Trucking Magazine – July 2019

http://www.truckingmag.co.uk Summer 2019 TRUCKING 79

than logging. But
Hayes and Pacifi c
have been there,
done that. Both
built mine dumpers,
in part thanks to
baseline specs designed
to sustain massive shock
loads – giant tree trunks are not
necessarily loaded gently.

Active duty
Hayes ceased to be in the mid-1970s.
But thanks to robust chassis capable
of outliving two or more engines and
other mechanicals, trucks proudly
bearing the name are still in service. It’s
exactly the same with Pacifi c. Although
the last all-new Pacifi c rolled out many
years ago, the nameplate’s present
owner, Coast Powertrain, maintains a
major-components spares and truck
rebuild business.
Fifteen feet wide, 50 tons unladen
logging tractors on their second or
third engines have typically sported
Caterpillar or Cummins diesels with
circa 600 bhp.
To put the evolution of these
mechanical mountains into context,
what used to be regarded in the US

13 ft wide, 1975 Pacific P-12 6x6 with

600 bhp Cummins and six-speed Allison

auto looks set to move heaven and earth

baseline specs designed
to sustain massive shock
loads – giant tree trunks are not

SCOTT

MCKENZIE

Canada’s two great

indigenous truck makes are

celebrated by Scott

McKenzie, whose

hayestruckclub.org and

pacifictruckclub.org

websites feature a wealth

of information

and images.

and Canada as a ‘West Coast’ truck

was pioneered by West-of-the-Rockies

manufacturers like Kenworth and

Peterbilt in the US, and in Canada by

Hayes. Until the rest of the world got

the big-power message – spearheaded

in Europe by Volvo in the 1960s –West

Coast specs were a breed apart.

This side of the Atlantic, there are

those who may once have dismissed

trucks like these as typifying Yank

excess. But big-power West Coast

trucks were not ‘mine is bigger than

yours’ vanity jobs. That’s how they

had to be. They were – and are –

engineered to overcome the physical

demands of highway – and off-highway

• transportation up and down the
  steep grades of the North American
  Cordillera, encompassing the Rockies,
  the Pacifi c Coast Range and the
  Cascades. (It’s therefore no surprise

Immaculately restored 1945 Hayes logging

tractor, before the aesthetics of pure

function took over from styling niceties