Moving wood

[PapaDave]

I've been contemplating putting up a shed next year. With that said, I've been trying to come up with the optimal size for my needs, and with all that thinking comes random stray thoughts as well.
A little backstory. Like some of you, I have my wood drying in a field quite a distance from the front porch near the stove room. Every year, the wood needs to be moved from the field to the front of the house for ease of access in the winter.
Here's where the random stray thought comes into play. Well, maybe not so random,...or stray either since I think about moving all that wood every year.
What's the absolute easiest method you've come up with to move the wood? I've used a utility trailer that holds a 1/3 cord/load, but that gets a little unwieldy in the front yard after a few stacks are filled. Movable shed also crossed my mind, but it seems 5 cord of oak tends to be a tad heavy.
OK, fire (yes, pun :cheese: ) away.

 

[LLigetfa]

If I had a FEL I'd use large modular bins to hold and move the wood.

 

[fossil]

Front end loader bucket on a tractor. Mine's small, but it holds more than I can carry, and more than I want to move in a hand-pulled cart or wheel barrel...and it's fun. :coolsmile: From the shed to the house is close enough that I can just do an arm load, or a pull-wagon load, or I can use the tractor and put the wood right on my front porch. Depends on how much I'm moving & how far. Rick

 

[iceman]

there is never an easy way.. i think about it every year
in your case who cares!?!?!? put it iin the fron tyard its gone by spring! i have my wood about 100 ft from the house in which every winter i move a cord up to the "back door/ patio" i then have one of those round iron wood holders that i take wood from.. when thats done i go out to the main stack and bring 2 wheel barrows up to refill the iron ... what happened top the cord you ask?? i use that for bad weather! i also have 2 large totes that i fill ... soooo fill the totes in the house (2days) plus the iron 2-3 days gets me 4-5 days ... i wish i could do something but damn wood warms me like 6 times!
next year i am gonna get a plastic sled and just go get it as needed

 

[PapaDave]

This past fall, I used a 17cu.ft. trailer pulled by my garden tractor. If I stack it nice and neat, I can get 1/3 of a face in that, or for you purists, 1/9 of a cord. If you've followed this far, you'll know that takes 9 trips/cord. Since I generally stack about 6 cords in the front yard, that's....wait a minute....that's 54 trips. Calculators are cool. ;-P
Only 18 trips to refill the stacks in the field, but then,.....right back to the 54 trips in the summer. Dang, no wonder I'm so tired!
Rick, Love the CUT.
LLigetfa, yeah, that's similar to the movable shed thing. I have nothing to move something like that though.

Well, at least the shed will get rid of the crappy looking stacks covered with weathered blue tarps. I'll continue to ponder on this.
Thanks for the thoughts.

 

[k3c4forlife]

I dump the wood from my pick up truck in the front driveway and wheel barrow it all to the side of the shed in the back yard. I have a heavy duty wood crate that I built to be the depth of my stove so I know the pieces I carry in are the right length to fit the stove. I carry in one box a day, enough to run a full day and a full night, like 80-90 pounds of wood. If I have a few beers, I carry in a few boxes. If I have a lot of beers, I carry in a lot of wood and when I wake up, I'm warm and don't remember doing. Win-Win

Kevin

 

[LLigetfa]

This past fall, I used a 17cu.ft. trailer pulled by my garden tractor. If I stack it nice and neat, I can get 1/3 of a face in that...

I have a small poly cart that I use but sometimes I borrow my neighbor's cart that can take close to a face cord. My wood is bucked to 20" so you can do the math on your calculator. The bed is 5'x4' and mounded up more than 2'.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_nX0X4MOKcKI/Sax5s99wB8I/AAAAAAAAAI4/2mDgWzzPe1c/s640/100_0181.JPG

 

[PapaDave]

This past fall, I used a 17cu.ft. trailer pulled by my garden tractor. If I stack it nice and neat, I can get 1/3 of a face in that...

I have a small poly cart that I use but sometimes I borrow my neighbor's cart that can take close to a face cord. My wood is bucked to 20" so you can do the math on your calculator. The bed is 5'x4' and mounded up more than 2'.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_nX0X4MOKcKI/Sax5s99wB8I/AAAAAAAAAI4/2mDgWzzPe1c/s640/100_0181.JPG

Oh sure, nice try. Get your own calculator.
I need "Scotty" to beam my firewood for me.

 

[gzecc]

This is my wood trailer. I paid $35 for it. Took off the old deck, put on 2x6 PT boards, and found the drop down sides in a friends scrap pile. Depending on the weather I load it (from my piles) every 5-8 days. Don't load it too much, maybe 150 pieces.

 

[whotheguy]

Well, here's how I do it for the house stove as the woodworking shop stove isn't installed yet. I have a 5'X14' very light single axle trailer that I load up, it will hold about 1.5 cords of splits fairly easily. I hook it to my Polaris 800 and can pretty much pull it right to the door. Granted I may leave the trailer there for several weeks though before using that much wood. I do however have to pay attention to tongue weight and try to find a balance so as to not squat the the quad too much. Only time I've had trouble was about a month ago when we had a bunch of snow and then some warm days, things got muddy and soggy fast. Locked the quad into 4-wheel all and went on my way. Although come spring I'll be out there with a shovel filling those ruts back in.

 

[SolarAndWood]

The easiest way is to minimize the distance of each hop. The stove is 15 feet from the door to the garage, the sheds are right outside the garage, the drying area is just outside the shed, and the processing area is just uphill of the drying area. Dump the rounds over the bank into the processing area, split over the bank onto the drying pile, stack in shed in the fall, old beat up garden cart with foam in the bottom moves 6 cu ft at a time into the garage, round toter the size of the firebox the last 15 ft to the stove. To load the second shed, the splits go into the loader on the tractor for the trip around to the front of the garage.

The only bugs we have are chipmunks...if we had to deal with bugs, I would have to come up with a very different strategy. Extending the overhangs on the house when I redid the roof was the cheapest shed I could come up with.

 

[savageactor7]

What’s the absolute easiest method you’ve come up with to move the wood?
There really is no easy way but in your case using the wood wagon I've done it that way in the past and it's productive. You can reduce the drudgery by not making it an all day project and just nibble it away. Set a minimum goal like 3 loads a day and mix it up while doing other things.

Did you ever consider building a lean-to behind the garage or along the back of the house? Way less of a project ...lots of bang for the buck.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I agree with Rick.

 

[smokinj]

lawn mower and back it in to the garage, and there is no easy way.

 

[mike1234]

I used a wheel barrow and my lawn tractor with a small trailer last year. Bought my Kubota RTV last summer partially to help with processing and moving wood (as I keep telling my wife - it is not a toy!). I have an old trailer that was a falling apart boyscout trailer that I took apart and put rails on, I think it holds at least 1/2 cord (it's basically the size of a full size pickup bed. The Kubota pulls the trailer for large amounts, for smaller amounts, the kubota's bed works great. In fact, with the Kubota being so effective at this, I am moving next years stacks farther away from the house to an area that gets a lot more sun.

I've been contemplating putting up a shed next year. With that said, I've been trying to come up with the optimal size for my needs, and with all that thinking comes random stray thoughts as well.
A little backstory. Like some of you, I have my wood drying in a field quite a distance from the front porch near the stove room. Every year, the wood needs to be moved from the field to the front of the house for ease of access in the winter.
Here's where the random stray thought comes into play. Well, maybe not so random,...or stray either since I think about moving all that wood every year.
What's the absolute easiest method you've come up with to move the wood? I've used a utility trailer that holds a 1/3 cord/load, but that gets a little unwieldy in the front yard after a few stacks are filled. Movable shed also crossed my mind, but it seems 5 cord of oak tends to be a tad heavy.
OK, fire (yes, pun :cheese: ) away.

 

[PapaDave]

What’s the absolute easiest method you’ve come up with to move the wood?
There really is no easy way but in your case using the wood wagon I've done it that way in the past and it's productive. You can reduce the drudgery by not making it an all day project and just nibble it away. Set a minimum goal like 3 loads a day and mix it up while doing other things.

Did you ever consider building a lean-to behind the garage or along the back of the house? Way less of a project ...lots of bang for the buck.

That's pretty much how I approach it. I can't work on the firewood all day, so I do an hour or 2, then have a sammich or just go sit down for awhile. I go back at it with the idea of getting as much c/s/s as possible in that time. I don't rush.
The best place I have for drying the wood is in the field, and is a pretty easy drive to get to with the tractor/trailer.
You guys are all using similar methods as I to do the moving, I'm just trying to minimize trips FROM the field to front of the house.
The idea that Savageactor7 has to nibble away at it is what I do and will continue to do until I get me one of those "Scotty beams". The work will diminish if I can get a new stove that doesn't need to be refilled every 3 hours. The shed also eliminates some of the snow removal issues to get to the wood. Still thinking that would help.

 

[LLigetfa]

If you have a good sized FEL that can lift a sizable load, You could use the ends of large wire spools as bases and build holtz's on them. Leave them in the open for seasoning and then wrap them with what might resemble wood snow fence for the journey.

 

[gzecc]

I always imagine stacking on pallets, each stack wrapped with plastic snow fence (with small holes in it), on the sides to hold it together, and leave it to season.
Then use a fork lift on my 3 point to move the seasoned pallet loads to the back door.

 

[rdust]

I love the savings from wood heat and the warmth but if I paid myself by the hour I'd be broke! :lol: I don't think there is a good way to move wood, I split and stack(most of it) where I unload it, then fill an 8'x3' rack in the garage at a time which lasts about 7-10 days. I move it using my garden tractor and a 17 cu ft cart, it's going to be interesting once we get some real snow around my stacks that I have to deal with.

 

[Manatarms]

Papadave,

Not sure if you have a tractor or skidsteer, however there's an interesting thread on a tractor forum about moving wood around in boxes constructed of used pallets....basically they're using 5 pallets and nailing them together to make cube...one for the bottom, 3 for the sides and one for the top. Leave one side open for loading. The box is then wrapped in poly for protection from the elements. When you need wood you just go fetch a cube and move it up to the house. I may try this system myself to see how it works.

-Mark

 

[PapaDave]

Papadave,

Not sure if you have a tractor or skidsteer, however there's an interesting thread on a tractor forum about moving wood around in boxes constructed of used pallets....basically they're using 5 pallets and nailing them together to make cube...one for the bottom, 3 for the sides and one for the top. Leave one side open for loading. The box is then wrapped in poly for protection from the elements. When you need wood you just go fetch a cube and move it up to the house. I may try this system myself to see how it works.

-Mark

Manatarms,
I had actually thought of that, but being without the means to move it, dropped it.

 

[bogydave]

How about a big week-end (Sat or Sun afternoon) wood moving party with family & friends.
Any one with a trailer, 4-wheeler or way to move a bunch, bring it.
Make it fun, everybody bring some food, pop & beer you supply the wood to move.

Prize for the biggest load moved, Prize for the most efficient etc.
Be a fun day, good get together. Kids would have a blast.

 

[Hurricane]

I use the Loader to move rounds and logs to the splitting / stacking area. To get the splits into the garage where I keep 7 - 10 days worth I get the kids to do an assembly line. The two younger ones load wheelbarrows, I wheel them into the garage and the older one unloads and stacks. I help on either end that is moving slow. My piles are less than 100 ft from the garage. Sometimes I just do it all myself but most times it is a family project.

 

[91220da]

I will be looking into the 5 sided pallet thing. I currently stack on regular pallets about 3 feet high and then carefully move the pallets as needed with forks on my utility tractor. Works great except if you stack to high and pieces start to fall off. even though I only stack about half high it is still easier moving extra pallets than throwing each piece by hand.

 

[bsruther]

Wheel barrow works best for me to fill up the rack outside the back door which is about a 30 ft. walk. I think it all depends on how far the wood has to be moved. I also hook the utility trailer to the golf cart, fill it up and back it into the attached garage.