Trucks. Loading, unloading, and keeping it all safe.

Showing posts with label Oregon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oregon. Show all posts

Friday, January 8, 2021

Log Trucks

It wasn't until my freshman year of college that I saw a flatbed trailer equipped with bunks transporting logs. I was travelling from LeTourneau College to a cross country meet at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacodoches, Texas.

The mills we passed looked strange. No towering stockpiles of logs equipped with sprinklers to maintain moisture content. Not everything is bigger in Texas after all. There were no huge log loaders splashing through Texas-sized puddles and it didn't smell like damp Douglas Fir bark. Worst of all, the log trucks were all wrong--for Oregon and Washington and other mountainous states.


Driving a log truck in one of these mountainous regions requires guts, skill and something other than a traditional fifth wheel setup. Steep gravel roads, switchbacks, narrow landslide prone double track goat trails, often on the edge of steep canyons that can be hundreds of feet deep.

It is very important that the wheels on the trailer follow the path taken by the truck. Enter the stinger steered pole trailer.