Bob sled

[Rod]

I am picking up what I think is called a double sled, at least thats what they are refered to a the book which I have called ” In praise of oxen” which also Carl mentioned in one of his photo captions. This one has two sets of runners , front and back and the front ones are on a fifth wheel so they turn with the team pulling it. The front and back unhook so the front set can be used independently. Is this front set what is refered to in some of the photos as a Bobsled? This would look like one set of runners about 3′ long and a cross piece onto which a log end can be attached and dragged through the woods.
Also if this is the case are these Bobsleds used only over snow or sometimes pulled over non snow covered areas.
I see some of the photos have what is described as a Bobsled pulling a log and the unit appears to be what I am talking about but the photo is not complete enough to be sure.

[Up North Louie]

Sure sounds like a bobsled to me. While I’ve never seen the front runners used independently, ours has a level deck from about 2 feet behind the eveners all the way to the back end. It has stake pockets; you can put stake sides on it, and move a fairly large amount of pole wood, up to about 10 feet. You are limited by what you can lift.

For skidding big logs, I fashioned a sort of dray out of a large elm crotch. I notched the tops of the legs to accept two 3×6 inch rough-sawn planks, perpendicular, more or less, to the legs, which are carriage-bolted from the bottom. You can long-chain the log up on to the back of the dray, chain it down and it makes it a lot easier on the boys to move it a long way in poor terrain. Grampa would have called this unit a stone boat, since that’s what you moved on it in the spring after we plowed. Picking rock on to that thing was universally hated. Put ’em on, pull ’em off, pile ’em up, repeat.

For picking rock, I now use a front end loader. There are only so many hours in the day, and my back isn’t as good as it used to be. I feel pretty good about that choice.

Don

[Carl Russell]

Sometimes the front bobs are not very rugged as the sled is designed to carry a load spread over both bunks. Double bob sleds that are built for logging can often be disconnected and the front sled used independently. For logging the sled should have stout runners 3-4″ thick, and a very sturdy beam and a bunk on top of that. I have some photos of my logging bobsled that will show more of those details. I have to scan ’em in then copy them to iPhoto then export them to another file so that I can down-size them, then upload them into the gallery. It may take me a day or so. Carl

I had to come back to add that I use my sled year-round. That is one of the reasons that the runners need to be wider than 2″, so they don’t cut into the soil too much.

[Carl Russell]

Rod, I don’t know if you have access to, or have one yourself, but in the Fall 1999 issue of the Small Farmer’s Journal, I wrote an article on bobsledding logs. I think that I can find those photos any way, and I will post them in the Gallery, but there are a couple of pages of text that will help describe using a bobsled in the woods. Carl

[Rod]

Thanks Carl ,Ill try to locate that back issue at SFJ.

[Author]

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