The usual procedure for skidder and tractor methods was to skid at least a full 

 truckload, then load the material and haul it out on the way home at the end of the 

 shift. Hence, the workday consisted of driving the truck to work, skidding until 1 or 

 2 p.m., and loading and hauling the material to a sawmill or post and pole plant. 

 Normal procedure was to start at a fixed time, 7:30 a.m., but skidding time ended when 

 the operator assumed he had enough time and material to load his truck by 4:30 p.m. 

 Consequently, skidding time ended from 1:05 to 3:30 p.m., with an average quitting time, 

 2:03 p.m. With a 60-rainute lunch period, this represents a normal skidding day of 5 

 hours and 33 minutes, with 2 hours and 27 minutes for loading. 



SKIDDING PRACTICES 



Rubber-Tired Skidder 



The rubber-tired skidder was a Garrett Tree Farmer Model 15, with a 60-horsepower 

 engine. Total operating costs, itemized in the appendix, amounted to $10.18 per cunit 

 (100 ft^) skidded. 



Felling was done to favor the skidding operation. All trees were felled uphill, 

 with stumps being cut as close as possible to the groundline to allow the skidder to 

 travel anyplace on the unit. This extra effort facilitated the skidding operation. 



On unit 5, boles were bucked at 2 1/2-inch diameter when felled. Unit 1 was full- 

 tree skidded except where the trees obviously exceeded legal hauling length. Hooking, 

 skidding, and unhooking were all done by the skidder operator. Chokers consisted of high 

 tensile chains with slider hooks. This permitted winding around the pieces so the 

 pieces would be straightened out when bunching the turn together. Hence, it was possible 

 to handle a large number of pieces per turn. 



The lower boundary of all the units was a well-traveled road--especially so during 

 hunting season. This road was used as a landing for all five units. The sale contract 

 required the purchaser to keep the road open for through traffic. Unit 5 was skidded 

 during hunting season. This unique situation necessitated that time spent on the land- 

 ing be considered as a separate production element so total round-trip time would not be 

 affected. 



Horse Skidding 



Only the lower third of unit 3 was horse skidded because the upper two-thirds of 

 the unit was too steep. The logs tended to slide into the horses on a straight downhill 

 pull and the units were too narrow to efficiently zigzag skid trails. Unit 3 was fin- 

 ished with the rubber-tired skidder after a trial with the farm tractor. Unit 4 was 

 completely horse skidded. 



On unit 3, trees were cut at the groundline and felled uphill to simplify the 

 skidding operation. Felling on unit 4 was done with no consideration for horse skid 

 trails. Consequently, as skidding proceeded into unit 4, skid trails had to be 

 cleaned out and high stumps cut at groundline to prevent stump hangups. 



Because of the small timber, a single horse sufficed for skidding. A log chain 

 with a slip hook at one end for the log and a grab hook at the other end attached to 

 the single tree was used to hook the logs. The landings for these units (3 and 4) were 

 situated so as to minimize the necessity of clearing the road for traffic. 



6 



