Runaway logs

[HadleyPA]

So while at work today eating my lunch I was reading Sirbuildalot's thread titled morning firewood adventure and thinking about how nice it is outside and how I should be home splitting wood today. When I got to the part where he talks about losing the log and it taking off down the road reminded me of something that happened a few years back in a town about 15 miles north of me. The link below should have the runaway wrecking ball video. Check it out. Not something you see everyday. I thought for sure his story was going to end just like the video.

 

[sirbuildalot]

Luckily mine stopped by itself and its a quiet country road with limited amounts of vehicle traffic

 

[old CB]

Living and working in the mountains, I am always concerned about runaways. Working on steep ground--which is what I do most days--if a log or a round gets away it can have catastrophic consequences. I flicked a little chunk loose one day last week thinking it would stop somewhere on the hill below me, and my help told me later that it continued downhill and catapulted across the road before landing in the creek. Luckily no traffic at the critical moment.

Several years back I was removing a tree next to a house on severely steep ground. Before bucking the tree into rounds, I took a bunch of limbs and made a fence below me to catch anything in case something rolled free. Sure enough, one round got loose--but it took a bounce and flew over my "fence." My heart was in my mouth as this heavy round hurtled downhill for a long ways headed for a house down the road. I figured the round probably weighed maybe 50 lbs., but with its momentum it could've crashed through a window--probably through a wall--and could kill someone inside. I was lucky on two counts--the round bounced around and came to a stop in the driveway outside the house, and no one appeared to be home when I picked it up after finishing the job. I took that round home and weighed it out of curiosity--76 lbs. With its momentum, flying downhill, it had murderous potential.

 

[Be Stihl]

I let a 120 pound Maple round roll away on accident this morning. Talk about a wake up call as there are houses and a round downhill of where I was. Thankfully no houses in that direct line it took. Probably would have crushed someone’s foundation. $,$$$


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[sirbuildalot]

Keep in mind the Red Oak log that got away from my grapple was about 4.5’ long and 42” in diameter. According to the log weight calculator it was about 2500 lbs and rolling down hill on the road. Part of the problem was it’s diameter was so large that the grapple jaws really didn’t open wide enough. Definitely a **** your pants moment

 

[Ted Jenkins]

Last fall a customer of mine called wanting me to remove about thirty cords of wood from his property. He has about two acres on a steep hill side. Normally I would not be interested in wood that was so difficult to access, but the wood was decent Pine which I really needed. I have plenty of nice Oak. but nothing to mix with it. The edge of his property parallels about a 150' of county road way. After plenty of evaluation I came up with a plan to direct the wood to a drainage area that was easy to access. After clearing some brush and small trees I was able to create a safe path to a open downgrade area. Along the open area I stretched about 80' of chain link fence with a 1/2'' cable on the top and along the bottom using two large trees as the anchoring points. So we used a wood hauling wheel barrow to move the wood horizontally to the path down hill. Then we let them rip with some fear. The wood rounds started out about 400 to 450 LBS. but as the trees got smaller the rounds became more manageable. The larger rounds were about 60'' across going down to about 12''. The larger rounds had to be quartered to be able to lift them. To start with I rolled a few small pieces of wood down the hill with some hitting the roadway which was not an option being the larger chunks of wood would easily kill some one walking or do a great deal of damage to a vehicle. So this is how it ended up. Thanks

 

[svk]

On of my biggest fears about driving is seeing how poorly other people fasten their loads. I am always worried there will be a runaway load on the highway.

I once passed a guy on the freeway with a low sided trailer and a brand new 4 wheeler. Only held in place with the parking brake and front winch cable.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

I have done most of my hauling and trucking in California so I am unsure about some states attitude of unsafe loads. Here a county, state or USDA staff can report a unsafe load. No matter overloaded under loaded if your load looks questionable you are stuck. I have seen grossly overloaded vehicles travel by CHP officers with out a raised eyebrow, but a hazard load no. So here if you want a citation free trip make sure your load is secure its the law and there is no messing around. Thanks

 

[lefturnfreek]

My least favorite run away's were from the feller head or the loader grapples .... cause they were in the air and gona mangle something usually.

Keep on ... Runnin' Loads !!