• Thank you for visiting HeavyEquipmentForums.com! Our objective is to provide industry professionals a place to gather to exchange questions, answers and ideas. We welcome you to register using the "Register" icon at the top of the page. We'd appreciate any help you can offer in spreading the word of our new site. The more members that join, the bigger resource for all to enjoy. Thank you!

Fancy Low Rider Log Trucks

B

Birken Vogt

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
5,320
Location
Grass Valley, Ca
Lately I have been seeing a number of various fancied out log trucks around here that are not like anything I have ever seen before.

Petes with fancy flake paint jobs, polished aluminum/chrome all over, name/number printed on the fuel tank in fancy script that you cannot read with nothing on the door. Lower profile tires, and a headache rack that holds the stinger where the sides slope down/out rather than in so it is not seen as much.

My question is why would somebody go to all that trouble for something that gets beat through the woods, and how do they keep them so clean? They must spend hours washing them in the dark after work, or maybe in the heat of a hoot owl afternoon.

It seemed like in the past log trucks were strictly utilitarian, with the expectation that they would be beat to death before they got real old, and the independents' trucks were usually second hand and more so than company trucks.
 
Truck Shop

Truck Shop

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2015
Messages
16,898
Location
WWW.
Around here you see the same but one large factor is logging/forest service roads are a whole bunch better than years ago. Most rigs are air ride that helps but you don't see
many company rigs around like years back so most are independents and I suppose are taking better care of their rigs.

Truck Shop
 
R

RZucker

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2013
Messages
4,077
Location
Wherever I end up
Occupation
Mechanic/welder
I remember in the early/Mid 80's there was a guy on the Seattle docks that had a 352 Pete with air bags all around and he dropped it low when he was empty. Looked completely stupid to me... oh well. I think it had "Street Freak" lettered on the sides.
 
W

wornout wrench

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2012
Messages
740
Location
canada
Truck Shop said:
Around here you see the same but one large factor is logging/forest service roads are a whole bunch better than years ago. Most rigs are air ride that helps but you don't see
many company rigs around like years back so most are independents and I suppose are taking better care of their rigs.

Truck Shop
Click to expand...

Oh man, must be different down there
Up here our roads have turned to crap.
Bare minimum on road maintenance on old main roads (main lines) and any of the new roads are just pure garbage. Just enough to get in, get the wood and get out.

Potholes and ruts.

Beating the crap out of the trucks

With the air ride suspension, air ride cab and air ride seats, the drivers do not feel it like they used to so they don't slow down like they used to.
BEATING THE TRUCKS!

As far as pretty painted up trucks go, not very often you see one. Even the independent guys (Owner/operator) don't spend the coin to tiddle them up. During the dry season, they are covered in dust. During the rain, covered in mud. Hit it with a fire hose at the end of the day but it is not going to get clean. Heck, I used to take about an hour just to get the truck and trailer cleaned off enough so that I could do a decent inspection on them.
 
Truck Shop

Truck Shop

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2015
Messages
16,898
Location
WWW.
Well long hauling logs has become the way anymore. I see rigs hauling logs from the Cascades {Cle Elum} area to Elgin, Ore, roughly 265 miles one way one load a day.
So as far as Chromed out log trucks, sure-it's mostly highway miles. And if a driver is beating a truck, most likely he isn't paying the bills.--It's odd seeing a log truck
headed to Elgin with a load cruising along through the desert at Vernita crossing the Columbia river. {logs in the desert}

Truck Shop
 
R

RZucker

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2013
Messages
4,077
Location
Wherever I end up
Occupation
Mechanic/welder
Truck Shop said:
Well long hauling logs has become the way anymore. I see rigs hauling logs from the Cascades {Cle Elum} area to Elgin, Ore, roughly 265 miles one way one load a day.
So as far as Chromed out log trucks, sure-it's mostly highway miles. And if a driver is beating a truck, most likely he isn't paying the bills.--It's odd seeing a log truck
headed to Elgin with a load cruising along through the desert at Vernita crossing the Columbia river. {logs in the desert}

Truck Shop
Click to expand...
I see them almost every day on I-90 (in the desert).
 
hvy 1ton

hvy 1ton

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2006
Messages
1,945
Location
Lawrence, KS
Seeing log trucks go through the desert would be interesting. Last time I was in the Driggs, ID, I ran across some guys hauling logs to Livingston, MT. About 200 pavement miles and they have to navigate all the tourists in West Yellowstone.
 
John C.

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,870
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
Fewer saw mills and most specializing in different types of wood. Prices paid per board foot usually determines distance. The other side of the story is that if law enforcement sees two trucks pushing the speed limit, one clean and looking nice and the other appears to be a rolling wreck, guess which one gets stopped and is handed a thousand dollars worth of tickets.
 
John C.

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,870
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
My last thought is that there are few big company fleets rolling down the roads anymore. You might see the lazy W trucks around Aberdeen, Raymond and Longview areas but who can name another large timber company hauling their own logs anymore. Boise Cascade, Simpson Timber, and Rayonier are about all I can think of right now that no longer exist with the associated truck fleets. Most all log hauling in Washington and Oregon that I know of are independents.
 
C

cubanator

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2013
Messages
50
Location
WA
Few guys here in town that still do Republic area to Bullfrog past Cle Elum for export logs, we did for a while on Fridays coming home from up there. I've seen them coming back empty from Oregon on 82 through Tri Cities a few times as well. Not fancy chromed out log trucks though lol, didn't know those existed
 
S

Skeans1

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2018
Messages
82
Location
Rainier, OR
John C. said:
My last thought is that there are few big company fleets rolling down the roads anymore. You might see the lazy W trucks around Aberdeen, Raymond and Longview areas but who can name another large timber company hauling their own logs anymore. Boise Cascade, Simpson Timber, and Rayonier are about all I can think of right now that no longer exist with the associated truck fleets. Most all log hauling in Washington and Oregon that I know of are independents.
Click to expand...
Sierra Pacific is about the only other one I can think of.
 
B

Birken Vogt

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
5,320
Location
Grass Valley, Ca
SPI has quite a few, they are very big in this region I'm sure you know. Robinson Timber here in town have a fair number but they only do the jobs, not own the timber.

It seems strange to me that the companies up north would not want to have their own fleets to try and control any shortages in trucking that might crop up.

But the gyppos stay pretty busy, some of them with the fancy ones and some with the old ratty ones.
 
C

cubanator

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 21, 2013
Messages
50
Location
WA
Availability of trucks doesn't seem to be an issue up here. It's finding guys willing to take light loads of pecker poles 6+hrs one way for $18/ton that's the issue. Either to a mill across the state or completely out of the state for one a day and no loading over unless you wanna spend the night on the reservation. That being said local company here in town has been hunting down DNR jobs and staying local/semi local in the last few years. First few years were a little rough though.
 
Hallback

Hallback

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2011
Messages
2,322
Location
Aberdeen Wa.
Occupation
Gyppo tower logger
That is like our 5-axle truck, it has the most horsepower of the fleet & the least axles.
 
B

Birken Vogt

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
5,320
Location
Grass Valley, Ca
That one is very nice and what I would expect to see in a log truck.

But the ones I am talking about have much lower profile tires, lower stance, horns and lights and air cleaners hidden, etc.

And the roads around here are never as good as that one, either.
 
old-iron-habit

old-iron-habit

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2012
Messages
4,233
Location
Moose Lake, MN
Occupation
Retired Cons't. Supt./Hospitals
Birken Vogt said:
That one is very nice and what I would expect to see in a log truck.

But the ones I am talking about have much lower profile tires, lower stance, horns and lights and air cleaners hidden, etc.

And the roads around here are never as good as that one, either.
Click to expand...

Maybe they are bull haulers, moonlighting during the day hauling logs, to try to make the payments on them fancy turd movers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top