Long logs/timbers

[handhewn]

I just now found the "timber framing" part of the forestry forum. I usually just go to the sawmills and milling threads. Wow this is great. I hadn't discussed/asked about some things there that I was interested in as they just didn't seem to fit. Anyway, something I would discuss is the hauling of long material. In the building of two log cabins and one traditional cabin I needed to haul long material (45' or so) down a particularly steep, very curvy/narrow wilderness road (1st gear low range 4whl drive only). People ask me how in heck did I get those logs/timbers there. I ask them "why can a typical log truck traverse a bad road where a typical semi-truck could never go"? The answer is how the "trailer" is built. The sliding "reach" is the answer. I just needed to put a (in my case a detachable bunk on the rear of my 1 ton 14' flat bed  truck) and a trailer like a log truck trailer (with sliding reach). I was hauling 3 (35' to 45') logs/beams at a time down that nasty road with no problem! I would send pictures of the set up but this (single axle) trailer is snowed in at the cabin so I can't get there now. Anyway, this trailer was very easy to build and works wonderfully with short logs also. 

[Chilterns]

Checkout Michelle Goss's video at SNOWMAGEDDON 2022 (ft. unique DIY ski rack) - YouTube where she demonstrates how to deal with snowed up access tracks in her British Columbia woodlot.

Michelle owns and operates a Woodland Mills sawmill and extracts timber using her Bobcat T180 skidsteer. I am impressed by her quad bike which in winter is fitted with caterpillar tracks and in summer with wheels which she uses in combination with a home made dolly to extract timbers (the prototype could be improved).

Michelle makes and builds various timber projects including cabins, benches, timber & firewood drying sheds, etc. A list of her videos can be checked out at :-

Michygoss

Beauty and timber framing is a rare combination but what really impresses me is the "can do" attitude.

[handhewn]

I must have expressed myself poorly. I don't want to work in the snow anymore at my age. I just wanted to let others how to move very long timbers/logs (telephone pole size) with ease with a one ton truck even on  very rough roads for longer distances. Only one of the three cabins I built was anywhere near the log collection site. I have a team of large mules, various wwll army trucks, three boom trucks and various CAT tractors (including three D8 and one D6)  to move logs around at cabin sites. That little trailer I built is a god-send. It is so light I can move it by myself yet it hauls a surprising amount of log/timber anywhere my truck will go.