Evaluation of Winch Performance in Round Wood Harvesting

Abstract

The time consumed in winching operations, as well as the resulted productivities, are related to many process variables including those referring to the used equipment. Following a time study done on 159 winching replications for a farm tractor equipped with a Schlang & Reichart winch, in a fir-beech mixed stand where selective cuttings were applied, there has been found that only the winching distance proved to be a significant independent variable for modeling purposes. For a mean log volume of 2,284 m³ and a mean winching distance of 23,02 m, the time study yielded a net production rate of 92.43 m³h^-1. Considered individual work elements, the mechanical winching was responsible for the greatest share of time consumption in a winching work cycle. The results reported by this paper may be useful for time consumption and productivity estimation under similar work conditions.