Question whether to Chip or Firewood??

[Haulinwood]

Another question from you know who. I know stump grinding very well, and more and more been asked to trim or remove trees. Basically my thoughts were to have anything from 6" or larger to be cut into 16" pieces for firewood. I have been watching a few Youtube videos on these chippers and noticed that most if not all these guys are chipping almost everything? Is this just promotions for the chipper? Is it better to chip or cut for firewood? I cannot believe that the chipper blades are cheap nor they are getting much life chipping 18-22" trees, maybe I am wrong? What do you guys do? Is firewood a waste of time? More money in chips?
Sorry for all the questions, but someone has to keep you guys on your toes!!
Thanks for any and all replies.
Haulinwood.

 

[formationrx]

...

it depends on the job... most of the time i chip everything that will fit in the chipper (its faster)... sometimes people want the wood... i always ask about their hearth size, if they want it stacked, etc... all this is made clear before the job starts and the price is set... as for the blades if you keep em sharp its not really an issue... i carry extra sets with me and sharpen them myself...

 

[sgreanbeans]

We chip everything under 8". I mess with firewood a bit, I heat with wood, so I am always carting home the good stuff and dudes are always looking for free wood, so I give the other junk away, that I dont want. I have made decent money with selling split firewood, but I only sell full loads, I dont mess with the peeps who "how much for a trunk load" or "I want to have a bon-fire tonight, how much for that"

 

[imagineero]

Depends on your operation....

If you're running a medium size company and have a large truck and 18" or bigger chipper with a full time crew, then it just doesn't work out to be worth your time to mess with firewood. Some guys do it on the side, if they have land... and use the down time of their crew to split and stack, or mostly to give the crew something to do in quieter times in winter (delivering wood). You obviously need to have land though. For myself, I chip everything. Trees up to about 4'~5' in diameter get ripped and chipped. It's quicker than you might think. I don't get may trees over 5' any more, and when I do I price them high enough that I don't win them.

If you run a small time show and have a small chipper (or no chipper at all) then how you get rid of wood becomes a different story. Most of these guys have plenty of time, and their time isn't worth much. They may chip the brush if they have a 9" chipper, and try to give away the rest as firewood, or convince the owner to keep it. If you don't have a chipper at all, then you're probably loading it all on to a trailer and slashing it up which is very time consuming. You're then either taking it home and burning it in a big slash pile, or paying to dump it. Either way, getting rid of it as firewood (even for free) is going to save you money. You're wasting a lot of time dealing with the wood this way though.

To put it into perspective, a small crew and truck/chipper needs to bring in minimum $2000/day. You can chip most big trees in an hour or less, the whole lot. Which means you can crank out 2 or 3 jobs a day without too much effort. 3 good size jobs might bring in $3k~$4k for the day which is a nice profit. If you've got the crew there, sawing, splitting.... it's all money lost. If you're running a one man band with a trailer, you may not have a backlog of work, or a lot of 'by-the-hour' costs, so if it takes you an extra half day to get rid of the wood but saves you some money, then that day was more profitable for you. Pretty tiring though.

Shaun

 

[fearofpavement]

The above answers were good ones. Firewood is a byproduct and not much value if you have a lot of it. Chips are worth even less. (nothing in most cases) Most tree services are happy to dump them anywhere they will be accepted if they don't have to haul them far.

The key, as stated, is to get rid of what has to be removed from a job site in a way that will be the most financially beneficial to the company. In most cases, firewood isn't worth the labor unless it's your own labor or you have a strong market for it.

The size of the chipper determines what leaves as logs and chunks and what leaves as chips. Some chippers could take the whole tree in one bite but you are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars range and need permits and heavy duty semi tractors to pull them with. So in response to your one question, yes the chippers really will take large pieces if they are within the capability of the chipper.

 

[no tree to big]

there is NO MONEY IN FIREWOOD unless you do A LOT of it. look at it this way a 1/3 cord(face cord) sells for anywhere between 60-100 bucks if you sell 40 face cords your looking at a only 4K bucks on the high end to me I'd rather watch the tree go through the chipper...

 

[Haulinwood]

Thanks guys for all the replies. I am a one man show at this time, and as mentioned 90% stump grinding, mainly because no one can beat my prices. Not bragging. So I see a lot of firewood here in IL. sold a s face cords, for a lot of money. I was going to offer full cords for the same amount. The chips, if you can not find a place to dump, would be a problem, or pay to dump. Decisions, decisions. Thasnks again to everyone.
Haulinwood

 

[no tree to big]

So I see a lot of firewood here in IL. sold a s face cords, for a lot of money. I was going to offer full cords for the same amount.
Haulinwood

and one of the reasons there is no money in firewood!!!!! if your going to do that you will learn really quick it is not worth it do you know what it takes to split a full cord of wood? just to give you an idea we have well over 2000 cords of logs come into our yard and we grind it all for mulch why cause its easier

 

[Haulinwood]

Thanks No Tree. What the heck do you do with all the chips? Natural mulch? In Ohio we could dump free, because the yard mixed and what have you and sold it for $5 a truck load. There has to be some market for wood, the lots I see that have very large piles/stacks, are basically gone by spring. What about the whole logs for rough cut lumber? Sawmill? Or selling the whole logs to a sawmill?
Thanks again to everyone.
Haulinwood

 

[KenJax Tree]

We chip everything under 15" everything else is dumped or given to a guy i know that sells firewood.

 

[Haulinwood]

Kenjax, where are you out of? Thanks for your reply.

 

[KenJax Tree]

Kenjax, where are you out of? Thanks for your reply.

About 15 miles north of Detroit.

 

[no tree to big]

Thanks No Tree. What the heck do you do with all the chips? Natural mulch? In Ohio we could dump free, because the yard mixed and what have you and sold it for $5 a truck load. There has to be some market for wood, the lots I see that have very large piles/stacks, are basically gone by spring. What about the whole logs for rough cut lumber? Sawmill? Or selling the whole logs to a sawmill?
Thanks again to everyone.
Haulinwood

mulch! everything goes through tub grinders the chips from the chippers get mixed in with the tub grinder shreds one scoop to three as not to hurt quality too bad as it goes through our smaller grinder. we deliver only 50-80 yard loads we get about $1000 for 80yrds

if I took all the wood I produce on my own (only my side work) I would be able to make 30-40 face cord a year of sell able wood witch is a good pile of wood if I sold it for 100 a face thats 3-4 K gross - expenses. I would rather do a few more jobs to make that 3-4K then abuse my body doing firewood for god knows how many hours

but this is from my perspective of production tree work maybe not your level so have at it...

 

[Haulinwood]

No Tree To Big, What do you mean on the side. What is your main business if you do not mind me asking? I up in N. IL., Lake County. What is your main business?
Thanks again for all replies.
Haulinwood.

 

[no tree to big]

No Tree To Big, What do you mean on the side. What is your main business if you do not mind me asking? I up in N. IL., Lake County. What is your main business?
Thanks again for all replies.
Haulinwood.

I do trees full time just not my biz

my roll right now in this order is

crane op
bucket guy
grapple man
ground man

I don't climb much at the co cause well they have mexicans :msp_sneaky: haha

on weekends and in the winter when the day job is slow I run my own work

 

[Haulinwood]

Good for you, hope things are going well. I am just starting, but I will make this work. There have been a lot that say do not bother, you are wasting your time, etc., but again I will make it work. I just have a very god job now, so now for me and the new company it is all about what I call planting seeds, over the next months to year just watch them grow and do the best job I know how to do.
Thanks for all the replies and information.
Take care.
Haulinwood

 

[flushcut]

I would rather do a few more jobs to make that 3-4K then abuse my body doing firewood for god knows how many hours

It took me 35 hours to split 25 cords and that was from log to split wood. For me firewood is a hobby and I mostly do it to have firewood for myself, friends , and family.
To make any money, any real money, you need to be mechanized and have a processor.

 

[Haulinwood]

Flushcut, I would have to agree. This is more to pass the time if things get slow, and to get rid of waste, if I make a little cash also, just a bonus.
Thanks again for all the replies.
Haulinwood.

 

[no tree to big]

It took me 35 hours to split 25 cords and that was from log to split wood. For me firewood is a hobby and I mostly do it to have firewood for myself, friends , and family.
To make any money, any real money, you need to be mechanized and have a processor.

damn I must suck at firewood haha maybe its because I split for an hour and take an hour break (or two) split for another 15 mins take a hour break... plus my splitter is SLOW if I had something with a 4 way and a quick cycle that would help the cause

 

[freeweight]

i dont getwhat the issue is here ,if u want to chip everything and dont sell firewood ,CHIP IT ,we sell firewood so we keep everything we can for wood ,me and my father kinda disagree as i think it be easier to chip the bigger stuff and keep the smaller pieces for wood since its easier to handle and split and load,but we only have a 9"chipper so that out of the question and with winters being warmer and warmer ,wood hasnt been selling to well ,we deliver stack aind keep every piece of equal size ,in dc ,maryland we get very good prices,so there is great money it it,i mean going up 4-5 flights of stairs is alot of work so there is a reason we get good prices

people who get huge chippers usually do multiple jobs a day or do land clearing and need to get things done on the quicker side ,not having to cut forks out and just sending a whole 50ft tree through is a great time saver ,then use skid loader to just load the bigger logs for dumping

hell there is good money around here in just selling to wood haulers to resell ,some make a damn good living in doing that around here