Hauling Firewood

[mainemac]

Hello Forum

Looking to buy firewood up to a few cords for this winter
I have found a few but are 30' away:

Delivery is expensive: looking for best pick up options

1) I have a friend with full size pick up: 2 loads - 1 cord?
2) Rent/Buy a trailer hookup for my Highlander to haul : what can a trailer hold?
3) Rent a big UHaul truck and load it in the truck, looks very expensive


Tom

 

[fossil]

Full-sized pickup bed roughly 4x8x2 = 1/2 cord. If the truck has fences and beefed up suspension, it might handle more, but you really gotta pay attention to the load weight to be safe. A cord of wood weighs upward of a ton and a half...green hardwoods a good deal more than that. Half a cord is a good load for a full-sized pickup, weight-wise. Rick

 

[SteveT]

Here's a link that shows what various types of vehicles hold (yes, it appears that a full size pickup holds about 1/2 cord).

http://www.woodheat.org/firewood/cord.htm

I would guess that even with $4.00 gas picking it up makes more sense than renting a trailer or a truck, but without knowing the cost of rental can't say for sure.

BUT, I'd try to find someone to deliver a multi-cord load rather than make multiple 30 miles trips in a pick-up.

 

[burntime]

I have a ranger with beefed up suspension, a crazy load is a little over half a cord...and dangerous. In a small truck a good load is a little over 1/3 a cord...if oak then a little less than 1/3 a cord. Big truck is more. crazy load a little over half a cord and dangerous...If its close to home loader up

 

[ROYJ24]

I drove my 2002 Sonata with the trunk full & folded the 1 back seat forward
& put wood top. Drive all the way home doing a doing a wheelie!

 

[fossil]

...Drive all the way home doing a doing a wheelie!

Good thing you found that wood straight down the block from your place, eh, Roy? :lol: Rick

 

[burntime]

If he had to make a turn just let a little air out of one tire and eventually you would get there ;~)

 

[billb3]

My brother has a much larger house than me and burns about 4 cords a year.

He bought a trailer. His fancy schmancy pickup only has a short bed.
His [trailer] is fairly long so it holds a cord without stacking it too high. It's lower than the bed of the truck and it is convenient for other things, like riding lawn mowers, splitters, moving, loads of cow sh!t, etc.

 

[savageactor7]

So a full size PU only hold 1/2 a cord...HUH? Personally never hauled wood but thought it would hold more. If I was mainemac I'd just keep asking around till I could get a log load...even if I had to pay a reasonable fuel surcharge. Nothing sweeter that bucking logs as opposed to harvesting FW from scratch. Your time is worth money to mainemac.

And when I found someone that would deliver I double up...and consider it an investment.

 

[burntime]

Its the weight that is the problem not the volume!

 

[fossil]

Its the weight that is the problem not the volume!

Precisely. Put as many people as you can fit into the bed of a 1/2-ton p/u, and look how she's sitting. Unsafe at any speed. Just because you can sqeeze it in there doesn't mean it's not overloaded. Reminds me, in a real sideways sort of manner, of the old story of somebody who couldn't believe he was out of money..."But I still have checks in my checkbook!?" Rick

 

[burntime]

OMG, the wifes story is out %-P

 

[fossil]

OMG, the wifes story is out %-P

What, she squeezes too many people into the back of her pickup? Rick

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I look at the amount of space between the pinion snubber and the alxe to tell how much weight I can add. And I drive slow.

Matt

 

[gibson]

I looked at an ad on craigslist and spoke with the guy and got him down to $50 a truckload X 3 for a Ranger pickup 30mi roundtrip. So I would have spent $150 for a cord spent 3/4 of a day driving,loading/dumping wood. Then I came to my senses and ordered two cord c/s/d for $300, coming on Sunday. The cords are mostly maple and ash, I've been told and down since mid april...well see. Tomorrow I'll mow my lawn and have a beer.

 

[fossil]

I look at the amount of space between the pinion snubber and the alxe to tell how much weight I can add. And I drive slow. Matt

I'm with you, Matt, I let the vehicle tell me when it's had about enough, if I'm in doubt about the weight I've added. I also read and heed the owner's manual. Some of the folks out there loading their trucks & other vehicles don't know a snubber from a tailgate, and their owner's manuals are still sealed in plastic in the glovebox. If it fits, it must be fine. Rick

 

[jebatty]

I hauled my firewood for a couple of years in my pickup, stayed with a weight that I could drive safely, and shot my springs. They just are not made for repetitive heavy hauling. The cost to replace the springs might have added up to more than all the money I saved hauling myself.

 

[burntime]

Fossil, if you go by the owners manual on the weight then you will be oberloaded by 2! My ranger bone stock says it can haul 800 pounds or so. I added monroe coil over shocks...not safe but I have put over a ton of keystone in that thing with 2x4s inbetween the frame and the stops...I don't load it like that anymore after that ride. Sure you can overload like crazy but stopping is a whole nother ball game And I am not trying to be funny...it was scarey!

 

[begreen]

Yes, I was fool enough to try that once. I had the lumber yard put a pallet of wood pellets in the back of my old Ranger. As he eased it down with the forklift, the front end was just about off the ground. Needless to say, I didn't let him put the full weight on the truck. Instead I had him put the palette off to the side. Went to the gas station and took the tires up to 40#, then went back and hand loaded a couple safer loads, and drove very slowly. But even then it was about 200# over limit. I didn't try that again after that experience.

 

[fossil]

Fossil, if you go by the owners manual on the weight then you will be oberloaded by 2! My ranger bone stock says it can haul 800 pounds or so. I added monroe coil over shocks...not safe but I have put over a ton of keystone in that thing with 2x4s inbetween the frame and the stops...I don't load it like that anymore after that ride. Sure you can overload like crazy but stopping is a whole nother ball game And I am not trying to be funny...it was scarey!

Not sure what you're saying here, burntime. You obviously are telling a story of what happened when you didn't go by the owner's manual. My '99 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo (V-8, Class III hitch) book sez I can put 5 people (@150#/per = 750 lbs), plus 400# of cargo in the vehicle. That's 1150#, which makes it roughly a half-ton. Anything in a roof rack counts as cargo weight. Trailer tongue weight counts as cargo weight. Doesn't really matter what I do with shocks or springs, it's the load-bearing capacity to which the axle is designed that defines the capacity of the vehicle. When you go to buy a trailer, the load capacity is based on axle design...a tandem axle utility with two 3500# axles is a 7000# trailer. "Overload" springs and coil-over shocks make the vehicle look and feel better heavily loaded, but it's still the axle carrying everything, and the drive train trying to make it move and the brakes trying to make it stop moving. One of my wood suppliers drives an old Ford, I think it began life as a 3/4 ton. He delivers a generous 1 1/2 cords in that rig, neatly stacked in there to the top of the expanded metal side fences he put on. But, the only way he gets away with that safely is that he changed out the rear axle for a Dana 60, he modified the suspension all the way around, and put on bigger brakes. If you're hell bent on truly increasing the load capacity of a vehicle, that's the kind of serious stuff you gotta do. If not...go by the book. Rick

 

[Todd]

Just because your manual says you can haul so much poundage doesn't mean your tires can handle it. People always forget to check the weight rating of their tires. I'd hate to be truckin down the road with a load of firewood and blow a tire! :bug:

I traded in my 3/4 ton F-250 deisel for a Chevy Colorado and haul my firewood with a 5x8 trailer.

 

[burntime]

You did get my point fossil, it is easy to overload a vehicle without trying. I know the axle will take more so I go slow and steady...I use the coil overs more to stabilize the load if that makes sense. Normal shocks and its rocky back and forth, with the coilovers its steady eddy. Am I overloaded, well sure a little, I will never load it like I did again with 2x4's for between the frame and stops again though I bet I probably have 1200-1400 pounds at max if I am real close to home. If I pick up wood on the way home from work and need to drive 20 miles home then I probably stay at 1000 pounds max. At 1000 pounds the truck is almost level...thats why the coilovers help. Like I said earlier you need to drive accordingly cause the brakes will not stop as quickly so you need to be cautious.

 

[fossil]

You did get my point fossil, it is easy to overload a vehicle without trying.

We're singin' from the same sheet of music, burntime. And Todd's point's an excellent one, too...tires should always be matched to the vehicle. I wish everyone with a driver's license understood the physics involved. Be safe! Rick

 

[burntime]

If that were true Rick it sure would be a quiet ride to work ;-P

 

[JustWood]

Timbren Load Boosters. Worth their weight in GOLD !