Log Truck Lifting a Big Log

About this drawing

A log loader truck carries timber out of the woods all by itself. Its crane sits right behind the cab, so it needs no other machine to load up. The driver climbs into a small control seat, works the arm with levers and stacks the logs one by one on the bed.

The key part is the grapple, a steel hand with curved fingers that open and close using hydraulics. A rotator underneath spins it, so the operator can line each log up before letting go. Tall stakes along the sides of the bed keep the load from rolling off.

Those logs become furniture, lumber, paper, cardboard and plywood. In the United States, much of the timber comes from the Pacific Northwest and the Southeast, where companies grow pine and fir trees almost like a very slow crop.

In responsible logging, crews replant after cutting and protect streams, wildlife and older trees. Many wood and paper products carry a label showing they come from well-managed forests, an easy way for shoppers to help when choosing what to buy. Logging trucks then haul their loads to sawmills, where the logs are cut into boards.

• log truck
• grapple
• forest
• timber
• logging