The are a variety of slack-pulling carriages, but they can conveniently grouped into 3 catagories:

1) Slack pulled by hand- In this type of carriage, the mainline passes throught the carriage and becomes the skidding line. The carriage, after it is clamped (usually manually) to the skyline becomes a block through which the mainline is pulled by the man in the brush. The Ross (Western Flyer) shown below is an example of this type of carriage. Obviously this carriages requires the skyline to be lowered to the ground.

2) Slack pulled by yarder- This type of carriage is designed so that the slack-pulling line from the yarder pulls skidding line out of the carriage. The skidding line may be a) contained on a drum in the carriage. This over&endash;wound/under-wound carriage is similar to that shown having its sheave changed. Or,

 

b) it may be attached to the mainline from the yarder. This type of carriage is probably the most common on swing-tower running skylines. Although the picture shows a grapple, chokers could easily be used and are.

3) Slack pulled by carriage- This type of carriage usese some type of power device in the carriage for pulling slack, most commonly some type of diesel or other fueled engine. The carriage will clamp to the skyline and and is remotely controlled by radio.