I finished the skids and assembled more fence parts. I put the skids together in the field and set up a winch to tow them. Results:
- The skids can be moved with my 800 lbs winch.
- The only ground anchor needed for the winch was a pickaxe rammed into the earth and a couple feet of rebar pushed in at the other end of the winch. The soil here is predominantly clay, so maybe you’d need more in very sand soils.
- The angle of the pull rope with respect to the ground makes a big difference in the ease of skidding. The winch should definitely be higher than the pull point on the skid. If it is lower it tends to pull the skid into the ground, increasing friction. This is almost unavoidable with a long pull rope, there is always some sag.
- Putting a barrel or wheel under the pull ropes close to the skids improves this angle and makes the skidding easier
- Skidding parallel and perpendicular to the direction of the skids is possible. Stress on the cross connectors seems minimal. I used 3 lengths of 4’x1’x12′ strapping.
Sorry about the photo quality… But you get the idea
Sun Aquasystems 