Jacob in the 6 wheel Combi Forwarder following Dot and Thistle in the 8 wheel Forwarder. Norway Spruce forwarded to roadside for wood chip.

Combi forwarder details: tow hitch, twin bolsters to carry the timber, front bulkhead with attached tool carrier.

Rear view: towing shafts with ball fitting. Pin and ball also available.

Front view

Walking beam axle.

Walking beam axle.

Combi forwarder; arch, forwarding trailer and towing beam.

This was a prize winning combination in the Innovationspreis category at Pferde Stark at Detmold in 2009, awarded by IGZ.

It is one of our best sellers. More than a dozen Combi Forwarders sold and working throughout the UK from Cornwall, through England, Wales, N. Ireland and Scotland to the Highlands and Islands, in Europe and three to Japan including one with the new, optional, winch on the arch.

£3,750.00

The Combi Forwarder includes quick release hooks and 2.5m choker chains as standard.

Optional 1.5 tonne lifting winch and fittings for the arch bulkhead£375.00

DELIVERY EXTRA. NO V.A.T.

For full ordering and payment details <<click here>>.

A story from the Hebrides <<click here>>

A story from Japan <<click here>>

The Combi Forwarder is designed as a small horse drawn forwarder (8'6" x 5'6" outside measurements, overall length with shafts 17') to be pulled by one horse. Shafts are made for Scandinavian harness.

It has a single low impact pair of wheels on the shafts for greater manoueverability and a double pair on walking beam axles on the trailer.

It converts quickly and easily into several other pieces of equipment; timber arch, towing shafts with conventional ball (or ball and pin) hitch, and separate forwarding trailer.

Front bulkhead is removable and reversible. Bolsters and walking beam axle adustable for different loads.

6 wheel forwarder with Diamond posing. Designed for a single heavy horse or large cob, the Combi forwarder is seen here with small and old Diamond. The forwarder looks bigger than it really is!

Front view of forwarder.

So, why build another forwarder? Well, I had wanted to build an improved Kombi Drag. A versatile piece of kit that could cover most needs of a horse logger but which worked better than the Norwegian version - more flexible, capable of carrying more and easier on the horse. These big tyres and the walking beam axle float over the ground. Also, I had completed a very specialist piece of work on an archeological site in the Forest of Dean. This required a forwarder as ground skidding, even with a horse, could have damaged the sensitive archeology. Every load had to come out uphill on one ramp and the load had to be 'jack knifed' through about 130º onto the track at the top of the ramp. The eight wheel forwarder was just a little too big although we did the job with it. The problem was the front walking beam axle which is great normally but needs a more open and gradual turn - the tyres 'scrubbed' sideways through the sharp turn and made it much harder for the horses. A single wheel at the front makes that tight manouevre simple. Of course, the job is now finished but it would have been so much simpler had I made this 6 months earlier........

Arch bulkhead fitted to shafts.

Front view.

Front bulkhead reversed and forwarder hitched to my hitchcart

Close up of hitch - can be towed by any suitable vehicle like this.

In this configuration I used the forwarder to extract and deliver 6' ash poles to Clissett Wood, 1 mile away, for Gudrun's courses. I set up the axle and bolsters to ensure the load would be balanced, reversed the front bulkhead to allow for the hitch to be free, shortwooded the ash and took the forwarder straight in to the stand to extract the ash using one horse in the shafts. Once out of the stand and on the track I unhitched the trailer from the shafts and rehitched it to the hitch cart without unloading. I could do so because the load was balanced. We then jumped onto the hitch cart seat and jogged down the lane to make the delivery. Simple!

NB Hitchcart is an extra, this is an example of the versatility of the combi trailer and it could equally be re hitched to a 4X4 or similar.

Diamond hitched to arch with pulling beam on floor behind followed by forwarder trailer.

to contact Doug Joiner: