Thoughts on pulling power

[CalGG]

I was doing a little "side yard logging" yesterday after dropping a 120 year old sugar maple this winter that was near the house and showing lower trunk damage.

The maple fell about 15 feet "the wrong way", and fouled a few hemlocks etc. (nb That was 15 feet the RIGHT way relative to the house , error on the side of caution! . At any rate, hitching a length of wire rope onto the butt end with the Fordson, The tree only moved about 2 meters before the butt struck fast to a root. (no real room to get different approaches, even using nearby trees as pulley anchors didn't meet success.) I didn't want to hitch direct and lift with the 3ph, as the top end was still high off the ground, and no telling where that butt would jump to if set free.

I ended up letting the tree down piecemeal, cutting the trunk into 4, 16 foot bolts and dragging each up to the spot that I use to work up fire wood. (200 foot pull only)

But the effort got me thinking, What is the pulling power of these tractors? Not something seen in the literature so much any more, since the Nebraska trials appear to have fallen off the sales pitches.

At any rate, I looked through my box of Fordson literature, and read that the Fordson with Kero fuel engine (I have a gas engine) is "rated" at just about 3000# at the draw bar. ( The Perkins Diesel version a bit more) Not too shabby, but not enough to pull that hung Maple out of it's jamb.

Oh! The wheel chains sure do dig trenches in a soft spring soils.

PS The Fordson just picked up and walked off with the bolts after they were free from the top hamper. About 24" dia. ..More than I care to get caught between!
If anyone needs some 3/8th chain links that are stretched to binding, I can help you out!

[oehrick]

A local pub which operates the last chain ferry across the R Yare between Norwich & Yarmouth has made some lamp standards for the car park out of old chains, I think the links have been welded but it always amused me when having lifting tackle made or tested when the test ram operator could be persuaded (for the price of a pint) to pull a yard of surplus light chain into a walking stick.

I've an awkward stump-on Oak which is perched at about 30 degrees over a couple of others, hoping I can drop one side of the crotch, couple of turns of chain round the butt and roll the lot out, (I guess a ton of dirt still on the stump) can't get a 90 degree pull either and my tyres are bald but I expect it to come out.

(I always put at least a turn of chain and sometimes two when pulling standing trees or stumps as the twist has as much effect as the pull in many instances)

Adhesion is one thing, grunt is another, I still harbour the belief that for absolute grunt a red hot TVO E27N will outhaul a diesel E1A when pulling 'em up by the roots, in every other respect I was glad to see the back of the E27N.

Its interesting seeing 'normal' spec tractors on the pulling sledge as geometry appears to have more importance than absolute power delivery.