Late fifties KW Off Hwy

[ewaskew]

Another nice one William
I can see why the drivers were like Grizzly Bears
You got to be tough to drive trucks like that.
No AC,Engine right in your lap all that heat and noise.
Forget the radio you couldn't here it anyway. LOL
We have a Volvo/White Day cab at work and it has no comforts at all either.
I drove it yesterday and was thinking about the drivers of the past having to drive trucks like this and what they had to put up with all the time.
Driver's of today have it made and just don't realize it.

[Badluck 13]

I love the CBE,so ugly they were cool,and this is on awesome conversion,I have looked at this so many times and details just keep popping out,such a great looking beast!!

[wazzakw]

ffaaantastic..gotta lov the old trucks..

[tiking]

I see you used the crak'in paint effect on this tractor. Nice.

[Muleskinner]

Jun 23, 2012 7:20:20 GMT -8 tiking said:

I see you used the crak'in paint effect on this tractor. Nice.

Yep the combination of Acrylic paint over still tacky enamel. Livens up the model and makes it show its age along with the weathering. I just can't build a rig without a little weathering. Being from the older ranks of the logging industry, Dirt gets the paycheck, not soap and water.

William

[arnd]

Hi William

Nice work on that one, looks very realistic used and tired. The weathering is grate. And the work with two different types of paint give it that special used and old touch. Are cab over trucks common in the logging industry? I thought that only trucks with hoods were used. The rims you used on that model, are they the normal 10 holes 20 inch AMT rims? And thinking about the real ones are the holes not too big? And would it not be so that the rim became instable? I hope I am not going to nerve you with such detail questions on an model board. But well I try to build up my trucks as realistic as possible and such questions are very important for me to what I can do and what not.
Thanks for your effort.
So long Arnd

[Muleskinner]

Arnd,
Cab over units were used a lot in the logging truck area here in the Pacific Northwest. I guess you might say if it can haul a load then put it to work. There was one unit down in Crescent City, California South of where I live in Oregon which had thirty logging trucks in there fleet and all of them were Cab Over White freight liners. Day Cabs and Sleeper units. Logging is a weird Industry when it comes to equipment they use. If it can be modified to do the job, they would modify it and use it.

Okay now for the rims. The rims on my truck represent those which were experimented with in a lot of trucking units in the pre Jake and Muffler brake era when they used Water cooled brakes. Unit would cut out the holes a little larger in their steel rims to allow for more air flow around the brake drum to help with cooling the brakes on a down hill run. Off Hiway logging trucks had the tendency to be loaded so high you could stand on top of them and hear the angels singing according to some loggers. With a load that high Brake failure is something you didn't need!!
This is the only rig which I used those type rims on and they are the normal ten hole which I made into five hole for extra wheel cooling along with the water cooled brakes. Logger are an Ingenious bunch of guys as I mention before, who will make what they don't have for a specific job out of what ever they have laying around. I have seen some things in my time as a logger you wouldn't believe would work by the way it put together, but then again it would out last and industrial made piece for the same job. What I am trying to say to keep it simple, The logging industry was an experimental type industry for getting the Timber from the stand to the mill and a lot of the equipment was built by the loggers them selves.

As for the question what you can do and can't do, as long as you feel the build will do the job the way you are building it then its right. There are a few of us on this Forum who have been around the industry in different parts of the USA, and in every part they do things different mainly because of the type of trees we have in different location of the US. On the West Coast of the US like here in the Northern California, Oregon, Washington and on up into Canada and Alaska, our trees in most cases will hit sometimes twenty feet or more on the stump and up to thee Hundred feet tall. The tallest recorded coastal Redwood tree was 365 feet tall and was around since the time of the Biblical era. Our firs, Cedar, Hemlock and Sequoias all the same when it comes to stump diameter and heigth. the Sequoias which grow over on the Sierra Nevada Range gane get to be thirty feet on the stump and over two to three hundred feet tall!! Our logging equipment had to be designed for that type of Logging.

When you go East the trees are smaller, what we out here call Pecker poles and the equipment used to harvest them is lighter than what we use here on the West Coast. Our Logging Trucks are set up different than back there also, because of the loads we haul.

So to shorten this it just depends on what type of trees you are harvesting, that you design your rigs and equipment around. Hope this brief(?) explanation helps out.

William

[arnd]

Hi William

Exactly this is the reason why I like this forum and all of you guys so much. You ask something and you get a really grate answer. So I can share all your knowledge with you and learn a lot about logging from old days. I think that it was a very exciting and heavy work back then. All that information in these sentences give me a lot more ideas about what I can build and still be original and realistic. Knowing now that many logging rigs were shop build from all parts that were lying around give the possibilities to use all old parts I have here. As I mentioned my logging knowledge about US logger is not to perfect. Up here in Germany loggers are very boring, self loader for short trunks, and that’s why I am so interested in the US trucks. I think the next project will be a self made logging truck.
Thanks a lot for that grate answer and information!!!
So long Arnd

[Muleskinner]

Arnd,

I was stationed at Baumholder, Germany for a while when I was in the military. I seen some of the logging rigs around there and they were to built for the specific job they were doing. I took a few trips to Idar-Oberstien on the weekends and the rigs there were built a little bit different it seemed just as the rigs are built here in the states different to fit the job they are doing. It was a great experiance to see those rigs in Germany. I just wish I would have taken more time to get Photos of them Buty duty called most of the time.

William

[jimb]

Excellent work on the CBE. Fantastic detailing & weathering.

[maxwell48098]

Outstanding build.

[trailking120]

Outstanding

[swamp rat]

great job..

[78kw]

I never knew CBE KWs were used as loggers. Very cool.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using proboards

[sailorross]

William,
Beautiful build, Its really incredible how good you are at making them looked used, the wear/rub areas at the tire rests on the bunks and the paint scraped off to steel on the stakes…brilliant!

I like how you put it as far as adapting the equipment for the environment, as well as the good old days when you weren’t regulated up to your ears, you make it yourself, cut it up and reinvent it till it works. Will have to strat a new thread on home made equipment and post a pic of my dads first loggerin the late 40's, single axle truck cheese blocks and no doors