to use a wagon?

[Anonymous]

I am just starting out as a horselogger in Nova Scotia, after some training and work in Ontario. I am interested in working with sleds and wagons, as well as my own brain to do all my woods work-I want to cut my ties with fossil fuels. I have a 200 acre woodlot I am going to start in on in a month or so and will be working with the owner towards returning it to an old growth state. There is too little of this forest left here-less than .05% in an old growth. We have lots of work to do, but I feel mindsets shifting. Perhaps its the $1.40/litre gas?
So, I don’t have a lot of experience loading logs onto a wagon for transport to the roadside. Any tips from you old timers?
Also, any thoughts on building slabwood roads? We have been talking about keeping the best logs to saw onsite, bringing a bandsaw mill into the forest in order to maximize value and retain the slab and sawdust for the forest floor. I hate the idea of selling cheap biomass.
Thanks.
Stewart

[Carl Russell]

Stew, to load logs on a wagon, the bed should not be much more than two bunks 7’6″ apart (6×6 or 8×8), positioned so that the top of the bunk is above the top of the tires. This way the bed won’t be too high, for loading and for center of gravity. Using two skids (4″ dia. poles) 12′ long you can roll logs on with a peavey, or with the animals using a parbuckle (looping chain under log and back across the wagon). Also decking the logs beside your trail so that you can load from an elevated header will give you great advantage. Use long chains to wrap and bind the logs down.

A Nova Scotian Horse Logger described a logging conveyance to me that I built and used many times for long wood. I call it a “bunk-cart”. It is a single axle with a sturdy bunk attached that tops out just level with the tops of the tires. Back the cart against the butt end of the tree so that both wheels are touching the bole of the tree about three feet shy of the butt. Wrap a choker on the log, at the mid-point between wheels, that attaches to the center of the bunk. As the animals move forward, veer toward the butt, which will draw the butt tight against the wheel on that side. Because the cart is going forward the wheel is turning up from in back and lifts the log as it turns. As the log reaches the top of the tire turn completely in the same direction and bring the bunk under the log. Wrap an bind it tight and you’ve got a good jag that will move easily with little ground damage.

Godd luck, Carl

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