Logging Wheels

Prices Starting at $15,895

These enormous wheels were usually 9-11 ft. tall. Logging wheels could haul logs without the need for icy ground. They didn't sink into mud in the wet terrain of the north woods where ordinary wagon wheels would get slowed down in the spring time after the winter thaw. The wheels also allowed a team of horses to pull numerous logs at a time. The logs were held by a chain that suspended the logs' weight from the wheel axle, creating a stabilizing, low center of gravity. These logging wheels enabled a team to carry logs up to 100 ft. long.

 

 

      Overpack's Michigan

          Logging Wheels

The story goes that when Silas Overpack was a wheelwright in Manistee, Michigan around 1875 he was approached by a farmer to build a set of 8 foot wagon wheels. He built this set of unusually large wagon wheels and sold them to the local farmer. Time passed and later the farmer returned asking Overpack for an even larger set of wagon wheels. Overpack was very curious by this time. He asked the farmer what he was doing with such large wagon wheels. The farmer replied he was using them to skid logs, and this is how Silas Overpack became the leader in building Michigan Logging Wheels.

Article On These Wheels

 

      Restored Redding Slip 

       Tongue High Wheels

. There was a major flaw in Silas Overpack's wheels, they had no brakes so Redding Iron Works replaced his wheels with the their slip tongue high wheels. These wheels were made for the mountainous terrain of the west. They used Overpack's ten-foot diameter wheels but the stinger tongue was replaced with an automatic braking system actuated by a sliding tongue. The tongue was designed to slide through hounds in the frame of the High Wheels instead of being fixed to the axle as with the Stinger Tongue. There is only a handful of these High Wheels still in existence today and very few have been restored.                                                                                                                                                                           

            Restored NAU

           Logging Wheels

 These wheels were also manufactured by the Redding Iron Works in California between 1910 to 1916. This set of wheels belongs to the lumberjacks at Northern Arizona University. During Homecoming the king and queen ride these wheels in the parade. The logging wheels have been a lumberjack tradition since 1934 and we are happy to keep the tradition going for many more years to come.