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Some log truck pics

Started by Ianab, January 24, 2013, 07:40:28 PM

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Ianab

Just snapped some shots of a couple of local trucks driving through town this morning. The local trucks seem set up quite different compared to the American rigs I see, so I thought you might like to see them.







Heading South empty to pick up another load. All the trucks carry their trailers like this on the return trip.


Ian
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gspren

  Do the 2 front axles steer?
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beenthere

Ian
Our logging trucks also carry the trailer rig back to the woods. Or was something else different that you were referring to....besides they were on the wrong side of the road... ;D
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Tree Feller

Those are sure some nice logs, straight and all-of-a-size.
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snowstorm

looks like a twin steer. that cabover looks like a kenworth is it?

Jeff

Quote from: beenthere on January 24, 2013, 07:49:45 PM
Ian
Our logging trucks also carry the trailer rig back to the woods. Or was something else different that you were referring to....besides they were on the wrong side of the road... ;D

I've never saw that set up in Michigan. Western trucks, I've seen photos, but not really that configuration.
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Ianab

Yeah, both are twin-steer Kenworth trucks, although they run all sorts of different brands. They also have remote tire pressure adjustment fitted to the drive wheels which a lot of trucks seem to run.

Logs are plantation radiata pine, probably 25-30 year old trees.

Ian
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

ouachita

At some time in the past, were those standing trees (now logs) pruned, or were they allowed to grow  without pruning the dead limbs.  From what I've heard, P. radiata, imported from California, grows very fast down your way, but is very limby.

Ouachita

Rocky_Ranger

I had heard of these fast growing radiata, so I ordered me 500 and planted in my tree farm.  They grew like weeds until a cold spell just before Christmas killed every stinking one of them - a few years back.....  lesson learned.....
RETIRED!

rooster 58

    When I bought my log home, the roof sheathing was 1x6 radiata pine. We had trouble trying to lock it together, until we discovered it was milled wrong :snowball:  The seller took it back and provided 1x8 white pine that fit like a glove 8)

Ianab

Those look to be pruned logs. They do self prune to some extend, but it takes time, and may not happen naturally before the trees are harvested. Also removing the lower branches early leaves much more valuable clear wood in the log. Trees are heavily lift pruned in the first few years, removing all branches in stages up to where the trunk is about 4" dia. It would be done at maybe 3, 5 and 7 years. This leaves you with a 30ft tree, with 10 ft of green on the top. But only the central 6" core of the log is knotty, and that's low grade juvenile wood anyway. Excess trees would be thinned to waste about then as well. Then you just wait another 20 years for them to put in some size.

Rinse and repeat.

Being from California they aren't the most cold resistant.... In the Sth Island where it gets colder they tend to grow more Doug Fir. It handles the cold and heavier frosts better.

Ian
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

thecfarm

Thank you Ianab. I see a difference in trucks down South too. The loaders are on the wrong end.  :D   Than the trucks in Michigan have more axles under them too.
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hardtailjohn

Those trucks are setup different from most of the ones on the West end of this country. On 99% of our jobs, you'd never get that trailer out on our woods roads. Our trailers track in the same tracks as the drive tires, so the corners aren't any wider than it takes an empty truck to make it around. Around here, they also put a lot of distance between the turn arounds and wide spots (like miles), so we end up backing up a long ways empty. To have to do that with a long trailer, or one that isn't piggybacked on the truck would take much too long! I haul off line skidding jobs, so we're always on top of some mountain that's too steep to use a cat or skidder to skid from. 
That being said, there are select jobs around this area that they do run a setup similar to what you show. We call them Mule Trains here.
If I'm not mistaken, the middle and Eastern side of the US run some setups more like what you've posted.
Here's a few pics of a few of mine over the past years.....
John







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NWP

That last picture looks like a long way down.
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Brucer

Here's a typical BC logging truck. Douglas-Fir, mostly 52' long. This one's a self-loader ... most of the trucks are similar, but without the loader. You will see a few two-axle rigs but most have 3 axles. The loads are chained together at the front and back while on the road -- in this picture the operator has taken the chains off and is about to limber up the loader.



Below is the empty rig ready for the road. The drawbar latches onto a pintle hook on the loader base. The grapple wraps around the tail end of the trailer, so all is secure.

To load the trailer onto the tractor, the operator grabs the drawbar with the loader and pulls it up and toward the truck. (There's a loop of 1" wire rope to grab near the front of the drawbar -- you can't see in the picture). When the trailer wheels are just at the back of the tractor, the operator grabs a second loop (you can see it sticking up just above the front trailer wheels) and lifts the whole unit up and onto the ramps at the back of the tractor.

When the rig has a load of logs, the loader arm lies forward over the cab. There is a large steel drum sticking straight forward from the front bumper that the grapple latches onto for traveling. That means the driver has the end of the arm sticking down in front of him.



The drawbar telescopes so it can handle a shorter load. It also attaches well back of the rear wheels so instead of the trailer "following" the tractor, it steers more like an articulated loader. It lets the truck steer around sharp corners without the trailer trying to cut the corner. It also makes it a whole lot easier to back the rig up in tight places.

The guys who operate these things are pretty impressive. I've watched an operator swing the far end of the log way off to one side, and then literally throw the near end of the log so it ends up parallel to the truck but well beyond the reach of the grapple.
Bruce    LT40HDG28 bandsaw
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers."

Ianab

You might like this one too. Radiata pine if you don't prune and harvest it after 25 years.  :o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6uqmidwQTI
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

Ianab

Another video from the same guy.
Hauling a load out on a pretty typical logging road.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2fDhDJx1sI
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

customsawyer

That is interesting. Thanks for sharing.
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hardtailjohn

Excellent videos! You guys get some awful mud down there, don't ya?  I'll take snow anyday!

Brucer, that's a good lookin' self loader. I'd imagine that's a tri-drive... they have it figured out pretty well up there in my opinion.

Here's a lashup that worked not far from me. I hauled down that river road for years, and they always ran doubles, tripples, and quads, but Floyd Veach was the only one that pulled 7. He did it a few times, but it was such a pain in the butt to get a landing big enough to handle all the trailer sets, that they didn't use it much... but it sure was impressive to see roll down the road at ya!!

I'm so far behind, I think I'm ahead!

thecfarm

Looks more like a train!!!!
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Okrafarmer

When I was 10 years old, I had the great privilege of meeting a gentleman named Ray Vigue, of Waterville Maine. He was 77 years old at the time. My dad worked for the Morning Sentinel newspaper at the time, and above other things, he wrote a column known as "Lock, Stock, and Barrel" about guns, shooting, and gun-smithing. The same newspaper was home to veteran outdoors columnist Gene Letourneau, who regularly wrote about hunting, fishing, etc. Gene, I believe, was the gentleman who either introduced my dad to Ray, or else referred him to him.

I promise this is about trucks. . . .

I went with my dad when he went to interview Ray Vigue at his home in Waterville. We were there about Ray's shooting career-- he was an expert marksman from his youth, especially with revolvers.  Even at the time we spoke with him, he had a firing range set up in his basement where he could fire his .22 revolvers 50 feet. Using a mounted scope, he would shoot the letters off a printed page, the spots off playing cards, or whatever. He often used old calenders as targets. He found it was too easy to shoot a hole in a penny without breaking the rim, so he started shooting two holes in a single penny without breaking the rim, and without the two holes touching. My dad wrote quite a nice column about him. We went back and talked with him more several times.

Anyway, Ray was a semi-retired engineer. He had spent most all his adult life in the woods designing trucks and trailers. Talking about his shooting exploits kept drifting off into logging, trucking, construction, and engineering exploits, since it was all intermixed in his life. He told how he had helped to design some of the log trailers that tracked all in the same prints as the tractor, along with many other designs he had helped with or come up with. When he saw how interested I was in it, he put together a photo album for me, and an engineering album too, showing many of the things he had seen and worked on in his career. I still have those two albums somewhere in my collection, but unfortunately not all my stuff is easily accessible right now. I know he worked for Mack trucks at some point, but not necessarily exclusively. I'm not real sure whether Mack was involved with trailer design and building or not, and whether he was working for a different company when he was designing those trucks. Although he was based out of Maine, he worked all over the US with his design work, as well as Canada, and even overseas. He had a lot of tall tales to tell-- and the pictures to back them up! If I ever dig those albums out, I will see if I can scan some of the pictures and post them on here.
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hardtailjohn

Okrafarmer, I'd LOVE to see that!!!  Some of the things that have been done...and without all the computers and all that crap, I might add.... are amazing! 
I'm so far behind, I think I'm ahead!

Brucer

John, the guy that owns that self-loader has 5 of them. He treats his drivers well and they stay with him.

There's lots of configurations for attaching and loading the trailer. Seems the designers keep having better ideas. Whatever type I get in, the driver has his trailer up on the truck and ready to roll in 5 minutes.
Bruce    LT40HDG28 bandsaw
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers."

Ianab

Bringing up an old tread with some new pictures. 

Start of Summer here and that's the best time for logging, less mud, 

Moody weather shot of local truck parked up at the end of the day, heading through to mill or Port in the morning. 



 

 
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

moodnacreek

What nice logs. We see trucks here with 2 steering axels on some concrete mixers and crane carriers .

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