Nate McMurtrey drives a 2007 Kenworth T300 single-axle powered by a Cummins ISC 8.3-liter engine ahead of an Eaton Fuller nine-speed transmission
Nate McMurtrey is surrounded by spectacular scenery at his job working on logging equipment in the Pacific Northwest, but sometimes he doesn’t have time to enjoy the views.
“There’s no such thing as flat ground around here,” says the 37-year-old field mechanic with Precision Machinery of Eugene, Oregon. “A lot of times I’ll be on a logging road and crest the top of a ridge or mountain where the road is so steep that all I can see looking out the front windshield is blue sky. My truck weighs 28,000 pounds fully loaded, and the other morning I was going downhill on a grade so steep that I had to stay in second gear or else I overran my exhaust brake.”
McMurtrey does a lot of his work on logging equipment in Oregon. He says, “A lot of times I’ll be on a logging road and crest the top of a ridge or mountain where the road is so steep that all I can see looking out the front windshield is blue sky.”
McMurtrey drives a 2007 Kenworth T300 single-axle powered by a Cummins ISC 8.3-liter engine ahead of an Eaton Fuller nine-speed transmission. He and his bosses decided four-wheel-drive wasn’t a cost-effective option even though their part of the Pacific Northwest is technically a temperate rain forest.
“Most of the time I work in some kind of mud, or snow, or mud and snow,” he says. “We decided the extra upfront cost and ongoing maintenance of four-wheel-drive wasn’t worth it. Choosing the right kind of tires really helps the two-wheel-drive. We put Toyo Heavy Lug 506 tires on the rear axle and Toyo 320 tires on the steer axle. If it gets really nasty I’ve got four single tire chains I can put on the rear tires. If I need to, I take two of the chains off the rear tires and put them on the steer tires to get me where I need to be.”
Previous experience in rugged terrain resulted in selecting a Stellar 10628 radio-controlled crane for the 14-foot-long Knapheide service body.
“My earlier truck had a base angle sensor on the crane,” says McMurtrey. “If the truck wasn’t sitting level, you could swing the crane and get it at an angle where the safety switch would disable the crane. These Stellar cranes are phenomenal. They don’t have a base angle sensor, use a worm gear to swing the boom, and can do what we need to do without the truck sitting on level ground.”
The crane sometimes serves double-duty as a “tent pole” when McMurtrey has to work in the rain or snow. He pulls a sheet of 10-mil clear poly from a 10-foot by 300-foot roll he keeps in the truck, drapes it over the end of the crane centered over his project, and ties off the corners to create a tent that keeps him dry but transfers light better than the canvas tarps he used to use.
The Knapheide service body is customized to fit McMurtrey’s needs. A Lincoln 305G Ranger
Lincoln 305G Ranger welder-generator is mounted sideways right behind the cab.
welder-generator is mounted sideways in the compartment immediately behind the truck’s cab to ensure security for the welder and its cables as well as provide ground level access to the controls. A custom-built headache rack mounts Tigerlight LED strobe and floodlights. Drawers, shelves and tools are arranged within easy reach from ground level.
“All my metric tools are in one spot, all my standard tools are in another spot, most of my spare parts are in a specific location,” he says. “My goal is reach things without a lot of wandering around from side to side, or having to crawl into the bed.”
Efficiency is important because of the unique demands of repairing logging equipment. Each piece of logging machinery is part of a multi-machine system that cuts trees, collects the logs, and loads them for transport to lumber mills. When one machine breaks down the entire process crunches to a halt.
Drawers, shelves and tools are arranged carefully and are within easy reach.
“I usually work on feller bunchers and harvesting equipment, and they are the starting point,” McMurtrey says. “They can’t be broke down. I like the challenge of diagnosing a problem and figuring out how to fix it to keep the whole process running. I’ve been working on trucks and machinery since I was in high school.”
A graduate of Wyoming Technical Institute in Laramie, McMurtrey worked “quite a few years” for Triad Machinery and was a trainer and national troubleshooter for Tigercat, an Ontario-based forestry equipment manufacturer, for a couple years. Eventually he landed at Precision Machinery.
“I’m liking where I am now,” he says. “I like to be outside in God’s glorious creation. One of the benefits of this job is that I get to work in places where other people take vacations.”
Even if he doesn’t always have time to enjoy the view.
— Dan Anderson
Dan Anderson is a part-time freelance writer and full-time heavy equipment mechanic with more than 20 years of experience working out of service trucks. He is based in Bouton, Iowa.