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[twochains]

View attachment 320949

They're called binders. They are a steel cable with chain on the ends and a (I don't know the name of the parts)with a ratchety thing on the end of one. They use a cheater bar on the end of the ratchety thing. If the driver is wise, he/she will drive a ways and stop and tighten up the binders because the logs will settle. They usually run 3 per load and have to have all logs secured or covered by one binder.

They'll coil up the cable and throw them over the load, so you want to be out of the way when in the loading area. There is a difference, in the Okanogan area, they loader operator would pick up the binders with his machine and place them over the load. They all said this helped lessen injuries.

I'd guess you can purchase them from places that sell rigging or even trucking equipment places. And no, the stacks at mills are not bound by anything.

If he is gonna load that high...why take off the slip on bunk extensions. We get away with ALOT of stuff here but that load would not be unloaded on Weyerhauser property. no higher than the front bunks.

 

[Gologit]

If he is gonna load that high...why take off the slip on bunk extensions. We get away with ALOT of stuff here but that load would not be unloaded on Weyerhauser property. no higher than the front bunks.

You mean that they wouldn't like these? These are fairly ordinary loads. It's legal in California to load above your stakes as long as the logs are well saddled and tied down tight. Stake extensions are a PITA but the day will probably come when we'll be required to have them. The cedar load is pretty close to legal both in weight and height. The fir load is a little side heavy due to a new loader but it's legal also.

 

[twochains]

Our trucks have taller front bunks. But yeh they would throw a fit. The pine yard has really been on our butts lately. On weight, when the trucks come in heavy...they only get paid for what the max legal load is. And length...dang, they have been measuring tree length for being too long and refuse to unload until the driver butts them off! But yes, at the main yard in Russelville, over the stakes gets turned around. But like I say we run taller front stakes...maybe that load woudn't look so high with the 4 ft. extensions.

Bob, on one of my tracts we are hauling under a RR trussel that is 11' clearance! My boss designed a pole trailer and experimented in how long to extend the trailer. They are able to load this trailer with 32,000#'s and get under the trussel! There is a big dip but what happens is it raise up the rear axle....I have got to get it on video! You could drag a lunch box off the top of the load! I've been behind them a couple times, it's around a hair pin turn also! LOL!

 

[slowp]

Oh, the shiny, spotlessly clean truck with the nicely loaded logs was a parade load but still a perfectly legal load. He won too.

 

[twochains]

He deserved to win! The truck is beautiful! The load is is loaded really nice also. I just wondered why he took his front extensions off.

 

[Gologit]

Our trucks have taller front bunks. But yeh they would throw a fit. The pine yard has really been on our butts lately. On weight, when the trucks come in heavy...they only get paid for what the max legal load is. And length...dang, they have been measuring tree length for being too long and refuse to unload until the driver butts them off! But yes, at the main yard in Russelville, over the stakes gets turned around. But like I say we run taller front stakes...maybe that load woudn't look so high with the 4 ft. extensions.

Not paying for anything over legal weight? That wouldn't work here. There would be an absolute mutiny on the part of the truckers. In California we're limited to 80 thousand GVW . That's not much and if your tare weight is between 25 and 30 thousand it doesn't leave much of a net. I'm not saying that anybody overloads but if a truck crosses the scales at 90 grand he gets paid for 90 grand. No argument either.
The logs are trimmed to length in the woods and it's very seldom we have any problem with that. The mill sends out a list of what species and size and length they want. It changes a little sometimes but it's generally pretty set.
The mills encourage the truckers to stay within legal weights but they don't really discourage overloading either. If a trucker continually crosses the scales with massive overloads he'll be talked to but as a rule nothing really happens. The company trucks pay the driver by the hour so there's no real incentive to overload. The gypos get paid by weight or board foot. If they're caught by the cops with an overload it's their responsibility and the fines are pretty high. Still, if you can make an additional 20 or 30 bucks a load every day all season long it adds up and I understand the temptation.
Most of the trucks out here have onboard scales, usually electronic with load cells on the bunks. When they're loading it's the driver's responsibility to let the loader know when they've reached their legal weight. A good loader operator will usually be able to tell just by eyeballing the load if it's grossly overloaded and he'll also be able to tell if it's over height.
But the final responsibility for being legal is with the driver.

 

[twochains]

Yes, we are limited to 80 also. The small mills get what ever length pine...what ever trucks can pull w/o dragging them down the road too bad. And yes, the weights going to the smaller mills bumps 100's pretty regular. I think that all of that is fixing to stop due to DOT being bumped up to double fro 2014. The back roads is where alot of timber gets hauled through.

From what I can gather, technically the overload weight is supposed to be combined and donated to the Men's and Women's homeless shelters. Whether that happens or is just a detourant I don't know. sending pm Bob in case im on the ignore list.

 

[Gologit]

Yes, we are limited to 80 also. The small mills get what ever length pine...what ever trucks can pull w/o dragging them down the road too bad. And yes, the weights going to the smaller mills bumps 100's pretty regular. I think that all of that is fixing to stop due to DOT being bumped up to double fro 2014. The back roads is where alot of timber gets hauled through.

From what I can gather, technically the overload weight is supposed to be combined and donated to the Men's and Women's homeless shelters. Whether that happens or is just a detourant I don't know. sending pm Bob in case im on the ignore list.

You're not on my ignore list. Some people are, though.
I know what you mean about the cops. They have portable scales and when they set up along side the road out in the boonies things get ugly real fast. They're one of the few public agencies that actually pay for themselves with the violation revenue they bring in. The California Highway Patrol commercial division handles all of the truck enforcement and they can be very unpleasant when provoked. As a rule they're pretty good to deal with and they've taken a lot of the junk equipment off the road. But if you try to play games with them or cop an attitude it's gonna cost you. Big time.

On the overload thing...the timber companies usually determine the haul rate. Most of the hauling off of private ground is by the ton with every few loads being ground scaled to stay up with the ton/foot formula. On the weight scaled loads there's usually an automatic percentage taken for defect...again this is determined by the ground scaling. It's not a very fair system but it's the one we're stuck with. In my area one timber company owns almost two million acres and 95 percent of the mills in the northern part of the state.
They have an absolute genius for figuring out how much to pay the trucker...enough that he can make a profit if things go right but not enough that he ever really gets ahead. If they can keep the truckers a little hungry the trucker is always eager to work and tends not to complain. He'll run hard, load as much as he thinks he can get away with, and take just about any job he's offered. And if he goes broke the timber company doesn't really care. There's always another dreamer ready to go who thinks he'll get rich hauling logs.
If you log for them the game is just about the same as the one for the truckers. You work for what they'll pay or you don't work. They have no logging division of their own. Everything is logged by gypos.

 

[Spotted Owl]

There is always that one weigh master that wants to flex their muscle. There is a fix for that too. Remember where every road kill skunk is. Center punch that little stripped bastard then head into the scales. Around here they started to have to look things over when they issue any tickets. They really dislike skunk essence, specially when you blow it all over the load they have to look over. Usually a whiff of that and they just wave you by.

For a while now they have been using yellow wrappers, surprised the heck out of me to learn that it is rope under that yellow coating. The driver like it for throwing but don't for the secure aspect of things. I believe the stacks are 13' and legal load is 14' so that helps the shovel operator eyeball. Bottom line everything lays with the driver. It's his butt, so it's his call if it rides or not. I don't know a single shovel jockey that will argue that. The boss will see to that cause the truck sits until the driver deems it safe to run and plugs the side up until it's ready.

Don't take the weigh masters word for the gospel either, seems lots of the have their own thoughts, ideas, and or agenda and try to pass if off as law. There was one close by the house here giving citations for leverage binders. He thought that ratchets were safer and tried to change things on his own, until he started writing tickets instead of talking and warnings.



Owl

 

[Joe46]

Many years ago the scale shack on Hwy 20 east of Anacortes, Wa. went boom one night. The state employees that ran it were not on anybodies Christmas card list. The message was received loud and clear by the state. It was never rebuilt.

 

[slowp]

It happened yesterday. From Lewis County Sirens:

• A 48-year-old log truck driver from Kelso was unhurt but issued a citation yesterday morning when at a corner on the 500 block of Twin Oaks Road west of Chehalis his trailer flipped onto its side emptying its load. Jeffrey Jacobs said the trailer went into the ditch and he tried to pull it out by accelerating but that didn’t work, Lewis County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Rob Snaza said. It happened about 7 a.m. The road was closed for a time and Jacobs was cited for speeds too fast for conditions, according to Snaza.

 

[madhatte]

I saw one a few years ago just off Hwy 6 near Doty where the branches of an overhanging tree on a paved road grabbed the load and pulled the whole mess, truck and all, into somebody's yard. It was on its side and there were a bunch of neighbors there scratching their heads when I drove by. Constables and tow trucks hadn't arrived yet. Did not appear that anybody had been injured but it did look like an expensive mess to clean up.

 

[Gologit]

Great! Truck driver stories. Maybe Slowp can post the picture of the loaded log truck that went for a swim.

Every time I see that picture I can just imagine the phone conversation..."Uh, boss? You're not going to believe this but...".

 

[paccity]

 

[paccity]

 

[slowp]

Great! Truck driver stories. Maybe Slowp can post the picture of the loaded log truck that went for a swim.

Every time I see that picture I can just imagine the phone conversation..."Uh, boss? You're not going to believe this but...".

Here tis. The women at the mini-mart figured it out. A soaking wet guy showed up in the wee hours of the morning. We shall assume he caught a ride back over the mountain. As soon as the water went down, the truck was towed to the mill. Yes, this load had wrappers on while in the water.

He apparently missed the bright flashing DETOUR sign that is turned on during high water. That route would have taken him AROUND the water.

 

[paccity]

 

[paccity]

 

[treeslayer2003]

hey western brothers...and sisters, y'alls trailers do look a bit different than ours, do they extend? or are they fixed?
by the way, we cut different trees but the laws are pretty close. they had a fatal accident here last week and expect length laws to crack down now. i'm glad we been cutting um off at 52 and we gonna keep on doing it.

 

[Spotted Owl]

Only thing bigger than 40's here is pole stock. Biggest, I was part of was up on tribe ground, special order pole cut and there were 2 135's. They helicoptered them out. Had to lay out plenty of sacrificial sticks to bridge the gaps in the ground. Pole mill here will sell 120+ a month for 30's - 40's.



Owl