My almost C/L score today

[Elderthewelder]

Well I respond to a C/L add the otherday about a very large birch tree that has been felled and sectioned. To my suprise, I get a response back saying I was first in line and to come get it. It is about a 20 minute dive (weekend traffic), so I drive up and see a huge birch sectioned out, bottom is 36' in diameter easy, must of been 80-100 feet tall. Lady told me tree service said it was the biggest birch they had ever cut

Anyway, lady say's she needs it all out of backyard by Thursday, I am thinking no way i can do this on my schedule, but i tell her I will give it a good try, I am thinking a easy 6 or 7 loads in my small flatbed ( 6' x 9'x 2.5'). so i load up my first load and tell the lady I will be back in a couple hours after I unload.

So I head off down the road, get on the freeway, and continue on at 60mph the whole way home with no issues, get off freeway and are a couple steep hills I need to go up, truck pulls them a little slow but no real problems. Pull into my yard and truck starts smoking real real bad from underneath, I actually thought I was on fire. Told my son to get out of the truck as I turned it off.

Investigated the situation and could not see anything wrong, no fire, no overheating issue, no oil or fluid leakage, fuse's all good. So we unloded truck, wnet to start it to go back for another load and will not start. tried to figure it out for a few hours but no luck, engine cranks over but will not fire off

Anyway lady emails me wondering why I did not return, now she is mad. I expalin to her what happened and tell her I have a smaller truck that I could get a few more loads out of her yard with, but could not get it all by Thursday. She tells me she is going to contact another person to come get the rest. Needless to say I am a little bummed out

her are a fer of the pics I took. stuff was a lot lighter that I expected. I Thought birch was a somewhat high btu wood? was expecting it to be heavier

 

[madrone]

Tough luck, but you still made off with a decent haul. Hope your truck pulls through. Looks more like red alder to me, but then again, I'm not so great at internet wood ID.

 

[basswidow]

Sometimes I worry about doing the same to my truck. I drove from VA to NJ with it overloaded with oak. Gonna do it again with a loaded trailer next time. Sucks to ruin a good truck. Looks like some great wood. Rounds look to big for me to lift.

I always get loaded with the smaller stuff first - because I figure anyone else trying to get some of the wood - might pass on the really big stuff or at least it will slow them down until I can return and ask why they are taking MY wood!

Hope you get the rest.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Good find but too bad about the truck.

That certainly looks like birch to me. It isn't really high in btu but decent. You did well. I am surprised that those logs are so short though. From the pictures they look to be only about 12."

 

[mayhem]

Bummer on the truck problems...hopefully you can get it straightened out wihtout dropping whats left of your 401k.

White birch is fairly soft. It burns well but you have to get it split and drying right away because the bark is waterproof. Yellow birch has a pretty high btu content...similar to oak IIRC, but it takes equally long to cure as well.

 

[smokinj]

That crap happens! (blown head gasket my self 2 mos. ago)

 

[gpcollen1]

Funny - that tree looks healthy based on that one round that we can see that is solid and obviously from down low on that tree.

 

[karri0n]

Funny - that tree looks healthy based on that one round that we can see that is solid and obviously from down low on that tree.

I didn't see anything about it being dead/unhealthy?

 

[mayhem]

Nor did I...just that it had been felled and bucked.

It is on the big size for white birch though...usually by the time I've seen them anywhere near that size they're getting near the end of their lives and sometimes dangerous due to partial rot.

 

[gpcollen1]

Funny - that tree looks healthy based on that one round that we can see that is solid and obviously from down low on that tree.

I didn't see anything about it being dead/unhealthy?

I forgot to add the part about what a shame for the huge and beautiful birch to come down...

 

[Elderthewelder]

yeah, it is definitely white birch, I thought all birch was somewhat high on the btu chart, I guess it is just the yellow as someone mentiond above! don't think we have that in my area. Thanks for the education

As for why it came down, the first 8 feet of the tree is rotted out big time, that round you see in the truck came from about the 12' mark or so and it is pretty solid, although a little musshy in the center
Yeah, those bigger sections are cut 12", I have a small stove so that works well with me. but I did not get that many of them

As for the truck, well still trying to figure it out. Think I have a fuel delivery problem, as I can get it to start up if I spray starting fluid in the air intake, maybe just a fuel pump I hope, but that would not explain the initial problems I was having.

 

[chachdave]

Free wood always cost something. I usually pay with my Back.

 

[chad3]

Not to be a thorn in the side, but that is exactly why I told my wife I needed to have a 3/4 ton over a 1/2 ton. We tend to overtax our trucks no matter what the size and I figured that a 3/4 ton would be much better than the smaller. Hope you figure it out, did you check the clutch (if a standard). Sounds like all you did is either killed it or just over worked it.
Chad

 

[cityevader]

I'm betting the initial smoking was your tranny fluid that expanded hot and came out the vent...happened once to me...smoked like crazy going down the road. Had a different truck with an overworked tranny leak out the torque convertor seal and super hot fluid on hot exhaust caught fire. Extinguisher put it out, and after everything cooled, it wasn't leaking anymore. Changed the seal anyway.

 

[daveswoodhauler]

Bummer on the truck problems...hopefully you can get it straightened out wihtout dropping whats left of your 401k.

White birch is fairly soft. It burns well but you have to get it split and drying right away because the bark is waterproof. Yellow birch has a pretty high btu content...similar to oak IIRC, but it takes equally long to cure as well.

Why I like this forum...always learn something new....must be why you always see birch in wet area's. Thanks Mayhem...have a bunch of small birch...was just going to stack it, but now I know I need to split it

 

[wendell]

...because the bark is waterproof.

Thus, birch bark canoes. Guess the native Americans knew what they were doing.

 

[gpcollen1]

Bummer on the truck problems...hopefully you can get it straightened out wihtout dropping whats left of your 401k.

White birch is fairly soft. It burns well but you have to get it split and drying right away because the bark is waterproof. Yellow birch has a pretty high btu content...similar to oak IIRC, but it takes equally long to cure as well.

Why I like this forum...always learn something new....must be why you always see birch in wet area's. Thanks Mayhem...have a bunch of small birch...was just going to stack it, but now I know I need to split it

Actually, native birch generally do well in well drained soils and not wet areas. Not that they do not grow there or anything but if you generalize the birch species, I don't think you would say the majority by far grow in wet areas.