What is either the driver or truck lacking here?

Understood, but if someone is already in the logging industry, a lot of what you mentioned is likely to be available already.

 

Yea, if they are a logger they would, I am just a trucker that happens to have a log truck and haul for loggers. I st rted out with just a log truck, then while drinking coffee one morning wound up with a mill, and then it just started ballooning to what I needed. I could buy logs from the loggers, loaded on my truck, but no way to unload them or set them up for the mill. lol

 

Honestly, with a little effort it wouldn't be hard to set something up to unload logs onto a holding pile. A small winch, a block and tackle, a come along, and a pivoting A-frame.

 

We haul 53 foot logs, things get exiting pretty quick when you start jerry rigging stuff. What I originally did was buy a 25 ft flatbed dump, that way I could cut them in half in the woods and just dump them at the mill, then I had a forklift, that I could sort of get by handling them,
I recently bought a big front end loader that will be much better, and still iffy, but doable to unload long logs, just slow.

 

Oh, definitely. 50 foot long logs aren't hand tool jobs unless they are already on the ground.

Have you considered a small rolling overhead crane? Four posts in the ground. Scaffold with a rolling beam crane on it like you might see in some truck heavy maintenance bays? That would have to be cheaper than a front end loader that can pick a 50 foot log off a log truck.

 

I got a pretty good deal on a loader and can use it for other things too (load my belly dump) and I can move the logs around with it too.

 

The problem with a portable or a small stationary mill is production.
If you're cutting custom sizes on special order...beams, cants, slabs, or true dimension, you can charge enough to make it worthwhile.
If you're cutting common grade lumber it's hard to cut enough in a days time to make any real money on it. The big timber company mills can cut enough to keep their unit prices low but a small mill won't have the kind of production to make that possible.
Milling is hard work and it can be slow without a lot of mechanized log handling and lumber stacking equipment.
There's also the question of grade. If you're cutting structural lumber for home building the lumber has to be inspected and graded. That's done by a third party and it costs a lot provided you can even get somebody out to your place to inspect. Without the grade stamp most building inspectors will not approve your building.
If you're cutting for an unoccupied building...barn, pump house, hay storage..etc. you might get away with no grade inspection and stamp.
We have an old home made band saw mill that we used to cut most of the lumber for our barns and corrals. We did our log handling and turning with a Cat 966 because most of our logs were at least 24" dbh and some of them were over forty. All the logs, mostly Doug fir and redwood, came from our property.
We did okay cutting for ourselves but cutting to spec for customers would really require a faster mill and more boots on the ground.
By the time you figure stumpage, hauling, and mill expenses there really isn't a lot of money in it. Ours was and is a family project so a lot of normal costs weren't affecting us.

 

I think that the fellow doing the Out of the Woods channel sells most of his common cuts as 1 inch thick siding for pole barns and sheds. When he gets a log that is uncommon and/or large enough for tabletops, he cuts for 2.25 inch thickness slabs.

If you live near an agricultural area, you might put together post and beam barn or shed kits as well as loose shingle?

I'm sure you have thought about this though, so I will stop pretending like I have deep knowledge in the topic.

 

Trust me, sawyers are starving just as bad as owner op truckers these days. More equipment more problems.

You dont season timbers btw. Theyll lose grade from microbial staining in a hurry, or bust apart in the summer sun. Note sprinklers at every major log yard to prevent "seasoning"

 

Odd. I have heard that if you try to kiln dry most timbers before they season / air dry for a year, the excess moisture being released will crack them.