early 60's Nor Cal Bunks

[sailorross]

Im trying to duplicate the trailer rests that my dads trucks had…part of it would be the steel pipe mounted to the chassis in front of the bunk, I cant find a picture showing where the tires rested aft of the stakes? Anyone have a few pics that would show this?
Thanks

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[tufftin]

Normally they would have had a pipe rest in front of the bunk and another behind the bunk and the trailer tires kind of sat in a saddle with the bunk being the fore and aft support.
Mike

[sailorross]

Thanks Mike, Its hard to see but the aft pice has flip out sections that only catch the inner tire, for some reason I cant find any pics from the back... Your web page is great, love all the pics and I had to borrow the pics from the KW factory
Ross

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[Muleskinner]

The wheel rest on some went all the way out to catch both duals on the trailer in the front and rear while others only caught the inner duels. It depends on who out fitted the rig for logging which type you have. So either way, you would be right. The pictures you posted show the shortened type which caught only the inner tires of the dual wheels. Seeings how the truck is from Elk California, I would venture to say it was outfitted by Miller out of Anderson California. They did a lot of short pole cradles for trailers of this type.

william

[tufftin]

Forgot about the flip out type. It's been a long time.
Mike

[Muleskinner]

One more thing I might add here is that since this is a Northern California rig from the sixties, the bunk itself would be centered where it rests between the duels of the truck. They didn't start moving them forward until around the mid seventies to late seventies. When the trailer is mounted in the carry position, you should be able to draw a straight line up or down from the center of the driver hub, to the center of the trailer hub above at perfect verticle. This rig in the pictures I would say also had a squared off stinger at the end of the frame, where as the frame was extended straight out eight feet from the center of the rear duels and then squared off where the pintle mounts for the trailer. On this year of rig I've only seen a few where the stinger was bent inward to the twelve inch end for mounting the pintle. Most of them I think were modified later on by the units to make all their rigs conform to company standards. Here again it is up to the builder of the rig.

Also this rig looks as if it is beginning into the jake brake age as there is no water tank or saddle water tank on it as I can see for cooling the brakes. Having seen a couple of these rigs owned by Christiansen, I will also mention that they had a spare tire hanger on the right side of the frame. If you are using the revell snapper kw to build this rig, or one like it I would recommend extending the frame behind the cab about five feet to get the maximum space between cab and bunks. other wise everything will be crowded forward on the rig. Even if you are using the AMT or Revell germany Kw I still recommend extending the frame as those models out of the box are designed for interstate hi-way use and not for logging which has its own standards of length for the woods and hauling logs. The extension will allow for the centering of the load on the bunks so you don't end up with a cab raker.

[Muleskinner]

I see the flip out type on this rig which you are talking about. They were usually made out of rectangular steel tubing, attached to the frame of the rig and in the case of this rig had an end piece which was made to lay on top of the cross bar when not in use and be flipped out to act as a mounting cradle for the rear dual of the trailer. The end piece was built in such a way that it actually laid on top as well as down the sides of the mounting bar. They were built like this so as not to present a boot grabber when someone was on top of the rear truck frame. The mounting bar was also in some cases,, built out of channel steel and mad to where the flip out would lay down inside of the channel.

I have even seen a few of these mounts front and rear where the outer part of the mount actually slid into the main frame mount forming a telescoping cradle which could easily be stowed within itself and out of the way. These were mostly shop built, but the idea did catch on and you can still at times find a few of them being used even today on rigs if you look hard enough.

Hope this helps a little.

William

[sailorross]

Thank you for the info William, as i remember as a youngun My Dad had the some of the first jake breaks in Mendocino County. I have extended the frame trying to estimate the distance from the front of the drivers to the cab, and after cutting off the sleeper and adding another 1.5 feet im close i hope, this truck also had the fuel tank cab side on the right. Im working on the stinger, most of Dads had the angled in stinger but after you mention this ive zoomed in on a pic and have found a squared off stinger like you say!!! Very cool! I wish I would have taken more interest in all of this after college and before the old guy past, there are so many questions id like to ask him.
What year and model would this truck be?

I need to start a build thread and post some pics
Thanks agian William

[slurrydog]

Wouldn't that be an early 60's kw?
Dave

[Muleskinner]

I'd venture to say about a 62 - 64 maybe.

[slurrydog]

That is kind of what I was thinking William. Didn't in the mid 60's they went to a little bigger windshields?
Dave

[tufftin]

The truck you have pictured is a '61 or 2 KW. Pretty much in '63 they moved the lights and started the later style and then moved them again a couple of years later for what we refer to as the B model. The pictured one has an early cab that I think ended in '62. The ribs across the door fore and aft are a good sign of early as well as the door hinge on an angle.
Mike

[ap40rocktruck]

any idea what the colors are of the truck & trailer. Such a good looking rig in the photo.....

Thanks for all the information & history.

Ap40

[Muleskinner]

Mar 19, 2013 10:16:04 GMT -8 ap40rocktruck said:

any idea what the colors are of the truck & trailer. Such a good looking rig in the photo.....

Thanks for all the information & history.

Ap40

Rick,

From the looks of the layout I would venture to say it is either White with black fenders and stripe or yellow with Green or black fenders and stripe. It could be White with green fenders and stripe you never can tell. Colors fade and tint over the years but with the experience I've had with trucks from eastern California, over by the Sierra Nevada range, most were yellow or white in high definition colour. After blowing this picture up and looking close at it, I'd venture to say this rig is Yellow and and Black, based mainly on the fact that it has a diamond on the louvers of the radiator and most logging rigs I've ever seen this diamond was almost always black. The markings on the front bumper also appear to be black.

This rig is also hauling redwood logs, so I would go with the yellow and Black as a colour. A predominate colour in the Redwood region of California.

[Muleskinner]

I made a check of Elk, California which I found was located about twenty eight miles south of Fort Bragg on the Mendocino coast of California. This would lead me all the more to say the truck is yellow and black. Very rugged coastal area and the rigs were painted in high definition yellow a lot of times so the could be spotted more easily from the air if they had an accident or some other emergency. These logging companies out here on the coast usually had a chopper of light aircraft at their disposal for emergency use in the woods. Pacific Lumber Company of Scotia, California had three emergency choppers which were stationed at the various mills from Scotia down to Philipsville, and two light aircraft stationed at Rhonerville airport up by Fortuna.