A Lucky Strike...

[Woody Stover]

[quote author="Backwoods Savage" date="1313350849"yes that can be very heavy but split it and 6 months later you'll be amazed at how much moisture it has lost[/quote]I scored some Red Maple a couple of weeks ago that was pretty darn heavy. I had to split it to be able to get it on the trailer. When the splitter wedge hit the top of the round, water squished out. I've got 1/3 cord split so far for a SIL. I'd like to see it get dry enough to burn this Winter but with it starting so wet, I'm not real hopeful...

 

[nate379]

Dunno what the wood weighs but I have put over 4 tons in the bed of my Dodge 3500 before. Yes it was sitting on the bumpstops!
I haul wood with my 18ft trailer, fits 4 cords and my Dodge 2500 pulls it without trouble.

Guy with the Ranger, how come you have teh wood cut in all sorts of different lengths?

 

[chvymn99]

That poor truck . . . to each their own, but I never load up my full-sized truck that much . . . don't want to abuse the suspension, tires, brakes, etc. . . . or risk having a round come flying through the back window as any one of those things would quickly negate any savings from the free wood. However, as I said . . . to each their own . . . and consider me impressed . . . and yes . . . those Rangers do take a beating . . . we throw tracks on them and use them to haul drags around in the winter time to groom the snowmobile trails.

Yep, it sure was loaded and squatting. But I had it all strapped down, it was only about 1 mile from the house, and braking had nothing to do with it. It was 1st and 2nd gear all the way home at about 5-8 mile per hour. What shocked me the most was that those springs where only rated at 1100 pounds, with 3 springs. Im getting a 5 spring pack installed, rated at 1750 pounds. Which should help tremendously. Heck even with the camper shell on and the bed full she squatted real bad. Its just a shame that now days they dont make a truck like they use to. They sacrifice a truck for what a truck should be, for a "car like" ride.

 

[chvymn99]

That is quite an over load there. That Norway Maple can be heavy. I think the heaviest load I ever had in my F350 was about 1 1/2 cords of it. The truck creaked and groaned in ways I'd never heard before or since.

Yes, Yes it is some heavy stuff. Thats one heck of a truck. They sure dont make trucks like they use to.

 

[chvymn99]

Dunno what the wood weighs but I have put over 4 tons in the bed of my Dodge 3500 before. Yes it was sitting on the bumpstops!
I haul wood with my 18ft trailer, fits 4 cords and my Dodge 2500 pulls it without trouble.

Guy with the Ranger, how come you have teh wood cut in all sorts of different lengths?

I was just trying to get it off his property in manageable pieces. Most of the big stuff is prettty well cut to length. The rest will be cut down to size later on when I get time to process it this fall. I like 10 to 16 inch pieces for my stove, just about ideal.

 

[oldspark]

The bark on that does not look like the bark on my Norway Maples in my grove but that does not mean much, many discussions on this forum about Norway Maple. The wood on flatbedford's truck looks looks like my Norway Maple.

 

[chvymn99]

The bark on that does not look like the bark on my Norway Maples in my grove but that does not mean much, many discussions on this forum about Norway Maple. The wood on flatbedford's truck looks looks like my Norway Maple.

Well, it "looked" like it, so I assumed it was. If you look at the top pic there's some leaves in it. I concour not every tree looks the same, if its not. Its some kinda of heavy and solid Maple. It had the helicopters with the leaves. Plus the bark and leaves looked similar to that of the Norway Maple.

 

[oldspark]

It looks like silver maple to me, big difference between silver and norway.

 

[chvymn99]

It looks like silver maple to me, big difference between silver and norway.

Well, I went back to Google. It looks like its more likely to be Sugar or Black Maple, then Norway but could be. Since it had heliptors in late summer/early fall. They all have from three to five lobes on there leafs it appears. I know one thing it wasn't Silver Maple, bark wasnt correct (their bark tends to pull away). Plus it was much more dense and heavy than Silver wood.

 

[oldspark]

Silver is very heavy when wet, the bark in the pictures looks just like the silver maple I have here, look at the bark in FBF's truck. just like my Norways in the grove. Not too much Sugar Maple around here so do not know what it looks like.