Had to pass on some wood. Do you spilt before loading?

[johnsopi]

Had to pass on some 48" Dia. peices of Maple. The tree company said I could had them but how would I load them with out spilting them. How do the tree servise load them ?
On the plus side of the day I found 2 big oak tree that are down and the owner wants removed.
He's a hard worker and helps load my truck as I cut them up. This tree is a bit big but I hope to use a board and roll the big peice up. I hope to get it by the end of the week 5 or 6 pick-up truck load. Wish there was a easy way to load big wood.
How many of you guys spilt your wood before loading?

 

[Eric Johnson]

If I can load it by hand without splitting, I do. I prefer to split it at home, at my convenience.

If you do that, be careful securing the load. Those round blocks can roll off it you're not careful, with potentially tragic results.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

If you load them before splitting, a cant hook comes in mighty handy. For big blocks like that, if you don't have a low trailer that tilts, like a snowmobile trailer, then try to borrow one as it works great. My tilt trailer sets only about a foot high so is easy to get the big ones on. Other than that, use a sledge and wedge.

Remember too that maple splits easy so this one should not b much of a problem.

 

[WarmGuy]

I load before splitting, but if a round is too big, I'll split it until it's a manageable size.

One trick that I use, which may be obvious, is to put a round down right behind my truck. I can then bring a new round to it, and lever it up onto the stationary round, then lever it up into the truck. I've even made a series of stairs using two rounds of different sizes.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

WarmGuy, that indeed is a nice trick that we've used many times. One time I cut a tree for some folks and they would let be back my van up to the tree but for some reason didn't want a trailer or wagon there. So that is the method we used to get those big blocks in the van. Saves much lifting and sweating.

 

[johnsopi]

I'm going to get some of a smaller tree tomorrow after work. Still big @ 30" I'll try the steps if my ramp not work.
A guy I know says he going to drop off 2 cords this week for 30 dollar,but I'm all most at 3years out now so
i want just so I can run my saw. Maybe I do have wood hording issues, I can give some away if I have to much.

 

[jpl1nh]

I'm going to get some of a smaller tree tomorrow after work. Still big @ 30" I'll try the steps if my ramp not work.
A guy I know says he going to drop off 2 cords this week for 30 dollar,but I'm all most at 3years out now so
i want just so I can run my saw. Maybe I do have wood hording issues, I can give some away if I have to much.

I know how you feel about the wood hoarding issues. I have 4 cord 2+ year old split and stacked, about 4 cord lying dead oak dry, stacked and covered though its 4' length and not yet split. I have about 4 cord of 2 year since cut locust in log lengths and rounds I picked up, about a cord of which is split and loose stacked, the rest still to cut, split and stack, 3/4 of a cord of elm thats cut and split but not stacked. I have about 3/4 cord of apple still to process. In addition, I have a forester friend who calls me here and there when he's got wood to get rid of so I recently picked up a good halve cord of sugar maple, large rounds cut to length, then a day later, a cord of fresh cut red oak. I also have about 2 cord random stuff I tha't all cut but I haven't stacked it yet. I burn about 4-5 cord a year, so I'm somewhere around 15 cords of wood now with a lot of processing still in fornt of me. But if someone calls me with good wood available and reasonably easy to get, I'm still not gonna pass it up. Maybe if I reach 20 cord, I may need to start thinking about it. Maybe I have a wood hoarding issue too. My wife just asked If I was talking on line about wood again and said she'd rather I was looking at porn sites!!

 

[DiscoInferno]

Had to pass on some 48" Dia. peices of Maple. The tree company said I could had them but how would I load them with out spilting them. How do the tree servise load them ?

The tree service that dumped a load of 2-3+' diameter oak in my driveway was using a bobcat to load their dump truck. Othertimes I've seen services cut really skinny rounds and/or cut the rounds into wedges. Since I didn't have to do the loading this time I was glad not to get a bunch of 6-8" thick rounds. Easy to split, but a pain to stack.

I'll do partial splitting sometimes as needed to load, although oak and locust might be the only good hardwoods where I expect to be able to bust up a 3' round by hand without using the "flake" method.

 

[eba1225]

I can usually load 18" rounds but recently came into about a dozen larger poplar rounds that are to heavy to lift that I will at least need to split in order to load.