CL comes through again with a productive maple weekend.

[sgt7546]

Spotted an ad earlier in the week for a fellow that had a maple come down in the storm last week. I went out and looked at it and said I'd be over Saturday at 8AM to begin. We shook on it and I knew by his character that a handshake is his word. It looked to be alot of wood and almost 30 minutes from home so I decided to rent a tandem 6 x 12 trailer for the day. I got the downed one cut up and the fellow asked if there was anyway that I could take the other maple on his property down. Naturally I was delighted to help him out with that problem. I ended up with three truck and trailers full. The pile is almost 30 foot long, 10 foot wide, and between 2 and 3 foot high. My public education math puts that between 600 and 900 sq foot of wood, divided by 128, should yield at a minimum five cords once c/s/s.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_aCAx7GK_AO0/TOl-MYPm4NI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/tphoBYyNNlU/s640/DSC_0451.JPG
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_aCAx7GK_AO0/TOl-Fc8ZnsI/AAAAAAAAAZM/041MmSh0pZA/s640/DSC_0453.JPG
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_aCAx7GK_AO0/TOmFBdVIxNI/AAAAAAAAAZo/GL7UnDWyLxQ/s640/DSC_0438.JPG
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_aCAx7GK_AO0/TOl9_XzOYmI/AAAAAAAAAZI/a1JX32_PMoc/s640/DSC_0444.JPG

NOTE: Neither saw is running in the pic.

 

[Wood Duck]

That must have been a huge tree. Silver Maples often have more than one trunk. Did this one?

 

[shawneyboy]

All I see are 2-3 years of BTUs. Nice haul !!

 

[sgt7546]

That must have been a huge tree. Silver Maples often have more than one trunk. Did this one?

The larger of the two trees was already down, it didn't split until maybe 10 foot from the ground. The one I actually took down was straight up, but only maybe 18 inches or so (my 20" bar cleared it).

 

[thewoodlands]

[quote author="sgt7546" date="1290390835"]Spotted an ad earlier in the week for a fellow that had a maple come down in the storm last week. I went out and looked at it and said I'd be over Saturday at 8AM to begin. We shook on it and I knew by his character that a handshake is his word. It looked to be alot of wood and almost 30 minutes from home so I decided to rent a tandem 6 x 12 trailer for the day. I got the downed one cut up and the fellow asked if there was anyway that I could take the other maple on his property down. Naturally I was delighted to help him out with that problem. I ended up with three truck and trailers full. The pile is almost 30 foot long, 10 foot wide, and between 2 and 3 foot high. My public education math puts that between 600 and 900 sq foot of wood, divided by 128, should yield at a minimum five cords once c/s/s.


sgt7546 nice pictures and better score, how long will that amount of wood last you?

zap

 

[sgt7546]

sgt7546 nice pictures and better score, how long will that amount of wood last you?

zap

This is my first year so I really don't know. I have six cords of locust and cherry that I c/s/s in spring of 2010. I've accumulated another maybe 10 cords or so for free off of Cl over the past three months. My goal is 20 cords so that I'm three plus years ahead.

 

[thewoodlands]

sgt7546 nice pictures and better score, how long will that amount of wood last you?

zap

This is my first year so I really don't know. I have six cords of locust and cherry that I c/s/s in spring of 2010. I've accumulated another maybe 10 cords or so for free off of Cl over the past three months. My goal is 20 cords so that I'm three plus years ahead.

Good to hear your getting that far ahead, nice work.


zap

 

[weatherguy]

Sgt, you look much younger than I had pictured :cheese:

 

[sgt7546]

Sgt, you look much younger than I had pictured :cheese:

must be the camera and light....those are my future wood processors. The oldest helps gather and split, no saw time for him yet. The youngest he just likes getting his picture taken.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

And I thought they were the ones who did the cutting! Seriously, that is some good wood and it is great to get that much wood and still help out the fellow who gave it to you. Your picture reminded me of when our two sons used to help with the wood gathering. They did not handle the saw much though. One son was not all that interested in sawing while the other one was. Still, I did not allow him to cut much. Only some easy sawing and no felling. Their muscles came in handy though.

 

[basswidow]

What was the cost of the trailer rental and gas back and forth factored into the equation?

A serious amount of work went into that! Nice score. I know those big trunk pieces were heavy and green. Back breakers!

Great pictures ! Still alot more work to go splitting, but a great score. Congrats!

 

[ChrisNJ]

That is a massive pile of wood, great score.

 

[sgt7546]

What was the cost of the trailer rental and gas back and forth factored into the equation?

A serious amount of work went into that!

The trailer was 29.95 plus 8 bucks for the insurance. This is for a tandem axle 12 x6 with surge brakes and a 7000lb gross/5000 pound net weight. (Note: If you rent from U-haul they push for you to do a six hour rental, but the price for a 24 hour rental is the same. If you do not specify they can put you down for a 6 hour rental then charge you extra for any extra time.) GPS put it at about 12 miles door to door, but took 30 minutes with traffic. I get 10 mpg in my truck, probably less trailering that type of weight. I'm not sure how much 89 octane i went through on the saws but I know it was less than 2 gallons plus the bar oil. I brought with me three sharp chains for each saw and used two of the 16" and all three of the 20".

I put no value on my time as I enjoy this type of work. But a dollar figure for the cost of this "free wood" was about $75.00 total.

 

[FireAnt]

Killer Score!

 

[basswidow]

What was the cost of the trailer rental and gas back and forth factored into the equation?

A serious amount of work went into that!

The trailer was 29.95 plus 8 bucks for the insurance. This is for a tandem axle 12 x6 with surge brakes and a 7000lb gross/5000 pound net weight. (Note: If you rent from U-haul they push for you to do a six hour rental, but the price for a 24 hour rental is the same. If you do not specify they can put you down for a 6 hour rental then charge you extra for any extra time.) GPS put it at about 12 miles door to door, but took 30 minutes with traffic. I get 10 mpg in my truck, probably less trailering that type of weight. I'm not sure how much 89 octane i went through on the saws but I know it was less than 2 gallons plus the bar oil. I brought with me three sharp chains for each saw and used two of the 16" and all three of the 20".

I put no value on my time as I enjoy this type of work. But a dollar figure for the cost of this "free wood" was about $75.00 total.

HOLY SMokes! I was thinking the trailer rental would have been more than that. Thanks for the tip. I could be alot more productive scrounging if I had trailer space inaddition to my truck bed. Kudos!

 

[smokinj]

That 391 Looks Good first one I have seen!

 

[sgt7546]

HOLY SMokes! I was thinking the trailer rental would have been more than that. Thanks for the tip. I could be alot more productive scrounging if I had trailer space in addition to my truck bed. Kudos!

Funny story behind all that, I was serving a warrant two counties out of Pittsburgh and within the house was a second person that was wanted for what I'd consider a very petty warrant. None the less I had to take him back with me. A real decent younger guy who made some bad decisions along the way. We BS'd for the almost two hour ride back and he explained how at one point he worked for U-haul. A couple points he made:

1. Rent on-line its often cheaper than the quote you will get in the store.
2. All rental are for 24 hours, but if you do not specify this, the rental will only be given for 6 hours with an up-charge for additional time.
3. Use the on-line guide on the U-haul website to determine what your vehicle can trailer safely, then rent the biggest you can get.
4. The price on all trailers are very close; for instance a 4x8 which may hold 2000 pounds is within $10.00 of the price of the tandem 6 x 12 which has a GVW of 7000 pounds.

Just some FYI I picked up along the way.

 

[sgt7546]

That 391 Looks Good first one I have seen!

Thanks Jay,

You can tell this is definitely a mid-grade saw. Its a couple pounds heavier than the pro-grade but still has 4.4 hp.
For what I use it for its wonderful but I know its limitations. I'd buy a half dozen of these for the price that I paid, but If I were to walk into a Stihl shop I wouldn't be interested in this saw for full MSRP.

http://lh5.ggpht.com/_aCAx7GK_AO0/TOr02e6JaTI/AAAAAAAAAZ8/A4F158OiDCI/s640/DSC_0449.JPG