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For Rural and City Living
Da' Truck
As Kat has put down so far and so well, we are now in the log procurement business. Or as we like to say. "Taking out poison ivy, wait a minute vines and various other wood choking plants to harvest logs." Cedar appears to be good for one thing when left unattended for decades at a time. A fantastic vine support that grows and chokes out a healthy tree stand. But I am really getting ahead of myself as first we had to have a way to harvest and haul back to the mill these body pokers called Eastern red cedar. Body pokers you are asking? Cut a 20" diameter cedar and soon you will feel exactly what I mean.
At one point in the past our oldest daughter wanted a truck. She found a 1977 - 3/4 ton ford with one very rotted bed. She of course with all of the enthusiasm of a new vehicle owner at the age of sixteen wanted to rework it. Two weeks later there it sat in the side yard partially covered in grey primer. That was six years ago. Until a few months ago nothing on the ford had changed. Well with the exception of I had put new tires on it, new battery, and new starter paid for the insurance and oh yeah - bought the darn thing in the first place. The ambition of the young and gosh "how come it doesn't happen over night?" Well that's a subject for another time.
After looking into our budget and making some calls to the local metal yards I realized I had a choice. Buy the metal and scrap the winch or buy the winch and scrap new metal. Salvage to the rescue!!!!! Earlier on at one of my contract jobs I had traded out some labor for a small stack of 2" diameter by 1/16" thick walled galvanized tubing. The material was left over from a project to manufacture those portable carports.
After a lot of searching I finally came to a position of no time like the present. We had just made a deal for logging out a piece of acreage and we needed a hauling, tree pulling and loading system. Our deadline to start was in two weeks and well like I said no time like the present. I pulled my trusty bible from the bookshelf and got down to work with pencil and paper. Trusty bible? The Machinist Handbook of course - greatest resource in the known universe for all things a questioning mind could ask. Of course you have to figure the answers. If you are wrong, well, the worst thing it won't work and it just might maim or kill ya. Oh well fun in the Ozarks!!!!!
Drawings and calculations in hand and the welder fired up it was time to either do some damage or put together a winch truck.
Front Bumper and Old Bed Removed
Note: 4 X 4 x 1/4 inch and 2 X 4 X 1/4 inch for front bumper and rear bed frame
Front Truss Frame of 2" Diameter x 1/16" Thick Round Tubing in Place
5000 lb winch mounts between the two center uprights
Rear Truss mounted to new truck bed frame
Center Beam with trussed supports for rear winch pulley
But, does it work?
"Uhh Yep!"
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Kat and Kevin Yares
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