Reply To: Building a Traditional Go-Devil

[wild millers]

I yesterday had chance to get out the small scoot/go devil that I rebuilt a few years ago from a friends design. All that was left was the iron, so I put it together how I thought it might work for me. I would normally ground skid these logs short distances with a single horse, but yesterday I had reason to skid each of these half a dozen, fairly heavy, oak logs about a quarter of a mile. This sled is not ideal for moving a large quantity of wood since I can only hook one large diameter log at a time, but since I’m just out after house firewood and saw logs on the weekends this winter I’m enjoying taking my time and focusing on my interactions with a single horse while working in the woods.

So all that said, it was a lot of fun working with this tool again. The deck on it allows me to stand, straddling the log, with one hand on the peavey to ride the load in and the empty scoot out. Despite the long skids, the horse also seemed to enjoy the day without getting worn down.

The chaining set up on the sled is visible in the picture. One chain bolted to the bunk on one side and a grab hook on a swivel bolted to the other side of the bunk. Sometimes I will have to reset the log during the skid but overall it’s not too bad except for unhitching the bound chain at the landing. That is usually done fairly easily with the peavey though. I really like the idea of how George and Ron are hitching their go devil loads and would like to give that a try. I think it could work out nicely with my terrain. Thanks for the ideas guys.

I guess I really just wanted to post a few pictures of another design and a beautiful day spent in the woods.

Happy logging to you all

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