Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/114712
Severe Service Securement anchors 201 Revisiting stake pockets as Trucks for this Canadian fleet have average payloads of about 100,000 pounds. Heavy log hauler gets 'er done with Coronado SD Burke Purdon, owner of a contract log hauling company in Prince George, British Columbia, has been in business since 1970, when he started the small fleet with a 1965 Freightliner he bought from his father-inlaw. Purdon has since expanded, involving the entire family in the business. The company typically hauls in a 125mile radius, so on most days his drivers are home for the night. A typical trip might include pavement to a graveled resource road, then into the timber block and back, all in the same day. Winter temperatures get as low as minus 40 degrees, and snow piles as high as 14 feet. When the spring mud dries up, it produces rough gravel roads. With a typical payload of about 100,000 pounds and a combined weight of 140,000, his trucks are put to the test. Six new Freightliner Coronado 122SD models are the most recent addition to the fleet, spec'd with 550-hp Cummins engines and tri-drive axles for bigger payloads and improved traction. In addition to a high standard for durability in the truck, Purdon praises the Coronado's look and the daycabs' comfort level, a chief concern in rough riding conditions. "I'm 6 feet tall, 330 pounds, and I can get comfortable in that cab," he said. Freightliner Trucks, freightlinertrucks.com We offered brief tie-down tips for equipment haulers in the September issue's Severe Service department. Among them was this reference to securing to stake pockets: "When using stake pockets, drop the hook and chain through the pocket and come back up and hook on the top side." "I never drop a chain into a stake pocket," Wisconsin-based J.D. Bronson wrote. "When you secure a clevis hook this way, you're only using a portion of the full rating of the stake pocket." Bronson offered a preferred method to get the true strength rating out of stake pockets when used as anchor points. "Loop the entire chain around the stake pocket, and then fasten the There's a way to get clevis hook onto the chain itself. If you look at it, we are then maximum strength out looping the stake pocket inside the chain. This affords the proper of stake pockets when running a chain through rating, as we are using all sides of the stake pocket and welds." them. Rick Vincent, with flatbed carrier Melton Truck Lines, said this method is the one they advise Melton operators to use. "The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will not give any clear guidance as it relates to this specific topic," Vincent said. "Their definition of 'anchor point' is very gray, and I think rightly so given the variations on equipment." Consequently, consult your trailer operators' manual for its stake pocket strength ratings. Monster mixer's light touch When Andre Caillier founded A&A Ready Mixed Concrete in 1949, he started with 40 trucks and two batch plants. Today his sons, Kurt and Randy, own the largest family-owned supplier of ready-mix concrete in California. A&A operates 28 plants, employs 500 people and is responsible for 1,000 vehicles. The company purchases Mack trucks from TEC of California at La Mirada – originally R and RD models, now Granites – and most recently tested the Granite MHD (medium heavy-duty) built on Mack's rugged Cornerstone chassis with lighter frame rail, engine and transmission options to maximize payload. The MHD is hundreds of pounds lighter than its bigger sibling. "A mixer here needs to be different to carry a decent-sized payload," Cook said. "We need a truck that will last a long A&A is the largest family-owned supplier of ready-mix concrete in California. time and still meet the weight requirements. The MHD Granite's spec allows us to haul a payload that is better than the other trucks we have in a similar class." "The MHD is quiet and smooth-riding, loaded and unloaded," said Dennis Pyle, a 30-year veteran hauler. "The cab is comfortable, visibility's nice, steering's good. I think it turns tighter than the competition. It looks good." Mack Trucks, macktrucks.com 44 | Overdrive | March 2013 Severe_Service_0313.indd 44 2/27/13 11:23 PM