How do you Get your Firewood out?

[ktm250rider]

Yeah, Im trying to minimize the roads cut as well. Using my soon to be MX track as the main loop around my property as well as existing logging roads. Usually, any trees that are far off the beaten track I pull out with chains. Logging winch would be on my Xmas list to make this process a lot easier and quicker.

 

[beerman6]

How do I get my firewood out?

I drive to my buddies,he uses his loader to load both the truck and trailer,I drive home and toss it on the pile...

 

[Wismer]

ATV and trailer, or even better ATV and logging arch, always impress me as to how light on the environment they are. They are even better if you choose your time carefully and only be hauling wood when it is dry or frozen.

I like to keep my woodlot clean and neat too, but the less hand bombing the better.


Craig

 

[ropensaddle]

Sorry to anyone doing hand toted wood I have before and
firewood does not pay even with equipment. Hey a mule
is a sure footed work horse kinda smelly though!

 

[tree md]

I'm humbled by the equipment some of you guys have. Seems like most of you must be making roads right up to the very spot you are cutting. But I have to sometimes haul wood out by hand because I cut very selectively and am trying to keep my woods as nice looking and natural as possible.

I have main woods trails that I can get my '71 Chevy pickup down. Also smaller tributary trails I use my tank-like '73 Gravely 816 garden tractor and trailer on. But often I'm off these trails in the bush and then I have to move wood by hand. For this I use hand-pulled poly sleds in winter and now this garden cart when the ground is bare to get the wood out to my trails. It's good exersize and you don't burn gas either.

Am I the only one moving firewood by hand?

Ha, the crane in that vid isn't mine (I wish), I have to rent crane services when I need one to take a tree out. I do hope to buy a boom truck in the next couple years though.

I thought you guys might get a kick out of that footage because we picked three huge trees over the house and loaded it right onto trailers. Talk about easy pickins!!!

Usually we have to cut the logs to handle and roll them to front if we have no access. Once you start getting into the 3-4 foot logs you have to cut them about 8"-10" to even be able to roll them to the drive. I have been thinking about getting a log dolly but just haven't gotten around to it yet. We are also having a winch mounted to our trailer. It's nice when you can back right up to the wood but that's not always possible.

We used to use a sled to get wood out when I was a kid and cut firewood with my dad... But I was a kid and it was still fun to me back then...

 

[STLfirewood]

Sorry to anyone doing hand toted wood I have before and
firewood does not pay even with equipment. Hey a mule
is a sure footed work horse kinda smelly though!

I beg to differ that firewood doesn't pay. I know down where you are it's cheaper but up here I think it pays pretty well. I can buy wood for $40 a rank delivered if I buy 10 ranks at a time. I can deliver 8 ranks in a day. I get $100 a rank for it or $300 a cord. My math tells me that is $480 for a day of delivering wood. Pay for fuel and your still making $430-$450 for the day. I know I have truck expences to add up also but I still think that is good money. I just wish I could deliver wood everyday for 4 months straight. That's what I am building to. I

Scott

 

[ropensaddle]

I beg to differ that firewood doesn't pay. I know down where you are it's cheaper but up here I think it pays pretty well. I can buy wood for $40 a rank delivered if I buy 10 ranks at a time. I can deliver 8 ranks in a day. I get $100 a rank for it or $300 a cord. My math tells me that is $480 for a day of delivering wood. Pay for fuel and your still making $430-$450 for the day. I know I have truck expences to add up also but I still think that is good money. I just wish I could deliver wood everyday for 4 months straight. That's what I am building to. I

Scott

I don't know what a rank is a rick is a half cord and here you
have to sell in cord or fraction of a cord or cubic foot or meter to be legal.
A cord brings 150.00 delivered and stacked I get paid to haul it home and
two cords is a pretty good day split and delivered I am sorry but It really
is not worth my time. Having said that I will do it occasionally and have
contemplated hauling it by the semi load to places it brings more money!
Good money is in the eye of the beholder I don't feel I am making any profit
at present overhead unless I gross a 1000.00 per day but seldom seem to
but I can get three times as much done than most.

 

[tree md]

We stockpile it and sell it but it barely pays for our gas if at all. We stockpile it mainly to keep our guys busy when it slows down. Most of the profits go to paying them but that's why we do it in the first place. I know there are guys out there that make money at it but we barely break even.

 

[STLfirewood]

A rank is he same thing as a rick. It's only half a cord if you sell it 24inches long. Anything I cut and buy is 16inch wood. So it's a 1/3rd of a cord. I understand not making money selling it for that much. I guess it comes down to how much money you have to make to get by. I think clearing $400 or so in a day is pretty good. Mind you I said clear not gross.

Scott

 

[Peacock]

A rank is he same thing as a rick. It's only half a cord if you sell it 24inches long. Anything I cut and buy is 16inch wood. So it's a 1/3rd of a cord. I understand not making money selling it for that much. I guess it comes down to how much money you have to make to get by. I think clearing $400 or so in a day is pretty good. Mind you I said clear not gross.

Scott

Yep. A rick here is 4x8 by 16-18".

I get $60 per rick and $150 per cord.

 

[cunrya]

Skid with a 5525 MFWD JD, Equiped with a 3-point hydro Grapple in the back and a Grapple bucket on the loader up front. Buck and split at the landing, haul out with a dump trailer, or move the logs to the barn on a 25ft Gooseneck and split and pile in an empty grainery 15ft wide and 40 ft deep.

 

[Wismer]

Skid with a 5525 MFWD JD, Equiped with a 3-point hydro Grapple in the back and a Grapple bucket on the loader up front. Buck and split at the landing, haul out with a dump trailer, or move the logs to the barn on a 25ft Gooseneck and split and pile in an empty grainery 15ft wide and 40 ft deep.

How do you like the 5525? I have a 5510 and it is an alright light duty tractor but after running the New Holland TN95's the poor steering drives me crazy.

 

[cunrya]

How do you like the 5525? I have a 5510 and it is an alright light duty tractor but after running the New Holland TN95's the poor steering drives me crazy.

I Love the 5525, never had a problem with steering as long as there is plenty of fluids and the RPM's are up where they should be. Pound for pound I don't think there is a more powerful or versitile machine on the market. Mines pushing 87HP on the PTO Dyno after a few tweaks. I've operated the TN's but just don't think they compare to the Deere's (And I've owned several NH's). The JD's are just alot more Heavy Duty than the case/NH in the utility series stuff IMHO. That and Deere has always bent over backwards to take care me.

 

[Wismer]

cunrya, sorry for the confusion when i was talking about the deere's steering I was talking about how sharp the turning is. The New Holland's with the supersteer axle, they turn just about 90 degrees perpendicular to the tractor. It's really a time saver on the headlands of the vineyards. The rows being 8ft apart, you can just about turn into the row right beside the one you are coming out of. The deere is our weedspray and hedger tractor, and it drives me nuts having to do a 3+ point turn on the headlands to get into the next row.

A great little tractor though, narrow... 4ftish, almost as narrow as a quad, love it in the bush. So far no major problems.

Do you farm with your Deere? if so what kind of farming

Take er easy


Craig

 

[cunrya]

Wismer, gottcha on the supersteer, would be good for that type of work. Yea I farm, but in the last few years have put everything (around 800 acres tillable) in CRP programs and run a Bird hunting preserve on top of it. So, I use the 5525 for food plots and mowing general Utility work. Actually planted 480 acres of CRP with it this year. It'll pull a 20ft disk 7.5 MPH no problem.

 

[Wismer]

We are busy with grapes, so the guy who farms our peaches runs all deere and he has a new 5525, the thing looks like a tank! he says it will haul anything, and I believe him, i watched him last year pull two tandem trailers, full of bins of pumpkins straight uphill in 6 inches of mud, the tractor didn't even wince.


Craig

 

[cunrya]

We are busy with grapes, so the guy who farms our peaches runs all deere and he has a new 5525, the thing looks like a tank! he says it will haul anything, and I believe him, i watched him last year pull two tandem trailers, full of bins of pumpkins straight uphill in 6 inches of mud, the tractor didn't even wince.


Craig

yeah the 25's seem to be alot diferent animal than the 10's My help blew the motor in mine (didn't tighten the plug when he changed the oil, ran it tell it seized at 150 hrs ouch) we tweaked it on the rebuild and it'll do everything I want and more now. If yer gonna skid with that TN look at Iron Oaks Grapples, they are awesome. Huge time savers

 

[Wismer]

yeah the 25's seem to be alot diferent animal than the 10's My help blew the motor in mine (didn't tighten the plug when he changed the oil, ran it tell it seized at 150 hrs ouch) we tweaked it on the rebuild and it'll do everything I want and more now. If yer gonna skid with that TN look at Iron Oaks Grapples, they are awesome. Huge time savers

I would like to look at some sort of logging attachment, but my wood lot is not very big, so I am not sure it would be cost effective. I usually just use chains and the 3pth... I would love a logging winch though.

 

[clearance]

Fall it right across the road, buck it to the other side of the road and throw it in your pickup. If I have to move more than two steps, forget it. Lazy, whatever, less time, less work, leave the top and branches in the bush as well. Lots of wood here, no big deal.

 

[AlasKarl]

Karl