big white oak

[BEEMERS]

sight

[VT_Forestry]

Many years ago, I learned to drive on a 1975 Chevy Luv - tiny little 4-cylinder Isuzu motor with a 4-speed tranny that maxed out at 50mph...my dad sold it years later but it wasn't too long ago I went back home to visit and I swear I saw it drive past me  :D

[BEEMERS]

I guess talking about how we used to pyramid the loads and truck them to the mill where Jeff worked...wouldn't do justice not to add this part..Had the truck loaded...dump truck...log on one side was right against the side board..center of log a little above.then the pyramid up from there.alot of weight resting on that log.Dad threw the chains over and one didn't make it,it was on the top.
I crawled up to grab chain..20 yrs old..toes on that before mentioned log at bottom of pyramid.hands on top log.That bottom log popped out leaving me laying on the pyramid fingers grabbing to hang on to top log with logs rolling out from under my body then that top log went and Im clawing like a cat for that next log over.i got hold of it the same time my dad got there and was just tall enough to put his hands over his head and under my feet to keep me up.
4 logs 10'4 and 12-20 inch diameter where on the ground and I couldn't see but Im sure my dad came right through them falling to get to me.Every aspect of that situation was so close to getting one or both of us hurt/crippled/dead..Most of the way it came out was pure luck...trying to get that ONE MORE log on the load.
We packed it up for the day and left everything right where it was.

[Jeff]

I wasn't sure I had posted this before, so I went looking and found I had.  Another story about logs above the stakes.

Years ago I had a very close call unloading 10' aspen logs hauled lengthwise in log bunks using a w-14 case loader. Something we did all the time.  this one was piled high above the stakes.  I started to snake my forks between the logs, a couple down from the top, moving the forks up and down and tipping back and forth to work them into the load without splitting logs as I went.  One of the logs on the far side of the truck at the top of the load somehow spun and shot down at me end first. it was about a 12" diameter.  There was nothing for me to do but watch it rocket toward me. It happened in a moment.  Next thing I new the windshield turned opaque as the safety glass shattered. And that was it.  I opened the door and leaned out to look and saw that about an inch of the log had hit the side post of the windshield and that's what stopped it from coming in the cab.  It dented the frame around the windshield in over two inches.  If it had been over an inch farther, I would be dead. No doubt about it. There was no where to go, no place to duck out of the way, there would be no Forestry Forum.

I had another incident with a skidder that was as close, but that's a different sort of story.

[terry f]

   All fun and games till someone gets hurt, its when a dangerous load hits the public road that concerns me.

[BEEMERS]

That being said..My incident did happen on the drivers side....I assume with chains on it wouldn't have gone anywhere..but what if? Is it worth it? Then if it shifts a little but chains hold...what happens when you unbuckle them at the mill? Could cripple or kill you there.
But to me and my Dad in our world at that time..there was no other way to do it.With our limited knowledge of how others do it and limited experience with safety to us there was no other way.
So if you had judged us for stacking them high like that we'd have been offended and thought you where the jerk because to us that was how its done.I guess Im tryin to say that the guy with the load pyramided up may feel the same way we did back then.
And that being said..we didn't have the internet and the Forestry Forum..If I had this site back then and this information and this insight..not just from the FF but a lot of experience..I think we would have made the changes and been a lot safer whether adding some rack or pipes to the truck or leavin a few logs off the top.
Instead we grew up with logging photos from the 1800's with horse pulled sled loads of logs stacked so high it was unbelievable!!We just tried to go with that...cause That was the way to do it.
However this post started or who judged who,or who was offended or who disagrees...may very well save someones life.
Yes I still pyramid the heck out of my loads on the Iron Mule..but No I don't on anything going down the road.

[terry f]

   We've all done things we are lucky to still be here to tell about, not just logging related.

[chevytaHOE5674]

I had a friend that was a log truck driver. He was hauling out of a job that was about 5 miles from the mill yard. He stacked logs up over top of the standards on the last "clean up" load of the job to save time and get finished up. Cruising down the road and somebody pulled out in front of him causing him to have to brake hard and swerve. In that swerve one of the chains came loose and then the rest of the chains snapped like fishing line as the logs started to shift. The logs that were over top of the stakes came rolling off onto a car, killing the driver.

My friend the truck driver first was fined for the load violation, then was criminally charged, then spent time in prison, after release he had to live with the fact that his action cost somebody their life. A few years after his release he was unable to cope with the guilt and took his own life.

When you put something on a public road you become responsible for the life of everybody else. Straps and chains WILL fail at some point and without standards there is nothing to keep those logs from crashing down.

[Woodhauler]

Well said. But standards will fail to. Just not as often.

[chevytaHOE5674]

At least if you have chains and standards then you have two layers of protection.

[Ed_K]

Here in ma. trucker's have to chain across the standards at 1/2 way.Then strap-chain-cable the finished load.While back going to my job i passed a tri-x with a 1/2 load of firewood on, no tie down and the standards where bent out on the right side.Must of had a big load at some point.

[Corley5]

I've seen truckers put their cross chains on the bottom from stake to stake before the load went on.  They've got them on.  I guess the law didn't specify where they had to be  ??? 

[treeslayer2003]

Here in ma. trucker's have to chain across the standards at 1/2 way.Then strap-chain-cable the finished load.While back going to my job i passed a tri-x with a 1/2 load of firewood on, no tie down and the standards where bent out on the right side.Must of had a big load at some point.

prolly that happened at a mill with a green loader op. its hard to bend stakes any other way, i have tried to bend one of mine back and can't do it. they swung a huge pine into it unloading.