factor. No harm done, but I busted a couple things before doing that review due to a quite unscientific and ill advised “ain’t no way it will break that” attitude. A few things were purchased to replace items that were retired.
Thanks in advance.
While my prior experience is certainly helpful, a skidding winch on a utility type tractor is a bit of a different animal. I have no prior experience with them and don’t personally know anyone local to me that has experience with them.
Of course I’ve read the manual (attached) a time or three. Basics of operation “appear” to be pretty simple: pull in a straight line; redirect with snatch blocks if angled pulls needed; configure to keep heavy stresses such as hard pulls low (don’t over stress the toplink); stay out of the “danger zone” (clearly described in the manual); pull logs to the tractor, lift, drive away; if you need more line pull, throw a snatch block on the end of the line and find a good anchor so your line pull is doubled. But a recent post by @g_man about wrapping the cable to force a roll to get a log around a stump got me to thinking it might be useful to try to get some wisdom of experience for both safety and efficiency without having to suffer through all the hours to get it by myself. That and when I first got it I don’t think I knew enough to know what to ask. Now, some of my questions may be dumb, but at least I have questions.
So two prongs of inquiry:
1. If you have any swell tips or tricks for safe, efficient use I’d really like to hear them.
2. A few specific questions:
Do you ever lubricate the cable? I’m aware there are specific lubricants made for wire rope but the manual says nothing about lubricating the cable.
Do you ever wash / clean the cable? If yes: when, why, how?
I’m aware cleaning and lubricating wire rope is SOP for some uses, but this is a 11,000lb winch that lives inside when the weather is nasty. It isn’t the main tow line on a saltwater tug boat.
When skidding (not winching; driving with logs in tow), do you pull from the top sheave, the lower sheave, or the chain rack (the thing the manual calls the notched beam)? If it varies, what factors cause it to vary? (I’m aware of what the manual says and am not disagreeing with it. Simply asking practical application by those with experience.)
Do you ever operate the winch from the tractor seat? If yes, how do you route the ropes to make that practical? I have thought about mounting a couple little sheaves on the ROPs but haven’t tried anything yet.
Do you have any preference of PTO rpm aside from simply controlling return speed?
If you need to reel in a good bit of cable without a load, how do you keep it tight enough to not bind in a hard pull on a shorter run? (I have a couple methods, but not sure they’re all that great.)
For a long pull, how do you make sure you’re leaving a couple wraps on the drum and not pulling out too much cable? I step it off but maybe there’s a better method.
Just to be clear, the questions are about a skidding winch on a farm/utility tractor like this:
It’s not about a winch like this, whether mounted on a tractor or not.
Nothing against the electric winch. It’s kind of a ton and a half pickup v a ton and a half dump thing. Lots of similarities and overlap, yet not quite the same thing when you put them to work.
In the interest of kicking off the tips, here’s one for folks like me that had a little or a lot of rigging prior to an upgrade. Some of my rigging was sized for a smaller tractor and was pre-winch. If you upgrade your max line pull, it’s a good idea to review the specs and condition of all your rigging to make sure it can handle the increased potential pressure with an appropriate safety factor. No harm done, but I busted a couple things before doing that review due to a quite unscientific and ill advised “ain’t no way it will break that” attitude. A few things were purchased to replace items that were retired.
Thanks in advance.
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