Does anyone have any innovations or techniques for moving, transporting , setting up large timbers by yourself. It is just that I find myself often going at it alone and it is quite difficult getting a whole lot done if I cant get the timbers moved to where they need to be for hewing, drying, layout and cutting joints. I have a plot of a few acres of land that is a moderately rocky slope, but there is luckily the old quarry horse-carriage roads which are still clear that I can use as avenues to my site. I have a couple of block and tackles and trying to get my hands on a peavey as well, but basically any ideas, techniques for getting felled trees or already hewn timbers up off the ground and transported to the work site would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot. tb

heavy equipment

one back injury can ruin your whole day/lifetime

I'm with Chris. You can get really hurt out there, and if you're alone, it's especially dangerous, as there's no one to run for help if you get pinned. An all terrain fork lift, or even a tractor with a front end loader might do the job. Perhaps you could buy a used one, and then sell it when the project's done. For short distances, a good timber cart is hugely helpful. CB.

The first thing you could get or make is a log/timber transporter, for getting your logs/timbers out of the woods to the site where you'll cut your joinery.
One great tool is a log lifter like this:



This is a small one that can be used by hand or there are bigger ones at this site:

Click here for link to Future Forestry products.

Once at your site you can make a timber cart as mentioned above.
Here is one I made but need serious improvement:



Here is one a customer made after seeing my design and his worked much better than mine:



Once you have your timbers near your site and need to move them around you can just put a roller on top of a sawhorse like this:



With the roller attached to the base plank and the base plank screwed to the sawhorse top it makes it very stable and will work well to move timbers.

Here is a shot of us using a roller and sawhorse at a customers site to move a 7x10x22' timber off the mill and into the pile:



Once you have a set of rollers on base planks and using saw horses as bases you can move lots of heavy timbers by swinging and balancing them.

Good luck with your research.

Jim Rogers

Thanks for the tips guys. Nice pics as usual Jim and always a great help. I checked out those timber carriers and they seem great but also out of my budget at this point. Do those timber carriers carry longer , heavier timbers as well? Where could I find those rollers you use attach to the sawhorses. That is ingenius by the way.I was hoping there might be some other techniques for moving timbers that would be affordable as well but I guess you have to spend the money to save your back. I was pondering with the technique of hanging a pulley above the timber , rolling the timber with a peavey over a chain and hoisting the timber up on to a cart, and then the other side and rolling it on the carts to the site. I know this sounds time consuming but might it be a feasible poor man's transport technique. Let me know what you think as it may be another of my many newbie ridiculous innovations. tb

Hello timber brained,

They aren't cheap but a chainsaw winch sure is handy for pulling trees out, rocks to and fro and all sorts of rigs.
For the real heavy stuff I've got a 5 ton Beebe handwinch with 7/16 cable. Wintech makes them now. They are slow, but can move a whole house and can be carried into the site.
A griphoist is another option. They come in several sizes.
If you're handy, all three can be found used (if you're lucky) for cheap and can be fixed up.
Glad to hear other folks out there doing gravity experiments.

Best,

Zach

If you're going to load a cart then you'll need something to pull the cart, like a tractor. If you have a tractor you can use it to load the cart.
We made and used for many years a timber scoot. It was what the old timers used instead of a cart. A cart means you have to move the log higher up off the ground in order to get it on top of the cart.
A scoot is basically a cart without the wheels and it is a sled without sides.
Here is one I made several years ago:



This sled was not made for hauling logs.
To haul logs you would add some brackets to the outsides of the runners for some stakes to drop into.
Then after felling your tree, and cutting it to length you would position the log scoot next to the log or drag the log to the logging trail where the scoot was and align them side by side. If you have a tractor this could be done. Then using a chain or strong cable load the log onto the scoot by using what is called a rolling hitch, up some ramp blocks/timbers. You could make your stakes strong enough to be the ramps.
Once the log is loaded we would put the stakes in the pocket brackets (made of metal) and hook up the scoot to the tractor and drag it out to the roadside pile.
The scoot is constructed with pulling points on both ends so when you unload it at the roadside pile you just hook up to the back end and drag it back into the woods.
In the above picture the scoot runners are softwood and the cross blocks are hardwood. The runners have steel shoes attached to them to prevent the softwood runners from wearing out. But you have to be careful of the steel runners hitting a rock in the woods and creating a spark that can ignite the dry leaves in the wood.

We used a back hoe with a front end loader on it to lift the logs off the ground carry them to the scoot and unload the scoot at the roadside pile:



This is a shot of my backhoe carrying a long log (here in my sawmill yard). We would use this method to lift logs, thereby keeping the clean and not dragging them in the dirt, and carrying them to the scoot where we could load several logs and then drag the scoot to the pile.

Jim Rogers

This is just my personal experience.

I was in the same position as you about a year ago. I actually did hurt my back. I cut, skidded and milled my own lumber.

You need a tractor, as everyone has mentioned. Preferably a 480 or 580 Case, mine is a 310 John Deere. An older tractor is fine, you just need something with some weight and decent hydraulic power.

I had a Garage 24x24 and had to get them inside and move my timber effeciently. I ended up building a set of forks to attach to the bucket. Next I built a 16' jib out of 2x6 structural steel, that slid over on of the forks and chained to the top of the bucket. I also chained it to the edges of the bucket for stability. A hook welded to the end allowed me to use a nylon sling to move timbers. It worked excellent. It certainly wasn't engineered and tested, or anything like that, I just used common sense and was careful. I hope this helps....... good luck.

A helper and I moved 36' 8x8s on an old car axle last winter. If you are going some distance or have a rough path use ratchet straps to attach the timber to the axle. You can drill a hole in one end of the timber and tie a rope to the timber. Tie the timber to a trailer hitch in a way it can make turns but not flail around and you can tow it around your property.

Also, fixed rollers have there place, but I find wood rollers or schedule 40 pvc pipe rollers to be more useful and affordable.

Never Give Up;
Jim

Thanks everybody. I figured that there would be quite the assortment of innovations for this thread. Housewright, with the pvc pipe, is it rolling on the sawhorse or is it just so smooth that the timber glides over it so easily. Also , how does it sound to lay down several lengths of pvc pipes or smooth log cants perpindicular to the timber and rolling the timber along the smooth rounded tops of them, as the timber moves forward, bring the rolls from the back to the front and so on??? Just an experiment in the brain as of yet , but I have heard of people moving whole houses in a similar way. Of course you still have to get the timber on the rolling tubes, for which I am playing with rough axed log ramps and using peavey and timber carrier(two-man) and also possibly hoists, one end at a time. It is all just intense brainstorming now and also do not have the money for tractors or hiring a harvester to help me move them. Regardless of how it all plays out, I think that we all need to attend our needs for self sufficiency in this difficult craft and attempt to perform timber framing without the ease of modern heavy equipment. After all , one of the reasons I love timber framing is the expansive impressive spaces, particularly old barns, and what more impressive than building and moving these tremendous timbers without the modern "advances". Thanks again guys , I hope to hear more ideas from you all, as I feel that there are others out there that are on the same page as me , " defiance of physical limitations. Housewright , did you move those without a tractor on the trailer hitch or were they too heavy? I have not yet had to struggle with the large timbers and I will be in the future( 40 ' purlin plates and 24' anchorbeams as well as 18' oak posts}, just curious what I am in for as far as weight and feasibility with these larger timbers???