Show what your customers have come to pick up lumber with.

[Ianab]

Not a customer, but myself.  :D  Stopping at school to pick up the kids after doing some sawing. 

I can haul ~500bf of lumber AND a sawmill, behind a "Corolla".  Only thing that's actually "out of spec" is that the trailer should be braked at that weight. The trailer itself is rated for ~3,000 lb, so no problem there. 



 

US style Pickups aren't common here in NZ, but small sturdy utility trailers and tow hitches on cars / light trucks are. They would eliminate most of the dodgy loading issues. And don't fret too much, the little Toyota has a factory V6, upgraded brakes / suspension to match and a properly engineered tow hitch. 

It do take it easy on traffic circles though.  :D

[Ianab]

  I will repeat myself here but when I was working in Saudi Arabia I asked a Saudi co-worker why the Saudis put the sheep and goats in the back seat of the 4 door pickup (The men and boys, of course, rode in the front seat.) while they made the women and girls ride in the open, back bed of the truck. His sage reply was simply "Because you don't have to tie the women and girls in to keep them from jumping out of the truck when you are driving down the road."

  Now who can argue with logic like that? :D

In Rarotonga it seems there is an unwritten rule that only one person can ride in a pickup, everyone else piles on the back.  I mean I can understand why as it's quite pleasant riding along with the warm breeze, and the speed limit for the whole Island is 30 mph. 
So it was no surprise when a road crew went past towing a large excavator on a flatbed.  One guy driving the truck, 3 other guys riding on the excavator.;  :D  I'm guessing that the one who drew the short straw that morning had to drive, the others got to ride up top. 

[4x4American]

^This one is my lead guy, Captain Einstein, loading a truck, or, loading the ground lol









This is all cedar, and it's a long trip my buddy runs on his gooseneck.  About 9mbf iirc





This is my buddy's old log truck with a load of hemlock pulp, that rear tier looks like it's about to break off lol






I went over the scales with this one, truck weighed 9000lbs before lumber and 15k-something on the way out.  Only an hour drive though.






This was a run I used to make quite frequently, 2x3-1/2x100"+ hardwood pallet stringers 










I thought these mafia blocks weighed 2k lbs a piece...so I hauled 3 at a time, thinking I'd be good.  This is the heaviest load (well I made this run a couple times) I've ever hauled on this truck, turns out they are closer to 4k a piece lol  I gotta hand it to that dodge, I had 12,000lbs on it's back multiple times and it handled it like a champ.  Steering was a little sketchy at times, but, it did great.  






Used to always show up to parties like this for the bonfire..usually pine but this was cedar looks like






And if'n ya made it this'n far, here's a picture I came to post, I just found all those other pics in the way.  These guys hauled 4 loads like this over an hour north.  That's a 16' pack of lumber in a very small uhaul trailer I can't remember the size of it but it was way too small to go out the back of the trailer.  I have a better picture of it, I just haven't been able to find it.  Might be on my old phone that grenaded on me and I lost a good deal of pictures..about 14k lol

[WV Sawmiller]

Ian,

   I saw that in Norway. Pick up trucks were very rare but every little car had an electric trailer brake hook up and every gas station had a rental trailer or two on site. I saw very small sedans pulling trailers that looked as big as the car.

   The biggest safety concern I had from your picture is you are driving on the wrong side of the road. :D

[YellowHammer]

I have one guy who comes by on a Harley.  He shows up in classic cycle gear, worn colors, leather chaps, denim, loud pipes and big black beard.  He is a real nice guy, and he buys a few little boards, and sits on them, with the ends sticking out the back of the saddle, while he rides home.

I asked him one day if he needed a red flag, and he said "He** No! if I don't already get their attention, a little bitty red flag won't help."  

I chalk him up to "Cool Dude."
 

[4x4American]

95% of the time it's a small equipment trailer that I can't load with the forks. :

I get those very frequently with the wheel wells.  You can load it, I pick up a rr tie with my forks, and then sling the pack with heavy ratchet straps.  If you looks thru the picks I just posted, I was doing that with the uhaul trailer.

[4x4American]

Here's one from the other day

[WV Sawmiller]

Robert,

 I hope your "Cool Dude" made it back to Tuscaloosa okay in time to teach his advanced basket-weaving class before the football team has to go to practice. :D

[YellowHammer]

Actually, I think he was headed back to Auburn because I noticed he kept putting his helmet on backwards and would drive a little ways before he noticed he couldn't see. :D :D

I was trying to remember, did Alabama play Auburn this year?  Oh yeah, now I remember.  
Roll Tide!! 

[Bruno of NH]

This is more like what I normally get.

That's a load for that rack

[Bruno of NH]

I'm confident that some of our customers might also be guest on here. Please don't think we are trying to make fun of them. I just wish that some of them would think about what could happen on the way home. I know how I would feel if some dumb move on my part cost a life. There is a proper way that this material should be handled and loaded. Most of our customers do as good or better than we would. It's the few bad apples in the barrel that spoil it.

Jake I agree 
Think about what you order the length and weight.
It makes me mad when they order long stuff and want it cut. 

[customsawyer]

This one came in this morning. I'm not sure of the year of the Ford truck body but he put it on a Dodge chassie and kept the 5.9 Cummins. He didn't mess around pulling out the drive either.

[barbender]

That's cool!

[Crusarius]

I always wanted to do that. But I really want a smooth quiet comfortable truck at the end of the day.

[K-Guy]

why the Saudis put the sheep and goats in the back seat of the 4 door pickup (The men and boys, of course, rode in the front seat.) while they made the women and girls ride in the open, back bed of the truck. His sage reply was simply "Because you don't have to tie the women and girls in to keep them from jumping out of the truck when you are driving down the road."

Women reading this will wonder how they don't get lost without them telling them where to turn, slow down, or speed up.  :D  smiley_jester

[WV Sawmiller]

   I'm not sure they don't. I do know you did not need to ask a woman for directions in Saudi because since they could not drive they did not know how to describe how to get to where they lived. They'd tell you to ask their husband or driver. 

[caveman]

This was a good thread to go back and read. This morning's first customers showed up with a borrowed trailer with fenders to get a good-sized load of 1x6's and 4x4's.  He had a lot of faith in his two, 1" straps.  He assured us he was only driving backroads and on to Plant City (20-25 miles away).

The next customers were Mexicans that we sawed some odd-sized lumber for (1x6.5 pine and 1.25"x7.5 live oak).  John and I were listening to rapidly spoken Spanish while we were resisting the urge to tie it down for them.  I think they used 50' of rope to tie down 18 boards in the back of the Toyota.

[Magicman]

At least they did not run it through the rear sliding window.  Yes, I had one to do just that.  Laid the lumber across the top of the truck tailgate and rested it on the dashboard.  I have no idea about the "rest of the story". 

I had one to tie it underneath the truck frame, front, and back bumpers. 

[WV Sawmiller]

MM,

    I used to see 21' sections of pipe carried underneath like that a lot.

[Magicman]

I went back and saw where I shared both of the above instances in Reply #5 in this topic.

[WV Sawmiller]

MM,

   Remember=  they say that memory is the second thing to go! (And I can't remember what the first one was.  )

[terrifictimbersllc]

Had a guy once load boards through pickup back window resting on the dash.  When he came back for another load the front window was broken out.

Attached pic was from Liberia 2017 logging yard.

[sawguy21]

I got behind a mini van with a queen size mattress on the roof, he got over 40mph the mattress flipped up and acted like a drag chute. He pulled over, got out and looked at the mattress then got back in. At least he didn't hear me laughing as I drove by.

[teakwood]

Men, i missed this topic, nice read.

I have lots of dumb pick up drivers/transport contractors

Never a tarp (in a tropical country in Rainseaon), mostly no straps or the one inch chinese once, 10$ a 4 pack. no cants to put the packs of lumber on. "Can i have these 3x3" teak pieces to put under my load?" Nope!

i told them no, but they didn't believe it so i had to lift the load on the truck and they decide it would be better to send a bigger truck. Really, you think so!? 



That was actually my transport, little over kill but the log was 40' long and the customer payed for everything.

[Big_eddy]

I had 10 cu yards or so of excess topsoil to get rid of so I put it up on Marketplace for $5 a tractor bucket load. Noted in the ad that it held 5 cu feet or so, about 800lbs. So much fun!!

The questions I got##???
How much do you think will fit in my trunk?
Can you dump a bucketful into the back of my suburban?
I have a half ton with  a 6' box. Do you think it'll hold 2yards?

I gave up after one guy called looking for 4 yards and planned to take it home in leaf bags in the back of his SUV - and insisted he was going to do in one trip.

I spread it on the yard and never sold any at all