There's no money in selling firewood

[ropensaddle]

just being some one looking in because i dont sale firewood i burn it ,oh but i did own a sod company for 13 yrs if i didnt have to deliver the sod i would have made a ton more than i did ,with fuel as high as it is.i bought what the guy called a cord 2500 chevy it was loaded for 150bucks but he brought it to me and he lived 1.5 -2 hrs away and he said he did it everyday his fuel bill must have been out rages ,this is what i would do cut wood all summer and spring cut,split and stack,then find me a place to sit up in a parking lot or something like that then load a trailer or dump truck with wood and let the money come to you sell a load or two and call it a day,that was something i could not do selling sod because home owners dont buy enough so i sold it to contractors when they were still building new homes way back in the day,i could be wrong

It would need to have side boards be a long bed and piled to the cab height to make a cord!

 

[kentuckyblue]

no side boards but it was stacked up about half way up the back glass the wood was small 12 14 inches long and dry as dust it burnt up so fat went through it in a month

 

[ropensaddle]

no side boards but it was stacked up about half way up the back glass the wood was small 12 14 inches long and dry as dust it burnt up so fat went through it in a month

Not a true cord prolly more like 3/4 cord!

 

[CLEARVIEW TREE]

Not a true cord prolly more like 3/4 cord!

darn right rope! A friend and i alike, have pretty much decided to keep the firewood in the family and let those terds and butthole customers fend for themselves. Tought i was doing the right thing a month ago and let a friend of my wifes friend at work have a rick for half price, with free delivery and free stacking. Only because the woman had supposedly been left by her hubby, bout to lose home, etc. house full a kids, so i gave in. NOW, 30 days later the lady's fireplace has almost eaten a rick of wood and they want more???? Funny thing is i've thought
someone may be full of it, but i never get to meet the lady. She's got a big ole house, and the friend of my wife is kinda the mediator for the lady and my wifes friend is very wealthy and notorious for being slippery when wet in many situations,lol. So i told her last night, i'd get some out there, but full price on all this time, but she obliged, so we'll see.

 

[rarefish383]

I can get all the free Oak I want. Starting in the spring I'll start dumping a cord or so at a time in my spliting area. All summer lone, every time I make a pass by the pile cutting grass, I get off the tractor and split a block or 2. I stack in measured 1 cord racks as I go. By winter I have 6 or 8 cords ready to go. 2 cords for 1 friend, 1 cord for my neighbor, and the rest for me. That's as close to making a living on wood as I want to get. When Dad had the business and I was a kid I got to keep all the wood money if I kept it split and stacked out of the way. For a tree company fire wood is/was a neccessary evil. You had to do something with it. My cousin just quit selling wood, was losing money processing it. Hard work for your return, Joe.

 

[ropensaddle]

darn right rope! A friend and i alike, have pretty much decided to keep the firewood in the family and let those terds and butthole customers fend for themselves. Tought i was doing the right thing a month ago and let a friend of my wifes friend at work have a rick for half price, with free delivery and free stacking. Only because the woman had supposedly been left by her hubby, bout to lose home, etc. house full a kids, so i gave in. NOW, 30 days later the lady's fireplace has almost eaten a rick of wood and they want more???? Funny thing is i've thought
someone may be full of it, but i never get to meet the lady. She's got a big ole house, and the friend of my wife is kinda the mediator for the lady and my wifes friend is very wealthy and notorious for being slippery when wet in many situations,lol. So i told her last night, i'd get some out there, but full price on all this time, but she obliged, so we'll see.

Problem is full price here is 150 but there no selling true cords and you can talk to the customer till your blue they will opt for .066 of a cord everytime lmfao. I tried 200 per cord sold a few early birders but no calls since the guy went in for 135 per cord. I have decided to just keep good customers with easy access sell them at 150 and forget it just do 10 cords or so a year and quit burning junk for myself lol.

 

[kentuckyblue]

Not a true cord prolly more like 3/4 cord!

thats what i said i made a post on craigslist and said that people were ripping you off if they said they had a cord in a truck bed and this guy sent me a email tell me what a fool i was that a cord would fit easy on a truck i told him to go yuck him self

 

[ropensaddle]

thats what i said i made a post on craigslist and said that people were ripping you off if they said they had a cord in a truck bed and this guy sent me a email tell me what a fool i was that a cord would fit easy on a truck i told him to go yuck him self

I can get a cord on my 66 f250 long bed stacked to cab height but it is more than you want on the truck. I have done it a time or two now mostly use the trailer. It can be done but not easy and not unless you have a long bed and side boards.

 

[banshee67]

you can get up to $220+ here for a full cord if its 100% oak and seasoned
mixed hardwood seasoned, full cords go for around $180-200
ive done it the past 2 winter, 2 of us, truck + trailer, able to move aboout 2 cords total per day, as long as you can sell it, we can both make $120+ a day each after gas/oil etc, lot of hard work, not rich, but its money and you have no boss.. being able to generate your own money at a young age without anyones help is a good feeling

 

[banshee67]

Like when there's a 'seasoned cord' on a pickup truck with a warm saw on top?

ill admit im guilty of showing up to a few customers houses and havign to unload our saws off the top of the wood piile on the trailer right in front of them.. the wood was seasoned dead locust that had been leaning for years dead and barkless, non the less, we have been in that situation in front of a few customers, unloading saws and gascans before their wood.. it makes me wonder what they were thinking, they probably though tthey were gettin green wood

 

[banshee67]

Reading this brings a couple of things to my mind.
I've had more than one customer show up in a Ranger or S10 pickup, I couldn't ever SAFELY put a full rick in the bed of one, they had to make two trips.

I also cannot SAFELY put two rick in the bed of a pickup, long or short bed, I've gotten close but I was damn glad I didn't have to drive it home!
The way I sell it, 18-20" lengths, three rick makes a cord so any more than one I take the trailer.
Now thinking about this from my perspective, anybody that shows up with a "cord" of wood in a "pickup", unless it's NEATLY stacked higher than the top of the cab, might just be shorting you on wood?

we have had people come to us to pickup wood.
they ask for a cord, then show up in a half ton pickup with a 6 1/2 foot bed and ask if they think they can fit it all in one load!!
one person filled their dodge ram shortbed up, was happy with it, we told them it wasnt a full cord, they didnt care, paid for a full cord, thanked us and left!
others were surprised how much a FULL CORD was and had to come back for a second trip because they wanted all the wood they were paying for.. and i dont blame them, just shows how many people out there are NOT giving FULL CORDS, most homeowners have no idea how much wood a full cord is and areVERY pleased when you give them a FULL cord

 

[clearance]

I have stacked a split cord on an old GM 3/4 ton. It is right from the tailgate to the back window, wheelhump to wheelhump but no wider, about 1' above the cab. Thats to much for any 1/2 ton, and probably to much for an 8600lb. GVW truck. Its a lot of wood, and people are suprised.

Enough of this "pickload" of firewood b.s..

 

[sawinredneck]

Thats what I am saying Clearance!

I had a lady and her son show up the other day, cold as hell and I was caught off guard, I didn't have any wood stacked!
There are MANY around here that take advantage of this situation, sell them greenwood, sell them crap wood or short them.
I fired up the mini moved the snow drifts and started stacking between the T-posts.
The mom got a little irratable with me about taking so long. I calmly explained to her I wanted her to see and know what she was taking home, yes it took longer but I knew when she left she hadn't been ripped off.
She really didn't know what to say so she quietly got in the truck until I was done.
It's so easy to screw someone, but it's ten times as hard to get them back. That one customer I am garunteed a return customer, plus I have the added fact of word of mouth form them, plus whomever they tell, plus whomever they tell.
It's easy math for me, make a customer unhappy or rip them off, loose ten customers. Make a customer happy you have the oppertunity to gain 1000 customers.
It seems to me a lot of buisnesess could learn a bit from that mantra!

 

[sawinredneck]

In MY truck I know closely and have/will load that. In a customers truck for pickup, I want them to see what we are loading.
I HAVE shorted a couple of customers loading by eye, only to have to go back and drop off more wood. That is embarising and time lost.

 

[super3]

or they can come down to my yard and donate a 8 hour hard days work for free when we are splitting and they can take all they want that season.

That sounds like a hell of a good deal to me. If you lived around here you would have a lot of takers. I would be one of them!

 

[Curlycherry1]

We could get 3 face cords on our F250s but we had a ladder rack on the truck that was just a bit above the cab of the truck. From that rack I had boards with a hook on one end about 12" in from the end so when these were hung on the rack the wood could be piled 12" above the rack. With 3 face cords of wood 18" long on that truck there was 4 full rows above the rack and one next to the tailgate that went about 8-10" above the tailgate.

Those three face cords were generous and being that it was 18" wood it made for a little more than a full cord, but the important thing was the wood had 4 piles nearly 14" above a ladder rack and one that was 2/3 up the ladder rack.

 

[BuddhaKat]

I also toss into a one ton truck and measure 185 cubic feet of tossed wood and sell it as a cord. I'm marked a line inside the chipper box so I know how high to toss to make a cord.

Wow, what a generous guy, given that a cord is only 128 cubic ft.

 

[sawinredneck]

128 stacked, 180 thrown loosly.

 

[blackdiesel]

i find it takes closer to 200-210 cubic feet for a thrown cord. 16" wood, all uniform out of my processor. i know every one's wood is different so everyones will vary. i used to sell 170 ft3 as a cord, untill i stacked one. it was close to half a rick short.

 

[rarefish383]

In MY truck I know closely and have/will load that. In a customers truck for pickup, I want them to see what we are loading.
I HAVE shorted a couple of customers loading by eye, only to have to go back and drop off more wood. That is embarising and time lost.

Some times being honest sucks. I have a couple customers that I cut my wood at 16". Normally 2 4X8 rows is a cord. But since the wood is only 16" it takes 3 rows. It's a measured 128 Cu feet. When I first sold wood to them they said I gave them a lot more than others had. I explained that it was a lot more work to cut short and some folks believe that the penalty is just 2 4X8 rows that happen to be short. If they are told that , I'm OK with it. But I measure. My trailer is marked for stacked wood. I don't trust thrown piles, they always seem to come up short for me, Joe.