Tall Timbers
Friday, 23 July 2010
Words and Photography by Howard Shanks
Tasmanian based Samjack Pty Ltd Company Principal, Noel Gerke, cites stunning standards of performance, handling and ride quality as some of the reasons behind specifying the new high horsepower Cummins powered versatile Western Star 4800 for their logging applications. Howard Shanks investigates...
A little before 4am at the Georgetown Road turn-off, near Bridport in Tasmania’s Northeast is where Ryan Lette had agreed to meet, and sure enough right on time a pair of headlights piercing the darkness signalled Ryan’s arrival.
Today, Ryan was heading through Launceston out the back of Ben Lomand, the island’s only ski-resort, to the tall timbers of Roses’ Tier for a load of what’s referred to as peeler logs, which are used to make veneer timber.
Ryan’s been in the logging game for more years than he cares to remember, and admits that the logging is a very good industry to be in although he cites it is a very hard industry at times.
Samjack, is a company that Noel Gerke and his wife Yvonne started some two decades ago with a single truck delivering sand and gravel. Today the Samjack fleet consists of 28 specialised logging trucks.
Their first entry into logging came in the early 1990s when Noel swapped his tipper bodies for a traditional log jinker. Two years later they purchased another log truck, and then a short time after that the growing fleet boasted six trucks. “We thought that was a lot of trucks back then,” Noel recalled.
Apart from running a traditional trucking business, Samjack are also vehicle manufacturers in their own right, designing and building their own trailers, known as the “air-logger”, but more on that later…
Now well up into the mountains, deep corrugations in the road below were really putting the Airliner suspension to work. Apart from the odd rattle from the chocks of jinker on the back there was nothing inside the cab to indicate the road had deteriorated.
“It is really well put together truck,” Ryan volunteered. “I’ve been really impressed with it’s overall performance and so far I haven’t had any problems with any of it including the engine, which I cannot fault either.”
The ride inside the 4800 Western Star was exceptional. Ryan added the handling of this truck is by the best he’s ever had. Observing his steady hand on the wheel from the rider’s seat and the seemingly effortless ease Ryan guided the Constellation around the winding track it’s road manners were equally as impressive.
Around another corner and the countryside changed once more, tall trees lined either side of the road. “They’re what they call swamp gums”, Ryan enlightened. “They are one of the softer hardwoods and are mostly used for producing verneer panelling.”
“You can see here in this clearing where they have logged this small coupe and are ready to replant it,” Ryan explained, pointing out the windscreen a few corners further on. “The next coupe is left for several years, which leaves habitat for the animals and from a scenic point means the mountain side isn’t barren. A little further down the track on you’ll see where timber was harvested five or so years ago and then around a bit further there is patch that was harvested ten years ago. As you can see it only takes a few years growth and it is very hard to tell where the harvesting has taken place.”
“These gums that are planted here are fast growing eucalypt tree that the forestry have developed specifically for the industry. It is not a scene of destruction but a renewable resource we have here,” Ryan emphasised.
Like many loggers down this way, Ryan gets a little annoyed when the community is mislead with reports about how logging is destroying the forests. He also has little time for small-minded, misinformed people that block the entrances to logging coupes and vandalise machinery claiming everything as the last tall stand of timber.
“This is the third time this area has been logged,” Ryan pointed out. “There has been a real evolution in the way timber is harvested and forests managed over the last four to five decades. You can walk around some parts of the coupe and see this evolution from the old tall stumps where the fellers would cut the shoe holes for their planks to the shorter stumps cut with the chainsaw.
“Some of them can’t see the wood for the trees,” Ryan mused, referring to the extremist minority.
Today however, we’re here to see how the new Cummins under the hood and the 4800 Western Star perform in the bush.
Both Cummins ISX and Signature engines continue to be the benchmark for retarding power, delivering up to 600 braking hp at 2100 rpm – regardless of their horsepower rating which is essential in the logging business.
And Ryan agrees, “these new Cummins have terrific engine brakes, they are the most effective I ever had.”
Western Star have placed a lot of emphasis on enhancing the cabin environment, this is something that Ryan is really impressed with, “the first thing I noticed coming out of another brand truck was the extra room in the cab,” Ryan volunteered. “I have the seat right back as far as it goes and there is still ample room behind it.”
Another aspect of the 4800 that Ryan is impressed with is the lavish cabin appointments. The FUPS compliant alloy bumper and bullbar options of this model combined with up to 550 horsepower options means these 4800 are the perfect truck for maximum capacity 19 and 26m combinations where overall length is critical.
“On this run we can get approximately 28.5 tonne payload,” Ryan explained. “However on designated airbag-routes we get an extra four tonne which gives us 32 tonne payload.”
The hour or so run from the highway to the logging coupe passed quickly and before long Ryan had unloaded the jinker and climbed into the waiting excavator and began loading.
Like most log trucks down this way, Ryan’s truck is fitted with onboard scales, and the truck can be loaded accurately to the maximum weight.
Interestingly enough is how accurate Ryan can load the logs, as the load is near completion, He monitors his readout as to how much weight is over each axle group. He can then move the log either forward or backward to achieve the correct axle grouping. The loading time is approximately half an hour from when the truck arrives till it is chained up ready to leave.
A whoosh of air exhausting from the spring parking brakes signalled it was time to leave, then as the big bore Cummins under the hood bit hard and the tyres gnawed through the dust searching for traction in the soft powdery dirt track, Ryan, his 4800 Constellation Western Star and 32 tonne of logs slowly moved out of the landing.
It would be another hour and a half before Ryan would reach the mill, at Bell Bay.
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