Logging Skidders

Logging skidders are/were a corner stone of small and medium sized logging operations. These machines lift one end of the log ( or logs ) and drag the prize down the hill, through the trail, over the rocks and stumps, through the mud...to a log landing.
Hence the term "skidding"..because the back end of the load is dragging on the ground.
The load is called a "turn"...as in "I'm going back for another turn" ...or.."how many turns did you get today?"
When you drive a skidder, it's called "running"...as in "I have been running the skidder all week"

Skidders can be on rubber tires, or on tracks. You can skid logs with a cat and arch, you can have a cat with a log grapple to skid logs. Rubber tired skidders can be equipped with just a winch and steel cable, or have a hydraulic grapple to organize and grasp the load...plus a winch and cable.

The old style skidders with the winch and cable are a much more physical beast to operate. If you don't have a helper, then you have to do all the work yourself. That means getting up and down from the cab, dozens of times a day. The cab seat is high off the ground and tucked in behind steel guarding. If you are working in mud, and it's pouring rain, with all your raingear on..it's like training for the Olympics everyday.

Rollovers are a very common hazard in the business of skidding logs. On some days, it's as simple as pushing it back up right, checking the engine oil, and going back to work. On less lucky days, death is the result. Maybe it's from being crushed under the machine, or getting "Maytagged" as the machine and logs going barrel rolling down a sidehill. A few unlucky sorts have had the logs that they are pulling come right through the cab as they maneuver a switchback turn.

Here are a few videos, before we get to the photos. Just to get the feel of it.

This is my stint as a Skidder operator back in the very early eighties for FAB Logging. If it wasn't the this rig, then it was the screaming, Monashee skidder.