Butler Brothers logging trucks

[RCP57]

I've found that 640x426 works good for sizing pictures on this site. Keep posting!

Reg

 

[camptramp]

 

[camptramp]

 

[wornout wrench]

Thanks for the pics Camptramp.
I was just telling one of the young lads at work about this truck the other day.
I still think it was one of the coolest logging trucks I ever saw.
Also love the 79 ford supercab, I had one. It was my favorite truck and the last year ford ever built a real truck LOL (that should get a response from someone)

 

[Vigilant]

Thanks for the pics Camptramp.
I was just telling one of the young lads at work about this truck the other day.
I still think it was one of the coolest logging trucks I ever saw.
Also love the 79 ford supercab, I had one. It was my favorite truck and the last year ford ever built a real truck LOL (that should get a response from someone)

Could be a '78, ya think? Didn't the '78 XLTs have square headlights while the rest of the '78s still had round?

 

[Vigilant]

Well, I was almost right. From Edmonds:

"For 1978, the 300-c.i. inline six (114 horsepower) became the standard base engine and square headlights debuted (on all models except Custom). The luxurious Ranger Lariat was introduced that year as well as a new, more massive grille.

1979 brought square headlights for all F-Series trucks."

Looks like the truck in the photo is an Explorer edition, or an XLT.

 

[DBDLS]

And, the 300-c.i. inline six was the best engine Ford made.

 

[load]

truckmodeller; 20 years ago while looking for a modeling project i saw a picture of a mark 5.0n a quest to aquire more info i visited the oldfield shop and obtained the drawings for the first truck.i then contacted and met with brian butler at his office at keating.he provieded me with a copy 0f their marketing brochure and newspaper clippings.a father in law told me he visited the madill shop to view a butler truck while being built.from their i was able to obtain the drawings.very much like the first truck.aside from pictures i was unable to get much info on the mark 5 so the project went on hold.i did not get much further than aquiring the 6 inch ashtray tires.while rethinking the project last wk i googled butler trucks and it seems my long sot info is here.after reviewing all the threads it does not look like i have anything to contribute but thanks for the info











20 years ago while looking for a project i saw a picture of a mark 5. while on a quest to aquire more info i aquired drawings of the first truck from the oldfield garage,met with brian butler at his office at keating and got a copy of the marketing brochure.i was told by my father in law one of butler trucks was built at madills and i believe i aquired all of the drawings ,about 20 pages very much like the one built at oldfields,
i also have numorous newspaper clippings,i recall being disipointed that i could not get the information i felt i needed to comence building the mark 5. i did not get much further than acquiring 12 6 inch ashtray tires

 

[Vigilant]

And, the 300-c.i. inline six was the best engine Ford made.

I would agree, until the 4.6 reached its state of refinement from 2004 on. Even so, for a true, working pickup engine, the 4.9 still wins IMO.

 

[Doug1966]

Hi,There are a couple of guys around that worked on those trucks, Gary Moonie works at Foreman CNC in Sidney, he has video of a test run ( he was at one time trying to post it here) and the other is Cliff Burrows, he also worked for Kenworth. I think truckmodeler has met him. Thanks Doug










20 years ago while looking for a project i saw a picture of a mark 5. while on a quest to aquire more info i aquired drawings of the first truck from the oldfield garage,met with brian butler at his office at keating and got a copy of the marketing brochure.i was told by my father in law one of butler trucks was built at madills and i believe i aquired all of the drawings ,about 20 pages very much like the one built at oldfields,
i also have numorous newspaper clippings,i recall being disipointed that i could not get the information i felt i needed to comence building the mark 5. i did not get much further than acquiring 12 6 inch ashtray tires[/QUOTE]

 

[Greatwestcam]

Mark 5

Mark 5 on the Weldwood mainline, Goat Lake, Powell River when Butlers were trying to sell it. Bob Miller driving it, photo by Rory Maitland. shared pic.

 

[JDOFMEMI]

That is a great picture of the truck in its environment.

 

[HDX]

Don Yates photo's

 

[diamondtguy]

A incredible pc of equipment..Its nice to know that its not a total memory and the basic truck still survives.....Cory

 

[69hayes]

That must have taking some getting used too, driving down the road with your butt almost touching the ground.

 

[camptramp]

I think the scareous thing about those trucks ,is that the front bumper on a P16 or HDX is about level with the steering wheel of the roller skate if you met in a tight spot.

 

[ben46a]

Even has an air ride cab, does it not?

 

[driftwoodstable]

Butler Brothers Logging of Sooke/Victoria B.C. built some unique trucks in the 60's and 70's. Claude and Wally Butler wanted to maximize load capacity and went with a cab-under-load design. The evolution of the design began in 1960 and culminated with the Mark 5 in 1974. I've been researching these trucks and its been both interesting and puzzling at times since little remains of either the trucks or their history. What I have gathered together are a few photos, some fading memories and some attempts to decipher where and when and how many of these rigs actually existed. My original intent was to gather information for building a model of the Mark 5. That model has yet to happen but in the process of finding details and plans of that truck I found that precious little was preserved of the others. Now it has become a bit of a personal quest to put the history of the Butler Brothers logging trucks down in some form of permanent record, a cradle to grave story of each of them. So, I will relay what I have learned to date and share some of the photos I have discovered. I am still researching and will be trying to get some first hand memories from those who worked around them but for now most of what I present is an outline of the history. If you have further information please add it. If you find errors in my accounts, please correct them. I am not a trucker or an equipment operator so some of my information or references to parts etc. will not be entirely accurate.
OK, here's the starting point: 1960. Claude Butler wanted something radically different from the logging trucks of the day. He and good friend Basil (Barney) Oldfield designed and built the first of four unique trucks. As best i can tell from photos, this truck (the first of 3 #70 trucks) used Mack axles and rear ends, and ran on dual 1200 tires on all wheels. It had a rigid log bunk frame with an articulated tandem axle power bogie under each end. This was effectively an articulated 8x8. The cab sat beside the engine, both of which hung out over the front power bogie. The engine was a Jimmy - not sure what size - and it drove a shaft back to a central gearbox midships under the rigid log bunk frame. This then distributed power to the front and rear power bogies. This was a small truck compared to the Mark 5 but was the beginning. Roll-out appears to have been in 1960-61 but little has come to light about this truck and what happened to it. My best guess at this point was that it ran until the #36 and second #70 came on line, both of which were substantially larger and approached the load capacity of 100 tons that Claude and Wally were shooting for.

I'll post some shots of the first truck as soon as i figure out how to do it.

More to follow,

Cheers.

I drove #36 and repaired # 70. There was a 16V71 engine in both trucks, which is 2 8V71 on a common bedplate. #36 only blowered natural, #70 was inter cooled, after cooled & turboed and had big fuel injectors---Ron

 

[K pinetree]

View attachment 106465

WOW! These pictures sure bring back memories. I used to load this truck with wood bound for Caycuse from the dry land sort in Renfrew. Took forever to put a load on her specially when we were loading gang ( small hemlock or cedar). Don Calder was the driver of this truck when it roamed the logging roads there.

 

[camptramp]

BC -- This is the Butler Brothers Truck at Dougan's Logging , probably Jackson Bay , picture belongs to Bob Cook .