question about a tri axle

I don.t know what prices are like where you are but around here that
price would be fantastic as this year a load of 7 to 8 cords or what we call
a tandem load runs 1250 and that's the cheapest I could find

I just paid 700. Mostly ash as well.

it's amazing how we can live in a country with wood from one end to the next and still pay a fortune for it

What amazes me is that trucks from Quebec are picking up logs from my neighbor's and other nearby (mini) logging operations. Hardwoods, I guess.

Normally I don't buy log loads have my own 200 acre bush lot
But had a knee replaced in November Not allowed to go into the
bush all winter ( wife and Doctors orders ) So to keep up with 3 year plan
bought a log load of maple and oak . If the logger and the trucker think it's gold
then they charge for gold . It has also been a rough year lots of snow and cold
So there is a shortage of good hard wood logs around here. Lots of standing timber
very little cut . Also the small mills around me are paying very very well for hard wood

a triaxle load might not yield as much as you think. i just about loaded a dual axle to the max with red oak logs recently, and it was about 2 cords or so once split and stacked. if i took a rough estimate of the weight it was somewhere around 6,000+ pounds. that's just judging by how my truck handled it compared to my 3500 pound boat. i would be more interested in a legit estimate of how much wood your actually getting. i hate the whole "truck", "trailer", "dumpster" load concept. is really an arbitrary amount. i mean 750$ for 3 cords of green, unprocessed logs doesn't sound good to me at all. if you ended up with 5-6 cords it might be a decent deal, but i don't see that amount fitting on a trailer with less than 18 wheels.

FishKiller said:

i don't see that amount fitting on a trailer with less than 18 wheels.

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These are tri axle logging trucks I'm talking about.

i gotcha. just checking. a logging truck load should be 6 cords, give or take one. that seems like an ok price, don't think your getting an steal or anything though. here in jersey i can get a log truck of green oak for around 600... or buy it split and seasoned for 160$ a cord. 80-100$ a cord for green wood that needs all the labor done doesn't seem like an great deal. i guess if your paying 200$ a cord for the same stuff season and split, maybe it is.

my point is how much work is buying the logs saving you? felling, bucking, moving. imo that's the easy part.

That doesn't sound line a bad price. Just check out what it is before he dumps it. Years ago I got stung on a load that was mostly maple poplar and cottonwood. I check first.

brad wilton said:

it's amazing how we can live in a country with wood from one end to the next and still pay a fortune for it

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With the labor involved in getting that wood and transporting I would charge more than 100 bucks a cord. I've said it before and I stick to it, there is no money to be made in firewood for the average Joe. That guy selling loads isn't getting rich by doing this.

700 divided by the time-labor/fuel/equipment and cost of the trees doesn't leave much for the guy selling the load. Do some simple math and most of us would stay in bed in the morning instead of trying to make a living selling firewood.

I think in my, and maybe a lot of cases, firewood is a byproduct of logging operations for lumber or pulp. Maybe advantageous deals can made by the trucker with the logger. I'd be interested in what the local paper mill give for their logs. As I said in another post, they looked real good to me. Plus, there's a fair amount of automation with the logging and transport and delivery. Not so much on the splitting/stacking/moving end. Perversely, I kind of enjoy it.

FishKiller said:

i gotcha. just checking. a logging truck load should be 6 cords, give or take one. that seems like an ok price, don't think your getting an steal or anything though. here in jersey i can get a log truck of green oak for around 600... or buy it split and seasoned for 160$ a cord. 80-100$ a cord for green wood that needs all the labor done doesn't seem like an great deal. i guess if your paying 200$ a cord for the same stuff season and split, maybe it is.

my point is how much work is buying the logs saving you? felling, bucking, moving. imo that's the easy part.

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Some of us actually enjoy the labor that comes with processing pole length wood. The triaxle loads round here yield around 6-7 to 9 cords depending on how long, tall & tightly it is packed. This savings can go towards another pole length load.
I disagree that felling, bucking & moving is the easy part. How much easier can it get walking out your door, grabbing the saw & splitter from the garage and going to it?
If you're felling,. bucking & moving, you now need the equipment & added time to accomplish that.
Everyone has their preference, and for some, it is sitting outside the house ready to be worked on. Don't et much easier than that, other than having split delivered and stacked.

rdust said:

With the labor involved in getting that wood and transporting I would charge more than 100 bucks a cord. I've said it before and I stick to it, there is no money to be made in firewood for the average Joe. That guy selling loads isn't getting rich by doing this.

700 divided by the time-labor/fuel/equipment and cost of the trees doesn't leave much for the guy selling the load. Do some simple math and most of us would stay in bed in the morning instead of trying to make a living selling firewood.

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The pole lengths delivered here is the tops from foresting & management. These guys are making their main bucks on the straight timber going to mills. The tops are almost pure profit, aside from the time to load & unload and diesel used. These guys would let it sit and rot if they weren't making some nice extra cash.

I paid $975 in October 2014 for a truckload of logs advertised as five cords minimum, stacked and split it measures about 6.5 cords. I feel like I got a good deal if I had only gotten five cords out of it.

Hogwildz said:

The pole lengths delivered here is the tops from foresting & management. These guys are making their main bucks on the straight timber going to mills. The tops are almost pure profit, aside from the time to load & unload and diesel used. These guys would let it sit and rot if they weren't making some nice extra cash.

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In the case of the tops I agree there may be some more profit but then again running the equipment isn't cheap and wear and tear is far from cheap on the equipment used to even get the tops. I'd imagine a lot of logs that people get for firewood are the logs that don't make the quality cut at the mills. Either way a lot of cost is involved in log loads, equipment, workers, fuel, trucks, maintenance, the trees etc. If it was easy to get rich doing everyone would be doing it.

when you can do anything en masse like fell a forest in a couple of weeks your going to make money it's the guy on the smaller scale that has smaller margins