Wow! :coolsmile:
Slow1 said:
Drat I now see that I'm going to have to do something like this so here comes a bunch of time designing and experimenting (not to mention $'s).
I feel your pain, brother.
Thanks all for the friendly reception, and all the great and/or amusing ideas! :thumbsup: I genuinely appreciate it.
You've all given me much to ponder, so I'll share some thoughts now, hope the conversation continues, and post more as I digest all your great ideas.
First of all, lol at the frontloader and catapult suggestions.
I just read that the DEA seized a catapult that smugglers were trying to use to fling drugs over the border, so maybe this one's available? If they "throw" in the pot, it's a win-giggle situation:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110127/od_nm/us_mexico_catapult_odd
http://d.yimg.com/a/p/rids/20110127/i/r2192101016.jpg
But back to the matter at hand.
I'm still hoping for a solution where I can lift the wood once into some sort of cart/wagon/etc. (called the transporter from now on) and then get that thing all the way to my stove, so I only have to lift the wood twice--once into the cart and once into my stove.
All your ideas have potential, with one concern being that the transporter is stable through all this--for example when pulled up a ramp/lifted(/
catapulted)/etc. jotul8e2's yellow cart looks pretty promising for that, maybe better than the Landsmann caddy I posted.
To pick a post:
snowleopard said:
Outside the box here: is there any area that you could use as a staging area that is at the level of or above your deck? (I'm thinking not, since Lake M is kinda flatlander territory). If there was, you could zipline it to the deck. That could work if your deck is sufficiently beefy and large for you to consider putting a week's worth of wood up there.
I love "outside the box". My woodpiles are about 60' across my lawn, with a drop (dang it) of maybe 2' over that distance. And my deck/back door is perhaps 4' above grade. But there is a big maple in the middle of the woodpiles, so winching the wood up to a zipline which would then run horizontal to my deck is possible. Advisable? Hmmm...
Another option would be getting a pulley (like clotheslines in alleys) and carrying it up that way--but that's a lot of upping and downing unless you can get a friend to help or unless that cat is as smart as he looks.
Actually, Hercules is surprisingly smart and helpful, but Lassie he's not. Supervision, friendly nudges, and the occasional fresh-kill are about the best he's got.
What's the layout like? I'm trying to move wood uphill myself, so have been playing with these ideas a bit. I have an old winch on the front of my 30-year-old Toyota that probably doesn't work anymore, and have thought about trying to pull that into service.
I'm cogitating on that myself, because rolling a cart manually up that snowy 60' of lawn in the winter would be a PITA, deep snow and all.
The idea that comes to mind at the moment is to load the wood in a cart, winch the cart up a ramp (two foot-wide boards or ramps) into the back of my 4x4, slide the ramp into the bed, *drive* the truck to my deck, extend the ramps from the bed to deck (this is pretty much level--I do it all the time), and roll the cart onto my deck. Someone with a greater deck height (Slow1?) could have a taller permanent ramp at his deck, and then run a portable ramp like mine from the truck bed to his permanent ramp, and winch the cart up the ramp--if that's clear and remotely sane.
The winches can be electric--one installed on the truck.
But that's just some initial thoughts. I'll see what else comes along. Thanks to all for all your ideas. Further comments, ideas, jokes, etc. are encouraged!
(( 
