Page 19 - Moving the Earth_ The Workbook of Excavation

LAND CLEARING AND CONTROLS

LAND CLEARING AND CONTROLS 1.19

Crawlers and four-wheel drives usually carry loaders or dozers. Their efficiency may be
increased by mounting winches, and by use of log carriers and various rigs too specialized for
description here.
A log is usually pulled by means of a chain or cable fastened around its butt, choker-fashion,
and attached to the tractor drawbar or winch. The most important consideration in arranging this
is to get the butt off the ground, or riding on the ground very lightly, as digging in will take greatly
increased power and will rip up the trail. A short line, particularly to the top of a winch, is helpful
unless the log has a greater diameter than the height of the draw point.
The log may also be pulled onto a stoneboat, or other sled, and the line passed through the eye,
or two lines used as in Fig. 1.12.
If the tractor is sufficiently powerful, several logs may be pulled at a time by attaching them
individually to different lines. If only one line is available, they may be fastened with one choker,
which should be fastened well back, as such piles often come apart while being towed.
Two-wheel-drive tractors can drag logs or bundles of logs on dry ground. Loads must be small,
but they move briskly. If the tractor has a hydraulic lift drawbar which can be chained to the log
to lift its butt off the ground, its efficiency is more than doubled, as the weight on the driving
wheels is increased and friction is greatly reduced.

Moving Short Wood. When trucks can get in the woods, cordwood and pulpwood are usually
cut to size and trucked out. As wood is much lighter than dirt, a dump truck can carry several times
its body rating, if the pile stays on. Figure 1.13 shows an arrangement of placing planks, poles, or
thin split logs vertically along the body sides to permit high piling. These are held in place by the
piled logs. If the road is rough, it is wise to pass a chain from the body over each row of logs and
to tighten it with a load binder.
If the wood is cut short, and rain or unforeseen mud conditions make trucking impractical, it
may be dragged out by tractors. If a stoneboat is available, logs may be piled on it, and the trac-
tor line threaded through the eyehole over the pile and anchored on the back. The eyehole should
be beveled so that a chain or cable can slide freely through it, as the tractor pull will then hold the
logs to the stoneboat. See Fig. 1.14. If no boat is available, the logs may be piled on the line, which
is then looped around it as a choker. Parts of the piles may be chained by snaking the line under
them, without repiling.
Storage. Wood should be stored outside of the work area where it will be accessible both dur-
ing and after the digging. Poles and logs may be very useful in shoring up banks, making corduroy

FIGURE 1.12 Skid-pan log hitches.