Forwarder

As forwarders, forwarder or skidder supporting a vehicle is referred to in the harvesting, the harvested wood vorliefert from the holding of the truck drivable dirt road. It can thus be regarded as the successor of skidding horse. Forwarders have been developed for the transport of sections, that is wood that has been harvested in fixed lengths by machine harvesting or (rarely ) engine manually by forest workers. A forwarder may also invite up to 18 tonnes of wood.

Equipment

The partially six -, eight-wheel vehicle is usually, however (two tandem axles with 8- wheeled machines) equipped with an articulated steering and a tandem axle to achieve maximum flotation and maneuverability. The very powerful hydraulic system is generally filled with biodegradable oil. The machines are equipped with a low-section tire of up to 100 cm wide. The tires are custom-made for the forest use. Tires for agricultural machines would be the adverse conditions in the forest can not withstand (pointy branches, and sharp stones; edges and stumps ). In addition, can be absorbed onto the tire pairs Bogiebänder who remember her from the appearance of tracked vehicles, the operating principle but rather correspond to a snow chain.

A variety of the top of the cab attached, in all directions luminous halogen headlamps allows you to work at night. The forwarder has usually as the Harvester an air-conditioned cabin with vibration-damped driver's seat, drove from which the vehicle and up to 10 m long crane arm is operated. The rear part of the vehicle is equipped with stakes or a transport basket. Rare pliers can be found (terminal benches ), moved with which delimbed or whole trees ( transported to the forest road ) are. Under certain circumstances, the forwarder is equipped with an extra butt plate, so root sections can be moved at a landing. Mostly, however, Polterschilde be used to forwarders for leveling / clearing obstacles on the tramlines and for beveling of skid trail rides for deeper forest roads in the steeper slopes. For use with hand -harvested timber winches are also often grown for Vorliefern to the skid trail.

There is also a slope forwarders that have a winch with rotatable arm on the roof to get yourself to go up and down to allow the slope.

Working procedures

The forwarder works from the Rückeweg, for example, the timber harvesting ( Harvester ) has applied in thinning. The problem the much higher weight of the forwarder is by its payload. The ground pressure of a fully loaded forwarder is significantly higher than that of the harvesters. Especially fine porous soils can be damaged by improper Befahrung. As a result of waterlogging, declining soil aeration, mechanical root damage and ultimately the vigor of the site may be impaired. Therefore, the operator must follow very closely the streets. On the one located on the skid trails fanleaf cushion the stripped branches that protect the soil in addition to other soil compaction on a small area are concentrated. Wide tires reduce ground pressure, as well as the raising of bands on the tires ( so-called Bogiebänder ). Vehicles with eight wheels can zuladen more weight, because the weight is better distributed over eight wheels. At Hangforwardern as described above takes the weight of the part of the hoist rope, which is fixed at the top, for example, several trees.

The capital-intensive machines are quite driven in Scandinavia in three shifts, seven days a week, in Germany 's two shifts usual.

Forwarders Championships

The competitions consist of three disciplines: felling, thinning, Tower. The championships are open for harvester and forwarder operators from Germany and all European countries.