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.
They'll stretch out a little but there's usually no reason for it unless you're hauling poles. Some of the guys in Oregon and Washington run telescoping reaches but we don't see that much in California. You can also stretch the bull prick out a little but if you extend it too much it's possible to pull it clear out of the reach on a switchback and then your load hits the ground and the siderod gets real grumpy real fast.
The only disadvantage to our type of trailers ( we call them dollies) is that if your dolly tires bog in a soft spot and you try to power out of it or if you're on a steep grade and get too rough with shifting you can slip out from under the load. This usually happens on the truck bunk and when the logs come off they'll fall on the drive tires and then you're dead in the water. It's not an uncommon thing to have happen but it sure screws things up and it's frowned on. If there's any chance of slipping the load the driver will usually tie to the front bunk or put on a slip chain. I've seen guys do both. A slip chain is just a wrapper that stretches between the front of the back bunk to the rear of the front bunk. They don't look like they'd hold much but they really help.
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