Hayes trucks were basically born to be loggers and this one is the king logger. You are looking at a monster 1966 Hayes logging truck with an equally mighty 16V-71 Detroit Diesel engine. The fully restored rig was being displayed at a show and this video caught it being fired up and pulled onto the trailer to be taken home. We actually kind of love the fact that this mighty workhorse is a pampered display rig now. This truck paid its dues hauling millions and millions of board feet of wood out out of the forest through its life. Whoever spec’d this one out at Hayes was power hungry and we dig it.
This truck is rated somewhere in the 650-750hp range and the torque, like in most diesels is triple that. So you are looking at a rig making 2,200 lb-ft at the flywheel that is then multiplied through gearing. That gearing would help this truck both up the hills and down them. Using the mechanical braking ability of the truck likely kept lots of logging truck drivers alive over the years. The operating range of this engine was a shade over 2,000 RPM tops. Peak torque happened around 1,200-1,400 RPM.
Few of these trucks remain. Not because they were bad trucks. Just the opposite. They were anvils on wheels that had the horsepower and torque to move forests on their back and they did. These things were worked until they could work no more and were put out for nature to take them home.
This big bastard with the turbos hanging out in front of God and everyone is just fantastic. So, so good. Listen to it roar here.
