Saunders Hauling

[Hank R]

I received these pictures from lowbed driver, Thanks.

 

[Hank R]

 

[Vigilant]

Haven't seen many R-700s in Canadian photos. They seemed to be a little more common in Washington State back then.

 

[camptramp]

There were a few MACK R-700's around the lower end of Vancouver Island in the early 1970's , one fellow that had a couple as gravel trucks and one that had several logging trucks liked the truck but didn't get the support they needed from the MACK dealership , so they moved to another brand of truck.

 

[Hank R]

 

[Vigilant]

Mack really screwed the pooch when they went from the Quadruplex to that stinking abomination called a 5-speed Maxitorque. I strongly suspect that a few log truck drivers may have lost their lives because of it when they had to stop for whatever reason going loaded up a grade, and could not get rolling forward again due to the lack of a low enough gear.

The 5 speeds were quite common in the woods of North carolina back then, and did fairly well on flat terrain. Even so, I saw a few driveshafts snapped from trying to get rolling loaded in soft ground or muck.

 

[Hank R]

Also lack of dealers here in B.C. did not help their sales and service. Drove a Mack in the 1970's dealers were Cranbrook, Kamloops, Prince George and Vancouver area. Not sure about the Island.

 

[Vigilant]

Also lack of dealers here in B.C. did not help their sales and service. Drove a Mack in the 1970's dealers were Cranbrook, Kamloops, Prince George and Vancouver area. Not sure about the Island.

So..... how did you like the 5-speed Maxitorque in the hills?

 

[Hank R]

I was not really impressed with the Mack truck motor and transmission and I just were not ment for each other. I was used to Cummins with 13 speed or 5 & 4, so changes were not easy. Plus that was 35 years ago.

 

[Vigilant]

I prefer a 13 speed on the highway, or an 18 speed or preferably a 5X4 in terrain like yours. And a Jake, of course.

 

[lowbed driver]

I do not know if that Mack in the photo is the one in the following story. They(Saunders) had a guy named LEO. He always drove a KW both highway/off highway. Guess his truck was in the shop,so off he goes in the Mack. Gets loaded and truck will not move. Both he and the second loader (good friend of mine,so I know this story is true) are at the trailer. Leo reaches in and pushes a button of some sort and away goes the truck. Leo chasing it. One of the other drivers(also a good friend) retold this story to me as well as he was hauling from the same loader. I guess Leo is best described as nearly as wide as he is tall. The second loader seen the truck go over a rise in the road and old Leo stopping on the rise and throwing his arm in the air and stops chasing. Truck stayed on road for some distance and jumped a bank and landed on the rigging crews crummy(no one in it). Leo gets on radio and call shop telling them his truck needs to go into the shop. They ask for a rough idea of how long it will need to be in shop. He says a day or two. That truck was in the shop for 6 weeks of a complete rebuild.
I laughed when my two buddies each told me this story as they were both involved.

Cheers L.D.

 

[Hank R]

Great to remember stories from years ago. I am sure it is funny now but 20 years ago not so:drinkup

 

[lowbed driver]

Got another one. Same second loader, so again I know its true. Off highway shows up to get loaded late in the day (I believe it was a Hayes and they were running mostly KW's). Montreal and Boston in the playoffs (so this puts it at late 70's). The second loader and loader operator want to get to the local watering hole to watch the game which would have started at 4:30 our time. They throw a load on and last second my buddy remembers to pull the pin releasing the compensator (second loaders job) get in their pick up and get ahead of the slow moving truck.
Next morning they get called into the office for a bit of a dressing down. I guess in their haste, my buddy pulled the wrong pin and pulled the pin releasing the hitch all together. Driver crawled down the mountain side and trailer followed nicely. On the better roads of the valley bottoms he pick up a bit of speed and get to a large dip in the road and puts his foot into it to climb up the other side. Bang, looks in rear view and all he sees is logs coming his way and they are cartwheeling past him in the ditch.
Second loader and operator had to go to crash site, walk all the way to their machine and walk it out to the truck. pick load apart, get trailer out of one ditch, truck out of the other and reload. My buddy said they had one long day before they had the machine back at the landing.
That was the drivers last off-highway load. He only drove highway after that before retiring a few years later.

I guess the K/W and the Hayes had different compensator pin locations as well as a pin that releases it all together. On one it was vertical and other horizontal and he just pulled the wrong pin releasing the whole shebang.

 

[Hank R]

Hey lowbed driver have you got your pictures back yet in the mail?? Might have pictures of that little opps, or another one.

 

[lowbed driver]

Got pics back but they were all I had. Still hoping to get my buddy to give me some I know he should have.
Might justr call him this weekend.
Cheers L.D.

 

[Hank R]

 

[Hank R]

I was surprized when I seen that R.W. Saunders had a Western Star.

Looks like it fell of the road.

 

[Vigilant]

Please tell me the driver walked away from that roll in #529.

 

[lowbed driver]

Yes he did. Buddy of mine, broke me in on low beds. Running back to town to catch 'the boys' and have an end of week beverage (Friday afternoon). Hit ice. Had her back under control 2-3 times before the last go around, into ditch and I believe most of the damage was done by a stump that the truck rolled onto. I have a picture of him at the scene (picture was taken Saturday Morning) looking on as wreckers pulled her out of ditch.

 

[Vigilant]

Did it all buff out pretty well?