What's a Skidder ?

Getting the Tree to the Truck

Folks often ask me if I still log, if I’m retired now after nearly 60 years of tree gardening. I tell them, “Yes, I’m retired, tired one day, and re-tired the next!” I still like to go to the woods and ply my trade from time to time. When I do, it’s with one or the other of two older skidders that I still have, a 1980 John Deere 440C, or a 1985 Timberjack 230A. My wife would like me to sell one, at least, and I will, when I can figure out which one to part with.

My earliest memory having to do with logging is of sitting astraddle of the hood and atop the radiator of my father’s old TD9 International crawler tractor. It was a cold mid-winter day in 1956, and I was eight years old. We were heading into the snowy woods at Chapman Hill to get a “twitch” of trees. I could feel the heat from the warming diesel engine beneath my perch, which was good because a biting north wind was chilling our exposed faces.

Several years later my father bought a brand new John Deere crawler tractor. I was there when it was delivered, and my father suggested that I take it into the woods and bring out several pre-cut trees. No coaxing was needed, and, with a few brief instructions, I happily and proudly struck off. I can still remember the smooth roar of the engine and the singing and drumbeat of the tracks as they rotated around the bull wheels, their cleats pushing us up the hill as they dug into the earth.

Crawler tractors, or dozers, were far ahead of horses in hauling trees from stump to landing. Not only could they haul much larger loads, but they generally came equipped with a winch to pull in trees from difficult terrain, as well as having a dozer blade. That made them multi-functional, as they could build landings, roads, and trails as well as twitch wood. Plus, they didn’t need to be housed or fed!

One drawback of crawler tractors was that while the moving tracks sang in a nice cadence on smooth ground, they were clankingly noisy and gave a rough ride when traveling over rocks or stumps. Not only that, but the tracks were sometimes knocked off the bull wheel or front idler by said rocks or stumps, particularly if they were loose or worn. That could ruin your whole day!

In the early 1960s, that rough ride would disappear with the first appearance of rubber tired skidders. In our local area, two different logging businesses, The Head Brothers and Bryce Yates, would purchase the first of these radically new and purpose-built machines. They were called Timberjacks, and word of mouth brought many other loggers to their respective job sites to watch them in action. They were made by Timberland Machines of Woodstock, Ontario, Canada, one of the first companies to make skidders, and before too long their bright red/orange paint was everywhere.

The reason that these skidders became so popular with loggers was their productivity, made possible by their innovative design. Crawler tractors used for logging were essentially bulldozers with a winch. They were better suited for pushing dirt than hauling trees, whereas these new “Jacks” were designed for one thing only; that was to efficiently get trees from stump to landing, and do it quickly, safely, and reliably in challenging terrain or weather.

Timberjacks had blades like dozers, but smaller and made for decking trees on the landing, and, sometimes, pushing them over in the woods. The large, multi-belted rubber tires rolled smoothly and easily over stumps and rocks. Also like dozers, there was no steering wheel. They had two frames that were joined in the middle with upper and lower pins and bushings. That enabled a hydraulic cylinder, actuated by a joystick mounted in front of the operator, and attached to the front and rear angled frames, to pull or push them closer or farther apart, which changed the direction of travel. That made these machines incredibly effective at “snaking” their way through the forest, and a whole lot of fun to operate, I might add, as we all learned their capabilities.

Two other joysticks were employed to operate the decking/dozer blade and a winch. The winch was mounted on the rear frame, which was fabricated with an arch, at the top of which was mounted a large horizontal steel roller and two side rollers to lift, gather, and guide the winch line. The winch drum was wound with varying lengths of wire rope (cable), usually about seventy-five feet. That allowed the operator to collect his “twitch” of trees from all directions, lift them up so they wouldn’t snag on stumps or rocks, and quickly drag them to the landing.

Power was supplied to both front and rear wheels by driveshafts connected to a transfer case mounted on the rear frame, and planetary gears at all four wheel hubs compensated for the different length of travel by inside or outside tires as the skidder snaked along. While the rear wheels and housing were mounted directly to the rear frame, the front wheel assemblage incorporated a walking beam, or “cradle,” a rugged sub-frame, which was connected to the mainframe with a large center pin and bushings. That was important, as it allowed either front tire to move vertically, thereby smoothing out the ride for the operator.

These new log skidders were built with a low center of gravity, and the front frame and components weighed a fair amount more than the rear frame and its attachments as it traveled into the woods empty. Add a full twitch of logs, and it was well balanced, fast, and productive, making it a definite game changer in the history of logging. There has been much more innovation in wood harvesting equipment since the advent of skidders, but their invention has definitely had the biggest impact on my logging life.

This past winter, with the butt of a large white pine chained and winched up behind my Timberjack, I felt the same prideful joy as that young boy climbing the hill on the tractor going after his first hitch. Going uphill as I neared my landing, I called on the Detroit Diesel engine to announce that feeling, loudly, to the world at large.