4WD Articulated Log Skidder

4WD articulated log skidder TRACTORS Made-It-Myself 17-1-9 Pennsylvania farmer Wayne Bashore says he gets good use out of the 4-WD articu¡lated log skidder he built that has a winch mounted on a telescoping boom and a drawbar for pulling a home-built 13-ft. long dump trailer. The front axle is off a Chevrolet 1-ton truck and the rear axle off a Ford 1-ton truck. Power comes from a 318 cu. in. Plymouth car engine and the tractor's fitted with a 4-speed transmission from an old truck. The transmission is driven by a hydraulic pump, providing hydro-static drive. The log skidder is mounted on 20-in. Army truck tires. The rear-mount boom telescopes 3 ft. and can be raised up or down. "I use it to drag logs from the woods to cut into firewood," says Bashore. "It has great traction and floats over even the roughest ground. The four drive wheels provide great traction and the low profile lets me travel across slopes without fear of tipping. I can kick the rear wheels out of gear for road use. "The boom really comes in handy for grabbing hold of tree tops that the log skiddercan'treach.Italso works great for carrying equipment in and out of my shop. It's built so heavy that it can even pick up a garden tractor. I put brackets on the end of the boom so I can fit it with a 15-ft. extension when needed. I used it recently to raise the roof on my machine shed so I could fit a skid steer loader under it. "I control the hydrostatic transmission with a simple forward-reverse lever mounted beside the driver's seat. The more I push on the lever, the faster it goes. It'll go up to 20 mph or run at a slow creep, even in fourth gear. There are four other levers - one to raise or lower the boom, one to extend or retract the boom, one to engage the winch, and one to raise or lower the trailer. It has a tilt steering wheel which makes it easy to get into." Bashore made a fold-up drawbar for pulling the trailer which he uses to haul about 14 loads of firewood each year to heat his house. The drawbar consists of a length of flat iron with each end welded onto a hinged brace to make the drawbar rigid. "When I'm not pulling the trailer I can fold the drawbar up out of the way and pin it onto a bracket mounted on the back of the log skidder," says Bashore. "The trailer has a seat mounted on front which my wife uses so she doesn't have to stand on the log skidder. She can activate the brakes on all four wheels by using a brake pedal mounted in front of her. It really helps out on hills." A pair of hydraulic cylinders control up and down movement of the boom, and another pair of cylinders telescope the boom in or out. There are three hydraulic pumps - one for power steering, one to operate the winch, and one to drive the transmission. Bashore used heavy channel iron to build the log skidder's frame. He used semi tractor wheel rims to make his own wheels for the Army truck tires. He welded spokes into the rims and made hubs to fit onto the car axles.The log skidder bends in the middle by means of a pair of 2 1/4-in. dia. hydraulic cylinders that act on a 2 1/2-in. dia., 14-in. long kingpin. The trailer's 14-in. wheels are off an old car and are mounted on tandem walk¡ beam axles. Bashore spent about $3,000 to build the log skidder. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Wayne Bashore, Rt. 2, Box 201, Mifflintown, Penn. 17059 (ph 717 436-2204).

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