I got fired.

[starmac]

Well not exactly, but logging season has come to an end untill freezeup next year.
I always wanted to run a log truck, and learned a bunch.
First and foremost you better like it, and not be in it for the money. lol
Second is you need to be half crazy and 3/4 outlaw to make it work, so I fit right in and will probably do it again next winter. lol

[Bzcraig]

Keep at it as long as you don't go too outlaw that we don't hear from you.

[Artful]

Sorry to hear your only half crazy and 3/4 outlaw
- maybe next year you'll do better :bigsmyl2:

Off road trucking is some scary stuff
- I pulled some up the hill to be loaded one year and
they went back down the hill on their own

- I wouldn't have done that. :shock:

[starmac]

Well going down hill you have gravity helping you. lol

[osteodoc08]

Better luck next year. Sounds like you've found something enjoyable to earn a paycheck.

[starmac]

Well I didn't break anything, and didn't crash, big brother caught me a few times, but not pad enough to get in my pocket, soo about the only thing that could have been better is the weather. Mother nature just is what she is. lol

[elk hunter]

I was a third generation logger. I threw a wrapper over my first load of logs more than fifty years ago and loved the hard dirty work of logging. Your experience is a bit different than mine. We had to stop when the weather got too bad i.e. when the snow got so deep the trucks couldn't get around even with chains on. The gippo outfits I worked for couldn't afford the equipment to keep the roads open and it would get so cold we had to leave the cats running all night so we could work the next day. The pay was good but the chance of getting hurt or killed was real. My dad died in a logging accident. When I got married the wife said, "no more logging" so I went to hauling propane over the Cascade Mountains. The job was OK but, I can't say I enjoyed it. Enjoy your work but, be careful.

[starmac]

Yea we have to stop here when the ice starts going away, and since it has been getting up to the high 40's the last couple of weeks our roads were about shot. Now I get up this morning and it is 12 degrees, perfect for logging. lol
I'm not complaining, the sale we were working on had better access than most, I was the last truck hauling into the mill I was delivering to by at least a week.

[ole 5 hole group]

Well, I don't much like those logging trucks. I've been forced off a road several times and have several windshields that got busted up. Now the truckers usually stopped (about a half mile down the road) when I hit the bush/ditch and we would just wave at them, pull cable and maybe 30 minutes later would be on the trail again. If I can see them prior to a turn or at the top of a grade - I'll pull over as far as I dare just for "damage control".

I have never seen a logging truck (empty or loaded) that was ever going slow - it's just amazing how they can do a controlled slide around bends in the road and keep those logs from breaking loose. I guess that's when the 1/2 crazy comes into play - the 3/4 outlaw probably is the 40 pounder tied down in the cab for medicinal purposes??????

[dale2242]

I spent 50 years logging and building logging roads.
I put over 20k hrs on one D8K.
It was a good life, being outdoors.
Never minded hard work....dale

[starmac]

All log roads here at least are marked with big signs that they are active log roads. Even though the loggers build the roads, anyone can drive them, but it is kind of at their own risk.

[bangerjim]

Now that you don't have that pesky job in the way, you can devote more and more time to casting, loading, and shooting!

Hope all works out for you!

banger-j

[Wolfer]

Logging was about the only job around in south central MO. where I grew up. I started before I got out of school.
Did it for 12 years, the first 7 with a team. Mules at first then graduated to horses later.
Hard, dirty and dangerous and I loved it.

Ive seen some hair raising runaways, both with the horses and the trucks.

[gnostic]

That's funny, I owned a bar and it was much the same....

[waksupi]

Most of the mountain roads here would be considered logging roads. Log trucks have the right of way, one way or the other. Thirty-some years ago in this area when logging was running hard, you needed a CB in your rig, and keep the log trucks advised by your mile post marker, and they did the same. It was your job to hunt a hole, and get out of the way.

[Nicholas]

On a trip in the late 80s saw an official Forest Service sign on the North Kaibab Plateau, "Log Trucks Hauling" and some wag had stenciled in the three letter word that made the sign true beyond a doubt "A--"!

[Superfly]

Hey starmac What kind of trailers are you pulling. I just got my trailer set up still tweaking it some but pretty much there ready to run, It is a Tandam axel Pole trailer the kind that folds up onto the tractor if you want to haul A$$ back to reload. Spring ride with 22.5 daytons wheels.

[starmac]

Mine is a piggy back, but not with a fold up reach. I think I may have made a deal for a grizzly loader and a fold up trailer this evening. If so I will have to pick up another truck, seems like it never ends. lol

[starmac]

Now that you don't have that pesky job in the way, you can devote more and more time to casting, loading, and shooting!

Hope all works out for you!

banger-j

LOL That job was/is more of a hobby, or just something to do to get out in the woods. Now I have to dig the other truck out and get it ready to make a living, so I can afford to play with the log truck next winter.

[Superfly]

Do you have pics of the trailer it sounds like mine a piggy back unit

[starmac]

Surely you don't think a dadgum old truck driver knows how to post pictures. lol I have never took a picture of it, but it is just a typical long logger. I have a little longer reach (which is being replaced before next season) at 28 feet than most rigs around here. It just doesn't fold like yours. Typically a piggyback with the foldable reach sits behind the bunk where as mine straddles the bunk (when loaded) and the reach rests on the headache rack. The trailers the same are the same, just the reach and the saddles on the truck are different.
The one I think I made a deal on today, I used to own the trailer and the bunks before, but it had a standard reach then, he just swapped out with the foldable reach from his older unit and added the behind the bunk saddles for it to ride on.

[starmac]

The truck in this add is very close to my setup, the trailer is exactly the same, the bunks are the same also quick change to a fifthwheel if I desire.
The difference is mine is 66 inch longer wheelbase and I only have a 42 inch sleeper, which I might remove before next season, as I don't need a sleeper to haul logs, and doubt I do anything else with it. It is setup with a hotshift pto and wetkit for a side dump to though.
With my wheelbase, I can load 10 foot of log in front of the bunk and legally haul 60 feet logs, if I remove the sleeper I could go another 2 feet ahead of the bunk.
http://bend.craigslist.org/hvo/4956565159.html

[Superfly]

I will have to get a pic of mine it is similar but mine pulls up and folds onto itself. I am not sure if I have all the parts to haul it back like that. I don,t plan on folding it as it takes to much time and it is only 100 miles to the mill.

[Dennis Eugene]

I was a logger for 30 years, did it all from the cook shack to the tail holt and back. yarded logs, loaded logs and hauled logs a plenty. My ole man was a logger just the same and so my son has been and is from time to time altho he is in the oil fields right at this time. Heres a pic of my ole man and one of his ole trucks he's standing up by the cab. http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l497/youngmaster357/194465_4229515229488_1573976269_o1.jpg (http://s1120.photobucket.com/user/youngmaster357/media/194465_4229515229488_1573976269_o1.jpg.html)
and here's a pic of me not hauling logs but packin' a bridge section for a loggin' road. http://i1120.photobucket.com/albums/l497/youngmaster357/100_2272.jpg (http://s1120.photobucket.com/user/youngmaster357/media/100_2272.jpg.html)

[shoot-n-lead]

Dennis, that is a fine looking block that your Father is hauling...

[starmac]

Love pictures of the old time loggers, equipment, camps, the big sticks, and everything. Those old hands had to be tough, plus know what they were doing to handle those big sticks with the equipment available back then. A lot different than these days when a 425 is a baby, and everything has jakes, power steering, real brakes and enough gears hooked to one shifter to make it all work.
I am not a logger, and really just an amatuer log truck driver compared to those guys.

[randyrat]

Dennis, That is one heavy chunk of bridge. Any idea what it weighs? Looks like it is 50' to 60' long with planking

[Superfly]

Damn that is a log I know I will NEVER get a chance to haul something like that, All we have is some 18 " buts nothing real big.

[MaryB]

That is one BIG log! Don't see them often anymore but one went down the highway here not to long ago. Ancient oak tree, maybe not that big but 6' easy

[Lloyd Smale]

cut and pealed pulp all through high school. Graduated and went to boot camp to get some rest and relaxation!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Bad Water Bill]

Dennis

Did anyone say how tall or how old that tree might have been?

[hoosierlogger]

I'm a 3rd generation logger too. I've only been doing it for 9 years now. There is no other job I wish I had. Despite the hard work, i wish I had done it along time ago. The spring off time is upon us now. Time to get to work on the honey do list.

[dtknowles]

Wood. Don't care much for the hauling but my Granddad was a Teamster (you know the kind with Horses). I worked one winter with my Brother in law cutting pulp, using a tractor and sled. Loaded the three axel truck and he drove to the Mill. We did cut some bolt wood for the farm use, they mill it and like the wood to make his an my Sisters house, they built for themselves. We did not have a pulp loader and to unload we just had cables around the load and the crane at the mill pick us off. Back then they had a private road owned by the Paper Company call the Golden Road. They let the public use the road and it provided new access to remote ponds and streams for new fishing spots.

Tim