Let me introduce you to "Sheldon" more specifially "The Sheldon Cord" !!

[lknchoppers]

When I pickup gravel or stone it's by the ton. Get weighed empty, then drive back over the scale with your load and you pay for the difference. Pretty simple and those scales are very accurate. I have seen scales on the big loaders as well, the ticket will print from the loader cab.

 

[Dawnsman]

Either way you cut it a cord of wood period is a stack 4x4x8 now matter how long you cut it its just 4 ft high 4ft wide 8ft long

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[rarefish383]

Back to the bakers dozen, all my customers/friends get extra. I used to cut all of my wood at 16" and made racks to stack it in. Then I switched to 18" and was too lazy to adjust my racks. Besides I only sell a few cord because I like cutting and splitting wood, and I only sell to friends. I call them "Fat" cords.

I know I've told this story before, so sorry for the repeat. Back when my Dad was in business, and we did sell more wood on a commercial basis, we also cut wood a head of time for regular customers, in custom lengths. We had a Ford F600 dump with 12' bed and 6' steel sides. I measured the cubic footage for 18", 20", and 24" wood and painted color coded lines on the sides, so one row was half a cord, 2 rows a full cord. It was the last load of the season and I was taking it to a new customer. On a whim, I called him and told him I had his cord stacked on the truck and was ready to leave. But, I had a big pile of odd size cut off's I was going to put on the burn pile. If he wanted them for free I'd throw them on the truck. He said sure. I got there, showed him the load before I dumped, he said OK. The next day I had a complaint, I had shorted him. He took the shortest piece in the pile and some how averaged what the whole load would be. He said I shorted him, I'd only given him something like 138 CF, and I owed him 144 CF. I said 4X4X8 equals 128 CF. I could hear him punching the desk calculator, then the phone went dead. He didn't bother to say OK, I'm sorry or "Well kiss my+++", he just hung up. That's when I quit giving shorts and uglies away. I still throw them on my burn pile, now with a bunch of my friends around and some custom beer.

Not long ago, my cousin heard me tell this story and said, "I always wondered what those different colored lines were, now I know." When my Dad retired, my uncle bought the F600 and one of our chippers.

 

[rarefish383]

Either way you cut it a cord of wood period is a stack 4x4x8 now matter how long you cut it its just 4 ft high 4ft wide 8ft long

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How about 2X4X16?

 

[turnkey4099]

Either way you cut it a cord of wood period is a stack 4x4x8 now matter how long you cut it its just 4 ft high 4ft wide 8ft long

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Or 128 cu/ft no matter what shape the pile is.

 

[Dawnsman]

Exactly

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[rarefish383]

Exactly

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Just pullin your leg, we go over this a couple times a year, year after year.

 

[Dawnsman]

Yep i have the same argument here

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[ChoppyChoppy]

MD, is still a cord, or fraction thereof. Might as well stick with the cord, what else is there? When I was a kid I had a 1 ton International pickup, single tires, with a 9' bed, lots of 8' bed's, two six's, and now 5 point something. So you can't use a pickup load. Even the little bundles at the 7-11 say ".75 of one cord" on them.

They should say .75 cu ft. .75 cord would be a heck of bundle!

 

[sb47]

Didn't we have this argument with sb47 about a month or two back?

Maybe he was talking about a Sheldon Cord that you couldn't put 3 of in a truck bed.

Most pickup truck beds now days are only 6' long. My step side has a box that measures 4'x6'x2'
To get a 4'x4'x8' stack in my truck bed, you would have to stack it a little over 5 feet high. That would be a stack 4'x6'x5' =120 cubic feet, just shy of a full cord.
No way can someone get 3 cords in a standard pick up truck bed. Not to mention the weight of 3 cords.
An average cord of oak runs around 4 to 5 thousand lbs. 3 cords of oak would be around 15,000lbs.

 

[rarefish383]

They should say .75 cu ft. .75 cord would be a heck of bundle!

I think you are correct.

 

[Deleted member 117362]

Topsoil, mulch, gravel by the yard. I think by the weight would work for all of those, and firewood, but then how would the government stick their nose in it. You do need a standard. I remember one young lady was almost at tears because I was giving her too much wood. She had used a local supplier for several years. She waited till Christmas eave to call us. She was surprised I was cheaper than her guy, and then when I got there, and told her all the wood on the dump truck was hers, she started freaking. She couldn't fit it, and her car, in the garage. She wasn't allowed to stack it out side, homeowner *****. She was happy and didn't know the scumbag was ripping her off. To a young homeowner that has never heated with wood, a cord is a giant pile. It's wan't right he ripped her off just because she didn't know. He could have taken that same load and said "this load, this much" and she would have been happy, and he still would have been ripping her off.

Don't sell it when it's dry, wait for it to be rained on for a couple days then sell it. Co-generation plant here paid by weight, wised up and now pay by volume.

 

[timbrjackrussel]

Ran across this picture on a local firewood sellers Craigslist AD. Check it out. Anybody ever hear of a "Sheldon Cord" ? I never have, let's ad more confusion to the to selling or buying firewood....Geez !!

View attachment 683647

It is SELDOM a cord

 

[turnkey4099]

Most pickup truck beds now days are only 6' long. My step side has a box that measures 4'x6'x2'
To get a 4'x4'x8' stack in my truck bed, you would have to stack it a little over 5 feet high. That would be a stack 4'x6'x5' =120 cubic feet, just shy of a full cord.
No way can someone get 3 cords in a standard pick up truck bed. Not to mention the weight of 3 cords.
An average cord of oak runs around 4 to 5 thousand lbs. 3 cords of oak would be around 15,000lbs.

I just put down a big oak, solid, no rot, green. After taking all the limb wood it left a log 4.5'x 25' with the top about 30" diameter. Based on the 4-5,000 above, what would that log weigh? Couple guys are supposed to pick it up today for slabbing.

 

[sb47]

I just put down a big oak, solid, no rot, green. After taking all the limb wood it left a log 4.5'x 25' with the top about 30" diameter. Based on the 4-5,000 above, what would that log weigh? Couple guys are supposed to pick it up today for slabbing.

No idea. You can google cord weights and get that information. Try this site.
http://www.woodweb.com/cgi-bin/calculators/calc.pl
Using your dimensions it could be from 13379 lbs. to 22215 lbs.

 

[cantoo]

sb47, so using that chart there is no way to buy split wood by the weight then? That's a huge difference is possible weight. Don't a lot of European countries buy and sell wood by the weight?

 

[sb47]

sb47, so using that chart there is no way to buy split wood by the weight then? That's a huge difference is possible weight. Don't a lot of European countries buy and sell wood by the weight?

I have no idea how other country's sell wood. Weight can vary depending on species and moisture. So going by weight varies quite a bit. That would make green wood more valuable then dry wood.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

.75 cord would be a heck of bundle!

.75 cord. 4' x 4' x 6' high

 

[4seasons]

Most pickup truck beds now days are only 6' long. My step side has a box that measures 4'x6'x2'
To get a 4'x4'x8' stack in my truck bed, you would have to stack it a little over 5 feet high. That would be a stack 4'x6'x5' =120 cubic feet, just shy of a full cord.
No way can someone get 3 cords in a standard pick up truck bed. Not to mention the weight of 3 cords.
An average cord of oak runs around 4 to 5 thousand lbs. 3 cords of oak would be around 15,000lbs.

Let me try to get this thru your thick skull one last time.

The argument was about 3 face cords in a pickup truck bed. The standard accepted definition of a face cord is a 4' x 8' stack of whatever the length of the log is. Another accepted standard is a 16" log length leaving 3 face cords in a cord. If you go to a 24" log (the longest common firewood length) then 2 face cords is a cord and 3 face cords would be a cord and a half.

Now for the second part of the equation; a standard truck bed is 8' long with 4' between the wheelwells and about 5.3' wide. Anything less than this is a shortbed, midsize, or compact truck. When you get into 1 ton and larger trucks, 8' is considered a shortbed, 10' a standard bed, and 12' a longbed. The manufacturers have played with weight ratings and bed sizes to jump the government regulations. Don't try to call a 4 door Nissan with a 5' long bed a standard bed truck. It is a glorified grocery getter/ kid hauler, that can pull a small boat and haul the trash off.

Now that we are clear on definitions so that a truck bed is 96" x 65" x 18" with a little less space for wheel wells, and 3 face cords equal 1 cord let's look if it will fit. A cord is 128 cu ft. Let's round up to 130 to make sure it will fit. Inside the bed we have 8' x 5.4' x 1.5' for a total of 67 cu ft. To be on the safe side take 7 cu ft off for the wheel wells leaving 60 cu ft in the bed. Now let's add some reasonable sideboards on the truck using the stake pockets that any actual truck has. So with some 20" sideboards we more than double the size of the bed by 72 cu ft. Now 72 + 60 = 132 cu ft. That is over the size of a cord or 3 face cords.

If you cut 24" firewood you need 3.5 ft sideboards to give you over 200 cu ft of space in the bed to hold over a cord and a half.

Now on to the weight. Most dry hardwood weights around 4000 lbs per cord. That is within the weight capacity of a 3/4 ton truck. Some softwood can weigh as little as 2000 lbs per cord putting it in the capacity of a 1/2 ton truck. Therefore you could put 2 cords of softwood on a 3/4 ton truck with neat stacking and tall sideboards. Even if you are hauling hardwoods you can still put a cord and a half on a 1 ton super duty with a 12 ft bed and reasonable sideboards without exceeding the GVWR.

Now if you want to continue changing the definition of a face cord to prove your point I can do that also. If I define a face cord as the length of cord it takes to wrap around your head until your face is completely covered. I can fit over 10 of those cords in the trunk of my car and another 20 in my back seat, with no sideboard and not over the 500 lbs payload capacity of my car.

 

[cantoo]

4 seasons, I can haul a fair jag in my rigs.