49 Pete log load

Wood Species - Moisture Content and Weight

Close to double according to this chart.

 

Dad worked for our town which maintained surplus Government equipment for the county Civil Defense...yes it still exists....

They had a WWII mobile field hospital packed into a 39 foot, single axle Great Dane and the kingpin was spaced for only a similar vintage Military tractor [a white I think] single axle.

Both were set up with super thick military lug tires.

The local scrap yard got POed when they weighed in at 109,000# on ten tires!

 

Yeah thats something I failed to consider... Wouldnt surprise me if those tires were at least 14 ply or more... Probably rode like a tank, but at 30 mph who cares

 

I have a little first hand knowledge on this. I wasn't working there...I'm not that old... but my uncle was part of the rigging crew that loaded the logs.
The load is the real deal as far as board footage goes. It actually came out of the woods like that and was hauled on a private road to the mill.
LOL..the actual weight has been a subject of debate around here for a lot of years. If you want to get a good argument, and on a couple of occasions a good fist fight, going in a logger's bar bring up that load.
According to local legend the logs were green but they'd been on the ground for most of the summer so they lost a little weight before they were hauled. They didn't lose much though.
To load them they dug a big pit with a Cat to where the truck and dolly bunks would be level with the ground and just wide enough for the truck to squeeze into. Then they backed the truck down into the hole. They used a combination of par-buckling on one side and pushing on the other with Cats to get the logs on. They were still using cheese blocks on the bunks in those days so there weren't any stakes to get in the way.
Redwood loses about half it's weight when it's dried and the bark is off but green old growth redwood that hasn't been debarked is like hauling lead.
The general agreement...when you can find two loggers that agree to anything is that the load weighed in well over 200 grand but not anywhere near 400.
I'll double check this with my brother. He's a retired faller and kind of a historian on west coast logging. LOL...Once in awhile we even get him to drive a truck,

 

@REO6205 can you explain "par-buckling" please I've heard the term before but have never had the opportunity to ask a logger what it is exactly. Thanks

 

None of you did a Google?

I can't get the phone to copy and paste

 

This video explains it better than I could. This isn't me but it'll give you a general idea.
Just imagine a 2" bull line in place of the dinky shoestring this guy is using and a Cat pulling and a Cat pushing on the logs.
I've loaded small...small for us anyway... logs that way on a flatbed to take home for firewood but I never loaded anything much over 48" in diameter.

 

Close. It would be flat ground only.

My heaviest load limited a mid 60's mack to no more than 28 on the interstate (Shoulder) before the front end goes out at 31, (literal collapse and loss of steering control) which was all you could get out of it anyway on flat ground.

Downhills were really treacherous. I'll run 20% all day, but this load with a slope? There was a great deal of air management or counting rather against what the compressor will give you. In other words you could not stop.

The axles, bearings etc would sway. Iiterally see the tops of your drive tires sway side to side flexing inside the tandems on your frame that is bowing with the motion. This would show up when pulling for the first 2 mph at a stop or leaving dock etc. When rolling then it had no choice but to roll forward more than flex side to side. But add a curve? Sometimes it took a few miles to take the lean out of them. Which meant the top brake pad stuck out side of it's wheel drum a inch reducing your braking.

Forget the high range. It does not exist for you.

Granny low feels like you are attached to the empire state building and trying to slide same across a city block.

I can go on but you get the idea.

 

Parbuckling definition

It's a form of mechanical advantage. Instead of trying to add a mass of block and tackle with a thousand wheels a pair and a planet's worth of cable to run it you got under a big load this way.

 

Oh my... I have been killing myself doing it the hard way all this time and I had the tools to do it the easy way the whole time!!! I could do this with a come-along... And save my (and a few friends) back!!! This will be put to use this summer when I go to the hills for firewood. Many thanks!!!