Processed a very large logging truck full of wood - last winter.

[nelraq]

Last winter I had a local logging truck operation deliver me a load of Douglas Fir & Larch. The driver asked me if I wanted the load "wooded up" and I, of course, said yes!
"Wooded up" means over-full; ie. over the permitted weight for the scale. He didn't have to go over the scale in this case, so I ended up getting lots of logs to process - ended up being 19.35 cords!!

I palletized all the wood, and moved it up to the old Hydro access road near the top of my property. I moved 2 pallets at a time -one on the bin lift on the back of the tractor and one on the forks on the front of the tractor. The move was a total of about 600 feet. Never lost a piece of wood off any of the pallets in the process.

I ended up with 43 pallets of wood, with the average size being .45 cords.

I experimented alot with different methods of keeping the wood on the pallet as I stacked and moved it. Tried shrink wrap first - it worked, but the stacks didn't look too stable and I didn't want to have to pick up dropped wood and restack it. the 4 or 5 that I did shrink wrap made it up to the storage place OK, but the shrink wrap has since disintegrated and 3 of the pallet stacks have fallen over.

My "final" design worked very well; it consisted of a pallet on the bottom, 2 sides of 2x4 plywood with 2 holes drilled into each piece. The sides were nailed onto the pallet and 2 pieces of baler twine were attached through the drilled holes at the top. Then I screwed/nailed one or more pieces of plywood to the top of each pallet stack - creating a pretty decent roof.

My wood was all cut to 21" (for my Oslo stove). I made two rows on the pallet and left several inches between the rows. I stuffed the wood in as tight as I could -- most of the time you could "play a tune" on the binder twine which of course got very tight as I stretched it to accomodate the wood.

The wood is drying very nicely up on the hill. It gets unobstructed sunshine on good days and there is alway a pretty good breeze as well. (the hay in the adjoining field will quite often be dry enough to bale the day after I cut it)

I sure hope the pics are displayed. I'm not really sure if I did it right - but here's fingers x'd!!

 

[nelraq]

Yeah!! -- the pics showed up!!

Here's another of the tractor with the bins on it.

 

[nelraq]

Next winter, when I start needing this wood, I can bring a couple of pallets down to the yard, and place one on the back deck - just a few steps from the back door of the house. Sure will be convenient - and easy too!

 

[velvetfoot]

Nice operation!
You have a system!

 

[gzecc]

nelraq, That is nice packaging. Could you take a picture of the contruction of your pallet boxes for me. I want to see how they are constucted not to come apart during transport.

 

[Kaptain]

Great setup - I like everything about it. That wood should season well in that location

 

[Backwoods Savage]

nelraq, I really like your idea and how you moved the wood except for the shrink wrap idea. That would be bad because then the wood would get no air circulation so would not season well at all. The plywood is not so bad as it doesn't cover the whole side. Moving with the tractor is a big plus. Thanks for posting.

 

[nelraq]

Here are a few more pics.

The first 3 show the construction of the pallet boxes. This was by far the best design that I came up with. Simple to build and it took a lot less plywood - note that there is no back with this design. BTW, I really lucked out with the plywood. The local fruit packing plant spends the winter months rebuilding their fruit bins. Any bin bottoms (ie. the pallets) and plywood sides that had any defects in them are put out by the road and are free to take. My only costs were some nails, some baler twine, and my time!

The third and fourth pics show the Timber Tongs. These definitely saved my back! I think that the hardest part of processing wood is the lifting and moving the rounds to the splitter. I got the tongs through my local Husquvarna dealer. I notice they are available from Bailey`s in the US as well. Certainly worth every penny I spent for them. If you are interested in these, I would suggest buying two -- because then you can pick up two rounds at a time and you are balanced as you walk with them. You can pick up pretty large rounds with these things. You can also pick up your split wood with them as well. A real time saver!

Cheers!

 

[bogydave]

Real nice, neat, thought out set up!
Not your first rodeo for sure. Good ole "American" ingenuity.
Gonna look for tongs, save allot of bending over & back work.
Great pics, ideas & post.
Thanks

 

[nate379]

I want to see a pic of the truck! How the hell did he fit almost 20 cords on that thing?! My Dad bought tree length wood, log truck load, for years and it was always right around 10 cords.

 

[North of 60]

I want to see a pic of the truck! How the hell did he fit almost 20 cords on that thing?! My Dad bought tree length wood, log truck load, for years and it was always right around 10 cords.

A real logging truck carries 20 cord of wood easy. Our truck loads even here are rated at 20 cord. Take a simples dimension of a trucks trailer. The cubic feet =your 20 cord easily.

 

[Jutt77]

That's really cool Nelraq! Beautiful property, mtn views, lots of wood and a biga$$ tractor. What more could a man need? Multiple wood stoves you say? Well ya got that too. Nice work!

How much did that wood cost you if you don't mind me asking?

 

[nelraq]

the wood was a real deal. It was supposed to be $1200. I gave the guy $600 cash and a cheque for the balance. He didn't want the cheque, so I got another $600 out of the bank and tried for several weeks to pay him.

Turns out he said that the $600 was OK. Once I started processing the wood, I realized why. My load of "standing dead" fir and larch was fir and larch allright -- but most of the fir was green/recently cut wood. (OK by me- as it will cure for 1.5 years before I use any of it!)

Also, I had a lot of small stuff in the load, so it took much longer to process it. OK with me too, because it gave me something to do for a month or so.

So...$600/19.35 = $31/cord. I am not complaining!!

-------
Hey Bogydave from Alaska: It's actually not good old "Americain ingenuity" -- it's good old "Canadian ingenuity":

 

[bogydave]

the wood was a real deal. It was supposed to be $1200. I gave the guy $600 cash and a cheque for the balance. He didn't want the cheque, so I got another $600 out of the bank and tried for several weeks to pay him.

Turns out he said that the $600 was OK. Once I started processing the wood, I realized why. My load of "standing dead" fir and larch was fir and larch allright -- but most of the fir was green/recently cut wood. (OK by me- as it will cure for 1.5 years before I use any of it!)

Also, I had a lot of small stuff in the load, so it took much longer to process it. OK with me too, because it gave me something to do for a month or so.

So...$600/19.35 = $31/cord. I am not complaining!!

-------
Hey Bogydave from Alaska: It's actually not good old "Americain ingenuity" -- it's good old "Canadian ingenuity":

Ha HA
Last I checked, Canada, USA & Mexico were all in North America. so all are quote quote "American" by me.
(along with South America) They are Americans too. I like my neighbors.
I consider Canada the best neighbor ever for the US. (specially Alaska) & "Americans" eh?
But "Canadian ingenuity" is good with me.
You're still a smart, hard working guy. More my real point anyway.
Sorry if I offended you & miss-spoke, I'm not "politically correct" very much, nor worry much about being it, to try to be.

Again I apologize

$31/cord is a good price, US$ or Canadian $

 

[nelraq]

Bogey Dave: I wasn't offended at all - just wanted to "make a point" -- eh?

$31 Cdn.!! Our $ is a little higher than yours right now. Time to buy a bunch of parts from the States for my old Mercedes. The parts are sure a lot less money in the States - even when the US $ is worth more than the Cdn. $