What is the best way to suspend wire cable sufficiently to handle a load?

Question

I am trying to transport logs over a rough terrain, I think the best method maybe to suspend wire cable between two trees and use an electric winch to raise the logs and then move the load along the cable.

Answer 1

Make sure one end of the cable is lower than the other.

Answer 2

That's known as a cableway, and it's long been used in such applications. But get to an engineering library and find a book on the subject before you get yourself killed. Cables on cableways can fail, either by snapping or by coming loose at their attachment points, and when they do they often kill someone.

Under any circumstances you'll get a great deal more sag in the cable than you think you will, especially if you're going to use trees for the end supports. There's no way to prevent it, and you'll therefore probably need intermediate supports for the cable, which will take some planning.

Logging can be pretty dangerous, so you do want to be careful. I'm pretty sure I've seen discussions of cableways in civil engineering handbooks. f