First Class

Summer 2014

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When Peterbilt founder Al Peterman designed a logging truck back in 1939, he knew it would have to be rugged to handle the unique demands of the forest. That first Model 364 met the challenge. Peterman's logger featured a chain- drive transmission, a premium plywood interior and the promise that no truck would outperform and outlast the Peterbilt in the forest. Of those features, only the promise remains in Peterbilt's newest vocational truck that can be spec'ed for logging, the Model 567. And in the upper peninsula of Michigan, veteran logger Greg Donati is putting the 567 to the test, and is very pleased with the results. Truck is a 10 "I called my rep the other day and told him this truck is a 10," says Donati, the Iron River, Mich., native who has put a number of Peterbilts to work in his 38-year career as a logger. Donati first went to work in the forest in 1977 when a local logger made the observation that Donati took good care of his pickup truck, and figured he might manage equipment just as well in the forest, where vehicle wear and tear is at a maximum. By the mid 1980s, Donati was running his own equipment as an owner-operator, serving the paper mills in the upper peninsula where legal GVWs approach 160,000 pounds. The average length of haul has never been long for Donati, usually about 60 or 70 miles per trip. The wear and tear on his equipment doesn't come from the heavy loads on the highway, however. "We go 50 to 60 percent off-road, "This Truck is a 10" New Model 567 gets high marks from Michigan logger 6 l FIRST CLASS DONATI

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