Michigan Log Truck, a year into this project

[Gary Chastain]

I live in Northern Michigan where logging is a important industry. In my small town there is a trucking company with about 20 acres of logging trucks and equipment. These logging trucks are monsters and I had to try and replicate my version of a Michigan Logging Truck. Everything from the cab to the back of the trailer had to be fabricated or purchased aftermarket. I bought a crane but it was not what I was looking for so I build the crane from scratch ( some pieces more than once). Picture on my bench was the inspiration. Just received this past week some more aftermarket detail stuff

[Gary Chastain]

The truck

[Gary Chastain]

The trailer.

[Gary Chastain]

This is where the project is today. Waiting for the front bumper(bull bar), make the frame hinges and latch for front bumper, new fender mount turn signals, repaint truck bed (now gloss black) to a semi gloss black, run all the hydraulic lines, add mirrors and other small details. 

[tbill]

What a great looking project! There is a similar looking unit that runs around here.

[DRIPTROIT 71]

Excellent scratch building! Nice looking rig! 

[TruckerAL]

This project is insane, I love it!

[Gary Chastain]

3 hours ago, tbill said:

What a great looking project! There is a similar looking unit that runs around here.

 

57 minutes ago, DRIPTROIT 71 said:

Excellent scratch building! Nice looking rig! 

 

17 minutes ago, TruckerAL said:

This project is insane, I love it!

Thanks, love fabricating from scratch, building something I can’t purchase. 

[TruckerAL]

Me too. It's fun making amazing parts out of simple styrene pieces. Fantastic work, I'm following along!

[steveracer]

That’s cool to see your development work Gary.  Now are you going to put some payload on it or leave it as it left the dealer?  

[yh70]

Awesome job on your scratch building..all you need now is to weather it and load it up..

[Gary Chastain]

9 hours ago, steveracer said:

That’s cool to see your development work Gary.  Now are you going to put some payload on it or leave it as it left the dealer?  

Thanks

6 hours ago, yh70 said:

Awesome job on your scratch building..all you need now is to weather it and load it up..

I am still learning skills to weather and each build I do a little more. For now this truck will look fresh from dealer. 

[gotnitro?]

Fantastic work 

[dptydawg]

That is a great piece of scratch building. Your log loader crane is a masterpiece by itself. 

But your workbench looks way to clean and organized. ?

[Gary Chastain]

2 hours ago, gotnitro? said:

Fantastic work 

 

1 hour ago, dptydawg said:

That is a great piece of scratch building. Your log loader crane is a masterpiece by itself. 

But your workbench looks way to clean and organized. ?

Thanks, my BRBO project will interrupt this project for now. 
I can’t work on a messy bench and waste time looking for stuff. I sometimes wish I had two work benches and bounce between two projects when waiting on stuff. 

[vincen47]

Fantastic fabrication. I admire the crane. Excellent. Those trucks are impressive, especially fully loaded.

[Gary Chastain]

33 minutes ago, vincen47 said:

Fantastic fabrication. I admire the crane. Excellent. Those trucks are impressive, especially fully loaded.

Thank you

[Dutzie]

That is a great looking build. Job well done!

[Mopar - D]

Awesome build Gary and welcome to the site. 

[Gary Chastain]

4 hours ago, Dutzie said:

That is a great looking build. Job well done!

 

1 hour ago, Mopar - D said:

Awesome build Gary and welcome to the site. 

Thanks guys, there are some impressive builders on here and already learning new stuff, glad I joined.