Dwayne Lloyd, a timber haulier from Sundre AB in Canada was the winner of our July front cover photo competition.
Dwayne sent in a photo of the 2020 Western Star 4900sb Tri-drive tractor and B-train trailer complete with a 600hp ISX15 Cummins motor and an 18-speed manual transmission. Although the majority of the newer trucks are 9 axles, which allows them to haul larger loads of up to 71,200kg gross weight, this one is an 8-axle setup, enabling Dwayne to haul 63,500kg of weight, which works out to be around a 40-ton payload.
Canada is the largest exporter of wood in the world, almost half of the land area is covered in trees, this equates to 2.4 million km/0.93 million square miles. In 2020 Canada harvested 143 million m³ of roundwood
Over 90% of Canada’s forests are owned by the public (Crown Land and Provincial Forest) with about half of this area allocated for sustainable logging. This ensures a fair trade between sustaining the forest, while protecting the biodiversity of the ecosystem and providing legal methods for harvesting to benefit the economy. From the outset, foresters called for the woods to be managed prudently. This approach entailed both improving the efficiency with which trees were harvested and investing in regenerating them to ensure that the forest’s productivity would be sustained forever.
Dwayne is 44 years old and has been hauling timber for the last 10 years, the company he works for harvest around 300,000 m³ each year in Alberta. The photo was taken in an area where he manages two trips per day to the mill and works on average 13.5-14-hour days. He travels for around two hours on the highway from the mill to the start of the forest road then its another 55 km each way to the harvesting site on rough gravelly forest roads. There is a John Deere tracked loader that loads him in the forest and at the mill he is unloaded by a wheeled loader or a Sennebogen Highlift for decking timber.
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That’s a remarkable amount of work hours for a single machine, the Norcar 600 owned by Erkki Rinne is taken well care of, it even has the original Diesel engine.
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Kieran Anders is a forestry contractor working in the lake district. His work involves hand cutting and extracting timber using a skidder and tractor-trailer forwarder.
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It is not possible to eliminate chain shot, but there are simple steps that can be taken to reduce the risk.
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Arwel takes great pride in the fact that the mill has no waste whatsoever, “the peelings are used for children’s playgrounds, gardens and for farm animals in barns in the winter and the sawdust has multiple uses in gardens and farms as well.
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Timber hauliers need to encourage young blood in, and also look after the hauliers we have, we need make the sector a safe and positive place to work.
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Forest Machine Magazine is written and edited by a forest professional with over 40 years hands on experience. We are dedicated to keeping you informed with all the latest news, views and reviews from our industry.
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