Free wood,is it worth it?

[Gunner]

I have found a land owner who heats with wood, but does not have the time to process the wood himself. He is looking for someone who also heats with wood to cut what they want and leave him half. I have not seen the property...he says it's 50 acres mixed hardwoods and access is pretty good.
The property is 1-1.5 hrs drive each way. It seemed like a good deal at the time but the more I think about it, I don't know. It will cost about $30 round trip in fuel plus my time obviously, I have a 4wd truck, trailer (I can bring about 4000lb of wood back at one time) and will be investing in a chainsaw anyway.

I figure approx I day to fell and buck 2 cords with a helper and get it out, leave one cord for him and take 1 home with me. Am I at all close with this estimate. Access is probably the biggest factor IMO.

What do you guys think is it worth it?

PS A cord cut and split ranges $200-$300 around here.

 

[Roospike]

Is he wanting "his half" split and stacked ? Or just logs? Or firewood length cuts?
Does he want the wood brought to his home from the lot or just left where you cut it ?
Does he have any special request to be done with the brush ?

 

[Gunner]

I would buck his wood into 16-18" lengths and dump it by his house(the house is located on the woodlot) , I will NOT be splitting it. The brush will stay on the forest floor.

 

[DavidV]

with the excetion of the drive it sounds good. But if the drive is acceptable to you then it's not bad.

 

[Roospike]

I guess it all depends on you and how you feel about it.
Having some kids and even friends of the kids would make life a whole lot easier....... off free pizza ect for help and a few $$.
Equipment makes a lot of difference when working with wood. The 4x4 truck and trailer is a big plus. It would be nice if the land owner had a truck or trailer of his own so you didnt have to unload you own every time you had his share , load his trailer / truck and let him process it on his time and saves you 1 big step per load of wood.

Now chainsaw or chainsaws will also make a world of difference. 1 cheap chain saw will take a lot longer to cut up wood and fell trees than 1 really good quality chainsaw and 2 would be even better for the other help you mentioned.

If the trees are smaller in size and in a group then you might end up with a lot of brush that has to be moved to cut more trees down.
Larger trees have a lot of brush but are normally spaced to the point you dont have to move the brush to cut down other trees. also requires a larger chainsaw and the rounds can be / will be a lot heavier to move and lift. (also consider a truck mounted log lift for larger rounds )

Sometimes it might be easier to just take a ride down there with the chainsaws and spend a day(s) in the wood lot doing nothing but felling limbing and bucking.
Take another day to go down and do all the loading and hulling of wood 2 or 3 trips (take 5 people -n- extra help if ya can 4 loading) if need be in a day. Sometime doing EVERYTHING on one day can kick you butt , hard. and i have found it a lot less work to do more "bulk work" on 1 thing per day and change up and do a different "bulk work" another day.

 

[Gunner]

I only spoke to him briefly but I believe that he has ATV that I could probably use.

As far as the size of wood I won't be downing anything much bigger than 20", 24" max. I believe that the majority of it will be in the 12-18 inch range. Saw will be a Husky 359 or Stihl MS361, leaning towards the 361 due to the greater # of dealers in the area + right now they are on sale and the 361 is alittle more saw I think.

I guess I won't know untill I see the property and actually try it. For me it's really the drive, if this guy was 1/2 hr away it would be great, but 2+ hrs round trip you better be putting in a full days work to make it worth it.

 

[saichele]

I've been pulling free wood from a lot about 40 minutes away, and 2 things come up. 1) I can only move about 1/2 cord, so it's forever to get an appreciable amount of wood, and 2) it costs $10 or so in gas, plus a good chunk of a day, to go get the wood. Or I can get 10 face split and delivered for $350. So it's tough for me to put the time into it.

Steve

 

[Roospike]

I only spoke to him briefly but I believe that he has ATV that I could probably use.

As far as the size of wood I won't be downing anything much bigger than 20", 24" max. I believe that the majority of it will be in the 12-18 inch range. Saw will be a Husky 359 or Stihl MS361, leaning towards the 361 due to the greater # of dealers in the area + right now they are on sale and the 361 is alittle more saw I think.

I guess I won't know untill I see the property and actually try it. For me it's really the drive, if this guy was 1/2 hr away it would be great, but 2+ hrs round trip you better be putting in a full days work to make it worth it.

Both great chainsaws. Stock the ms361 has a bit more oomf but for $150. more than the 359 i would think so. Both will work very well for you. If you have a smaller chainsaw for limbing the tops that can save you some effort as the 359 and 361 can get a little heavy after a day of limbing with them.
Dont forget your PPE Personal Protective Gear.

 

[Roospike]

I've been pulling free wood from a lot about 40 minutes away, and 2 things come up. 1) I can only move about 1/2 cord, so it's forever to get an appreciable amount of wood, and 2) it costs $10 or so in gas, plus a good chunk of a day, to go get the wood. Or I can get 10 face split and delivered for $350. So it's tough for me to put the time into it.

Steve

There must be more to it ............
Working by your self ?
What kind of chainsaw?
Size of truck?
Trees hard to get to?
Are you splitting the wood too ?

 

[nshif]

I have a MS361, great saw for falling and bucking, but it will kick your butt for limbing.

 

[saichele]

I've been pulling free wood from a lot about 40 minutes away, and 2 things come up. 1) I can only move about 1/2 cord, so it's forever to get an appreciable amount of wood, and 2) it costs $10 or so in gas, plus a good chunk of a day, to go get the wood. Or I can get 10 face split and delivered for $350. So it's tough for me to put the time into it.

Steve

There must be more to it ............
Working by your self ?
What kind of chainsaw?
Size of truck?
Trees hard to get to?
Are you splitting the wood too ?

Working by myself (usually)
Stihl 210
F150 (6.5 bed)
not too bad
Yes, by hand.

It's a priorty thing - I have a whole house to repair. It just doesn;t make sense to spend 4 or 5 hrs busting my hump to save $25 when I really ought to be reglazing windows, painting, drywalling, and so on.

Steve

 

[Roospike]

I've been pulling free wood from a lot about 40 minutes away, and 2 things come up. 1) I can only move about 1/2 cord, so it's forever to get an appreciable amount of wood, and 2) it costs $10 or so in gas, plus a good chunk of a day, to go get the wood. Or I can get 10 face split and delivered for $350. So it's tough for me to put the time into it.

Steve

There must be more to it ............
Working by your self ?
What kind of chainsaw?
Size of truck?
Trees hard to get to?
Are you splitting the wood too ?

Working by myself (usually)
Stihl 210
F150 (6.5 bed)
not too bad
Yes, by hand.

It's a priorty thing - I have a whole house to repair. It just doesn;t make sense to spend 4 or 5 hrs busting my hump to save $25 when I really ought to be reglazing windows, painting, drywalling, and so on.

Steve

Ah , Splitting the wood too is going to make a big difference in time and the amount of wood you can haul in one day. I question you no more.

 

[ChrisN]

I have been scrounging my own wood for a couple of years now, and I've decided 15 miles from my house is as far as I need to travel. this last year the furthest I had to go was 10 miles and I have about 10 cords stacked and ready I use a Ranger P/U to haul and it takes several trips to get a good amount. I guess it mostly depends on your area. Are there other sources nearer, like landowners clearing lots, or roadside tree clearing by DOT? Also don't underestimate the power of simply continuouisly mentioning to people that you are looking for wood. All sorts of homeowners are all the time looking to open their yards up by removing fringe trees.

 

[Elderthewelder]

Hi
Newbie here, have been lurking and browsing this site for about a week. I am new to the whole wood burning thing, Just had a new insert installed, and am scrounging wood also (to burn next year)
Anyway I put a add on craigslist saying I am looking for wood, guy emails me back saying he has 2 large maples felled and sectioned into rounds and to come and get it if I am interested, says there are about 100 pieces, 12" to 40" in dia and 12" to 16" in length. Well I told him I would be over in the morning (only 5 miles away), I have no idea how I am going to get 40" dia rounds into my truck, I am sure they weigh alot, and I just have my 13 year old son to help me, I have a Nissan Frontier with a 6' bed and a shell on it. Any ideas??

 

[Roospike]

Hi
Newbie here, have been lurking and browsing this site for about a week. I am new to the whole wood burning thing, Just had a new insert installed, and am scrounging wood also (to burn next year)
Anyway I put a add on craigslist saying I am looking for wood, guy emails me back saying he has 2 large maples felled and sectioned into rounds and to come and get it if I am interested, says there are about 100 pieces, 12" to 40" in dia and 12" to 16" in length. Well I told him I would be over in the morning (only 5 miles away), I have no idea how I am going to get 40" dia rounds into my truck, I am sure they weigh alot, and I just have my 13 year old son to help me, I have a Nissan Frontier with a 6' bed and a shell on it. Any ideas??

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_7179_7179

 

[Elderthewelder]

[/quote]http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_7179_7179[/quote]

That would work, but don't seeing it happening by tomorrow

 

[Roospike]

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_7179_7179[/quote]

That would work, but don't seeing it happening by tomorrow[/quote]
Missed that part. I lot of times people split the wood on site enough to get it loaded into a truck.
My son (now 16) and i normally two man lift large logs in the truck. If a trunk is very large we might go a head and cut it again down to 16"-14" long .

 

[suematteva]

My limit with just the truck is usually around 45 minutes round trip for free wood..About a month ago a logger friend said he had a cord and quarter in 8ft lengths within 10ft of the gravel road, for $40 it was ours..Round trip it was an hour, rented a buddy's dual axle trailer. Ended up making 2 trips.. It was worth it, more wood than originally thought and it was good stuff.

 

[johnsopi]

What I do is put a plank as a ramp and round and flip it up,but the I've only done 24-28" peices. A 500$ crane would take while to pay for it's self . A winch I think might be a help in the back of the truck. 10 to 15 mile is my limit but if it is easy to get at I would go father. The downside is, if drive a ways just to find that it is cotten wood.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Hi
Newbie here, have been lurking and browsing this site for about a week. I am new to the whole wood burning thing, Just had a new insert installed, and am scrounging wood also (to burn next year)
Anyway I put a add on craigslist saying I am looking for wood, guy emails me back saying he has 2 large maples felled and sectioned into rounds and to come and get it if I am interested, says there are about 100 pieces, 12" to 40" in dia and 12" to 16" in length. Well I told him I would be over in the morning (only 5 miles away), I have no idea how I am going to get 40" dia rounds into my truck, I am sure they weigh alot, and I just have my 13 year old son to help me, I have a Nissan Frontier with a 6' bed and a shell on it. Any ideas??

Time to make friends with your sledge and wedges. Make friends with at least 8 wedges so you can be sure to be able to split the 40" wide round. Nothing makes you more ticked when you drive your last wedge into the round and it fails to split. I tried wedges from most of the hardware stores/BORGS around here and oddly enough, the ones from Lowes worked best for me.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

With only 12 ro 16" in length, you most likely will not need as many wedges as I did... my last bout with a tree that size had rounds quite a bit longer. You still don't want to run short of them though.

 

[saichele]

I suspect you have two choices. 1) split them on site, or 2) get some sort of loading ramp.
Steve

 

[kd460]

Does this guy have a utility trailer? (you mention he has an atv). You could load his trailer and your trailer on site. Pull his to the house and be done. Maybe get a 3rd person involved who has a truck and or trailer. You both work together. Things will go allot faster. I know time is $$, but I refuse to pay for wood.

You never know what this "relationship" with the property owner may turn into. After he feels he has a descent amount of wood, he may say come when you want, take what you want. He may offer to let you hunt his property, or something like that. You could always just pile up a butt load of wood, giving him his share, then plan your pick ups to when you may have more time or happen to be close by. Of course, he should have his stack first, then you come and go as you please. Take your load home, split it up when you have the time. Remember, it is great excercise. KD

 

[adrpga498]

If the person will allow you to split larger rounds on site with a maul, problem solved.

 

[DavidV]

so what did you do?