# MBF per truck load?



## windthrown (Apr 16, 2008)

West coast loggers: 

Aproximately how many MBF of Doug fir can fit on a typical west coast logging truck headed to the mill? I have a property which was cruised to be about 100 MBF and I am trying to figure out how many truckloads that will be, given a stand with mostly 18-24 inch DBH trees on it. 

Thanks...


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## slowp (Apr 16, 2008)

Around 5 mbf gross
Usually an average of 4.5 net. For up here that is.


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## 2dogs (Apr 16, 2008)

About 4.5 for redwood here.


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## 056 kid (Apr 16, 2008)

4. east coast hard wood 8 to 16 foot


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## windthrown (Apr 17, 2008)

Thanks. I will figure on 20 truck loads minimum then.


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## Philobite (Apr 21, 2008)

Windthrown,

Mmmmm. I'm thinking with those sized trees, around 4.0-4.5MBF gross, depending on bucking and taper. Doug Fir is a heavier than redwood by 20-25%, and it tends to produce more pistol-butts which makes space awkward in the load.

I did 110MBF net in redwood and a bit of fir last year (so about 115 gross) and I do all the operations including loading the trucks so I'm pretty tuned in to it. I used 25 trucks, and that was mostly redwood, so 4.6MBF avg/load. You'll almost certainly do quite a bit less with fir I think.

With redwood I tended to run out of truck space right at weight capacity and with fir I tended to run out of weight capacity before the truck appeared to me to be fully loaded. On the roads around here I often see doug fir loads that appear under-loaded space-wise, but are obviously max weight.

What does your taper look like on avg, and what height are the trees, and per truckload are you going for max scale per log, or are you willing to cut a lot of 33'-41's which hurts your scale but fills the truck more efficiently?

To be conservative I'd estimate I was going to get 4.1MBF unless there are different road weight maximums than we have in Mendocino county.


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## slowp (Apr 21, 2008)

Yes! Log weights vary as do (I think) state load limits. Will you be going by weigh stations? That is an important question along with does the law pack out portable scales and weigh frequently? Back in the lawlesser days here, one gyppo would get 8mbf and occasionally higher according to the scale sheets, on his trucks. He hauled locally and had no permanent weighing stations to worry about. He also miraculously knew when the state guys were going to be here with their portable scales and would not haul on that day. On that once a year day, we found logs kicked off trucks on just about every haul road and the ends sawed off so the brands were gone. Those days are over.


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## Jacob J. (Apr 21, 2008)

Philobite is on the money there. The last commercial sale I did was averaging around 3600 bf per load. I think between 3600-4000 is what you can count on. I don't know that it's going to be worth it to sell timber anytime soon, prices are down right now here.


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## windthrown (Apr 21, 2008)

T'was watching AxMen the other night and sure enough, they were averaging 4.5 MBF per truckload of mixed fir and hemlock. Where I would be logging south of here, there are no scales. Here in OR, there are miles of paved roads to nowhere, like the road into where I still live now, just for logging trucks. There are gobs of mills around there parts. The trees have pretty low taper; fairly straight, grew as a stand. No wolf trees. Not quite pole quality, but maybe a truckload or two of pole trees. There is a poll mill in Roseburg. Problem with that is the latency of payment. I may just sell it as a stand, and let them deal with cutting, logging and taxes though. I am still trying to figure it all out. 

Where I would be logging is not on a steep slope, so not too many pistol butt trees. Unlike this property that was high-graded, and all the crap was left. Pistol butts, split tops, forks, wolf trees, bent and broken tops. Though Grand fir if fetching more than Dougs here now, she has enough to do a grand fir cut and get maybe a dozen trucks off of this property. I would do that if I owned this place. I would also fell the alders in the canyons and let the younger red cedars grow more. They are getting old (alders). Alder is fetching a good price now as well. Previous owners cut all the old and big cedars there and the alders grew in their place.


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## joesawer (Apr 21, 2008)

Got to love that High Grade, ummm I mean select cut logging.


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## windthrown (Apr 21, 2008)

Worst kind of logging you can do around here, if you wind up with what is left, that is. If you are cutting, it is great. We would be better off if they clear cut it. I would clear cut it in 10 acre secitions myslef. Get rid of all these garbage grade trees; cut them up for firewood or sell them as pulp, and sell the better logs to the mills, and replant mixed species; doug fir grand fir, redwood and cedars. Guy near here named George Fenn; has 400 acres and has been experimenting with mixed species stands, and he gets about 30% faster growth than the conventional silviculture methods. Only problem with redwood up here is that there are no mills that will take it. Grows fast though. Also no need to replant it after cutting; it resprouts on its own.


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## 2dogs (Apr 22, 2008)

windthrown said:


> Worst kind of logging you can do around here, if you wind up with what is left, that is. If you are cutting, it is great. We would be better off if they clear cut it. I would clear cut it in 10 acre secitions myslef. Get rid of all these garbage grade trees; cut them up for firewood or sell them as pulp, and sell the better logs to the mills, and replant mixed species; doug fir grand fir, redwood and cedars. Guy near here named George Fenn; has 400 acres and has been experimenting with mixed species stands, and he gets about 30% faster growth than the conventional silviculture methods. Only problem with redwood up here is that there are no mills that will take it. Grows fast though. Also no need to replant it after cutting; it resprouts on its own.



No mills will take redwood?! Just the opposite problem here, Doug Fir is worth nothing to the mill. That means more work for the portable mills. I guess the market price must still be around $175/M ?


Here is a pic of my friend Andy and his boy. Starting him young.





This nail knocked off five carbide teeth.




The blade doesn't cut too well without teeth.


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## windthrown (Apr 22, 2008)

No mills take coastal redwood north of the CA border that I know of. Not much redwood grows up here, and it is a different setup for milling than for fir and hemlock. Also the lumber market up here is for cedar in place of redwood. Same bug resistance, and higher prices for cedar than Doug fir. I do nto know what logs have fallen too here of late. Last I saw an ad, it was 1,000/MBF for cedar, $650/MBF for doug, and $800/MBF for alder. Maybe I will put a call into some of the local yards and see what they are paying (or rather, if they are paying).


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## Philobite (Apr 22, 2008)

Doug fir is $300/MBF here. Excuse me while I fall on my saw blade.


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