Logging Choker cables

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davidwyby

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I very much like mine. I’m kinda pissed I didn’t learn of them earlier in life. Can quickly and easily be jammed thru under a log. Spent a lot of time struggling with chains. Very handy even outside their intended uses. I’ve used them moving shipping containers, etc. Small thimble fits thru small openings. 7’ is perfect for up to about 2’ logs choked and lifted off the ground behind my Dodge tow boom. 50mph dirt road skidder. You know if you drag a dry log on pavement or hard dirt fast enough it will smoke and theoretically catch fire? 😆

I just got a 14’ for bigger logs and the deuce.

Anyway…I have often found that sometimes things used in one industry can be real handy in another, but people may not know of them. Tree guys are good with ropes and I have almost no rope skills, so maybe they don’t need them…but I have a buddy who has a 3/8”x20’ choker that he uses for limbs. Cuts the limbs off the tree, threads the cable through the first branch crotch of all the limbs, and sucks them all together into a bundle/drag away. I don’t have a chipper so I’m always looking for ways to handle branches. Itching for the opportunity to try my 14’ for it. I hope to take it one step further and put sides, or at least stakes on my trailer and I can winch the bundles directly into the trailer, and off the front to unload.

Also, they are cheap. 7’ $28

I have also used mine up in the bucket to wrap around a top, tree, or large limb to be pulled for redirect. I have a bunch of cable, tow straps, etc. from my other work, so I haven’t bothered to spend the $ on bull rope or learned to tie knots yet. I also am pulling with equipment heavy enough to break rope sometimes, and don’t always have an experienced groundy in the driver seat.

Anyway, just trying to make an effort to let tree guys know of a handy tool from the logging side.

Tip: grind the hairs off or they hurt!

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Wire rope is one of the handiest tools humans ever invented. Remember the logging chokers aren't rated for overhead lifting so be careful what you use them for, but yes they're super handy. They make ones with a sliding hook instead of the choker bell and and eye on the ends for overhead lifting, they're super handy too.
 
I have one choker. I asked around here before I bought it. I was debating between chain and wire rope. I went with the rope, and I'm super happy with it. Makes life waaay easier skidding logs. Haven't used it in awhile cause I don't have 4x4 anymore, but I'd buy it again.
 
I have a bunch of them in various lengths and thickness. All salvaged off of completed logging sites when I was working. Left behind/lost/abandoned as too much work to haul out on your back. Useful items.
 
Is it? Parbuckle is an MA setup to (usually)raise a cylinder up a ramp, right?. I'm unclear on what Sean was talking about, but I imagined it as setting a choke, so when you start to pull, the log rolls sideways before it starts going straight. Maybe to miss a stump or something.
 
From @davidwyby

 
Is it called anything if you just hook the choke, single line, whatever to a log to introduce roll? Is that still technically a parbuckle?
 
I have thought so but couldn't say for an absolute. In the scenario as I've used it, the rope or cable is wrapped multiple times around the log to induce roll when the rope/cable is pulled.
 
I don’t think that is what Sean is talking about. So say a turn is coming in and run up against a stump and an easy way to get the log to free up is to rechoke the log and put a roll on it as the winch line comes tight. I don’t know if there is a name for that but that is how I read Sean’s post.
 
What do you mean by 'kicker'?

I've heard a snipe or obtuse snipe called a 'kicker' as it kicks the trajectory of the falling tree at the last second.
 
A bypass cut I think you guys call it on the gunning kerf of the face on the far side is a kicker. Also sometimes called a Dutchman. I only call it a Dutchman when you're setting it up to swing a tree, which is simular but different from a kicker.

But that's Cutting timber.

A kicker set on a log is something else altogether. I'll try to take a pic.
 
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