self loading log truck

[Okrafarmer]

Where are you going in Kentucky? My parents live up there. Beware that the Kentucky Lake bridge is out right now. But from your direction you probably don't need it anyway.

[MJD]

Nice whack of "Bluewood" there, MJD. I like your fifth wheel trailer, too.

Sealed because it takes awhile to get it through my mill, I want to put a power supply on the trailer to run the loader and sell the f600, pull it with my f350 and save $ on haveing just one truck.  A pic of my little mill with some work lined up.

 

[Okrafarmer]

Indeed that is quite a bit of work lined up.

[Taylortractornut]

My experience with a tag axle that if its in front of the pull axle it will be less of a hang up than  past the pull axle.      One old man I grew up hauling with had a bean truck with  a front axle from another truck bolted to the frame a few inches up in the air.       It did give him the same GVWR as a larger tandem truck.     TOn trucks got away with the same stuff.   

I never really liked a drag axle truck.   A few pavement haulers run them  and haul gravel but Ive seen them  stuck a few times more often than a twin screw.   

I have a 95  F700 Gas burner with air brakes that Im about to put a loader on.     I was setting it up for another dump truck but found a  loader cheap.     

[Ironwood]

MJD,

Nice set up.

Ironwood

[AlexHart]

I run a tri axle log truck.   Its ~5000 bucks a year for insurance.   And of course thats just one of the many fees required to keep it legally "papered"  Got to haul a lot of 150-200 dollar loads to just pay all the fees, let alone the fuel, repairs, and hopefully enough to scratch out a living on.   

But just speaking generally I would urge making sure that the cost of putting a little truck like that together and keeping it legal and in good repair (plus the time you have to spend actually doing the hauling) doesn't exceed what it would cost to just make friends with somebody like me that lives near you and let them handle it.   I have four main loggers I'm friends with and do the trucking for and I think we do better as a whole than we would if we were all trying to do everything ourselves.   

[craigc]

"But just speaking generally I would urge making sure that the cost of putting a little truck like that together and keeping it legal and in good repair (plus the time you have to spend actually doing the hauling) doesn't exceed what it would cost to just make friends with somebody like me that lives near you and let them handle it.   I have four main loggers I'm friends with and do the trucking for and I think we do better as a whole than we would if we were all trying to do everything ourselves."

I think this is the best advice get rid of a money sucking truck, let someone else haul and worry about maintaining.  In these times focus on what makes you money.

[SwampDonkey]

Okra, I have seen fella's drive the $1000 vehicles. They buy and use them, short term usually, and spend $600-$1000 in parts and sell them for $1600 and figure they made money or got ahead of the guy they bought it from. I just laugh. If your going to be buying parts and fixing all the time, a person is far better off to buy fairly new, at least, because it costs time and money, doubly so if you miss work. I work with a lot of fellas that use old trucks and they are always broke, both truck and in the wallet.

[thumperjack]

My brother has this 1986 Autocar bobtail log truck with a Prentice loader mounted behind the cab for sale in Texas!  It really is a handy truck to have around. ....   

[treefarmer87]

i have seen that truck on truckpaper.com. It looks really good

[Bogue Chitto]

This what I used.

  

 

I like that MJD. Did you build that or where did you get it?

[Frickman]

AlexHart,

I've tried contracting out all my trucking. It doesn't work for me. I still hire out big loads and long trips occasionally, but mostly I haul my logs myself. I have a little single axle truck with a loader that hauls around 1000 or 1100 bf. It costs me $405 / year for a plate, $900 / year for insurance, and $75 or so / year for inspections. $1400 / year and I have a truck available anytime I want it. I sell to alot of specialty markets and it's too hard to get contract truckers to service them for me. Also, truckers are the biggest gossipers in the industry and I don't want the rest of the world to know what I'm doing.

Now if all a guy did was haul big loads to established markets that everyone is aware of then hiring out trucking makes sense if he has a dependable contractor to do it. Unfortunately, it has never worked out for me.

[treefarmer87]

i would prob not be contract hauling. Would it be profitable if i was doing my own hauling? Poplar veneer is $300/1000 and oak is $450/1000.  The farthest mill is 12 mi from where i am cutting. It might be better to go with a tandem or tri axle for a self loader? 

[SwampDonkey]

Around here the truckers want the same whether they haul 30 miles or 100 miles. The neighbor cut some wood about 3 years ago and the trucker wanted more than he was going to have. So he said he'd saw it out for himself and add value and use it on the house and garage. It was aspen and cedar. He was told (by an idiot) that it would all turn black. I laughed, as did he when he told me. He also told me about having some wood cut and he wanted all the butternut. Well they stole the butternut.  : Well I heard all this yesterday when talking about cutting up that yard tree at home. Borrowed his splitting maul. I returned it, but it was in 3 pieces.  :-\

[MJD]

This what I used.

  

 

I like that MJD. Did you build that or where did you get it?

Bought/trade for my old f800 gaser, it was home built by someone. I only used it to haul to my place ,logs and firewood.

[Okrafarmer]

Okra, I have seen fella's drive the $1000 vehicles. They buy and use them, short term usually, and spend $600-$1000 in parts and sell them for $1600 and figure they made money or got ahead of the guy they bought it from. I just laugh. If your going to be buying parts and fixing all the time, a person is far better off to buy fairly new, at least, because it costs time and money, doubly so if you miss work. I work with a lot of fellas that use old trucks and they are always broke, both truck and in the wallet.

I have a personal conviction about not going into debt, and it has served me quite well. Typically something like this happens to me. I buy a vehicle for, say, $1000. I drive it for three years. In that time I do $3,000 of repairs, and it leaves me stranded approximately twice. Over 36 months that is around $120 per month of my money gone and two inconveniences. Meanwhile my friends who buy new

A. pay about $400-700 a month
B. Are in debt up to their eyeballs, often "upside down"
C. Have to pay their monthly payment whether they use their vehicle or not
D. Have to pay higher insurance premiums
E. Have a conniption fit if they get a dent or scratch
F. Have to pay higher taxes every year (mine is $37)
G. Are constantly concerned that somebody might steal or damage their vehicle.

Not me.

[sandhills]

To each his own on this subject, I've been around and around with both my BIL and wife about it, but I have to agree with Okra.  I've never once taken a loan out on a vehicle, last pickup I bought was an '01 chevy 2500 4x4, paid 1500 and knew it's history, also knew the transmission wasn't right.  I used it for about a year and a half before the tranny finally went, just wanted to see if the rest of it was worth putting a new one in it, it is.  I do have a few disclaimers here, I do pretty much all my own repairs until they require a scan, and with what I do day in and day out with my work trucks I wouldn't want anything fancy or high dollar.  I also knew when buying the pickup the flatbed on it is worth about half what I paid for the truck.

[SwampDonkey]

A. pay about $400-700 a month

Repairs and parts at least every other month

B. Are in debt up to their eyeballs, often "upside down"

Some things you can do without. We don't need a phone line and cell with $200+ worth of add-ons.

C. Have to pay their monthly payment whether they use their vehicle or not

Why would you buy one if not to use it? Goes hand in hand with having a job to. Payments are allowed on capital cost allowance (depreciation) if for work.

D. Have to pay higher insurance premiums

The only difference is if you put on less coverage. Some people want to just cover the other guy. Trouble is does your policy cover you if you become a cripple? It's only $100 difference up here and if the insurance knows it's a work vehicle you save $0. You still have to pay about $700 on a $1000 truck.

E. Have a conniption fit if they get a dent or scratch

If it's a work truck, expect it. Had a guy ask why I drove the RAV4 to the woods. It's all I've got. Like expecting me to have two vehicles. Nope!

F. Have to pay higher taxes every year (mine is $37)

Up here, license and registration goes by vehicle weight not year or condition. In fact if it don't pass inspection it will be orange tagged and you have 30 days.

G. Are constantly concerned that somebody might steal or damage their vehicle.

That's why they sell insurance. If it's that bad, it's time move if your constantly worried.

[Okrafarmer]

Obviously some things are different in Canada.

But I definitely do not pay $400-700 every other month for repairs. My wife and I only own one vehicle right now, a 1990 Chevy Astro with around 270,000 miles on it (400,000 kilometers). I paid $800 for it 2 and a half years ago, and we have done about $2,500 worth of work on it in all that time. The engine, transmission, and body are going fine, and I intend to only replace it if we end up with too many kids for the number of seat belts, or if the engine or transmission blows up, or it is in a significant accident. Currently we have one seat belt to spare...  so one more kid can be hauled safely and legally with this vehicle. If I had to make a $400 / month payment, I would have paid over $12,000 by now, instead around  $3,300.

Our insurance is $184 for every six months. That is liability only.

If I had to buy a new, or even 5 year-old vehicle, there is no way I could afford to drive, on my current income.

[sandhills]

Sorry SD, once again I'm going to agree with Okra.  After a year and a half I spent about $400 on said pickup in repairs (that's not counting oil changes), electric fuel pump in the tank, did it myself, pretty common.  I seem to have a different set of values, a land loan, or machinery loan is something I'm willing to live with, I just made my last payment on a tractor last month. Other than my land I don't owe anybody anything. But one more disclaimer on the vehicle side, I have a second vehicle to fall back on which helps, like I said to each his own in this case.  SD I couldn't even come close to building what you did this winter,  but I can usually fix the junk that I buy  ;).  Well, when I get lucky anyway  :D.

[SwampDonkey]

Your $1000 cars are in much better shape than ones I've seen. Ones I've seen here I wouldn't give $100. :D Up here if there is rust through on any panel it gets a nice orange rejection sticker until you put some type of filler over the holes. Brakes, muffler, cracked windshield and tightness of the front end will fail you to. So depending on where you live also affects the repair costs to. ;) Now I'm not saying that on a farm, there aren't beaters being used and probably not licensed. Over the years I've seen 60's plates on farm vehicles and this was the 90's. But they were not going off the farm. ;D

[tyb525]

You'd be suprised how little money you have to spend to get some old trucks running great. I paid around $800 dollars for my '85 Dodge D100 with the slant 6. Nothing major was wrong with it either, but I've been slowly replacing pretty much everything that could go bad, and I have less than $500 dollars in it after 7 months, and the only things I have left to replace are the power steering pump (it leaks) and the distributor. Now those parts should last awhile.

And you know that slant six engine will run forever.


You can find find great deals on old vehicles, sometimes all it takes is one part to make it run, but some people dont want to take the time to mess with it.

[Okrafarmer]

Inspection goes state by state, and over the last decade or so, more and more states have dropped it. South Carolina has no inspection laws for non-commercial vehicles.

My second vehicle is not my own, belongs to my boss, 1998 Tacoma with 347,000 miles on it. He has another with over 410,000. Somebody asked me what was the secret to making them last so long. I said, never quit driving them. Every vehicle will go forever if you keep repairing it. And some things don't need to be repaired. The Tacoma I drive is missing the grill, and has a cracked exhaust manifold. It would cost too much to replace the manifold, so we drive it as is. One of these days, one of the two Tacomas will break down to where it isn't worth repairing it. On that day, it will become a parts truck for the other one. We frequently load them down with oak firewood, pulling a trailer full of firewood, too. I recently used one of them to take about 700-800 bf of green hardwood lumber to the kiln, about 45 miles away. The synchronizers are out in the transmission so it's harder to shift, but we keep the brakes, suspension, steering, and clutch in good repair, change oil regularly, and so on. And the main thing is, always practice defensive driving. I always leave room between me and the next vehicle so as to have plenty of room to stop or go off to the side if I have trouble of any kind.

As for not having comprehensive insurance, almost nobody in the US does on vehicles this old, I mean, for what you spend in insurance, you could buy another vehicle.

Now, believe me, I really wish I were not on this kind of a shoestring, but this is what people do when they can't find much option in their life, they do what they have to do. It is really tough to get ahead right now. I am looking for other options, but change is hard to accomplish under these circumstances. If I had a vehicle payment, I would be sunk.

[colinofthewoods]

I'm with you Okra,   i've had new trucks and old trucks,  and old is gold.
I've finally got the wife to give up her new truck, and now she sees what I have been talking about. Things go wrong with newer vehicles too,  the only difference is they are very expensive to fix.

[SwampDonkey]

Depends I suppose on what's replaced. I can bet if it's not electronics that the price of a new part for either is pricy. If you can get used parts from a junk yard than it would be cheaper. Trouble is the junk yards here still charge a fair bit and no warranty.

My brother bought a used VW and he has been blat'n ever since. Mom and dad bought a used Camry and paid as much (actually more) than a new hybrid. If you can figure that one out. I don't think my father is thinking too clearly in late years.