Another sad one

[lwmibc]

Another death from what must have been some kind of mechanical failure. Comments follow the article; I'm afraid someone got under my skin and I couldn't keep my hands off the keyboard. Don't know if that's an improvement over not being able to keep my mouth shut.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/highway-7-accident-1.3375680

Photos of the truck are here:

http://bc.ctvnews.ca/driver-killed-in-logging-truck-crash-on-lougheed-highway-1.2709297

You can see that everything's all still coupled, I'm thinking that the left trailer bunk cable might have let go. The front drive axle is also out of alignment; maybe something like a Pete 'air-spring' and the spring leaf broke?

It hit me hard, that someone can survive the logging roads in this country, and then buy it in the safety of the pavement on the way to the sort from some kind of failure. He is reputed to be an excellent driver. Just doesn't make sense somehow. It could have been me, but somehow wasn't.

 

[Jim Timber]

First off, this is tragic. I'm also saddened that someone who looks to have been driving safely was taken from this earth before they should've.

Is this something that could've been prevented? Do you have service intervals on cables, or do you just replace them when visibly damaged? I'm asking because I don't know.

 

[lwmibc]

First off, this is tragic. I'm also saddened that someone who looks to have been driving safely was taken from this earth before they should've.

Is this something that could've been prevented? Do you have service intervals on cables, or do you just replace them when visibly damaged? I'm asking because I don't know.

First, I don't know what happened, as of yet nobody does that I know of. I was just speculating of what it might have been, looking at what seemed to have dragged the truck over onto its side on a straight stretch. On that road, the driver would have been still accelerating from the slow turn over the railroad tracks, then through a 50 km/hr zone over the Nikomen Slough bridge, and he had completed the right-hand turn onto the straight-away on Nikomen Island. With 128,000 lbs, there is no way this can be attributed to speed in that location; I've driven it many times loaded. This is maybe 600 meters from a serious 90 degree turn over the CPR mainline tracks that requires a shift into low range with an 18-speed transmission to make the turn, and it takes some time to get back up to any speed with that load.

Stake cables are the cables that hold the log stakes vertical wrt to the bunks, they are a daily-inspection item on each pre-trip inspection. We used to replace them annually, damaged or not, and never saw any damage within that year. They are replaced if any damage is seen, and I've never seen one broken. But something from the accident pictures seemed to suggest that the load might have gone off the left rear and dragged the tractor and jeep over.

Just speculating. I'll wait for the full report from Worksafe BC; they and Forestry are pretty thorough in evaluating these things.

I'm just lucky/thankful I never had to be 'evaluated' in that way....I guess.

 

[Jim Timber]

I had read your comments on the links, and that does sound reasonable. I just have never even come into proximity with a trailer set up like that. We don't have roads capable of that much weight.

This trailer is what we have around my area, even though this video is from Maine.

 

[lwmibc]

Axles are axles, and that truck in your video has 6, which is only one less than the configuration in the accident; that means (close to) 9100 kg. lighter allowable. We go up to 8-axle configurations in BC, but those are generally used in interior logging; turns in coastal mountain logging roads are often too sharp for trucks that long. The truck configuration is pretty much controlled by what the mill wants for log length, combined with what lengths the forest provides in a given area, and folks will switch overnight if they have to if demands change. But they seem to remain fairly consistent over time for a given area.

In BC the allowable weight is calculated as '100 kg per cm of tire width on the road'; this calculates out to 9100 kg. per axle of four 11R24.5's. In closely-spaced axle pairs as on the tractor, or triples like on the trailer in your video, that allowable weight is degraded due to the pavement not having enough time to fully rebound after the front axle goes over it by the time the next one squashes it down, so for a normal tandem-axle pair we don't get 18,200 kg, we get something like 17,600. The tridem trailer is degraded per-axle slightly more.

So the tridem trailer in your video is allowed slightly less than the 3-axle trailer in the accident vehicle, as the front axle there is allowed it's full 9100 kg, as is the jeep-frame axle. The last truck I drove had the self-steer trailer as in the links, same configuration tractor but without the jeep frame; that was 49,100 kg. Adding the jeep frame added another 9100 kg, for a total of 58,200, or 128,000 lbs.

All trucks have on-board digital scales; an 'over-loaded logging truck' just isn't on our roads anymore despite public perception, and virtually all the drivers I've met up here are pretty perfectionist in their approach. The hot-dogs generally get weeded out before they get to the pavement; up on the mountain is where the tough driving is.

Sorry for babbling, but I made it to retirement with no accident and am feeling entitled (that's my story yadda yadda....).

 

[Jim Timber]

We have different rules. We can only have 90,000# on 6 or more axles for unfinished forestry products in MN. Doesn't matter if you have 7, 8, or 10 axles. 90K is max.

 

[lwmibc]

Interesting--do they have a logic for that? Here more rubber means more pounds, with an upper limit mostly because of grades on highways; lots of axles plays havoc with the pavement pulling steep grades on a hot day. The grooves over the years tell the tale.

This was my configuration for 108,000 lbs, and one of the common ones in coastal logging. Weight was 34,100 lbs empty with full fuel. Also common is tractor with jeep frame and 2-axle pole trailer, and more recently some are adding the jeep frame and the same trailer as shown here like Floyd had. Tridems are also becoming more popular, both in tractor and pole trailer when there are no load restrictions on the roads.

Sorry about the ugly load, but obviously I tended to record the 'not routine'. A couple of those pieces required the log-loader and an excavator to get them up there, and they were from the same tree. It WAS a hoot watching the 980 pick them off at the sort. I think he came 'this close' to asking everyone there to climb onto the counterweight, but he eventually got creative enough to get them off. Four wrappers for that load.

 

[Jim Timber]

You can run 10% over in winter rules after the ground's frozen; and then there's spring rules where they cut the weights back as the ground thaws again. But the roads here are the main concern, and they limit what you can roll with to preserve the asphalt.

Towing has a standard exemption from combined weight, as does any road improvement equipment. Fuel haulers and refuse trucks are also exempt from spring weight restrictions.

You can get overload permits relatively easily as long as you're on a normal 10T/axle rated road. My land is blocked in by a 7T township road, so I can't even get a regular log truck out of my property with a respectable load. Township chair who owns that stretch is hell bent against me logging in general, so I'm not getting any permits either. I can run up to the full 7T and that's it. Then again, if I do it in the off season or early/late enough in the day, no one would likely notice if I pulled a heavier run out to the main trunk.

I've just got a 5 ton single axle straight truck right now, so I'm legal with anything I can fill it with.

 

[lwmibc]

Yes, everybody wants 2X4's ready and waiting--and straight ones, dammit--whenever they go to the lumberyard, but don't cut any trees down that I might ever see in my lifetime. It seems to be becoming universal, its ignorance notwithstanding.

In any event, we seem to have got off topic; I honestly thought people might be interested that someone lost their life in this business again through no fault of his own, but such seems to not be the case. I thank and admire you for responding, and I have to think about ever doing this again on this forum.

I feel it because this is tough work up here this time of year, getting up every morning at 4 am to pre-trip a complex truck in the dark and rain, chaining up every load on the logging road, and looking forward to that break from Christmas to New Year's when the sort yards shut down and you don't haul. Somewhere in Hope there are presents under a tree now that won't get opened, but for something unpredictable that broke 4 days before that break. I feel for Floyd and his family, having made it myself to Christmas break for as many years as I did.

As Floyd did I guess, until this one.

 

[Jim Timber]

I don't really blame them for not letting me beat on our road. When it was paved, they never prepped the dirt road and just put 3" of tar on it. It's in rough shape every spring. I don't think it'd handle too many log trucks, but at the same time, I only have 84 acres, so there's just not that much wood to remove at any given time.

I think of all of you truckers, as I was involved in the support industry for a couple years in my early 20's and still have a deep fondness for the machinery. I have several friends in the business to this day (OTR). You guys keep our lives possible, and I appreciated the posting about Floyd so we could say a prayer for his family.

I'm one of the only people in this state that'll flash ya a safe lane change and not ride up your colon following behind ya.

Living to see retirement with our four wheelers is a miracle in it's self. Glad you made it!