Logging Truck Accident on Highway 1 Creates Delays
Press release from the Caltrans District 1 Facebook page:
TRAFFIC ALERT: State Route 1 (PM 30.9) at the top of Elk Grade, north of Elk (Mendocino County), is open to one-way controlled traffic due to a log truck that lost its load. We will provide updates as they become available. For the latest roadway information, please use QuickMap.dot.ca.gov.Log truck accident reported at 1:47 p.m. [Photo from the Caltrans District 1 Facebook page]
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I wonder if that’s not a flatbed truck with Turkey racks?
Our logging trucks were way more stable than flatbeds that can haul logs
It’s not.
You can see the reach.
It’s folded.
That looks way more like a Guard rail than a reach.
Look to the left of the guard rail.
It’s the long beam shaped thing attached to the back of the tractor, between the mud flaps, that goes Bach and is now parallel to the rear axles.
The reach is supposed to be perpendicular to the rear axles.
There appears to have been a slight malfunction.
It’s the thing in the middle of this screenshot…
It doesn’t look like a guard rail to me…
That would be a reach.
Did you see the corrugation in that ?
I say Guard rail
Nope, no corroboration.
And no correlation, either.
But, I had a feeling you’d say something like that, again.
Those reaches don’t bend easy, but, I can say one thing for them…
At least they will bend.
No, that’s a log truck. If you zoom in on the picture it looks like the reach broke right in front of the trailer. The reach is basically the tongue for the rear dolly trailer. When it breaks the trailer is loose to do whatever it wants and usually dumps the load. Glad he was in a left hand corner so it went outside rather than into the other lane
A reach breaks because it is a fulcrum point that gets flexed every time the truck turns or goes through a dip. It becomes fatigued where it enters the dolly and eventually breaks. It’s probably the most neglected point on a logger. Rarely is it stressed to new drivers to inspect this point regularly. It’s an out of sight, out of mind thing. First indication your reach is broke is when you look in your mirror and see nothing but what looks like the wall of a log cabin.
I agree with you although it is hard to see the crack starting because it is usually just a little inside the tunnel of the trailer
Yeah, it gets missed because you have to release the clamp and slide the reach ahead to get a good look. Some reaches never get moved because they’re rusted into place and don’t slide easily. It turns into a time consuming chore that gets put on the back burner.
What if the “clamp is loose”, and when the brakes are applied going down a hill, and the dolly wheels grab, or lock up, what prevents the dolly from sliding back, (are the logs secured to the “bunk”), out from under the logs, and or the dolly just continuing straight, leaving the radius of the turn, and flipping the whole Maryanne?
There must be some kind of stop, or will the reach just slide out all the way?
If it slid out under that kind of force, and then suddenly hit a “stop” of some kind, it seems like it could easily snap.
I’d like to see a few more pictures…
If the dolly wheels lock up, or even under hard braking, they are not going to want to “track” around the corner, because the differential will be defeated.
The tractor will continue around the corner, and bend the reach.
Once the reach starts to bend or break, it’s all over…
You are supposed to secure the logs to the front bunk. It used to be common not to, so if you slid off a road the load could separate from the truck and not drag you into a 80,000# pile that looked like Thors hammer worked it over.
There are devices on the rear of the reach that keep the dolly from sliding off. While trying to wrap your head around how this all works, don’t forget to throw in the compensator and rotating bunks. That’s another chapter.
A lot of loggers didn’t run front brakes. I mean there were none. This allows you to keep steering on slippery muddy roads. After a rain it’s like driving on ice. If your coming down a 22% grade in the mud mostly you don’t dare try to stop. You just use the brakes to the extent they will work without sliding, and no front brakes ensures your fronts won’t lock up and cause steering to become completely ineffective.
The truck in the picture has a water tank on the back of the cab to cool the brakes. A dream truck ran water, jake brake and a torque converter. You could slide straight down from heaven without burning up your brakes with that setup, and sometimes get one more load a day.
There are absolutely endless tricks to hauling logs in the woods. Learn enough of them and you might live.
One more thing; Logging truck drivers can’t back up, but they make really good race car drivers.
Wow, thanks for all that!
So the bundled load of logs is not secured to the rear bunk…
Interesting.
Sounds kinda dangerous for an accident like this…
Another question would be if the log truck driver has a separate control for the “trailer brakes” or, (in other words, a separate control for the dolly brakes…)
I sometimes just use my trailer brakes when towing my wood trailer etc.
It seems like pumping the trailer brakes, too hard, in a downhill turn like this, with the log load unsecured to the rear bunk, regardless of whether or not it’s secured to the front bunk, and if the reach clamp is also possibly loose, could result in the dolly sliding out from under the load, and compromising the reach…
It’s all over but the crying at that point.
Sure is a nice view from there.
Yeah. Not sure what happened. But when that driver looks to his driving career, it may be time to log off.
I am just glad the driver is fine. It looks like it is a long way down in the picture. I can’t honestly pass judgement until I know the real facts.