Fine work Rick. An interesting thread throughout. Lots of ideas in my mind and it just makes me wish to have a logging feature here… Well, I think that might happen come better weather in May/June.
Well done !
Thanks for the comments guys.
The arches were a long time in finishing.
Craig, The advantage of the arch was pretty well summed up by Ken but a little more information is provided in this quote from VanNatta Logging History.
"Many styles and shapes of arches have been used to assist in moving logs. The tracked arch shown here is a classic, though arches with rubber tires were often used with smaller dozers. The winch line was threaded through the the arch. It provided two distinct benefits. First by pulling ‘up’ on the logs a little you could help free them from hang ups and obstacles that might be in the way (stumps for example). Secondly, logs drag a lot easier if they are partially lifted off the ground. This means that with an arch you can pull a lot more wood than if you are dragging the logs on the ground.
The downside of the arch is that you are pulling a trailer around and you can never forget that. Also a trailer that wants to upset on the corners. If for example you turn a short corner while pulling a turn of logs, the arch will tip over. While it is easier to ‘right’ one than you might think it is still a nuisance. What you do to turn one right side up is to disconnect the turn of logs, and reconnect the winch line (which is still through the fair lead) to the arch frame somewhere. Then you wind up the winch. Because the winch is above the hitch winching on the fairlead will pull the fair lead up, and with the tracks being the heavy part—they will drop down, and presto the arch is rightside up."
Going back up to Chiloquin in a couple months and measure some more equipment, maybe a loader next.
Thanks for following along.
Rick
Excellent as always Rick. Love the shots out in the woods!
Thanks Rick. Interesting way to right a logging arch.
Back from the dead again
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Great to see this topic resurface! hope to build a similar arch for my Sixty