haul logs in truck w/ ATV winch

sounds like you have a nice, smart set up... let the equipment do the work you don't have to :coolsmile:

scram98400jm said:

After my hernia operation I decided I’m not going through that again.
Jim

Click to expand...

I hear the sound of scroungers everywhere wincing...

500c

I figure I move wood 8 times from start to finish:
1. Pick up and carry to truck
2. Unload truck
3. Put on splitter
4. Carry from splitter to main woodpile
5. Put in wagon to move close to house
6. Unload wagon near house
7. Carry into house, put next to stove
8. Put in stove.
A green cord weighs about 4,000#, dry about 2,000. At an average of 3,000# per cord I'm lifting/carrying/stacking 24,000# per year per cord. Burn about 5 cords means I handle 120,000# a year. This doesn't consider manhandling logs on the ground, lugging saws around or all the other things that go with burning wood.
My wife wants to join a gym. I told her I had a better idea.

Using a winch certainly will cut down on some work. Just beware that any time you drag a log you will get dirt in the bark. That will mean your chain will need sharpening sooner and also will wear out sooner. Still, dragging that short of a distance shouldn't be too bad.

One neighbor of ours has forks for his front end loader so he cuts most of his in log length, puts them on a wagon or truck and hauls them right where he wants to stack the wood before cutting. Saves a bit of work for sure, but you can't always get the tractor and truck where you want to cut either. But then he has a trailer the same as we use. Just do what is necessary.

Lets see how many times I handle stuff (all by hand or manually pushed cart) I'm somewhat constrained simply by the geography of the place, except for my splitting block, everything is pretty much in the most logical or only available place it could be. The splitting block is a tree stump, and grew where it is It's a bit of a nusiance location wise, but is so perfect in other ways that I don't really want to find a different setup for splitting.

1. My wood guy brings in the truck load of log length and stacks it in my cutting area, using the nice crane on his log truck. (Looks like fun, I'd love to try it....)
2. I cut it into rounds from the stack, may or may not have to move them around as I cut.
3. I move the rounds from the cutting area PAST the wood shed to the splitting area and dump them (real small stuff goes to the woodsheds w/o splitting, up to about 10" gets moved several rounds at a time with the wood cart, larger rounds get moved 1-2 at a time with a two wheel dolly)
4A. Manhandle them onto the splitting block
4B. W/ a monster maul or sledge & wedge, split them into burning size,
4C. Stack the splits on my wood cart.
5. Roll the full wood cart to the sheds and stack into the sheds
6. During burning season, load from the sheds into the wood cart and haul into the house (up about 8 steps, thank goodness the wood cart has bicycle style wheels)
7. Mostly feed the stove off the wood cart, but the tag ends of loads will get transfered to a log holder when I need to get another load, and go from the log holder to the stove.

So looks like I handle each peice about 7-8 times depending on how you want to count, and I've been burning about 5-6 cords / year.

Gooserider

scram, you just learned what many of us have learned in the past. That wood splitter will certainly be a blessing. We also wish we'd bought ours much sooner than we did, which was about 20 years ago. Sure makes things go much better. I my case, after a back injury I could no longer split by hand so had to get the splitter. Now even if I were able to split by hand, I wouldn't.

Enjoy!