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Traction. Is. Key. This was my first Wheelhorse. 6 years ago. We use chains and cables to pull. Note. I'VE STOPPED USING THIS METHOD. We find it much easier to fell, buck, cut and split at the site where the tree was.

January 29 is National Puzzle Day, the perfect day to do a little brain exercise. Whether it’s a crossword, jigsaw, or Sudoku, puzzles engage our brain in more ways than one. Scientists have discovered that when we work on a jigsaw puzzle, we utilize both sides of the brain, improving memory, cognitive function and problem solving skills in the process. By utilizing puzzles, people can stimulate the brain improve a number of skills. As early as 2300 BC, long before modern puzzles, labyrinth drawing puzzles were popular in Ancient Egypt. Mapmaker John Spilsbury created the first jigsaw puzzle in 1767. Puzzles become a full-blown craze in the United States soon after. During the Great Depression, puzzles sales soared at 10 million per week.

I trim the tops back to the 2" dia. The smallest I use for firewood. Then pull them with a chain to my tilt trailer and load the butt ends on the trailer. I can load 6-8 trees, then bind them all together with a small cable come-a-long and hook the load to the trailer. I can then drag the load of 6-8 30 foot long trees the 1/4 mile to my wood shed for cutting and splitting. Having the butt ends on the trailer prevents the ends from digging in and makes a much easier drag.. Bringing the whole tree to my wood shed reduces the handling of the cut wood.

As for cloth/nylon vs chain: If this were a 4,000+ lb machine using high horsepower and torque to move a stuck 4,000+ load, I’d use some nylon straps to give, stretch, and yank. Chains are a huge no-no for that, because the tensile strength can load up a ton of energy and create a bullet if a link breaks. I’ve put a chain through my back window and piled it up on the dash of my mud truck. No more chains. Tractors, skidding, and whatnot? Absolutely chains.

I just picked up a 1973 D-180 tractor. Been wanting one of these since I saw one at the show a few years back. Now comes the fun in getting it running. First thing I found is that both the key swicth and the plug that goes into the back is coroded to the pint that it is falling apart. First parts needed so off to the search.. Overall after sitting for years in a barn it needs a hell of a bath but it seems solid. there is little ruat anywhere so great starting point. Found a plow alread adn reached out to the guy with the 3-point here with "I'll take it" and last will hope to find a grader blade.

Calendar shot!

After a cold spell and some windy days I got some more work done on the barn, it for sure takes longer getting all the nails out of the boards I am pulling up but I would say it's worth it. And underneath all the boards I had this trailer load of dust and hay.

Day off today, so we went to see the musical Chicago in our local city. Dang I've never seen so many purdy legs in one place! Mrs. W was suitably irritated by my enthusiasm for cheering each number. But then on the way home said she was surprised as there were more "hot guys" on stage than she expected. Talk about sauce for the goose.

I still have a lot of old DeWalt 18V tools that I use all the time and they work great. However, the hand held flashlight and snake lights while they worked, had poor light output. Swapped the bulbs to LED and they are now very useful and bright. A side bonus is that the battery life is incredible now.

Forty-seven years ago when we built our house, we had a fireplace built with a Heat-o-later. Built-in fans kept the hot air moving. Because we were on a wooded lot we had an unlimited supply of oak for fuel. It was okay, but with the advent of many models of wood stoves, we were encouraged to try one. It was great. It produced so much more heat I actually ran a dedicated cold air return from just above the stove to the furnace. Fuel oil cost went down, and the heat was amazing. A little bit of work was involved, but it was worth it. Then my wife's asthma started to get worse. We determined that her problem was exacerbated by oak dust and ash. Then we had a chimney fire that shut down the use of the wood stove until the chimney was repaired and lined with stainless steel liner. Wife's asthma got better. Next winter, we were back to the stove and again the asthma problems returned. So, we ditched the wood stove and installed a propane insert in the old fireplace. Wow, what a difference. No cutting and splitting wood, no ash, no dust, and it's thermostatically controlled. My wife's asthma was considerable improved. The bottom line is that I loved the wood stove. Under other circumstances, I wood have another one.

That's a @Pullstart deer drag!

I'm amazed the off road group taught you to only use cloth straps. Working at the power plants (with lots of safety rules and best practices) we used cloth and steel slings and now Kevlar slings for controlled lift with cranes. For rough pulling work we only used chains or steel cable. PS: At the hydro plant, we had a 150 ton generator rotor lift. For years we used four 20 ft long 1-1/2" braided steel cable chokers. It took 2 people to carry them. The kevlar slings consist of a bundle of 1/4" flexible kevlar string encased in a canvas cover. One person can fold them and carry them over their shoulder. Their wonderful! At the farm, when I skidded these large concrete bocks I couldn't pull them on my first try, because I had the chain coming off the top and it just caused the block front to dig in. So I arranged the chain so the chain coming forward from the block hitch loop was under the block and back just a little. I also used a fairly short distance from the block to the tractor. That way, when the tractor pulled, the chain lifted the front of the block slightly. Of course traction is key, and with the heavy backhoe hanging on the rear, my old 44hp Oliver just walked away with them. (This Oliver 2-44 Backhoe Loader is where my user name comes from)

This was back around 2010 when we decided to create 2/3 of the basement into a finish area. This is the same VC Defient as in the above pics. I remember carrying into the basement roughly 150 field stones that were transported from the woods to the house by way of the 417-8 with the Kwik-Way loader, a very slow process because of the weight in the bucket and steering, some trips were 1 stone at a time. Then when all was said and done removed the ones we didn't use and carried back out side. Lot of work but plenty of enjoyment when completed to this day.

If you are going to drag, overkill on the chain is strongly advised... no fabric... Similar to a winch - if something breaks you do not want to be in the line of fire.

This is our second Vermont Castings stove. The first one we bought new when we built our house, had for around twenty years and sold it after I regasketed it a few times over the years but finally I couldn’t get it air tight enough to bank down and run all night. We really liked that stove and bought the same one new about eight years ago. It runs 24 hours a day in the winter. One of the things that’s nice about it is that you don’t have to shut it down to clean out the ashes. Simply swing out the door underneath the stove and the ash pan comes out. Then slide this cover over it, it locks in and then you lift it out, very easy. One winter years ago we ran it from the beginning of December until April without it ever going out. Up until two years ago I always cut, split and stacked my own wood, usually burning 3-4 cords a year. I’ve had a steady supply of free long lengths of wood delivered for free from various people. Unfortunately I’ve had some pretty bad back problems lately and performing those tasks would likely render me unable to do anything for a few days but lay in bed. So reluctantly I bought wood and had it delivered and stacked. Yes at that point I could have just bought fuel oil and not had to do anything but turn up the thermostat. But running the stove is something my wife and I love. There’s really nothing like wood stove heat, whether it’s a cold winter night or just coffee in the morning near the stove. But probably the best is coming home at the end of the day after working outside in the cold and sitting next to the stove, usually I’m asleep in 10-15 minutes!! @JCM Thanks for starting this thread, I enjoy seeing other people’s stoves and surroundings!

Each year at our Sunday School class Christmas party a jigsaw puzzle is put out for those who want to work on it. Once it was suggested that we wouldn't eat dinner until the puzzle was finished. The hope was that more people would get involved in the puzzle. After careful consideration that idea was dropped because we would probably never be able to eat.

My elderly parents always had a puzzle going on a card table in the den. Dad passed at 87, but Mom kept it going until she was 96 and couldn't walk to the room.

I just loop the chain over the hitch ball on the draw bar. I can adjust chain length by running the hook back as far as i want, then hook it to the chain. Slip hook is on the other end. All my chains are set up with a slip on one end and lock on the other.

My two cents: - the drawbar attached to the transaxle is the strongest point for pulling on stock WH tractors like yours - keeping the pulling force parallel to the ground from the drawbar lessens any upward force that could lift the rear wheels or even suddenly flip the tractor - even with weight and chains, an 8-speed, open differential tractor will most likely lose traction or stall the engine before breaking anything in a straight pull - JERKING a load increases the risk of breaking stuff (including, as noted above, the cable/chain/strap with the potential for serious, serious injury) When pulling heavy loads, problems happen suddenly and unfold very, very quickly and usually in unexpected ways. Fail videos are full of examples. Witless bystanders, distractions, and haste are dangerous. Good luck.

Here's what I used...

I have a collection of new ones, must be man's instinct to have light that drives it lol. Spent the last two days bug blinding, or sweeping out my workshop. Getting rid of grinding swarf, filings and general dust is very cathartic but I'm all bunged up in the smelling section now. What prompted this sudden flurry of cleaning was a repair on a Dyson vacuum cleaner for a friend. A two inch long "changeover" hose had split so that suction was greatly reduced, that allowed fluff to build up in the brush head and further cut suction. It ended up totally stuffed with hair, dust, dog dander and bits of carpet fibre, all of which ended up in my shop.

Get it to me I’ll rebuild it.

If the bearing has a separate locking collar if installed correctly will lock the inner race of the bearing to the shaft so it does not wear the shaft. Loosen the set screw in the collar and with a drift punch inserted into a extra hole in the collar drive the collar around the shaft in the direction of normal rotation until tight. Tighten set screw. It jambs the inner race of the bearing to the shaft. The auger bearings are sealed so should be good for the life of the bearing. Could pop the seals and add grease but the shaft has to be removed to get to them. Not a bad idea so a never seize compound can be added where necessary to make future service easier.

I started the year off with a '68 or '69 six speed tranny with a limited slip 10 pinion differential. This was end the results after my second pull. I'm still running the same 6 speed tranny except I retro fit an open 8 pinion differential from a 520H tranny. This set up held up the rest of the season with no issues.

Got it put together now for the dash ive got the decals on it and its clear coated new throttle and choke cables that are correct a very nice lighter and hopefully after I solder the generator light it works

This guy obviously doesn't own a big hammer or a set of Allen Wrenches.

Just ask Etsy! Lol According to federal regulations, non firing replicas NOT marketed as toys, do not require safety caps or markings, however there are very specific guidelines for toys(including airsoft) as to size color etc. Of the barrel end markings or caps. To cover all bases I include a substantially sized safety marker cap, just in case it will make observers happier. Etsy would not tell us they would not allow our replicas, but kept cancelling our listing, despite our every effort to obtain guidance from them in what would be acceptable or even that there was no way in hell they would allow something that scary. That is why you can now find us at our own site: Https://Www.greystone3d.com

I lived in a dorm for most of college. During one semester the school decided to switch from keyed locks to combination locks. The installer wasn’t off the floor 5 minutes before I was removing the lock and taking it apart. Pretty quickly figured out how to clear and set a combination, put it back together, and set a new combo. Surprised the heck out of the RA when he came to give us our “assigned” combo and take back our keys and his combo didn’t work. He knew me and realized what I’d done. Gave me a look and then made me promise not to help anyone else change their lock. But heck, there musta been at least 50 engineering students in that dorm so I’m sure others figured it out the same way I did.

@OutdoorEnvy I've seen a video wherein someone used a cut/shaped poly (something) barrel to make a firewood skid puller like that. Slick move. We've done similar things but smaller scale in the past.

This is a new puzzle that look kinda cool from an engineers point of view.

Definitely attach to the Wheelhorsepartsandmore hitch. Stronger by a long shot. Get a trailer ball mount but leave the ball off. Use that hole with an appropriately sized pin or clasp to the chain.

Cut a slab off the side of a 275 gal oil tank? Check with a company that is removing buried tanks, cleaning them, and scrapping them. That’s how I got one. Like this...

One of the good ideas I saw someone do on youtube years ago was making a front sled type setup with the hood off an old VW bug. They drilled a hole in the nose of the hood to run the chain through. They would roll the front part of the log onto the hood, hood is upside down creating a sled effect. Then wrap chain to log and drag it with the hood riding the front of the log over the ground. It was going up and over about anything on the trail and not digging in on the front. Just back end drag. The hood metal was thick enough to handle this as he had been using it for years. I am planning this or something similar if I can source the right hood or other piece of metal similar. Thought about maybe a 55 gallon drum modification of some kind too.

I figured it must have slipped through the cracks past you, cause I know how much you love a good rust free southern Chevy I’ll do some more research, my original plan was to just tuck the wiring down in the door and put full manual mirrors like Norman’s, but then I found these and thought if they’d work it would be nice to keep the power features and turn signals, really like the signals in the mirrors

Thanks!!! I also like that seat...

The technology and skill are most impressive. I do wonder if such realism could be interpreted as it being a real weapon?

I use 32" tongs when i have a log the loader wont lift and I have to winch it in the trailer, i put the bits up to the log; give each a smack with a small 3lb sledge and as the pull they dig in tighter. Depending on the size logs you plan to move you can go smaller.

I use chain only. Choker for the log.

Of course an episode of Gunsmoke on while working in the basement. Where's Festus One of my favorite shows to this day. Miss Kitty puts a certain touch to this show for sure.

Are you using the Cole- Hersee PL 20 RC? This is the correct light for the S/G charging indicator light. It has two leads and neither one goes to ground. https://www.google.com/search?q=Cole-Hersee+PL+20+RC+light&rlz=1C1JZAP_enUS981US981&oq=Cole-Hersee++PL+20+RC+light&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIHCAEQIRigATIHCAIQIRigATIHCAMQIRigATIHCAQQIRigATIHCAUQIRiPAjIHCAYQIRiPAtIBCTEyNzU2ajBqN6gCALACAA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

The key to successful skidding is keeping the log from digging into the dirt and hitching LOW on the tractor so you don't go over backward.

That stove is as clean as the LSE. Very nice Don, Enjoy. @c-series don Take care of that back. I feel your pain.

Maybe chain around the log to a “fabric type” strap that attaches to the tractor? Need something to absorb some of the shock.

I used these in the woods, no weights and not loaded. as said above does very well in ever thing but Ice. They recommended 7 psi not sure what in them now but it is real hard to push on a level concrete floor.

I like old flashlights and have a large collection. This weekend I bought an older plastic military light. I usually don’t buy anything plastic. Takes two D cells and as you can imagine it’s not very bright by todays standards. Bought an LED lamp rated for two D cells and swapped it out today.

I had it on my 310-8. Did awesome! The only complaint is we had to switch the spindle shaft for the longer one to fit the double pulley. Other then that no complaints. Awesome for sucking the leaves on the fall. IMG_3136.mov

Well in all honesty, I guess I will get a break every 3hrs when I have to go out & dump 2 gallons of gas in it. Less than $3 per hour. Price I have to pay to maintain 125psi non-stop at the blaster. The pressure at the compressor never drops below 150psi. 1.5hrs to go before the first 5hr oil change on the engine. Recommended every 50hrs after that. 50hrs for first oil change on the pump, every 100hrs after that. I may shorten these intervals though. Oil is cheaper than engines & pumps. So far, very happy with the purchase.

Victory!!