Hundred dollar trucks hauling wood!

[timberlinetree]

Yikes! Didn't know I could get in trouble for being nice! :-\. That is a nice rig. Woodhauler I hope your job gets less stressful soon and stay safe on the road! It dangerous!

[bozzaa69]

Maybe woodhauler needs to haul something else,or change career's all together. Nothing ever seems to be good with his trucking business?

[Dave Shepard]

Has anyone ever heard of a trucking business that wasn't full of hassles? :D

[Joe Hillmann]

a 1957? i like to see that

Here ya go


 
Let's try that again. That one is a little out of focus


 

For being a 57 the body lines looks surprisingly modern. 

[Woodhauler]

Maybe woodhauler needs to haul something else,or change career's all together. Nothing ever seems to be good with his trucking business?

??????

[Woodhauler]

Maybe woodhauler needs to haul something else,or change career's all together. Nothing ever seems to be good with his trucking business?

Maybe i should get a portable saw mill ! I'm sure i can saw 30-50 dollars a thoushand cheaper then you guys ;D :D

[redprospector]

Has anyone ever heard of a trucking business that wasn't full of hassles? :D

Haha. I bet if you looked up the word hassles in a dictionary, it would say;...see trucking.  :D

[Firewoodjoe]

All business is the same. Ups, downs, profits, losses and in those good times there's new  competition. Like I said earlier if your doing it right you'll still be there when the boom drys up and you'll still get work.

[Woodhauler]

Bought my first truck when i was 20. 85,000$$ and yes it was in my name! My dad let me put up a spare skidder he had for collaterall! Glad they didn't come look at it! It was a pilfeirer parts machine! I had 10 grand of my own money saved and bank still needed more. Thank god for a dealer that got me finanaced. So i guess i have found work enough. I don't look for work it looks for me.Heading for 33 yrs in this deal now! Seen it all!

[bozzaa69]

"I don't look for work it looks for me."  Sounds like the problem I got, only with women.

[sawguy21]

Not touching that one, a subject for anther day. :D

[CCC4]

Not touching that one, a subject for anther day. :D

  You and me both! ...but it does crack me up!  :D

[barbender]

bozzaa69, you seem like a very humble individual

[bozzaa69]

I didn't say good looking women?

[teakwood]

I didn't say good looking women?

:D :D :D thats a good one!!
Since my divorce i am kind on a roll too! smiley_gorgeous

[FayettesFinest]

It's hard to necessarily pin this on "old trucks." Granted with the emissions BS, the gov't will try to weed out a lot of them. Before I got into this and found a desire to potentially make a career in the woods, I was planning on driving truck. My father and uncle were both truckers (my dad was an O/O and uncle owned a company) so I wouldn't have to worry about dealing with the company driving BS. I just had to find a truck. I looked at a bunch of trucks that were older. Mostly R model Macks, some 359 Petes and a lot of old cabovers. As a 23 year old kid, I just cant waltz into a Peterbilt dealership and sign my name to a new 389 and pay the bills. What I'm getting at, is we all have to start somewhere. Looking back, we've all had a saw, truck or piece of equipment that we wouldn't think about touching now. I know a lot of these guys are the "let's buy the cheapest thing we can get and make a few bucks this year" type, but some are just trying to make it. A lot of the older trucks nowadays have been "let go" and with anything, if you let it go, it will either need someone to restore it, or someone to scrap it. If I had a company, I'd have a fleet of (well maintained) R model Macks. Yeah, they're obsolete, but they're the best work truck you can get. My dad bought a '72 R model (the Big Red Mid-life Crisis Machine), oil-field style winch truck that had a blown motor. It came out of WV and it's got a very tiny rust spot. Other than that, solid truck. He paid $3,500 for it and now that it has the motor, I'd drive it around the world and not think twice.

What I'm getting at, is that I sympathize for the guys that are trying to make it, the ones that are just trying to make a buck, not so much. It might not be today or tomorrow, but the DOT will wipe these guys out, but they'll wipe out the little guys that are just trying to "make it" as well. It's just the nature of the beast. Like someone else said, the DOT goes after you guys because they know if the guy with the nice truck has the money to pay for it, he'll pay the fines to keep it. They don't seem like they're going after these guys but as soon as they slip up, they'll go over that rig with a fine-tooth comb

[BargeMonkey]

 The problem is, you can keep dumping money into them and fixing them and youve still got a 20yr old + truck. We ran our old R-model mack log truck till she wouldnt take anymore, when we pulled the bunks the double frame fell apart. Trucks are cheap, you can find stuff 10-12yrs old decent shape for good money. What the original post was about, and i feel his pain is the dirtbags running complete junk, undercutting guys with newer stuff and and doing it with an unsafe truck. Around here, newer trucks and equipment avoid headaches, but im not knocking the guys starting out. Im not thrilled seeing pictures of single axles with 3200bdft stacked over the bunks, but hey if you can get away with it why not.

[LeeB]

Nothings illegal until you get caught right?  :

[Thewoodman]

So if my truck cost less than 10k it is junk. I guess my trucks are rolling wrecks then I only gave $2500 for one and $1800 for the other one I have put money in to them though making them safe and dependable. I like the older trucks simple to work on and alot cheaper. I only haul my own logs on occasion when I can't get a contract hauler to haul. I don't see a problem with someone hauling with a older cheaper truck if it is safe and legal every one has to start out some way and some would prefer not to have that big payment on a new truck.

Dude, you'd mess your nappies if you drove on the East Coast (Ruatoria) New Zealand. Google Map it.

And once again, the Yankees would DIE if they came to E. Ky, or SW Va, or E. Tn............. They would stroke the heck out..... I will try to get some pics at the mill today..... ;)

[Thewoodman]

My old man said to me you can either buy an old machine, fix it up and still have an old machine, OR pay off a new machine and end up with a new machine.
I live in Gisborne, New Zealand. Its a farming/forestry small city and we have logs trucked 200km from the forest to the  export port. There is NO room for old gear as it will slowly but surely send the owner broke.

[coxy]

My old man said to me you can either buy an old machine, fix it up and still have an old machine, OR pay off a new machine and end up with a new machine.
I live in Gisborne, New Zealand. Its a farming/forestry small city and we have logs trucked 200km from the forest to the  export port. There is NO room for old gear as it will slowly but surely send the owner broke.

don't you mean pay off a new machine and end up with a old machine   ;D

[logging pete]

You believe you have a new machine when it is paid off? When you by a new piece of logging machinery or truck, how much value does it loose when you sign the papers?  A $600,000 harvester may depreciate $150,000 the first year. I have bought 2 new machines in 42 years of logging, and I admit they were nice, performed well. They became used machines very quickly. I am now in a comfortable situation with my logging business, 13,000 hours on the processor,12,000 hours on the forwarder, and haul with a 1993 Pete recently pulled over by DOT, inspected and no violations other than trailer vin#.  I place the value of equipment on a situation that my wife would face if I died or became disabled and she had 90 days to sell it, Dylan was right we all serve somebody, may be the devil may be the lord, may be your bright pretty painted piece of metal. We all make our own choices. A respected logger here once said you are not your own boss unless you can tell the mills to stick it and park your machines for at least 6 months. I have worked along time to finally own my metal, it does not own me.

[sawguy21]

The useful service life of a logging truck seems to be 5 years, just about the time it takes to pay it off. After that it starts to become a money pit spending more time in the shop and less making money. The smart money would trade it on a new one as long as the work is steady enough and pays well enough to make it worthwhile, the fleet operators do this as they can write off a good portion of the lease payments.
The independent does not always have the luxury of this option. However if his payments are low enough he does not have to work as hard to stay afloat and has the flexibility to find other jobs if logging gets slow. Still, he has to remain competitive with safe reliable equipment. The larger B.C. mills that pay the most and keep the trucks moving won't hire your 93 Pete regardless of condition, they know it requires more down time.
There are exceptions. There are still Hayes HDX (how many of you remember those) and Pacifics running off highway loads here on the coast. Nobody currently builds a truck to take the weight these guys move. 14' bunks piled as high as the loader will reach and cooling water pouring off the brakes, 600+ HP and 20 speeds. I wish I had some pictures.

[Woodhauler]

The useful service life of a logging truck seems to be 5 years, just about the time it takes to pay it off. After that it starts to become a money pit spending more time in the shop and less making money. The smart money would trade it on a new one as long as the work is steady enough and pays well enough to make it worthwhile, the fleet operators do this as they can write off a good portion of the lease payments.
The independent does not always have the luxury of this option. However if his payments are low enough he does not have to work as hard to stay afloat and has the flexibility to find other jobs if logging gets slow. Still, he has to remain competitive with safe reliable equipment. The larger B.C. mills that pay the most and keep the trucks moving won't hire your 93 Pete regardless of condition, they know it requires more down time.
There are exceptions. There are still Hayes HDX (how many of you remember those) and Pacifics running off highway loads here on the coast. Nobody currently builds a truck to take the weight these guys move. 14' bunks piled as high as the loader will reach and cooling water pouring off the brakes, 600+ HP and 20 speeds. I wish I had some pictures.

Heavey equipment .com has a thread about these trucks!!

[barbender]

Sawguy, there's not many logging trucks in northern MN that are less than 5 years old.