We talk a lot about how fun ATV's are, but I'm finding out they are also handy tools. A small tornado went through my neighbor's woods a couple of years ago knocking over a lot of oak trees. I cut up the ones close to the trails, but most were too far off-trail to lug out to my truck. They are so big and stretching out parallel to the ground for fifty feet or more with space beneath them--perfect for cutting to 18-inch lengths. So, I hooked a lawn cart to my ATV and went after them.

I squeezed through many tight places in manuevering to get to downed trees. My AC 400 is manual with low range and that first gear in low range is getting a workout going over logs, through heavy brush and getting over mounds made many years ago from rootballs from giant white pines. Since it wasn't my land, I couldn't open any trails. I had to creep over or around all obstacles. No problem!

You can't haul a lot of wood at a time, but it adds up fast, since I don't have to haul far. There are two full cords split and stacked against my garage. That is enough to get me through the winter, but it was so easy I just kept hauling. Now I have a moutain of big stuff piled in my yard awaiting the splitter. I think there will be at least three cords when they are stacked. That's a lot of prime firewood that would have rotted away if not for my ATV.

 

Origionaly I bought my first machine to plow snow and get wood, even got one of those little 10 cubic ft trailers from F&F back in 97 when I. Was after that that I learned about trails. Spring time I am pulling logs an big as my machine will pull wirhout spinning out of the woods and across the swamps. I have ince graduated to a 17 cu ft trailer also. Wood is my primary heat source here in northern WI.

 

We have horses so we feed a lot of hay. We normally feed square bales but we also get big round bales for when we will be gone for a few days. The round bales way about 1,200#. I don't have a tractor that can move them, so I have a sheet of plywood with a rope on it. We tip the bail over on the plywood and loop the rope over the hitch ball on the Grizzly. Even on wet ground the Griz has no problem pulling the bail. If it's real wet and muddy I throw a couple 50# feed sack on the front and back rack for traction.

You're right, ATV's are the modern day tractor. These are good times were living Bro's.

 

ATV's are great tools. My dad dumped a load of stuff off down a steep bank by our house. turned out there were some 4x4 posts that were in with the stuff. my pap said he would use them so he came up and we were going to carry them up ourselves. Then I go the bright idea to just yank them up out of the bank. So we put a chain around the post and hooked it on the back of the Twin Peaks and hit the throttle. The machine didnt even know it wss back there, and we pulled it up out without any trouble at all. We did this for the rest of them then Saved us alot of time and trouble.

 

Last year my wife shot a nice doe down by the river. She had to get it up a 12 foot cut bank (straight up). There is no way even I could have gotten that deer up the bank without some help. She pulled the Griz up to the edge of the bank and hauled it up with the winch. ATVs are awsome.

 

it is fun hauling wood, I have an Otter Super Express trailer with tilt bed, works great and has a capacity of 1500 pounds...

 

That's one of my primary uses for my Cat 500i.

Here's a little blog I created on my Cat a couple of years ago - halfway down the page is a couple of photos of the Cat on firewood detail.

Wood Hauling Cat

It is, in a word, terrific. Goes places I can't take a truck, and pulls a trailer full of cut oak without a problem. The people who say an IRS machine can't haul a load have never been with me on a firewood run - I've been hauling loaded trailers for three years, and the Cat's rear end is still in perfect condition.

The Cat trailer worked out very well. I had a garden trailer, but it fell apart pretty quickly. Been using the Cat trailer for over two years, and it's still holding up.

 

AC ought to pay you for that testimonial. You obviously put a lot of work into it. My experience with my 2001 AC400 confirms everything you said, except the gear position indicator lights on my machine still works.