Winches have been put to work in the woods since the dawn of mechanized logging. In many forests, the only way to get timber to the trucks is by winch. Around the world timber harvesters are challenged by mountain terrain and logs of all sizes and shapes. Along with many others, Fir, Oak, Maple, Pine, and Redwood trees all eventually fall back to the forest floor. Hopefully the majority of these trees fall with purpose, and are able to be used again for construction, fuel, or a craftsman’s touch. Innovations like the feller buncher and harvester are changing logging methods in certain countries, but winches are still a major part of the operation. Rubber tired CAT 518 skidders, support equipment, skyline, and the Tracked skidders like CAT DHh TSK, 517, and 527 all use winches. On steep slopes, wood is rarely harvested without the help of a winch in some fashion.

In this case, we focus on the winches used on the skidders and dozers related to the logging industry. This includes support equipment to build the logging roads and any equipment recovery. In most applications the correct winch for high production, high line pull, and fast cycle times is a PTO winch equipped with standard speed gear ratios around 50:1 and freespool. Hydraulic winches can have issue overheating hydraulic fluid on high cycle times and don’t have the power to line speed production capacity that most PTO winches have. Arches are currently only available from about 2 manufactures on a limited number of winch models. Arches are used to keep the wire rope up higher to avoid dragging logs getting hung up across the ground. If the winch is being used for recovery a fairlead is nice option to have. In recovery work the slow speed option is better, but logging is the primary business then a standard faster line speed winch can still be used effectively with a block and tackle reduction to avoid yanking out a machine too hard. Hydraulic winches can also be a cost-effective solution for recovery. In areas win smaller timber harvested by dozers under 30,000 lbs like CAT D3 and Deere 450’s finding a PTO winch is getting harder and harder unless it’s already on the tractor. Equipment manufactures are slowly eliminating the PTO shaft on many models, so in some cases your only option is a hydraulic winch. If a hydraulic winch is the only option, the it might be smart to consider one of the high-performance pump or hydrostatic winch options.

Recommendation:

PTO driven, Standard speed, equipped with freespool and arch with a trained operator.