Have any one had any experience with pulling logs with your grizzly and if so what are the limitations that I should adhere to and has anyone had anything break, mechanically, because of putting any extreme stress on the machine. Thanks again for your comments.

John

 

I know someone here will be able to help you out.....

 

Oh yea, I do a LOT of that with my ’02 Grizzly and it does the job well. As far as what to watch out for, in my experience the hitch seems to be the weak point of the machine.

I process fallen trees into firewood (generally stuff that’s already dead that has blown over in a storm). This consists of hardwoods such as elm, locust and oak mostly, with an occasional cherry or black walnut and other varieties thrown in. What I do is trim the little branches off, then cut the trunk into manageable size logs (be sure to cut the root section off too if it was an uprooted tree). You will quickly learn what length to cut them at (it’s all based upon what the quad can pull and what you need to maneuver through to get the log out). I’ve pulled everything from around 5” in diameter to up around 24” or so. I’d say an average log size is 12” in diameter and 15’ long. Much of the work I do has been in the woods up the side of a mountain, so much of my pulling has been slightly downhill for the most part. I drag all of the logs to a central area near the house where I cut them up into firewood sized pieces and run them through a splitter.

About the hitch, I broke mine twice. I have an add on hitch piece which has a loop you can put a chain through plus it has a hole in it where you can mount a ball to pull a trailer. This hitch piece bolts onto the standard Grizzly hitch. The first time my hitch broke, I actually broke one of the mounting bolts, so I replaced the bolts with some #8 grade (hard) bolts. The next time my hitch failed, the Grizzly’s stock hitch piece broke off (it looks like cast metal). So then I drilled out the holes on the frame to accept slightly larger diameter #8 bolts and cut a piece of metal from a standard truck hitch bar and used that to replace the Grizzly’s hitch piece that I broke. So now my accessory hitch piece (with the chain loop and ball mount) bolts on to this new piece of metal (about ½” thick, about 2” wide) which is mounted to the frame with larger than stock hard bolts.

Both times when my hitch had broken I had a log that was “stuck” so I backed up a little to put slack in the chain and then went forward to give it a jerk. Usually that’s all it takes to get a stubborn log moving. Most of the time this technique is not needed at all as the logs will move right away. I generally use regular high range on the Grizzly, but for larger logs I’ll drop it into low. You can “feel” when you should be using low based upon the effort required to move the log, then after a while you can just look at the log and know which gear range to select before even starting. I’ve been doing this for about 2 years now on my current setup and have not had any more hitch problems.

I only use a chain to drag the logs because of simplicity and the ruggedness of some of the areas I’m pulling them from, but if you want to do it with less stress on the machine you can get a log arch which is essentially a device with two wheels like a trailer that you tow. It has a winch attached that lifts the front of the log up so it’s not dragging on the ground. In my case I feel having this device would make it very awkward to maneuver into position to pull the log, plus may add to the difficulty of maneuvering through the trees and rocks to get the log out, so I just drag them directly with a chain…

 

I have experience logging but not with a 4 wheeler. Pullin' logs is a fairly tough job. If your just pulling small trees like for fire wood you should be OK. I just saw 2TVs post. Looks like he has the experience your lookin' for.
2TV you sound like you really use your Grizz. How has the other parts held up, like belts CV joints ect?

 

Thank you so much for taking the extra time and leaving me that great post, I certainly appreciate it.
I am about to purchase an '04 Grizzly and didn't want to do something stupid, I will definitely monitor the hitch area and think about ways to improve it strength.

John

 

The grizz is a great machine,

Weak points, of the Grizz, that I have personally seem in the ATV pulls that I hold are CV joints in the front wheels and the short drive shaft that goes to the front.

I have seem several of both break. Still a great machine.

 

I’ve had absolutely no problems with my drive belt or CV joints. Actually for this kind of work perhaps a drive belt CVT type of transmission is best, because changing a belt is cheap compared to having to service a more complicated transmission. The only time my Griz has been in the shop was when I voluntarily took it in for service after the break-in period, then again shortly after that because of a sticking throttle situation. In the case of the sticking throttle, the cable housing was broken just past the metal end at the carburetor side and this had let water / mud leak into the area where the cable connects to the carb linkage and this was gumming the linkage up. I cleaned the linkage up myself and got the throttle working again but I took the machine into the shop to have the cable replaced right away. I think the shop may have damaged the cable somehow when I had it in for break-in service. They replaced my cable for free (it would have been a warranty item anyway). After that all I’ve done is change my oil and filter which I do on my own.

As far as CV joints are concerned, I’ve only heard of this problem with ’03 models (not ’02 or ’04). I heard Yamaha had changed suppliers for the CV joints in the ’03 model year and the parts weren’t as strong and they have since corrected this issue.

BTW as you are dragging logs through the woods you may encounter obstacles such as ditches, rocks, brush, trees, etc. You have to do some careful maneuvering sometimes to avoid having the log run into things like trees and stumps (and large boulders), but generally smaller rocks do not cause a problem. You can feel a little bump when you hit them, but the momentum of that heavy log will generally either bump over it or completely uproot the rock. I’ve cleared some rocks out of my woods trails in this way. In fact sometime I purposely aim the log at rocks strictly for that purpose to see if they will come loose.

In the spring / summer / fall I used my Grizzly for mowing too, pulling a 628 lb trail mower. I probably wont do this anymore though because I’ve since acquired a couple of tractors for this purpose. However the Grizzly isn’t used for all work, I set aside time for play too, sometimes spirited trail rides (such as at the Hatfield McCoy trail system) and slower technical stuff too.

I believe I have some pictures of my log work at home, I’ll see if I can find some interesting ones and post them…

 

I've added a couple of pictures of log harvesting results to my photo page. In both of these pictures the bulk of the work was performed by my Grizzly, however a Rubicon helped drag some of the logs. The Rubicon does quite well at dragging logs, but it can't match the capabilities of the Grizzly...