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First log truck questions. Does anybody run removable bunks on a semi tractor?

Started by M8274, April 04, 2016, 04:36:44 PM

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M8274

Just a bit of background; I'm a farmer and have started doing a small amount of timber harvest work in the winter. This is done outside of my full-time job.

I currently skid with a 75hp loader tractor and a homemade winch plate. Haul with my pickup and trailer. Select harvesting Appalachian hardwoods; mills are about 45 miles away down state highways.

Within the next year I hope to purchase a small skidder (JD 440B preferably), and that will require some changes to my current equipment lineup. My trailer (a 20k pound GVWR Eager Beaver pintle), can handle the skidder, but my 1970's gasser pickup lacks the power or brakes to haul it.

I have been considering a road tractor for a while. A 28' dump trailer can be bought around $10k or $12k, and would let me haul grain, bulk fertilizer, lime, gypsum, crushed stone, etc for the farm. Currently hire all that done and it is getting old. Lots of other uses around the farm too; pulling a heavy implement down the road long distances, etc. Semi truck adds a ton of versatility all around.

My plan is to use the truck pulling a dump trailer in the summer and fall, then put a pair of log bunks on the truck to haul timber in the winter. Local welding shop can add a heavy pintle hitch on the rear that would let me pull my skidder trailer. I have seen road tractors set up with bunks, but am curious if anybody on here has used this setup. I do not want to mess with a log trailer; I don't cut enough timber and I usually harvest in very tight places where a long trailer will not go.

Thinking a Ford LTL9000 or Mack R600. Tandem axle and relatively affordable. Driven both; nothing to really complain about. $8,000 to $10,000 could buy a very nice one in this area.

I need to decide the necessary rear frame length before looking at trucks. My log length is usually 8 to 10 feet with a very rare 12 or 14. (Tractor frames are short so there will only be one pair of bunks on the truck.) I have a heavy steel pipe cabguard that will stay mounted year round. Would a true "bed" with a frame be better than seperate bunks that attach individually to the truck frame rails? Seen it done both ways. Planning to have a spacer inside the bunk bottom so that the logs clear the fifth wheel.

Curious what everyone thinks. Anybody else use a road tractor with bunks to haul logs?
If you start with nothing; there's nowhere to go but up.

coxy

we use a tandem dump truck with stake pockets welded on the sides  and its got 14ft of bed can use it for every thing you want to do  we haul about 23-2800 bf with it jmop but that's the way I would go

CCC4

Very common and most practical to have removable stakes on flat beds. You can even do removable bunk, but I think removable standards are the best bet. Some are round pipe but most are 2x4 square tubing.

Autocar

One of my first Autocars was a tractor with a sleeper on it. After removing the sleeper there was enough room for two bunks 8's and 10's with longer logs stacked on top.
Bill

treeslayer2003


furltech

i was contemplating the very same idea .except mine would be log truck full time .i wonder what you could actually legally haul with one and i would like to see a picture if possibe when you finish i cant find any online .thanks

BargeMonkey

 LTL - LT and R models where great trucks, only a few barely clinging to life around here, spent alot of my childhood in an LTS and tired R model.
I think you could do it pretty cheaply, depending on frame length and where your wetline is located. Always seeing log bunks for sale around here. I'm in the process of upgrading tractors right now and  there are alot of decent trucks for short money out there right now.
I don't know how OH's laws read, and I'm not 100% on how highway tax works "we have a secretary" but I know in NY a straight log truck is 75% cheaper than a "tractor" for regi and use tax.

Gary_C

The mill where you deliver may not unload you if your bunks are over your fifth wheel hitch. Most mills require some fixed clearance and/or a skid plate so the loader cannot grab anything on the truck.
Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway.

OH logger

just my opinion but if you can only haul one bunk at a time that would get to be old quick haulin 40 miles to the mill. but maybe your gonna pull the tag a long trailer too and haul logs on it??
john

starmac

Totally different setup as I pull a trailor and haul long logs. My bunks on the truck are easily removable as they are built on a fifthwheel slider, just slide them out and slide the fifthwheel back in, unbolt the frame addition and bolt the rear light bar back on and I'm ready to pull a side dump or whatever for the summer. A half a day and I can swap from one to the other, and I'm slow these days. lol

On your choice of trucks, your payload will be limited by gross weight, all of the older 9000 fords I ever ran were heavier than most other trucks, so the payload was less, sometimes quite a bit less. There is some other reasons I would not consider them, one being the way they are built the engine is mounted on a slant, not a problem per say, but it means some common parts that can be picked up at any truck parts outlet are only available from ford. Some of them even had a proprietary alternator.
Motors tranyys and rears are the same as other trucks, it is just the little things that are propietary, such as radiator hoses.

On the macks, they were workhorses, but true macks have mack motors, mack transmissions, mack rears, and suspension, these are not poorboy parts.
Old LT40HD, old log truck, old MM forklift, and several huskies.

mills

Farm tags rule in Kentucky. Considerably more leeway than the commercials that I run. DOT holds farmers to safety standards, but they're not as likely to get pulled over as long as the tractor, trailer, and load look solid.

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