First firewood sales of the season

[Ted Jenkins]

For me the first time in at least 20 years in that I had an abundance of wood. So my strategy was to get as many folks with a two year supply of wood so that I do not have to bother with them for awhile. With prices going up at least 25% over last year will be hoping for a good return. I started in April to get all of my regulars in order. With the supplies getting more and more scarce will try to find some extra help during the winter. Thanks

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Valley - how far is your typical delivery?

We've decided that we "wasted" a lot of time behind the windshield than we should have this year, so we've been turning away customers who are at the outer edge of our delivery range. We're sold out of seasoned wood for this winter already and have queries coming in every day - sorry to turn away customers "just around the corner" when last month we were driving an hour+ round trip to deliver (for $20 delivery upcharge).

Unlike you with a supply of pre-seasoned logs, we cut and split in the fall for next winter burning, so once the seasoned pile is gone - we have to turn away customers. We quadrupled in size from last year to this, so during July and August we filled every order we could, even those just outside the limits of our delivery circle. In hindsight we should have reduced the driving radius and only accepted orders inside the smaller circle. $20 delivery hardly covered our fuel - never mind the "windscreen time".

p.s. I appreciate your inputs (on many topics) - no BS - straight shooting - always.

On average 5-50 miles. Primarily Palmer, Wasilla and Anchorage areas. (Anchorage is 35-50 miles, depending on which end, somewhere around 350,000 people).

I do a few 150 mile deliveries, though I raised the delivery cost a few years ago and it helped keep orders more local. Those orders are normally a full truckload (5.5 cords).

The 1 cord orders to the far end of Anchorage kind of suck, but many places in Anchorage are small properties so a cord is about all the room they have.

Have considered a way to setup where I can fill the small truck (2 cords) and dump 1 cord at a time, but haven't come up with something that will work. The other option is hand offloading, but that has proven to be a huge expense of time vs dumping. Often have to toss in an odd spot or end up having to stack it.
When I do "it's just dumped out" it's much easier.

 

[Big_Eddy]

On average 5-50 miles. Primarily Palmer, Wasilla and Anchorage areas. (Anchorage is 35-50 miles, depending on which end, somewhere around 350,000 people).

I do a few 150 mile deliveries, though I raised the delivery cost a few years ago and it helped keep orders more local. Those orders are normally a full truckload (5.5 cords).

The 1 cord orders to the far end of Anchorage kind of suck, but many places in Anchorage are small properties so a cord is about all the room they have.

Have considered a way to setup where I can fill the small truck (2 cords) and dump 1 cord at a time, but haven't come up with something that will work. The other option is hand offloading, but that has proven to be a huge expense of time vs dumping. Often have to toss in an odd spot or end up having to stack it.
When I do "it's just dumped out" it's much easier.

One of the local landscaping companies has a small dump truck where they insert a divider between the front of the box and the back, and they will deliver topsoil to one customer and stone to another. As long as they deliver in the correct order, it works for them. Perhaps there is an option for you to do something similar. The other idea that comes to mind is some kind of roll off or lift off container that holds a cord. Sandhill wraps his wood in face cord bundles and lifts them off with a tag-along forklift - but that's a lot of additional investment for the occasional requirement.

We have been limiting our radius to 25 miles - there are more than enough customers inside the circle as we have found out.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I've thought about a divider, it'd be pretty easy to make.

The issue though is that it would be alot of weigh at the headboard that ends up 10--12ft in the air. (~4000lbs). Unless the dumping area is fairly level side to side, the risk of flopping the truck would be high.

Normally when dumping it starts to slide out before the bed is very high so it's not too bad.
Even then though I've had a few customers where Ive had to make a ramp using wood off the truck to level a side.

I had a friend flop a dumptruck. An older C60 Chevy and had a load of horse manure. Was sitting off level a bit and the high side slid out while the low side stuck in the bed. Happened quick too, no chance at all to lower the bed.

 

[muddstopper]

Valley, just a thought. What about a rotary dump. Might try a railroad auction. With a rotary, you just spin the bed the direction you need to dump and raise it up. Put a divider in the bed, dump half a load and go to the next customer.

 

[Little Al]

Cor you're fortunate Joe Public offering money in exchange for fire wood all Iv'e had is 4 or so scroungers wanting to relieve me of my seasoned logs free of charge & 1 cheeky bugger said the logs were to big & would I consider splitting them again he wasn't to keen when the big dog arrived from his sniffing trip & his hair on his back stood up & his lip curled up & his inquiry as to if he usually ran loose made for a rapid exit.