# Armstrong log unloader



## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Aren't you glad you're not one of these two poor fools?


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## Torby (Jan 2, 2008)

"efelant" 

Perhaps you mean effluent?


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## Dennis Paulson (Jan 2, 2008)

As that log nears the edge , then the truck tips over and self unloads ? ;- )


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Posted By Torby on 14 Aug 2009 06:08 AM 
"efelant" 

Perhaps you mean effluent?









Big gray thing with floppy ears and a trunk is an efelant (and sometimes a heffalump). The burner on your electric stove is a heating elephant. Ask my mother why. Words are made to be played with, aren't they?


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## paintjockey (Jan 3, 2008)

Unloading is the easy part, you oughta try loading them on the truck by hand. For a few years I was one of those poor fools. I worked for a custom cabinet shop that processed all of our own lumber. We never rolled the truck though. 

Terry


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Mik,

You left out a few details: the skids that reach from the ground to the truck's bed. On a log that size, unless you can skid it to a place so you're rolling it more or less level, you're in world of hurt. Something that big would want a skidhorse on the other side with a bridle chain under the log and tied off to the bed. Which I've also done.

Like Terry, I too used to do that. Also, that's not a log rack on that truck, that's more like a cargo rack. (Too short to keep the livestock from bailing out over the top as you tool down the boulevard.

Other than that, pretty cool.


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Les, post pictures of the proper rack and I'll change it. I just haven't made the unloading 'skids', yet... Shortage of funds, and too hot to go out hunting reasonably straight sticks


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Not much to post pixes in the way of racks: they're just 2' or 3' 'stobs' shoved down into the stakeloops. They're just lengths of limb shaped with an axe so a round peg fits in a square hole. Their only purpose is to stop a log you've just rolled up the skidpoles from trundling across the bed and rolling off the other side. The skidpoles are just two round poles long enough to reach from the edge of the bed of the truck to the ground at such a slope as to make it possible for two men to canthook a log up onto the bed. You pile as many logs high on the farside, against the stakes as will stay, working your way back toward the skidpoles, then raise the skid poles to the next level. That's usually enough for any given load of logs. Given the size of the one you've got and that little, old-timer truck, I'd suggest cutting some chocks (4) and fixing them under the log so it won't roll. Then chain it down. All loads had to be chained if you were on the highway, usually the chain ran from one frame, over the top of the load and down to the other. Then a ... a ... um, chain-tightener (doggone mind) snugged it all down. Boomer! Those were called 'boomers' in my neck of the woods. A hook on each end of a frame and a hefty lever you heaved up and over-center to pull a few extra inches of slop out of the chain. Sometimes two would be used on the same chain, on opposite sides of the load, where you wanted really snug. While not many did it, some would use two chains, spaced along the load, because after a trip out of the woods and down the boulevard to the mill, you could get an awesome surprise when you unloosed the boomer, those logs would have shifted around and put heavy pressure on the chain(s). I always used two chains because A) I had 'em, and B) I had a vivid imagination of what a cascade of logs would feel like coming off that truck.

On a log big enough to make it rough on two men, we'd cut a chock apiece, roll the log about half a revolution (or whatever we could get) with one hand and shove the chock in with the other. You had to be quick. Sometimes only a few inches, and load it that way. Using a skidhorse was trickier because the dratted things would tend to faunch or lunge or stumble just at the wrong time and the guy guiding the log had to get out of the way, quick.

Hope this helps.

(Keep up the good work)









Les


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Les, Thanks for the description. I'll see if I have any grapevine twigs handy, will that do?


BTW, the log IS chocked, in two places. (1/4 x 1/4 x 1/2, so figure two scale 6x6s about a foot long each, I figured the log wouldn't hop that very easily) You can see one in the first pic, it's that whitish blob in front of the guy in blue. 


Chains and binders I have. Since they were already removed for offloading, they aren't on the log.... You can see a bit of chain hanging out of the toolbox, and I can always add a puddle of chain with a binder laying on top to the bed if it makes you feel better


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## paintjockey (Jan 3, 2008)

Our truck had a down rigger on each side to keep it from rolling over. We had 4x6 beams with a bracket that would fit into the stake pockets on the side of the truck. For safety we had a "Y" rope that would hook onto the loading side of the truck at the front and rear corners, go under the log then wrap around over the top of the log then travel to the other side of the truck. There we had a one way pulley with a break. A guy would pull the rope through the pully keeping the slack out of the rope, if we needed a break or a canthook slipped the log couldn't roll back on us.


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## Mik (Jan 2, 2008)

Sokay, but what would have been in use, say from the end of WWII to the '60's -- before OSHA got so involved?


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## Les (Feb 11, 2008)

Posted By Mik on 16 Aug 2009 07:08 AM 
Sokay, but what would have been in use, say from the end of WWII to the '60's -- before OSHA got so involved? 

I posted last night, but somehow the answer doesn't seem to have come through. And I'm really foggy at the moment. I'll try again. Oh, I remember: I missed a key and got my finger in between four or five of 'em and things blinked away.

Okay. I used a 47 Chev 1-1/2T truck, the first one sold in St. Charles Co after the war, so it had the military fishplated frame and heavy duty suspension. 2 speed axle (vaccuum controlled). Bottom of the windshield cranked out, an ever-so-nice deal, it saves on a/c, but now and again a hardshell bug gets sucked in and bounces around for awhile.

I think the bed was 16 ft long. In Granny low/under, it would climb up a wall. Had the Chevy six cyl oil splash engine.

To load it, we'd skid to an area that was uphill of the truck's bed, if possible. If not, we just worked harder. There were no fittings such as Terry describes, downriggers, Y chains, ratchet pulleys. Just two skid logs and 3 or 4 stakes on the far side. Two guys rolled the log up the poles, and it rumbled to the far side if lucky, otherwise one guy climbed up on the bed and canthooked it across. These logs ranged from 24" to a few 'monsters' of 36+", at the butt, x 8-1/2' -12-1/2' long. All oak.

There was a board 'wall' just inches behind the cab, with a square hole cut out for viewing out the rear window. I don't know why, but I never saw a log truck with the window cut at the right height, they were all uniformly too high. Centered left and right, of course. I think it had to do with the width of the roughsawn boards, because you didn't want it big enough to let a small log through. This was called the 'bunkboard'. On it were pieces of leather belting nailed down, to carry an couple of axes and a place to tie the sawgas can and saw off with a piece of twine or light rope.

By the time the 60's came, all professional loggers had 'log loaders' a contraption made out of the frame of a car with a rear axle. The housing was cut, a sprocket chain welded on and the end of the axle suitably supported. The other axle had a pulley with a wire rope. To use it, you kicked in the PTO on the transmissin (All truck transmissions back then had acess plates that would accept a PTO unit.) The drive shaft was disconnected and welded solid and stuck out, the cable was led from the takeup pulley to a free-rotating pulley at the end, and thence down to the log, or to a chain. By pulling on a handle that operated a brake cylinder, one wheel was braked, and power went to the other axle via the differential and wound the cable/chain combo up, dragging the log up onto the truck. Various lashups were used. Some guys still liked skidpoles.

I never had one, because other than a couple of years of actually logging for money, I didn't build my own. These loaders were designed by some unsung genius, and they worked well. There were NO safety devices anywhere. It was assumed you knew what you were doing, or if you didn't, you'd learn or get fired for being useless.

Hope this helps. I don't know if I have any pixes of my old truck or not--I know I don't have any of the log loaders. They were too common to bother photographing for themselves, a fault that dogs the RR hobby today.

After I switched to cattle and hogs, I left off logging save for when I needed some lumber.


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