Guess this is a tractor since you have no place else for it.

[rvannatta]

one of our elderly machines. Doesnt seem to be a category that it fits in, so stuck it here because it is sort of a tractor
intended to pull things anyway.

[Holger]

Hm, so how do you call them? I can make a new section for this kind of machines.

[Ross]

Well looks like some kind of forestry machine?

Thanks for the pics

Ross

[rvannatta]

Hm, so how do you call them? I can make a new section for this kind of machines.

You can read more about them on my website at http://www.vannattabros.com/skidder.html than I care to clutter
this forum with.

In short it is an early model log skidder. The company that made it, so far as I believe was an obscure company in Portland, Oregon who either invented or at least popularized the idea of making machinery with an articulated frame. They were producing a line of articulated front end loaders in the 1950s long before the the other guys started. It was really
the mid 1960s before the others went to articulated frames. All the early US front end loaders that I know of
from others such as Hough, Cat, Allis chalmers, Clark and the like were steered machines.

This machine if fundamentally designed on the frame of front end loader (with the seat turned around) I believe we dated the manufacture of this machine to 1954. When we got it (about 1972 or so) we we removed the dead Iaccison winch
and installed double winches on the back of it and used it for many years. This photo was taken probably in 1974 or 1975.

The rear blade is simply an anchor blade. when you had hard winching the winch would drag the machine around (which weighed around 20 tons so you dropped the anchor blade and with the angle of the cutter bit by the time the machine
had been dragged 18" backwardss (about half a meter) theh blade was also about 18" in the ground and it didnt drag any more.

The general function of a log skidder is to drive out into the woods where trees have been felled, and drag them
back to the road where they can be loaded on trucks, etc. If you cant drive all the way to the tree then you
pull winch line to reach it. The tower on the back (arch) elevates the cable some you you can pull up on the log somewhat to help pull it free of stumps and other obstacles that it may be hung up on, and once winched in
lifting the front end of the log(s) off the ground. This makes them pull easier as they are partially carried, and also
transfers weight to the back of the machine giving you more traction.

With 2 winches and multiple sliding hook chokers we pulled multiple trees at once.

PS there are many kinds of specialized forestry equipment, and you almost have too many topics now.
if I was going to add something it wouldnt be for one type of forestry equipment, it would be a generic "Forestry equipment" topic.

[Lars-Gunnar]

I´ve read you have had a Swedish Logger but what make?

Lars-Gunnar

[rvannatta]

I´ve read you have had a Swedish Logger but what make?

Lars-Gunnar

I guess this message is right over my head. cant figure out what a swedish logger is. I do have a page on a Rottne
and Im not sure where they are made.

[Lars-Gunnar]

Robert, that was the logger I had in my brain from your website. Rottne Blondin and Rapid as they was called in Sweden was build around a Ford body and build in a village called Rottne by Rottne Industri AB.

Blondin was a 10-tons and Rapid 15-tons timber hauler in bad terrain or in the forestry.

Ford was the reseller of their products.

Link: http://www.rottne.com/se/50%20jubileum/ ... Rottne.pdf

Scroll down and take a look on their products as all is made for logging. The text is Swedich and begins with:
50-extra anniversary, Rottne Industri from 1955 - 2005

Lars-Gunnar

[rvannatta]

Robert, that was the logger I had in my brain from your website. Rottne Blondin and Rapid as they was called in Sweden was build around a Ford body and build in a village called Rottne by Rottne Industri AB.

Blondin was a 10-tons and Rapid 15-tons timber hauler in bad terrain or in the forestry.

Ford was the reseller of their products.

Link: http://www.rottne.com/se/50%20jubileum/ ... Rottne.pdf

Scroll down and take a look on their products as all is made for logging. The text is Swedich and begins with:
50-extra anniversary, Rottne Industri from 1955 - 2005

Lars-Gunnar

yes, it is quite amazing---this machine belongs to our neighbor who did some work for us last year. He had to do some repairs and as you say --- take a few things off and you find a Ford tractor underneath (less the front axle.)

This was also the downfall of the machine and why it was in our shop. The rear axles on the rapid are actually driven off of the tractor PTO shaft. Apparently the PTO isnt strong enough internally, as some of the gearing within the Ford
tractor part broke---which was reallly the PTO drive.

Id say the lame thing about the Rottne Rapid is the Ford Tractor. I never have cared much for Fords. There just isnt a lot of there, there. If there would put another ton of iron in each one they wouldnt disintegrate.

[dozeron]

Hi All,
Dont think that others didnt tinker with Ford Tractors when creating new equipment. This is a Hewco/Ford skidder built in New Zealand in, I think, the late 50s to early 60s. I have never seen or heard of one in operation so I dont think they were a great success. Cheers,
dozeron.

[rvannatta]

Hi All,
Dont think that others didnt tinker with Ford Tractors when creating new equipment. This is a Hewco/Ford skidder built in New Zealand in, I think, the late 50s to early 60s. I have never seen or heard of one in operation so I dont think they were a great success. Cheers,
dozeron.

How did it steer? it looks very straight in the photo making me wonder if it was a skid steer.

Garrett of Enumenclaw is often credited with being an early skidder manufactuer in the US. Their early models used
Ford industrial engines.....