The skidder has been prowling the mountains of Europe for some time, with Tigercat giving us a glimpse of the machine during Elmia Wood 2013.The 610C DW (dual winch) is based on a standard 610C equipped with a dual winch. Each winch is hydrostatically driven and can be independently controlled. Two loads can be pulled at the same time with 16,000 kg (35,000 lb) of pulling force. When equipped with 14 mm (0.55 in) cable, the winches have a 220 m (720 ft) rope capacity. The large winch shield can be lowered to the ground during winching to serve as an anchor and provide stability.
An additional modification to the 610C is a two-cylinder, two-tong blade grapple for shortwood decking and stacking. The entire machine can be operated via wireless remote control; including driving, stopping and starting the engine, using the winches, the blade and the blade grapple functions. The range of the remote control is 440 m, and a safety cut-out switch is activated if the wireless connection is lost.
Tigercats Turnaround seat is a huge advantage in the very steep areas on which the skidder will operate, as the operator must often “reverse” down to the timber being extracted due to there being no turning space or it is too steep to turn. The Turnaround seat effectively means that the skidder is always travelling forward. For safety purposes, most extraction on the steep slopes is uphill. Because of the radio control system, a single operator can run the machine and operate the cables without having to enter and exit the cab.
The Tigercat 610C DW has been specifically designed to operate on the steeper mountain ranges of Europe, such as the Alps and Pyrenees, where it can carry out low impact logging on very steep slopes. Source: http://www.tigercat.com/news-items/tigercat-610c-dw-the-mountain-skidder