picking a dump truck

[Andrew B]

Looking to get into the firewood business pretty full time for long term. I don't really want to get into a brand debate but Am I looking for a 1 ton with a dump box and PTO winch? or go up to a f550 dump with PTO winch ? or what? I'm looking at selling 100 full cord a year,first year, only more then on out.
What would be the best truck for the woods to get the logs, and to the splitter, and deliveries? A few years old would be great around $30,000?

I live in Canada and it gets really cold for starting -40 with windchill about 2 weeks a winter.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Ffmech17]

Stay far away from the 6.0 Powerstroke. Don't fall for the good looking price tags.

 

[lone wolf]

So who makes the most dependable truck now?

 

[Ffmech17]

There's still good deals to be found on the 99.5-early 03 7.3 powerstroke's you just have to be patient and search. I haven't seen or heard to much bad about the 6.4 Powerstroke they're just a bear to work on the engine. And as always the early 2000's Duramax's pulled like a train just had hit and miss injector problems. With a block heater and oil pan heater I wouldn't hesitate to have a diesel up north.

 

[TC262]

The 6.4s are horrible, I'd stay far away! I love my 6.0 liter powerstrokes but I know how to fix them! I buy ones with issues for a fraction of what they are worth. They are really great motors when you get the bugs worked out of them. Don't be scared of a 6.0 if the price is right.

 

[pro94lt]

How many miles a year are you going to drive it? For firewood I'd have a gmc c7000 with 366 big block 5+2 transmission 16 foot dump bed... handle it with ease

 

[chevybob]

The 6.0 is an awesome engine with tons of power as long as you understand them and know how to PROPERLY fix them. To find a clean low mile 7.3 nowadays is like finding a unicorn. I don't know too much about the Duramax besides that they had injector issues at some point. Chevys aren't nearly as heavy duty as the others.

Or you can just buy a 3rd gen Dodge with a Cummins and a 6 speed and not have to worry about anything

 

[lone wolf]

The 6.0 is an awesome engine with tons of power as long as you understand them and know how to PROPERLY fix them. To find a clean low mile 7.3 nowadays is like finding a unicorn. I don't know too much about the Duramax besides that they had injector issues at some point. Chevys aren't nearly as heavy duty as the others.

Or you can just buy a 3rd gen Dodge with a Cummins and a 6 speed and not have to worry about anything

What years were the 3rd generation Dodge w/Cummins made?

 

[chevybob]

What years were the 3rd generation Dodge w/Cummins made?

Anything after 2002 is 3rd gen (to me atleast. Idk if they call the newer styles 4th gen or whatever). Halfway through 2007 they went to the 6.7 cummins which is still the same basic engine from what I understand. I've only owned 5.9 never a 6.7.

 

[lone wolf]

Anything after 2002 is 3rd gen (to me atleast. Idk if they call the newer styles 4th gen or whatever). Halfway through 2007 they went to the 6.7 cummins which is still the same basic engine from what I understand. I've only owned 5.9 never a 6.7.

Is it hard to find that truck in a 3500 series 1 ton?

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Unless you are in "specialty" market doing campfire wood for $$ (or cooking wood, etc), 100 cords a year won't keep you afloat, and certainly won't be enough to afford a 30-40k truck.

I'm not trying to be a debbie downer, but I just want to give truthful info.

I do 500-600 cords a year of firewood, plus tree length, plus some small engine repairs, welding, machining, land clearing/dirt work, etc and I'm certainly not rolling around in the money. Staying afloat fine yes, but it doesn't take but a string of back luck to but a hurt. Figure a skidder engine... easily 12-15 grand, some of the hydraulic hoses on the delimber are $1500+, etc.

Don't epect to be profitable with a chainsaw and splitter. You will work yourself to death. My first year that is what I did. Now with machinery what I do in a day would take me a week by hand.

Do you already have the logging equipment and a processor? If so, great, you have a real good start. If not... it's going to be rough for a while and I would look at a 5ishk truck for now, focus on getting a processor, couple saws, skidder, delimber, log truck, etc.


As far are your question, a 1 ton is "meh" for hauling. It will do it, but it will be right on the line of being too overloaded.
Figure you want to haul at least 2 cords in it. That's about 10,000lbs +- a few thous.

A 450 or 550 will handle it better (not to mention be legal). Though then you need to plate it commericial if you aren't setup as a farm. For here that's about a $600 difference in cost just on the registration.

What are you looking for the PTO winch for? The truck would be used to deliver firewood? I don't get into spots that I would get stuck. If the customer has that kind of goat trail driveway I dump it near the highway and they can figure it out. I don't risk my truck.

 

[tree MDS]

Lol.. "debbie downer". That one always makes me chuckle.

 

[lone wolf]

Unless you are in "specialty" market doing campfire wood for $$ (or cooking wood, etc), 100 cords a year won't keep you afloat, and certainly won't be enough to afford a 30-40k truck.
I'm not trying to be a debbie downer, but I just want to give truthful info.

I do 500-600 cords a year of firewood, plus tree length, plus some small engine repairs, welding, machining, land clearing/dirt work, etc and I'm certainly not rolling around in the money. Staying afloat fine yes, but it doesn't take but a string of back luck to but a hurt. Figure a skidder engine... easily 12-15 grand, some of the hydraulic hoses on the delimber are $1500+, etc.

Do you already have the logging equipment and a processor? If so, great, you have a real good start. If not... it's going to be rough for a while and I would look at a 5ishk truck for now, focus on getting a processor, couple saws, skidder, delimber, log truck, etc.

100 cords

Unless you are in "specialty" market doing campfire wood for $$ (or cooking wood, etc), 100 cords a year won't keep you afloat, and certainly won't be enough to afford a 30-40k truck.

I'm not trying to be a debbie downer, but I just want to give truthful info.

I do 500-600 cords a year of firewood, plus tree length, plus some small engine repairs, welding, machining, land clearing/dirt work, etc and I'm certainly not rolling around in the money. Staying afloat fine yes, but it doesn't take but a string of back luck to but a hurt. Figure a skidder engine... easily 12-15 grand, some of the hydraulic hoses on the delimber are $1500+, etc.

Don't epect to be profitable with a chainsaw and splitter. You will work yourself to death. My first year that is what I did. Now with machinery what I do in a day would take me a week by hand.

Do you already have the logging equipment and a processor? If so, great, you have a real good start. If not... it's going to be rough for a while and I would look at a 5ishk truck for now, focus on getting a processor, couple saws, skidder, delimber, log truck, etc.


As far are your question, a 1 ton is "meh" for hauling. It will do it, but it will be right on the line of being too overloaded.
Figure you want to haul at least 2 cords in it. That's about 10,000lbs +- a few thous.

A 450 or 550 will handle it better (not to mention be legal). Though then you need to plate it commericial if you aren't setup as a farm. For here that's about a $600 difference in cost just on the registration.

What are you looking for the PTO winch for? The truck would be used to deliver firewood? I don't get into spots that I would get stuck. If the customer has that kind of goat trail driveway I dump it near the highway and they can figure it out. I don't risk my truck.

He want to use it to go in to the woods is why the winch. He don't have any other machinery at all.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Debbie Downer or realist... However you want to put it. It's one thing to sell a bit of wood (like 100 cords) for extra money as side work, but doing for a living you have to push alot of wood at a normal normal price or a smaller amount of wood at a high price.

All the hopes, dreams and hard work don't mean squat if you can't push enough product (aka profit) to keep the bills paid and some food on the table.

 

[Andrew B]

Yeah I just want to inch into the market to see how many cords I could sell and see how the demand is . It seems to be pretty high. I will also do lawn care. Maybe I will look at very used truck and cheap to start, and see then move up to high production procesoccer and bigger truck once i figure out how much I'm selling and working for it with a gas powered splitter.
How did you do after your first year? What did you do different? invest a lot of money and take risk?

I'm going to take a look at the dodge diesels now

Thanks everyone, if you have any more suggestions let me know

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

The first year (2012)I was doing firewood part time. I was also working a full time job (Air Force) so I didn't need to worry too much about making ends meet. Now I had been doing firewood for a few years before that, but 2012 was the first year I started the actual business.

I was medically separated from the military spring of 2013 (injuries while serving) and became a disabled vet.
Because of that I was given a " no interest loan" as I call it. They call it a "severance". Its supposed to be a thank you for serving and being separated, something to help get a person back on their feet. It's calculated off time in the service and rank.

Sounds good on paper, but it was taxed and I have to pay it back. About $100 a month is pulled from my disability check each month to pay it. And before you think... well the guy has a check each month...
yes, but it's not very much. It's not enough to cover normal household expenses never mind business expenses.

Anyhow I used that and savings, plus a loan, about 150k total to buy a processor, skid steer, grapple, couple chainsaws, a 10 wheeler dumptruck, PPE, parts, tools, etc and cover operating costs for a while, to include 2 hired hands. (With my injuries to my back I'm limited to what I can do, such as i cant do a bunch of stacking).
I was left with a few $$s to my name after all said and done. Pretty scary!

I had plenty of business that first year, to the point I couldn't keep up. Even still it was barely enough to keep me afloat... to the point my parents had to help me a bit.

Now before I bought all of this I had lined up a few loggers to supply me with logs at a decent price (I promised to buy several loads a week) and I had a site to setup my operation at a friends farm.

That led to becoming good friends with the loggers, and eventually partnering up with one.
That allowed me to sort of cut out the middle man and allowed him to more or less have an operator for free.

Things are going pretty good, but I still use all older stuff. You won't find any 30k trucks! All well used/auction stuff.

The 2 dumptrucks I own are 30+ years old. (1981 and 83).

I really don't know your setup, or how you plan to do it all but trying to skid logs in the woods with a pickup will kill it quickly and not be productive.
It's one thing to haul out a few cords to burn at home, but to do it for a luving, you need to be quick, effective and not break things.
Breaking something means you put on the mechanic pants vs logger pants (no way to afford a mechanic, you ever price out a field call?... it will be $500 before they even open a toolbox)... that means no logging is getting done.

Hope that helps. There is so much to being a successful logger/doing firewood sales and much isn't right or wrong really.
I just think spending money on equipment and a cheaper dump truck would be better.

 

[SS396driver]

Is it hard to find that truck in a 3500 series 1 ton?

Not to bad . The 5.9 and 6.7 Dodge's do have issues like all machines . I have had to replace universal joints on both front axles all the tie rods and ball joints that's the dodge part. Truck has 100k on it . I had to replace the water pump easy 20 minute job and the oil pan because it rotted out, common problem with these and it was huge pain in the butt, took me about 6 hours to do. And the truck is seldom used in winter mostly just to plow my driveway.
I bought this one in new in 07 but looked to get the 5.9 . Early 07's had the 5.9 mid year and later had the 6.7 with a lot more emissions crap .

To the OP I was going to look for a dump truck 4500 or 5500 dodge but decided to buy a dump trailer instead. Trailer is 12x6 and has 8 k payload, no extra insurance. I am going to buy a bigger one next year looking for a 16 x 6, 13,800 lbs payload.

 

[chevybob]

I bought this one in new in 07 but looked to get the 5.9 . Early 07's had the 5.9 mid year and later had the 6.4 with a lot more emissions crap .

I think you keep mixing your 4s and 7s. Cummins switched to a 6.7 after the 5.9 common rail.

 

[SS396driver]

Doh ... 6.7 sorry... fixed it

 

[chevybob]

Hell if I were you I would just get

Not to bad . The 5.9 and 6.4 Dodge's do have issues like all machines . I have had to replace universal joints on both front axles all the tie rods and ball joints that's the dodge part. Truck has 100k on it . I had to replace the water pump easy 20 minute job and the oil pan because it rotted out, common problem with these and it was huge pain in the butt, took me about 6 hours to do. And the truck is seldom used in winter mostly just to plow my driveway.
I bought this one in new in 07 but looked to get the 5.9 . Early 07's had the 5.9 mid year and later had the 6.4 with a lot more emissions crap .

To the OP I was going to look for a dump truck 4500 or 5500 dodge but decided to buy a dump trailer instead. Trailer is 12x6 and has 8 k payload, no extra insurance. I am going to buy a bigger one next year looking for a 16 x 6, 13,800 lbs payload.

Doh ... 6.7 sorry... fixed it

Haha all good just breakin balls.

To the OP if you do buy a cummins I'd go with any 24V 5.9. In stock trim they make more power then a 12 valve or a 6.7. Kinda sad the 6.7 with more displacement makes less power. But with the 24v just buy a QUALITY tuner with a gauge display like an Edge to keep an eye on EGT, boost and fuel pressure. LOW FUEL PRESSURE WILL KILL YOUR INJECTION PUMP. VP44s aren't cheap either.I ran a raptor lift pump since the stock intake pump suck on mine at full throttle I would be running around 14psi. After that throw on an intake and down pipe and you have a powerhouse and reliable truck. I had an 2001 backed with a 6 speed that would burn every gear. Half of them
In 4x4 haha