Building a Traditional Go-Devil

[Ron]

hi George
The go devil looks really good and that looks and sounds like it is working well
for you. You could possibly double the out put of a horse and man each day depending on length of skidding with a good system like yours. All of that with less stress on yourself and the horse.
Thanks for the pictures, I don’t own a digital camera and if I did I would not know how to use it. Grateful to you though for taking the time to send these along.
Cheers
Ron

[Mike Rock]

Hi George, can you drop me an email? I have been working up a drawing and can’t figure how attach a <print screen> image to this forum. If anyone knows how, holler.
mikerock@mhtc.net

[Ed Thayer]

That tool looks awesome George, Nice work!!

Ed

[Carl Russell]

George, here is a pic of the last sled made by Les Barden. I have not used it for anything yet, but your Go-devil reminds me of it. I thought you might to see this.

The pole fits in like that of a scoot, so it can easily be used with or without.

Carl

• This reply was modified 8 years, 3 months ago by Carl Russell.

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[Does’ Leap]

Carl, thanks for posting that picture. Is that sled at your place now? Using it? It is interesting to see and read about the different permutations in sled designs. The ring welded to the front pipe on my go devil (suggested by Ron on the forum and Tristan Kelley of Nova Scotia) serves much the same purpose of the front scoot ring pictured in Les’s sled – really helps steer the sled. After using mine for a month or so, I brought it back in my shop for some tweaking. Those small changes have made a difference.

Any idea why the he placed the bunk so far back on the runners? On a somewhat related note, I would like your opinion on using Ron’s go-devil chaining set-up (choked load chain passes under the center of the bunk and directly to the evener) on a scoot? I am really liking this method – no binder to keep track of and no rechecking the load after starting. I also flipped the do-devil a couple weeks back and it would have been hard to extract the binder if I had been using one. I haven’t had my scoot out this year, but I am going to give it a try once I do.

Happy logging…

George

[Carl Russell]

George, it is at my place. I never had any discussions with him about the placement of the bunk. It is a smaller sled than my bobsled. It has rings on either side of the bunk, presumably to direct the tension on a chain from the evener.

The ring at the nose is for both pole and draft chain. It has a spread chain similar to a scoot to center the pull. It has mortise and tenons holding it together, so I thought it might be pretty sturdy.

I can see the value of hitching a few logs with a choker onto the bunk of a go devil, but the way I use a scoot I would e left too much log movement. Plus if I’m using a pole I wouldn’t want a loose evener.

I get used to the way I do things and usually don’t find the time to experiment much. I usually only use a sled when hauling long distances, so I prefer larger devices to carry more. I have thought many times about a go devil, but haven’t found that job that has pushed me to make one.

I think bundling small material into a feasible hitch is a good motivator. I have found the Swedish wagon to fill that niche, which now has me looking at material I would normally just leave to rot.

Carl

[wild millers]

I yesterday had chance to get out the small scoot/go devil that I rebuilt a few years ago from a friends design. All that was left was the iron, so I put it together how I thought it might work for me. I would normally ground skid these logs short distances with a single horse, but yesterday I had reason to skid each of these half a dozen, fairly heavy, oak logs about a quarter of a mile. This sled is not ideal for moving a large quantity of wood since I can only hook one large diameter log at a time, but since I’m just out after house firewood and saw logs on the weekends this winter I’m enjoying taking my time and focusing on my interactions with a single horse while working in the woods.

So all that said, it was a lot of fun working with this tool again. The deck on it allows me to stand, straddling the log, with one hand on the peavey to ride the load in and the empty scoot out. Despite the long skids, the horse also seemed to enjoy the day without getting worn down.

The chaining set up on the sled is visible in the picture. One chain bolted to the bunk on one side and a grab hook on a swivel bolted to the other side of the bunk. Sometimes I will have to reset the log during the skid but overall it’s not too bad except for unhitching the bound chain at the landing. That is usually done fairly easily with the peavey though. I really like the idea of how George and Ron are hitching their go devil loads and would like to give that a try. I think it could work out nicely with my terrain. Thanks for the ideas guys.

I guess I really just wanted to post a few pictures of another design and a beautiful day spent in the woods.

Happy logging to you all

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[Does’ Leap]

Carl, you are absolutely right on the scoot set-up with that chaining strategy. I overlooked the dynamics with the pole. How do you go about loading the Sweedish wagon? Looks like the bed is fairly high off the ground.

Joel, thanks for sharing those pictures. A beautiful sunny day working in the woods in hard to beat! Nice looking horse.

George

[Ron]

Hi All
I am glad to see the different go devils and logging arches. These are really good devices when used properly they make logging small wood lots more efficient. A friend of mine was a professional logger his whole life and used one horse in the bush 90% of the time (while others doing similar work used two) and often with a go devil style device. I see a lot of videos showing people dragging logs in the mud, dirt and snow with out any aids. My experience says that the saw mill operator hates to see me coming with sand in the bark and it is hard on horses. I think people who skid this way must hold shares in chain saw file companies.
My friend made the bulk of his money supplying special wood orders from his 500 acres of bush. If he had roads he used a wagon or a truck but often he had to select and cut small orders of oak or ash etc and skid them winter or summer long distances through thick new growth to the nearest bush roads. For this purpose the go devil he believed was his best tool for the job. I usually found the same. Hope that is of some help
Ron

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