The road is usually planked solid at the unloading ground. A great help in unloading is a dock from six to twelve inches higher on one side than on the other so the logs will roll off the truck easily. The brow-skid should be close to the log bunks and just a little lower than these when the truck is tilted. When unloading into shallow water, such as a small river, six or eight skids a foot and a half in diameter are placed so that they slope from the brow-skid to the water at an angle of forty-five degrees. An illustration of this method of unloading is shown below. The skids are so placed that the unloading ground will not be undermined.
Unloading truck and trailer through the use of an incline, showing brow-skids and roll-way.
When the truck comes to a stop on the incline, the chock blocks are released from the opposite side and the logs roll off of their own accord. In some instances a gill-poke has been used in connection with the unloading incline, the logs being sheared off as the truck moves ahead. Usually the logs roll off readily without the use of the gill-poke and if a load does stick it can be loosened with a cant-hook, so that the gill-poke really is unnecessary.
Unloading on public wharves or roads where no permanent incline can be used is accomplished by placing a portable wedge-shaped timber in front of the outside truck and trailer wheels and driving upon it.
Parbuckling a load of logs from the truck and trailer.
In the most efficient way of unloading the usual brow-skid is placed a few inches below the log bunk and the logs are parbuckled from the truck and trailer, an illustration of which is shown above. The trucks are run on an incline so that one side is raised about four inches. A crotch-line consisting of two half-inch cables is attached to the brow-skid and passed under the logs to a ring fastened to an inch cable. The larger cable passes thru a block located on a gin pole. A light yarding or a land clearing donkey furnishes the power to parbuckle the logs into the water. By this method the logs are lifted from the truck as they are rolled into the water with little danger of the top log dropping on the log bunk as is often the case when other methods are used, resulting in expensive repairs for broken springs or bearings.