DIY Winch Addition to Subcompact Tractor

Nicely done, and completely self-contained so you remove and re-attach it.

Whatya gonna pull?

Stump removal 101:

1. cut down the tree, and remove trunk, limbs, and trash
2. augur drill a 2" hole in the stump down to well below ground level
3. fill the hole in the stump with ANFO^® certified heave agent. (sensitized and in its plastic sleeve)
4. Insert blasting cap, and attach some really long lead wires to the detonator switch.
5. clear the general area.
6. Yell: "fire in the hole, fire in the hole, fire in the hole"
7. Switch the detonation, and ..."duck you sucker"
8. Any splinters remaining of the stump should be easily swept up and removed, or pulled out of the flesh of people who did not clear the area.

Please do not follow this advice at home, it can only be done if you are a certified MythBuster.

Each to his own....

It's a subtlety, but "augur" ≠ "auger".

--Ed. C.

I stand in the correction line, at least I think that is what this line is for...

Nope.

1. Pound in a stump cannon and fill with FF black powder and fuse.

2. Light and run.

3. Fill the resulting cavity with nitrate fertilizer and diesel oil and place a detonator

4. Get back a ways and set it off.

5. Duck

#5 is key

Can't be any worse than blowing up a dead whale.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=oregon+coast+blown+up+whale+video&view=detail&mid=765D3A96A0AEE411BFA7765D3A96A0AEE411BFA7&FORM=VIRE

What you do with a dead whale is haul it to a mink farm in Roy, Washington, USA. Those little minks/minxes just chew away a fresh layer every day until the carcass is gone.

Really? Care to elaborate? I lived in Roy, WA.

That was in the late 1980s. I've forgotten the name of the place, <Something> Farms. It was one of the first PLC-controlled refrigeration systems I ever worked on. Somehow they got hold of this beached whale from someplace, and hauled it in there. I don't know how long it lasted--a few months, I think.

SolarEagle, that particular video had a lot of influence in my purchase!

The Grapple is nice too!

And it will pull smaller stumps and pick up the bigger ones to move to the burn pile. When I use the winch, I either "grab" the ground with the grapple, or just chain the grapple to a tree....winch = 8K lbs pull, tractor = <3K lb weight!

Is this the Car Talk "Chomp the Stumps" feature?

Nice build!! But I got to ask, a 4ton winch on a tractor that weighs < 1 ton?? Could make for some interesting pulls.

The tractor weights around 2600lbs. Most trees I chain it too won't move easily!

I use the winch to get the logs within reach of "pulling"" with the tractor. If it can't pull them, they get cut into smaller bits!

I think it might be cool to see your tractor hanging from a tree, but I'm silly like that.

I should have taken a picture when I winched my truck off the ground.

Easier than putting a jack under it at the time.

Generally speaking, those of us on the citizen's safety committee will lobby against using trees for lifting such objects as trucks, one is lifting against an uncertified structure, that can be dead, rotten, hollow, etc. Such structures may give way without any further warning.

Who said I used a tree???

Nobody, but that was being talked about. I suspect you would be smarter than to do such a thing, good deal.

Really???? You are on a safety committee??? In Texas??? I am tired, please tell me another bed time story...

Hey, we had a meeting of our safety team yesterday, went over any documented work accidents (there were none, at least documented ones), had new business about new recognized safety hazards that workers here encounter, and made a safety audit tour of one of our plants, and actually found unprotected fluorescent coil tubes in overhead lighting fixtures in hydrogen flow processing area under two of our generators.

Those fixtures must be absolutely globed and caged for protection from breakage with the potential to initiate hydrogen gas explosion (as if the stuff were leaking).

Believe it or not, within our generating plants, safety is Job #1, and we do not do things in a "dangerous" way, or we document the issue and correct the situation for the next time. All of our personnel are encouraged to exercise "what if" thinking.

The "hold my beer, and watch this" stuff is reserved for after hours at the mud hole.

Brings to mind the scene of the Land Rover winched up the tree in "The Gods Must Be Crazy."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RXV-p_Ec6Q

One of the Greatest Stories Ever Told....

It would make maintenance on the underside a breeze.

Winch looks to be pretty big,... do you think your Kubota is up to it?

Works OK so far!

If I remember to bring my camera next time I'm using it, I'll post a pic or video.

I need to put my R4 tires and chains back on before I go back into the "rough stuff".

The tires in the pictures are for mowing with the 60" mower deck...talk about cutting the lawn fast!

(Actually I cut a 6 acre field, that I'm attempting to restore the hay in)

60" is a lot of mower for that tractor, unless it's a belly mower.

Yes it's a belly mower made specifically for that model tractor.

This is a little off topic, but I like to share it. I took a vacation day yesterday and went to the Wisconsin Farm Technology Days that was held near our area. Usually held in the South or Southwestern part of the state, so it was a rare opportunity to go.

Was only they for about 6 hours,... didn't even get 1/4 the way through it.

Among some of the items, they had fire wood processors there.

My girlfriend did not realize the amount of machinery manufacturers. I was surprised myself at some of the European equipment that I never heard of.

This was even better than the Logging Congress (Used to be held in three rotating places, Green Bay, Escanaba,... and somewhere else.) that was held in our area. Think I take a few days off next year and travel to Technology days.

Did they have fire wood pellet making machines?

They had outdoor and pellet stoves there from the fraction the show that I saw, unfortunately I had to walk past them, time wasn't on my side. .

Considering they had firewood processors... one would think they would be there.

Here is the exhibitors list.

http://www.pelletingsolutionssciences.com/pellet-mills?gclid=CLv1vvaEidUCFVmewAodDQYHXQ

Not on the list, but found this company in Cambridge Iowa.

I may try talking with them about a small set up (that I can manage myself just as a bench test) with cotton stalks and burrs. The trick is to get all the dirt out, and no pelleting operation has managed to survive with good dies for very long at all in West Texas thus far. I still think there is an opportunity here.

I think something related to acoustic or even ultra-sound cleaning in a wet tank, followed by solar drying might work better than what has been done up to now.

Surfactant and water loss on a large tonnage could become an issue when scaled up, so the system would have to be engineered with a strong position on water recovery and recycling. Cheap, totally organic surfactant would be the order of the day, so nothing noxious is added to the combustion.

My company was looking for a way to package and value-add their excess charcoal, I did quite a bit of research on it at the time, briquetting and pellet making... if you're interested, I can send you the info.

As far as it is with us, charcoal is a very unstable product... as Kingsford already knows.

The market for charcoal seems to be all over the place, alright. I would think that charcoal in pellet form might be interesting. One big advance would be to reduce the ash % content of said charcoal so that it would perform better in pellet stoves, and heaters, and could still be used in outdoor cooking.

It seems that Kingsford has always added some Michigan clay to the mix.

digressing further,.... Our charcoal after its been through our process, is pulverized.

The military can only take so much for their munitions.

We had stripped all just about everything out of it. The area Utility companying's were buying it, but we would have to water it down so it would not 'flare up'. But then it became cheaper for the local utilities to buy electricity off the grid (because of the lower cost of LP fired plants) instead of producing it.

I and been working with Penn State university for the possibility of activating it, but because of the powered form, that was difficult.

Now some of the paper mill would take it IF, we could briquette or pelletize it.

But because we stripped the charcoal of just about everything, including Lignin (the natural binding agent) We actually had to add the tar back to the charcoal as a binder to pelletize it.

As far as Kingsford adding Michigan clay to the mix,... that could help in binding it,... as well as to help stabilize it, but they still have problems with it... that is what they ship it in bags, and never large bulk. Bulk makes reactions happen.

Anyways, Kingsford, that's where our Missouri plant's charcoal is shipped to. And I believe our Tennessee plant's charcoal.

So the friction of motion in bulk shipment is sufficient to light it off? Yikes!

What about re-calcining with some tall oil pitch? That might produce some stickiness, and might also ruin it for application involving water treatment, or even for mercury scrubbers in coal fired electric plants. I don't know. These things have to be tested to find out, and not tried for the first time in the field. LOL

Maybe you even get into special application carbons with added binder that was more along the lines of molecular sieve to increase adsorption properties.

No, just sitting in a modified IBC container (Top cut off), reactions are happening. Temperature keeps rising and then flares up.

At least for our R&D test runs. Our plant engineer talked to Kingsford and also that's what Kingsford told them, when we talked to them about talking our Charcoal.

I have a good video of their process, I think its on You Tube.

So, it probably has to do with catalytic sites on the charcoal that like to interplay with oxygen, and heat from solar input probably helps it warm to some critical "tipping" point. OR, maybe your quench is incomplete to start with??

Any gases or vapor coming off could be a strong indicator of quench, for example, lack of CO, CO2, and excessive amounts of water vapor.

There are active groups in graphitic carbon that have been oxidized to β-anthraquinone structures that are also excellent proton conduits (see papers on GPO, graphene oxide).

I don't know for sure, but I suspect that structures like that might assist in acceleration of auto-oxidation in air.

Some addition of a free-radical scavenger might even work at really low level gas, such as sulfur dioxide, then pull the residual SO2 gas away using vacuum, or leave it to dissipate if you can legally get away with the fugitive emissions from that.

There are other scavengers that could be tried that are less noxious but are far more expensive. Heck, you might even try adding sufficient sulfite salt to the quench water.

maybe,... we did a number of test, each test with different recipe. All but one test lit up within hours and they were carried outside in to the waste sight.

The one that didn't light up and we were saving, 3rd shift thought he might as well take that to the waste site also.

We could even rerun the test, we were renting a European mixer/pelletizer unit (mixing different ratios of tar and charcoal) from a Canadian distributor and they needed it back for another lease.

Wow, that mixture is going to leave a mark in the hopper, and most likely a stain.

Back on subject...here's the action.

Why you, you, you, log dragger, you. Have fun out there, and watch out for people hunting land owners over bait in Maine. Those twinkies on the trail are there for a reason. If you see such signs of activity, report this to the Maine Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, you know, the guys that get out and yell, "Game Warden."