Skidder Attachments

Fig 4 Flail gab attached to the dozer blade

Fig 5 Skidder operator removing excess flail	Fig 5 Wind rows of flail

As part of the skidder operator’s task on this blue gum clear fell operation, it is necessary to remove the build-up of flail from the chipper.

In the pictures above, the operator is using the flail grab and grapple to remove the flail and place into windrows on the cleared forest area.

This task is performed once the load of stems has been placed at the chipper and the operator is travelling back for another load of stems.

A common attachment on the skidder is the dozer blade and can be very useful in skidder operations.

Some of the common uses are:

• Make landing sites for snigged trees or logs to be processed and prepared for transport; 
• Pushing trees or logs into place at the landing sites;
• Repairing snig tracks;
• Cleaning slash or bark off loading sites;
• Pushing flail away from the chipper;
• Keeping access tracks clean for log trucks entering the forest.

Fig 6 John Deere 648 H skidder

Most forest operations are unique in their own way, determined by the machinery used for the task, the terrain and the species of trees.

You may have to perform tasks using the dozer blade such as regularly pushing slash away from processing equipment, e.g. mechanical tree processor or whole tree chipping equipment.

In some terrain and forest operations, the skidder may be used to repair access tracks. In figure 9 the skidder is being used to push away slash from a chipper plant.