How do you Get your Firewood out?

[STLfirewood]

:jawdrop: 14x7 trailer that weighs 5k...Is it made out of lead?

I know the mechanicals of the dump add a bunch of weight,but my 8.5x24 enclosed car hauler is just a tad over 3000

That's what the scale said. It has 7k pound axles with brakes on both. It has twin telescoping cylinders. And it has a hydraulic jack. It has slide in ramps to haul the skidsteer. The frame is made heavy. It's a Foster trailer. It's heavy but it pulls nice. That hydraulic jack has spoiled me. I can have 2 cords on that trailer hit the button and it jacks right up.

Scott

 

[max2cam]

Snow changes things

Yesterday we got 7" of snow here and it won't be going away soon. Now I'll swap out my garden cart wood hauler for my Otter heavy-duty black poly sled. With that baby I can snake cut firewood out on narrow trails to landing sites. Winter is my favorite cutting time!

 

[tdb]

Hauling wood

I like to use my allis chalmers tractors to haul the wood , never been stuck, TEDMI

 

[Wismer]

yea, that seems heavy to me. My 7x14 landscape is 1500lbs empty.

 

[JKS]

I Use A 2.5 Ton 6x6 Army Truck And Pull The Tree To A Landing,then Saw Them Up And Split And Load The Wood In The Dump Truck

 

[iCreek]

couple different ways

We use a couple different methods of getting our firewood out, some we touch the wood alot less, and just dump at the pile.

One is to take the Case backhoe and haul the logs up to an area on our hay wagons, then cut and split closer to the stoves.

Two is take the backhoe and saws in the woods and load the front platform with wood, and then just dump at the stove.

Sometimes we take one of the tractors(MF 65, Allis D17, Ferg. 35, or New Holland T100A, with an old Chevy truck trailer.

Or like this weekend I just used my Honda four wheeler and an old 3 slip motorcycle trailer we converted to a good trailer with sides....

 

[ghitch75]

here is what i use....

 

[slofr8]

I get it to the "yard" using a 4 wheeler, skid cone and use a pulley where I have to. There it's cut up and split and left for a year to season.

I take about half to the house in the fall but bring the rest in by sled as needed like Karl showed in an earlier post.

I plan on getting a logging winch for my tractor to cut some poplar I have but for firewood this setup works great.
Dan.

 

[cjcocn]

Dan

That is the first that I have heard of skid cones. They seem like they'd work well for some of the trees that I could pull out.

How does the cone hold the tree? (i.e. what prevents the tree from sliding out of the cone?)

Thanks

 

[slofr8]

Dan

That is the first that I have heard of skid cones. They seem like they'd work well for some of the trees that I could pull out.

How does the cone hold the tree? (i.e. what prevents the tree from sliding out of the cone?)

Thanks

cjcocn,
here's where I got my cone,

http://www.novajack.com/en/0104.htm

1/4" chain choker holds the trees.

Chain go's through a hole in the end of the cone and a grab hook on the end of the rope atatches to the chain.

I have 100' of rope on the reel. I tie it to the ball hitch and go ahead with the wheeler winching in the twitch.

I can make the rope "derail" where I want with this.

My wood lot has a series of 3 ridges. I'll set up the block on a tree some where and haul any dead or diseased trees to it. Up or down hill, it doesn't matter. The cone snakes around stumps and trees. Some times I don't even need the block but can back up right to the tree.
It takes a fairly good trail system but ground impact is minimal. You're left with a nice trail that will likely all but disappear in a few years. This year I started using tire chains on the wheeler and it made a big difference.
This is my "back yard" so I only cut on cool fall days, and work for 2 or 3 hours at a time. I take my time, cut selectively, and use it as quality time with the boys.

Old wheeler and old saws.

I split by hand and it might take 7 or 8 hours per cord. As I said before I expect to get a 3 pt. winch but not because this isn't working. I have a fair amount of marketable wood to cut and would have to yard too far to where a truck can get it for the wheeler. Just for firewood, this works nice. I burn about 3 cords a year and this year I cut 5. I hated to stop!
If you have any questions feel free to PM me.
Dan.

 

[cjcocn]

Dan

Thanks for the explanation - it cleared things right up for me!

Thanks for the pics as well. Not only did they help with the explanation, but I always enjoy woodcutting related pics.

Chris

 

[Brushwacker]

I can't afford all the fancy things. My most used wood retreiver last 3 years is a 1987 toyota longbed 2wd. Presently working on an isuzu 4wd shortbed for tougher jobs and pulling an trailer. 1959 dodge d500 for the big loads. Flat country here so 2wd usually works fine.

 

[A100HVA]

 

[saginaw22]

the last one is a pretty sweet set up. How much do you have
in the trailer with the claw grappler? looks pretty awesome to me.

Whats the load cap for log size?
how much and the trailer load?

Very nice looks like this set up makes you some
money!!!

 

[logbutcher]

Dan from "Northern Maine: Where exactly ? We're on Deer Isle/Blue Hill with junk coastal spruce/fir old wood with mostly paper birch, red maple, some brown ash, and too little red oak. Firewood off the lot about 5=-6 cords/year. We almost got a cone or a logging arch but it seemed simpler to to cut trails to the trees on the woodlot. So like many, the tree is bucked, loaded into the trailer ( by goodbody) pulled by a Foreman ATV, then piled for split and stack later. I get about 5-8 cords of spruce or fir for pulp. I don't like to cut dragged logs, except on snow....like now. A winter wonderland huh ?
Very nice pics; what camera ?

The ATV log loader also looked good for us, until the price $$$$$. How has it worked out in view of the cost ?

 

[slofr8]

Dan from "Northern Maine: Where exactly ? We're on Deer Isle/Blue Hill with junk coastal spruce/fir old wood with mostly paper birch, red maple, some brown ash, and too little red oak. Firewood off the lot about 5=-6 cords/year. We almost got a cone or a logging arch but it seemed simpler to to cut trails to the trees on the woodlot. So like many, the tree is bucked, loaded into the trailer ( by goodbody) pulled by a Foreman ATV, then piled for split and stack later. I get about 5-8 cords of spruce or fir for pulp. I don't like to cut dragged logs, except on snow....like now. A winter wonderland huh ?
Very nice pics; what camera ?

The ATV log loader also looked good for us, until the price $$$$$. How has it worked out in view of the cost ?

Hey LogButcher,
I'm in Fort Kent in the St. John River valley, on the Canadien border.

The log arch would not work for me as I have ridges to work around. In most areas there's no way I could go with out a load, never mind with one. I find the cone and block allow me to reach almost every part of my lot. Even if the tree has to come up to the trail, the wheeler can be pulling down hill or level, maximizing its limited power. I cut mostly beech and maple and some poplar for firewood. I'll use downed spruce and fir for kindling. The local OSB mill price for poplar is quite good so thats the reason I'm considering the winch. Their also taking almost all of the balm of gilian (sp) you can send so nows the time. Maybe cut a few loads a year in 8' so I don't have to worry about it drying out.

The camera is a Nikon coolpix 2100. It's only 2.0 megapix but does a good enough job.

And yes we have snow! The last storm didn't hit us as hard as they thought. Maybe 8"-10" but we all ready had that much on the ground. We built a new house last year and my land scaping is not done yet. With 20" of snow tho, my yard looks as good as the neighbors 5 months out of the year!! Should be a good winter!!

Oh.... this was my old house,,,,it was getting a little small.

Take care. Dan.

 

[ak4195]

Yarding trees with a Re-Direct

for the budget minded,a simple "re-direct" ,as sloFr8 has set up,with strap,block n tackle and a few hundred feet of cheap poly( i use 5/8"s i think) with a chain choker on the work end,will expand your reach quite a bit.I have 2 100' lengths of poly and a few 50's for various setups.Thimbles and shackles on the work end.Youll have to know something about knots,as you dont want anything that will jamb permanently(time for the knife).Big shackle reciever on the truck and,and "Presto skidder!".The higher and tighter to the tree you can place your strap the better.Yah your gonna do alot of walkin,but then if thats a problem,well might as well just crank the baseboard heating.Oh yah dont run the knots through the blocks,theyre kinda spendy,mark them with survey tape so you can watch them in the rearview mirror.If your observant,youll find all kinds of little tricks to save time and labor this way.Do whatever it takes to give yourself the advantage.
Ive pulled out many birch trees this way,also like many have stated winter is best.Bigger trees than 5/8's can handle? Bigger cordage or shorter log lengths,remember do whatever it takes to work it to your advantage.

ak

 

[Fuzly]

I throw everything on the truck for the close to the road stuff, and use the atv and small trailer for the harder to get to stuff.

Mainly wanted to thank everybody for the great ideas and photos. Especially slofr8 and A100HVA; I've been thinking about getting some tools to expand the use of my ATV. Your photos answered almost all my questions about the Novajack cone and the grapple trailer

 

[cvdirtrider]

Log Loading

I get my firewood out of the wood's like this.

Andy

Nice trailer, what do you use to get the logs on the trrailer? What length, brand, gvw tailer rating do you use behind that pick up? I'm looking at different options right now to get customers logs out

 

[logbutcher]

Hey LogButcher,
I'm in Fort Kent in the St. John River valley, on the Canadien border.
The log arch would not work for me as I have ridges to work around. In most areas there's no way I could go with out a load, never mind with one. I find the cone and block allow me to reach almost every part of my lot. Even if the tree has to come up to the trail, the wheeler can be pulling down hill or level, maximizing its limited power. I cut mostly beech and maple and some poplar for firewood. I'll use downed spruce and fir for kindling. The local OSB mill price for poplar is quite good so thats the reason I'm considering the winch. Their also taking almost all of the balm of gilian (sp) you can send so nows the time. Maybe cut a few loads a year in 8' so I don't have to worry about it drying out.
The camera is a Nikon coolpix 2100. It's only 2.0 megapix but does a good enough job.
And yes we have snow! The last storm didn't hit us as hard as they thought. Maybe 8"-10" but we all ready had that much on the ground. We built a new house last year and my land scaping is not done yet. With 20" of snow tho, my yard looks as good as the neighbors 5 months out of the year!! Should be a good winter!!
Oh.... this was my old house,,,,it was getting a little small.

Take care. Dan.

Morning Dan:
Nice family....you keep them THAT cold ?
Yeah, we know Ft Kent, long ride to no where for us :greenchainsaw: , on dry roads it's near 3 hours. We worked the 2005 Biathlon event, and stopped for the CanAm Dogsled races. Nice town you got; even the H.S. border people aren't bad .
The 2 1/2 feet on the ground here are making working tough for the ATV and goodbody. I have to stomp out around the trees with snowshoes for safe felling now. A real PITA. The Honda Foreman does get stuck now and then; have you put chains on ? Also need to take some air out of the 13" Subaru trailer tires for traction on snow.
Thx for the cone idea for us small scale loggers.
MERRY CHRISTMAS !