skidding

A skidder is any type of heavy vehicle used in a logging operation for pulling cut trees out of a forest in a process called "skidding", in which the logs are transported from the cutting site to a landing. There they are loaded onto trucks (or in times past, railroad cars or flumes), and sent to the mill. One exception is that in the early days of logging, when distances from the timberline to the mill were shorter, the landing stage was omitted altogether, and the "skidder" would have been used as the main road vehicle, in place of the trucks, railroad, or flume. Modern forms of skidders can pull trees with a cable and winch (cable skidder), just like the old steam donkeys, or with a hydraulic grapple either on boom (grapple skidder) or on the back of the frame (clambunk skidder).

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