The trucks from the 70's to mid 90's? I am looking for one to move our yarder with.
Well for starters the cab-81 and down has the A model smaller cab and 82 up the larger B cab. Most of the A models had rounded fiberglass fenders and the later B's were flat construction type. The B model had longer springs on the steer axle for a better ride. As far as frames not that much difference. Of course the engine, trans and drive axles had more choices with the B. I think the B cab is much tougher than the A model was. And the air valves and air lines were better on the later series of KW like most. The electrical components on the later B cabs were much better than the early A's. Truck Shop
So if I stayed post 84 I am better off.
Personally I would look for 88 to 92 mechanical Cat powered or later N14 powered. IMO Truck Shop
Thanks TruckShop! I have an opportunity to buy one that is well setup for off highway moving but it would make a less than ideal all around truck. It has Mack planetaries, Big cam III, 18 speed & 4 speed brownie but just isn't a very good highway rig.
Also IIRC my 83 was the A model cab & my buddies 86 is also?
Hmmm That sounds like Weyerhauser specs! She should be double tough.
Have you been spying on me....???
LOL Used to do a boatload of work for them. Mostly Snoqualmie and Vail. Really liked the shop boss Art up in Snoqualmie. I used to own and than after I sold, operate a heavy haul outfit in your neighborhood for 17 years. Those specs could only belong to a handful of outfits.
Was the Mack running gear an option when you are as big as Weyerhauser, or did they buy them without axles and put them in themselves, or do something else?
You know the truck very well then. It is just hard to justify the cost for 4-5x a year use.
Kenworth produced no A model cabbed trucks after 81, 82 up were all B model cabs. Are you sure those rear drives are Mack? Rockwell made and makes planetary rear drives that look like Mack drives. Plus Kenworth made Big Six rear suspension that looked somewhat like Mack camel back. If it does have Mack drives someone put it under there. Kenworth would never build a truck with another brands suspension or drives no mater who was buying or building for.---Is that truck your looking at painted white? I seem to remember one on line for sale that advertised it with Mack drives and suspension not long ago. Truck Shop
The Mack rears were installed by owner and no, it's not white. Same owner for 21 years.
I am by no means familiar with the woods, but I know what a yarder is, and it sounds to me like a perfect truck to drag a yarder up to the landing. With that 4 sp, you would just pick the gear to give you the top end you want (I'm guessing either 2nd or 3rd) and have fun. Some might argue that a Cat would be better, but isn't a BCIII the same vintage as an A model 3406? With that gearing in the hills, 350 hp should be plenty.
With a 4 speed and planetaries a Briggs and Stratton would do it!
The BCIII is the best out of the NTC's nothing wrong with that engine, the BC IV on the other hand well we won't talk about those. I use to move two yarders for a logging outfit Madill and Skagit with a 78 W900 with a 375 hp A model Cat, 9X4 transmissions and 4:56 ratio SSHD's on Kenworth Big Six suspension. Never had a problem it did a good job. Truck Shop
That's the problem nowadays. Everybody thinks that if they don't have 500 yellow horses under the hood they are going to end up rolling backwards down the hill. I ran around for 10 years at 92k gross with an L10 and 8LL, 4.44 gears. More hp would have been nice, but the real difference would have been 35 up the hills instead of 25. What a lot of these new guys don't realize is this country was built with trucks that had less power than your average passenger car today.
If I am thinking of the right truck the front of that Mack that donated the rearends is sitting in a boneyard in Cathlamet. Can't think of a better one for dragging a yarder around!
You guys are both correct! We often forget that most of the old off highway trucks had half the power of the trucks of today! That "boneyard" in Cathlamet has more good stuff in it than any LKQ! When I lived there I would drive by it daily!
Not to hijack but here's a set of rears for ya. My youngest daughter was 6, she turns 14 this month. Time flies. Those are 100k Rockwell rears in a 64 A-car. Cummins 5+4.
After I sold the company and went to work operating it. I retained one of the older tractors as a "service tractor" when one of the others was in for PM or down. The new principles hated that old truck because it sat for a day or two every week or maybe even a week. I couldn't use it for a heavy but I had enough depth in the operation that I could use it free up a heavy. You need what you need to be successful. The definition of that is different for all of us. We weren't in the woods every day and if we were going up on "the property" to a landing I made sure that one of our triple steel tractors went so that when we dumped the jeep we weren't on the ground. I would have killed for a big dedicated off highway truck if I could have justified it!
You are a very wise man Deuce. I thank you for your words as you confirmed my inner thoughts. I am going to make an attempt at it this weekend.
Good Luck with that!
He says he has an offer from a guy in LaPine for it but I think he really isn't wanting to sell it yet.
Bummer... Springtime in coming, may comeback around.
I saw it today, still sitting at his shop.
https://bellingham.craigslist.org/hvo/d/95-kenworth-w900/6458781519.html Truck Shop
Looks like an old Sicklesteel (Barnhart) truck. If it is, they kept their trucks in pretty good shape.