hydrogeo wrote: ↑Thu Oct 18, 2018 8:18 am
Interesting concept on the feller buncher. Does the saw move, or do you just push it into the tree? I bet it works good for what you've designed it to do.
It works okay for what I want to do, but admit I am a little nervous sometimes of slamming the saw up against a stump, rock or another tree. It is only a $750 chainsaw, but still, smashing just one saw a firewood season makes buying fuel oil a whole lot more economical. But because it is only a $750 chainsaw, it might power through saplings just fine, but being only 65 cc's, it is not very powerful either. Someday, if the whole firewood chunking system seems to work, I might replace the chainsaw with a shear so that I do not need the chainsaw to do the tree felling.
Size however, is somewhat based upon the log loader trailer; it can only pick 800 pounds at full extension, but mostly the size is dictated by the firewood chunker. I can only chunk about 4 inch trees. This would be just about right for a pot bellied stove. I have some of the parts gathered up to make the firewood chunker, but I have been super-busy moving houses around, etc.
hydrogeo wrote: ↑Thu Oct 18, 2018 8:18 am
I thought about trying to mechanize my operation, but I only burn 5 cord so it's hard to justify much of an investment. Now I just twitch the wood to a yard with my 40c, have my boy lift the logs with the excavator bucket/thumb and I cut them up, and then the kids help split, throw into the trailer and straight to the woodshed. It would be nice having a log loader trailer like yours as it's 1/2 mile from my woodlot to the spot close to the woodshed where I like to cut and split.
For what this log trailer is, it really is a lot of money, with all the extras it was $18,000. While it is perfect for firewooders, its high cost limits its purchase. I would say it is really good for sawmillers though because in that capacity I use it to move logs, the logs never getting a drop of dirt on them because they never get dragged through the soil on their way out. Then at the sawmill the loader can be used to load the logs on, then the loader used to pick the boards up. In that way it really takes a lot of the work out of sawing logs into boards, and keeps the sawblade from dulling as well.
Production wise, my best day ever was 5 cord of hardwood: felled, limbed, bucked, loaded 8 foot onto the trailer, hauled 1/4 mile, and off loaded into a pile.
I bought it because I do way more tan just move wood though.
As a sheep farmer, one thing it does really well is move haybales around. Because it has its own 6 hp engine and hydraulic system, I hook it to my grocery-getter SUV, zip around the fields and pick up round bales with it. But I also grade roads with a homemade grader blade' the walking beam suspension and long hitch making for super smooth roadways. But it also can bore post holes with an auger since the grapple head rotates 360 degrees. But it also comes with a dump body so I can haul and dump gravel or manure, or put on a backhoe and dig with it. So it really can do a lot.
I have no intention of traveling to my grave in a well manicured body; instead I am going to slide into heaven with a big power turn, totally wore out with busted knuckles, jump off my dozer loudly yelling, Woo Hoo, another Shepard has just arrived!
We got some other options here, so I might try resuscitating an old propane stove I have kicking around, or I might try giving new life to the oil furnace in the basement. I do know one thing that !@#$%^& pellet stove is not going to stay! 
