APPALACHIAN LOGGER USES OFF-ROAD DUMP TRUCK AS FORWARDER

Forwarders

INTRODUCTION: Jerry Deacon, of W.R. Deacon & Sons, a sawmill and logging firm from Lexington, Virginia, purchased a 1999 timber sale in the George Washington National Forest that specifically required forwarding. A steep, winding, and narrow old logging road accessed the timber sale area, but because of environmental considerations, the Forest Service did not want to upgrade the old road to truck hauling standards. Approximately 2,000 tons of logs and pulpwood had to be forwarded 0.6 mile along the old logging trail from a small, temporary woods landing near the cutting units to a truck landing near a secondary road.

 
Fig. 1: Rented loader / dump truck combination substitutes for self-loading forwarder.

Fig.2: Volvo A25-C dump truck hauls approximately 10 tons of wood per trip. 

 
Fig. 3: Off-road dump truck can be a cost-effective method
of forwarding wood to a roadside landing.

OPERATION: Initially, Jerry leased a Scandinavian-style self-loading forwarder with a 9-ton payload to forward the timber. However, with skidding and market constraints limiting his production to approximately 6-8 MBF of logs and 20 tons of pulpwood per day, this approach proved too expensive. One of his logging crew members casually mentioned that a local highway construction company had a couple of off-road dump trucks sitting idle at its construction yard. Perhaps an off-road dump truck could be used to "forward" the timber? After considering the idea and deciding it would work, Jerry negotiated a favorable short-term rental rate from the construction company and had a Volvo A25-C off-road dump truck delivered to his job site. He also rented an ancient but serviceable knuckleboom to load the dump truck at the in-woods landing. The dump truck forwarded cut-to-length sawlogs and random-length (12- to 20-foot) pulpwood to the roadside landing and deposited them next to Jerry's knuckleboom, which loaded them onto haul trucks.

APPLICATION: The Volvo A25-C is a relatively small (25-ton) off-road dump truck. In this logging application, it "forwarded" approximately 10 tons of wood per trip. It took an average of 30 minutes for the dump truck to be loaded, travel the 0.6 mile to the roadside landing, dump the load, and return empty to the in-woods landing. Thus, in an 8-hour workday, it was capable of forwarding approximately 120 tons, or 5 tractor-trailer loads, of logs or pulpwood. Jerry estimated that his forwarding cost on this sale, when unaffected by market constraints on production, was about $6.00 per ton, including the dump truck operator's wages. In considering this option for other applicable timber sales, the forwarding cost must be compared with the alternative cost of relocating and upgrading the old logging road to hauling and BMP standards.

Utilizing multi-function equipment that could be employed in non-logging applications when appropriate is one way that some loggers may be able to help buffer their operation from the ups and downs of the wood markets. Besides the off-road dump truck/forwarder described in this Technical Release, another multi-function machine is a track-mounted loader/excavator, such that the owner simply changes attachments from a grapple for loading logs to a bucket for building roads, excavating basements, digging fish ponds, and so on.

REVIEWED BY:
Rick Meyer
Appalachian Technical Division Forester