Pipe dream or can I make decent money

[cantoo]

That google ad will be a big flag to the money grabbing, no working bastages that want their cut too. The tax man I mean. Cash oncome means you have no credit rating either if you want to ever get a loan. My processor is more or less a Wallenstein one.

 

[Huskybill]

I been there in the 80’s. I started out with a Chevy k10 1/2 ton truck. After bending two rear differentials I needed a bigger truck. Looking to the future I’m thinking about a skidder and a bunk truck. I had a place to keep the wood at. But that’s looking ahead. I picked up a 1976 Chevy c30 dually for $3 k. Two wheel drive wasn’t going to cut it but we ran both trucks. I measured the frame width between a 4x4 and my one ton there the same width. I picked up a 73 suburban k20 4x4. I made a k30 4x4 out of my one ton truck. I put in lockers in the diffs. Plus a 14” lift kit. Six super swamped and we went cutting. I’m thinking down the road a truck for hauling diesel fuel for the equipment? But it hauled firewood for now. I put the truck anywhere off road right up to the felled trees. The truck cost me $5 k to build. The k30 4x4 didn’t come out till 77. But for $25 k I couldn’t afford that being out of work. I was happy working for myself in the woods. I wasn’t getting rich but I did get by. The local super market had marked down meats once a week. Great prices on steak, beef. We had 100 tomato plants in the garden. For canning, Then the corporate engineering job was offered. Good pay, great benefits but I hated it. I put up with it for 19 years till I retired, firewood here was $100 a cord back then it’s $250 a cord now. But it was up to $300 a cord for a while.

In 83 I lost my job. I went doing firewood, I lost my job in 84 & in 85. I stayed doing firewood the whole time full and part time bwtween jobs. While working 3 months per year I made $10 k per year. We still lived good, the bills were paid and the family ate good. Once we figured how little money we needed to live on we were all set. Those wood chips were flying. I was lucky I just purchased the Husqvarna 2100 & 240sg just before I lost my job. The misses was pizzed I spent that much money but when the money started rolling in it was a different story.

What direction you choose you can survive but stay focused. Plan your moves. It’s hard work but you can make money.

 

[H-Ranch]

Once we figured how little money we needed to live on we were all set.

THOSE are words to live by. Seems most of us tend to ignore it until we are faced with hardship. Even then, many never learn and continue a lifestyle like they have money.

 

[FlyingDutchman]

I would be offput by the 1/2 hour drive to the cut spot. My equipment has always been sketchy so that's 1 hour of risk for something bad to happen each day. I'm out just at that honestly. A piece of wood falling off the trailer can be a big insurance risk on the highway.

Seasoning wood to be salable is a tough game. I can barely get dry wood for myself to burn each year. It takes lots of space, prep work and time. I dread putting wood in a spot where I'll have to move it by hand again. Tools are thrown and tears are shed. I've built a rack system to use with an end loader but it's not perfect either. Sometimes it's too muddy to use the loader! You essentially need to cut one year where you might only be able to sell a small portion of what you process.

And from what I gather, nothing makes a wood customer madder than green wood that won't burn when they paid for seasoned wood. You are a salesman now and need to keep your customers happy. Which also means talking to morons that can barely say their name about firewood for four hours while trying to work, rest or fix things.

 

[chucker]

I would be offput by the 1/2 hour drive to the cut spot. My equipment has always been sketchy so that's 1 hour of risk for something bad to happen each day. I'm out just at that honestly. A piece of wood falling off the trailer can be a big insurance risk on the highway.

Seasoning wood to be salable is a tough game. I can barely get dry wood for myself to burn each year. It takes lots of space, prep work and time. I dread putting wood in a spot where I'll have to move it by hand again. Tools are thrown and tears are shed. I've built a rack system to use with an end loader but it's not perfect either. Sometimes it's too muddy to use the loader! You essentially need to cut one year where you might only be able to sell a small portion of what you process.

And from what I gather, nothing makes a wood customer madder than green wood that won't burn when they paid for seasoned wood. You are a salesman now and need to keep your customers happy. Which also means talking to morons that can barely say their name about firewood for four hours while trying to work, rest or fix things.

selling firewood and making a profit is kind of like "truth and lies"! truth never needs to be explained and lies always have the need to be explained, as well as remembered to be able to be amended upon ……..

 

[Bitsy]

You can't just count fuel in the driving cost. Tires, oil changes, insurance, registration, broken taillights, and most importantly: replacement cost. If you use your truck cutting firewood until it's not useable any more and you didn't allocate any of the money from your sales towards a replacement, then you just put yourself out of business.

I don't understand what you mean by "If you use your truck cutting firewood it's not useable anymore". This truck sits around most of the time insurance, registration, etc is paid regardless so better to put it to work. I realize that it will put wear and tear on it but there is not too much I can't fix. The truck would literally have to light on fire and burn to the ground for me to have to replace it. Even if the engine blows up the 5.4L from Ford is easy to come by and swapping it out takes less then a day. Maybe I need to up my daily "Miscellaneous" cost a bit to factor in more wear and tear?

That google ad will be a big flag to the money grabbing, no working bastages that want their cut too. The tax man I mean. Cash oncome means you have no credit rating either if you want to ever get a loan. My processor is more or less a Wallenstein one.

I have not had any credit for probably 15 years, I seem to have something special for keeping it at 0, maybe it is my hate of banks and gov. I doubt they would ever notice my little website but if they do it would be a bit hard for them to track me that way, other then calling me to deliver them some wood lol.

I been there in the 80’s. I started out with a Chevy k10 1/2 ton truck. After bending two rear differentials I needed a bigger truck. Looking to the future I’m thinking about a skidder and a bunk truck. I had a place to keep the wood at. But that’s looking ahead. I picked up a 1976 Chevy c30 dually for $3 k. Two wheel drive wasn’t going to cut it but we ran both trucks. I measured the frame width between a 4x4 and my one ton there the same width. I picked up a 73 suburban k20 4x4. I made a k30 4x4 out of my one ton truck. I put in lockers in the diffs. Plus a 14” lift kit. Six super swamped and we went cutting. I’m thinking down the road a truck for hauling diesel fuel for the equipment? But it hauled firewood for now. I put the truck anywhere off road right up to the felled trees. The truck cost me $5 k to build. The k30 4x4 didn’t come out till 77. But for $25 k I couldn’t afford that being out of work. I was happy working for myself in the woods. I wasn’t getting rich but I did get by. The local super market had marked down meats once a week. Great prices on steak, beef. We had 100 tomato plants in the garden. For canning, Then the corporate engineering job was offered. Good pay, great benefits but I hated it. I put up with it for 19 years till I retired, firewood here was $100 a cord back then it’s $250 a cord now. But it was up to $300 a cord for a while.

In 83 I lost my job. I went doing firewood, I lost my job in 84 & in 85. I stayed doing firewood the whole time full and part time bwtween jobs. While working 3 months per year I made $10 k per year. We still lived good, the bills were paid and the family ate good. Once we figured how little money we needed to live on we were all set. Those wood chips were flying. I was lucky I just purchased the Husqvarna 2100 & 240sg just before I lost my job. The misses was pizzed I spent that much money but when the money started rolling in it was a different story.

What direction you choose you can survive but stay focused. Plan your moves. It’s hard work but you can make money.

That was a great and inspiring read, thank you for taking the time to share it! We grow most of our vegetables and harvest our own meat so there is substantial savings there. We also plan in the not too distant future to go completely off-grid. Firewood sales I think will fit good into that type of lifestyle. We do not need much $ to live well.

THOSE are words to live by. Seems most of us tend to ignore it until we are faced with hardship. Even then, many never learn and continue a lifestyle like they have money.

I agree, that is a snippet that will stick with me for a very long time.

I would be offput by the 1/2 hour drive to the cut spot. My equipment has always been sketchy so that's 1 hour of risk for something bad to happen each day. I'm out just at that honestly. A piece of wood falling off the trailer can be a big insurance risk on the highway.

Seasoning wood to be salable is a tough game. I can barely get dry wood for myself to burn each year. It takes lots of space, prep work and time. I dread putting wood in a spot where I'll have to move it by hand again. Tools are thrown and tears are shed. I've built a rack system to use with an end loader but it's not perfect either. Sometimes it's too muddy to use the loader! You essentially need to cut one year where you might only be able to sell a small portion of what you process.

And from what I gather, nothing makes a wood customer madder than green wood that won't burn when they paid for seasoned wood. You are a salesman now and need to keep your customers happy. Which also means talking to morons that can barely say their name about firewood for four hours while trying to work, rest or fix things.

The way it has to be and I am not to worried about it. The truck and trailer while old are in good shape and well maintained. If I was not confident in them being safe I would make whatever changes needed to make sure they were Wood handling is the biggest issue for me, I don't mind it but it is time consuming. Trying to figure out a way to streamline that. I have been keeping an eye on the market here closely for the past year and am pretty confident that I will be able to sell all or the majority of what I cut, whether it be green or later seasoned. I always make sure I am straight up about the wood I have if it is green I make that very clear.

One great thing about a website is I can put this information on it and direct them there rather then explain things over and over, so a great timesaver! I agree customers can be hard to deal with but it is also something I have done quite a bit in the past so I know what to expect.

I am also researching on how I can build my own kiln. I think it would be awesome to be able to cut and dry pretty much on demand and kiln dried wood should be able to get a premium. I wonder if selling less for more might be a good way to go about things. I have ordered wood here a few times in previous years and not once was I impressed with what I received. Food for thought!

 

[lknchoppers]

It costs me about $20 for fuel round trip to go to the city 35 miles away (10 mpg) @ $2.50/gallon. F250 Long bed with 5.4L. I carry 2 cords, many times it's four half cord deliveries. I figure $10 per delivery for fuel to be safe. I don't go out cutting wood, I have a tree dump, time and fuel cost saved there. I never stack firewood anymore when I process it, wind rows 5 feet high in the sun and wind here it dries good enough. You can do it, it just takes planning and persistence.

 

[Bitsy]

It costs me about $20 for fuel round trip to go to the city 35 miles away (10 mpg) @ $2.50/gallon. F250 Long bed with 5.4L. I carry 2 cords, many times it's four half cord deliveries. I figure $10 per delivery for fuel to be safe. I don't go out cutting wood, I have a tree dump, time and fuel cost saved there. I never stack firewood anymore when I process it, wind rows 5 feet high in the sun and wind here it dries good enough. You can do it, it just takes planning and persistence.

The windrows is interesting, much less wood handling. Do you have a pic?

 

[Ted Jenkins]

HuskyBill#22 is an exceptional road of success. A successful road does not mean getting rich but surviving. I think few of us really are thinking we are going to get rich with wood sales. For me I like doing what I am doing, but it is with challenges. One of my biggest errors have been and was not having the right equipment at the right time, I had a dump truck running great a IH crawler and a skid steer with a large array of other equipment, but I did not need them a few years ago. Now I need all that stuff. My dump truck and Bobcat have been sitting for 10 years with some maintenance due. I have a very nice location offered to me, but need to make major repairs to the access road to get to it. Then to make every thing worse I have available at least a few thousands cords for mostly hauling cost and a few hour haul. One thing I believe is having the right equipment to make your energy go the farthest. It looks like you are on the right track with fixing your own hauling trucks. Some thing that I would add is that 4X4 trucks are clumsy bulky gas guzzler and not very effective for moving wood. One thing that I did was to have around sixty sand bags and tire chains to enable my two wheel drive truck to get to tough places. Then I would depend on my portable winch to get me out of jams from time to time. However if hauling is minimal then the sacrifice is small. I have proved that a metal building with a fan can be a definite asset to wood operation in that it is a compromised kiln. People here use shipping containers a lot. Here just sticking wood in them and allow the sun to beat on them a few days will reach a 140 F easy and then with a fan your wood gets very dry quick. Thanks

 

[NSMaple1]

I don't understand what you mean by "If you use your truck cutting firewood it's not useable anymore".

That's not what he said.

 

[lknchoppers]

Sure,

 

[Bitsy]

That's not what he said.

I copy and pasted directly from his reply, not sure what you mean. I may not have quoted the entire reply sure but did not think it was needed?

@lknchoppers

Thanks! The pieces on the ground you don't find wet? Or do you move the wood quick enough it isn't an issue?

 

[Ryan'smilling]

I copy and pasted directly from his reply, not sure what you mean. I may not have quoted the entire reply sure but did not think it was needed?

@lknchoppers

Thanks! The pieces on the ground you don't find wet? Or do you move the wood quick enough it isn't an issue?

Actually you missed an important word, which is "until". What I said is:

"If you use your truck cutting firewood UNTIL it's not useable any more and you didn't allocate any of the money from your sales towards a replacement, then you just put yourself out of business."


When laying out a business plan, budgeting for the replacement of equipment is a necessary calculation if you want to actually be profitable.

Example: I own a Kubota CUT. It cost $24,500 brand new. If I expect it to last 5,000 hours before needing to be replaced, I should set aside $4.90 for every hour I use it. This is in addition to the fuel and maintenance cost.

 

[Huskybill]

I went from a 1/2 ton 4x4 to a one ton dual wheeled 4x4. You need to get the truck off road to access the bucked up trees. There is no way your going to carry the wood to a 2wd truck. Your going to beat your self up. I’d load the 1/2 ton truck and skid my next load out with it. If I was going to do it today I’d go with nothing less than a Ford 450 diesel 4x4, my end goal for a delivery firewood truck. Add a skidder, a bunk truck, a conveyor, a wood processor. You need to do less manual labor.

Btw, I tried my c30 2wd with the rear Detroit locker, duallies it was beating the truck up to get it off road. The c30 had a 8” wrecker frame. It took me one week to build it into 4wd, I had a one week gap between cutting permits. Those craftsman hole saws cut hole in the steel frame for the spring brackets. I started at 11am had the front driving axle in by 2:30am that night. I had 72 leaf springs in the truck, 10 on each side in the front, 16 in the main in the rear and 10 in the helper. She sat level when loaded and road smooth. When the ice/ mud got bad I used chains on the rear to get in. Loaded she went anywhere.

Don’t forget to factor in your wood needs to be seasoned for a year, example you sell 50 cords you need to cut/split 50 cords the same time frame for next year. When the money starts coming in don’t blow it. Use enough to keep the equipment running, pay the bills. I watched for deals on chainsaw accessories too.

If your up to the hard work you can do it.

 

[lknchoppers]

I copy and pasted directly from his reply, not sure what you mean. I may not have quoted the entire reply sure but did not think it was needed?

@lknchoppers

Thanks! The pieces on the ground you don't find wet? Or do you move the wood quick enough it isn't an issue?

The pieces on the bottom I just clean them of quick or if they are too bad I use them myself. It beats messing with pallets and if I can save time and effort I do. I work alone so I only have so much time and energy moving 100+ cords a year. This year I think I'll be cutting back a little. As far as equipment goes you can pickup a skid steer for under $10 and a good dump trailer for $2k if you can do a bit of work. I picked up my old case skid steer for $4500 a few years ago. I have a good shop behind the house for repairs.

 

[Huskybill]

My wood is stored on pallets and covered on top with a tarp. People want good looking dried wood equals call backs next year. You build a business by having a good dry product. Word of mouth helps too.

 

[jrider]

Here’s how I store my wood for sale. My climate is hotter with more sun though.

 

[Deleted member 117362]

View attachment 744776 Here’s how I store my wood for sale. My climate is hotter with more sun though.

I would want that wood at far end of your row. Nice stack.

 

[Huskybill]

That pile brings back memories the neighborhood kids called my wood pile “mount ever wood” lol

Tip, when I cut firewood I’d look for that dead punk red oak on the ground. To heat my house, garage, shed with. Anything on the ground that wasn’t too far gone. Can’t sell it but it heats good. That red punk oak reminds me of the wood before it turns to stone.

Taking my kids cutting trees when they could come instilled good work ethics in them. Life is no free lunch. I showed them we work, we stop for lunch, we eat, we have a warm bed and roof over our heads. One coffee stop was cooking a roast beef. We had four deliveries near there, we stopped for roast beef grinders. Everybody ate grinders. When the holidays came they were something special. Christmas Eve we had trays of food from the local fish place. We weren’t poor well above the dollar menu at mickeys. Lol

The kids worked and when they made money I didn’t charge them rent if they saved there money and didn’t waste it. They helped me I helped them.

 

[jrider]

I would want that wood at far end of your row. Nice stack.

That wood won’t be as dry as the rest of the pile because it does get about 2-3 hours of shade while the rest is full sun and zero shade. It really does make a difference but those aren’t my trees to cut