Skidders

When you need to buy heavy equipment used in forestry, skidders for sale are something many will look for if they have to move selective trees from the cutting site to another location. This is a piece of equipment that many who buy standing timber will need access to, since they are capable of selective logging when you just want to pull certain trees and not others. Modern skidders are usually track style or four wheel drive tractors that will normally pull the trees with a cable or winch.

Also known as skid loaders, lumberjacks will typically call them skidders because of the way they use them. They will have a push blade on the front that they can push trees over with, and you can sometimes get attachments like stump grinders and other attachments to use with the skidders. Because these large pieces of equipment can run over a hundred thousand dollars when new, used skidders for sale are the most affordable and serve the purpose just as well, because they are built so rugged.

When looking at used skidders, you will typically find cable skidders or grapple skidders for sale. On a cable skidder, the cable is reeled out to a cut log and then the winch moves or "skids" the log along the ground towards the machine. They are more labor intensive than the grapple skidders because you normally need two people to operate a cable skidder effectively, since you need a person to attach the cable and help steer the winch along.

Grapple skidders include three different kinds: a single function boom, dual function booms, or a grapple boom that can be swung side to side. It's not unusual to see a hydraulic claw on the side of the blade, which makes it possible to pile logs, but this is most often found on cable skidders. The way that the grapple or fixed boom skidders work, is that the arm moves around to grab the logs with hydraulics and drag the log to where it needs to be moved.

Most of the major tractor makes also make skidders in their heavy equipment lines. They are a part of forestry equipment that has a long life span, like many of the farm tractors, combines and other heavy farming equipment these companies make. For this reason, they are a popular piece of equipment to buy used, but even then, those that are newer can still be quite expensive.

For this reason, even used skidders are normally not something you would use for a few cut logs, but would be commonly used in building a log home, clearing acreage, and re-selling logs or used in a standing timber purchasing operation, where their cost could be recouped quicker. They can be found from private sellers at good prices, and sometimes dealers will take the older skidders in as a trade. We offer a convenient website to locate used skidders for sale, all in one place, which can save you a lot of time when browsing the Internet.

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