Logs, posts and crane mats. Those were the woody freights on display. What the trucks have in common is that the driver also has a part-time job as a crane operator. Now let’s log in.
The prevalent configuration of a dedicated logging truck in the Netherlands is a straight truck with a 6×4 drivetrain, towing a full trailer with three axles. A crane at the back of the truck comes with the package.
And just like in their homeland Sweden -logging paradise- superbly Volvos and Scanias have the upperhand in the business. Here’s a 2017 Volvo FH16-750 6×4 with a liftable rearmost drive axle, nickname Swedish Dynamite.
Unlike the trailer, the Volvo is only partly loaded.
The crane always finds itself in a central position, like a spider sitting in its web.
The connection between the truck and the trailer. This type of trailers is registered as an autonome aanhangwagen, an autonomous trailer; it can’t drive by itself, but it certainly can stand on its own wheels without any support.
The trailer is a 2007 Jumbo, a straightforward yet solidly built construction, weighing 5,400 kg (11,905 lbs).
All things considered, i.e. the gross weight limit and curb weight, the combination is legally allowed to haul almost 29 tons (63,900 lbs) of logs.
Another similar vehicle owned by Fransen, a 2011 Scania R730 V8 6×4. When everything fits on the truck, you can leave the trailer at home.
These surely didn’t come straight from the forest.
The third and last one, and what a formidable semi it is.
Van Limpt’s lavish, 2017 Scania R730 V8 6×2 is playing in the absolute top league of on-highway tractors. Scania-Vabis is the old, pre-1969 name of the truck maker. It has become some sort of badge of pride, especially on V8 Scanias.
The tractor is towing an extentable, 2020 Floor tridem axle semi-trailer with a rolloader crane. While sitting on the crane, the driver can remote control the Scania. Highly convenient and efficient, the preferred way of getting things done.
These are hardwood crane mats. When placed on the ground and next to each other, they form a temporary roadway or work platform for heavy construction machinery.
According to the owner/operator, there’s around 20 tons of mats on the bed. A piece of cake, as the registered payload capacity of the Floor semi-trailer is 34,840 kg (76,800 lbs).
Another distinctive feature is the hydraulic Tridec semi-trailer steering system. When a semi-trailer is extendable -as demonstrated in the picture- a fully mechanical system with steel rods or cables is obviously a no-go.
All three axles are steered, wonderful. This combination is truly outstanding, from the Scania’s headlamps to the Floor’s tail lamps. It doesn’t just lumber, to keep it on topic. It’s time to log out, see you later.
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Truck and full trailer log trucks are common here in California, though of course always conventionals and never (I think) with a crane. There’s a fair amount of forest outside my town, much of it private timber land. Given the tight roads most log trucks seen locally are shorter wheelbase setups towing pup trailers with long drawbars connected to an end of frame hitch, not fifth wheel. Is that setup used in Europe? Here’s one I photographed a few years ago.
That set-up is used for long logs, but in Europe there’s no drawbar connection between the tractor and the rear tandem or tridem axle unit. And the tractor will have a crane behind the cab.
Needless to say, these are everywhere here. Lane County is in the heart of one of the biggest logging areas in the country. We have some truly massive mills in Eugene.
When they run empty, the rear dolly is lifted up and carried like this. These rigs have been the standard logging truck for a very long time.
You don’t see steerable trailers here in the US. We do get variations on the trucks thou. Most of the trucks are just tractors with conventional 5th wheel log trailers (like seen above). But I have seen cranes mounted on the back like shown here as well as behind the cab. When I was up in Maine most of the trucks were not self loading as they would go into a log loading area with dedicated machines loading and unloading, you did get some for smaller areas. Down here in CT logging trucks are pretty rare but they are around and often self loading as it’s not the production style harvesting you get in Maine.
I have friends that work in logging here. They have some self loaders but sometimes also use an excavator with a claw to load. They are often doing more land clearing then commercial harvesting.
When I was in Maine it was common for the trucks to be optioned with the biggest possible engine. Part of this was on some of the private logging roads they wouldn’t be subject to weight restrictions and would very heavily load the trucks.
Now you mention Maine, I was a fan of the TV-show “American Loggers” with the Pelletier family. Quite some years ago, I haven’t seen them for a long time.
Unsurprisingly, Volvo and Scania also offer the biggest possible and most powerful truck engines in Europe (Volvo 16.1 liter inline-six and Scania 16.4 liter V8, 750 and 770 hp, respectively).
Yep those Swedish trucks have some grunt our legal top speed is 90kmh following loggers its easy to spot the big hp ones going uphill my 15 litre Cummins powered Freightshaker gets left behind, I’d change jobs to a European cabover in a heartbeat comfort and quiet opposed to noise and hard riding American trucks just cant be beaten.
My boss did go on a Mercedes buying spree but their transmission problems stopped him before he replaced enough of the fleet.
@Mopar4wd if you’re referring to my photo of the Peterbilt as being a tractor with 5th wheel, I’m pretty sure it’s not. It seems to be a short truck with the front stakes on the truck, and a pup trailer (with drawbar) attached to a pintle hitch at the end of the frame. I think 😀
Coincidentally, I’ve just spent the past 3 days (in my home office) with a whole variety of logging equipment driving around my backyard as my new next door neighbors suddenly realized that they bought a house in a forest and “don’t have a yard!” plus “the trees are going to give us moss on our roof. Ewwwwwwwww!!”… and so have paid untold tens of thousands to have their property stripped of nearly all of its trees.
Some of the murdered flora were hauled out on things that looked somewhat like these extraordinarily tidy euro-trucks, but most were reduced to chips (as is the fashion around here) after being cut down by something that resembled the Super Axe Hacker from Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax.
Needless to say, I’m not feeling too happy about logging vehicles at the moment. 😉
Good picture! Any idea which company built that machine?
That’s a Komatsu.
OK, thanks!
Interesting to see the differences to here standard logging truck here is 8×4 and a 5 axle trailer self loaders do exist but the crane derates the load capacity of the truck so not the most common feature most logs are cut to export length in the bush and simply get trucked to a port, I load edible oil in Tauranga next to a log wharf so get to see these things on a daily basis in the almost constant stream of tankers loggers and container trucks over the Kaimai range, I overtake them going towards the Mount they blast past me coming out empty with the trailers riding piggyback on the trucks
In Europe, the difference is in the size of the trailer and its number of axles.
German trucks generally tow a full trailer with two axles (lower weight limits there), whereas the combination below is a typical Swedish set-up. But no matter what the national gross weight limit is, there will be a crane at the back of the 6×4 truck.
Always love your trucks, Johannes.