What kinda truck is good for loggin/chip hauling

Not so much the truck as to the suspension and rear ends. One would want low gear and heavy air ride or I like the chambers suspension.

 

Im partial to a Pete, but I haul wood on occasion with my buddy's W900 and the ground clearance is better with it and the 8 bag doesnt do bad.

 

Lots of logging outfits around here are running Peterbilts and Kenworth's. But slowly switching over to Western Star. The ground clearance on the Star is higher. And the frames are a bit tougher.

I'm partial to Western Star myself. But they, like any other brand, have their quirks. Biggest pet peeves is the HVAC system. It will bake you out of the cab in the winter, and freeze you to death in summer. There's not much in between. And for whatever reason, the windows fog up if there's a cow pissing on a rock 100 yards away. I gusss since Frieghtliner took over, they decided to bring them down to Freightliner quality.

 

Western star 4700, and Pete 359, and kw t800, up north in Michigan but for logging 160,000 gross they are double framed. You don't need that in Texas. I've hauled chips with a regular columbia and tri axle van, grossing 120,000 this was how the fleet was ran. Worked very good trucks drove 60mph, avg 5 to 5.5 mpg.

 

Wood chips can be fun. Especially if you can get a a or b train on it off road. Or maybe a rocky double.

I would look at CAT's Tractors for this work. None of the more common road tractors will be able to do logging very well. I would choose Pete as second and KW equally second choice. Mack certainly has a place in my decision making. They kind of gotten fancy and forget who they are sorta. Makes sense? Trying to carry on airs that somehow they are fancy pants these days.

New CAT Truck | CAT CT660 Vocational Truck - CT660 Pictures and Video

 

How high is clearance? I got chance haul logs in northwest CT but it's rocky ### road to get to the logs

 

CATs look awesome but aren't even their lowest end big bucks?

 

I dunno the exact clearance, and depending on how it is spec'd, it could be different. And I'm sure the other manufacturers have trucks that would fit the need as well. The truck I run (I pull tanker) has the Airliner rear suspension, but I'm not sure what suspension is up front, but I've been in some really nasty places with it. Places where the Pete's and Freightliners were ripping holes in oil pans.

 

This one looks nice and expensive.
2017 Western Star 6900 XD AWD | Boyer Trucks

Spec sheet
http://imp.isyncpro.com/western-star-6900-awd-techsheet.pdf