Thinking of buying a grain truck to haul/deliver firewood

[dancan]

I'm good with the French LOL
Haven't seen that video , thanks .

 

[cantoo]

Great Barnie, just great. I'm halfway though building my log splitter and I've managed to stay away from the Timber devil website for months now and you go and post a link. I'm already 2nd guessing everything I've done so far, on Saturday I flipped my H beam end for end and started over on a hydraulically lifted 4 way wedge after I had already welded a 2 way on the other end. At this rate I'll never get the thing done. I really like the Timber devil setup.
Any chance a local farmer has a truck and you can rent him to haul when your son gets too busy? Likely cheaper than keeping your own truck all year when you likely only get rushed in the late fall?

 

[Old Doug]

I was kind of the same boat you are but i haul scrap Iron and other stuff. My dad dealt in used trucks and i am a truck mechanic so i am not green to trucks. I dont make alot hauling stuff so it was alot of money to me to buy something that would be a big gamble. What i wanted was a 2ton truck that would pull a 30+ foot trailer. I was realy thinking about geting in but things change and i end up with a F600 ford with a 14" flatbed and hoist.It turned out to be one of the best things i have ever owned. I will never be with out a truck like this. It will go were no pickup and trailer will with out the filling your tearing up your pickup. Its alot safer with a load. Its made to haul a load. Now the down side if your not a mechanic a newer truck takes a load of cash to repair 2 small repairs is the price of a pickup. A good set of steer tires will run up to $1000.00. One truck i worked on its passenger window cost $800.00 to make it go up and down. Its a big big step up to a truck. My insureance is about the same were i live and the plates are some higher. This summer my truck realy payed off when i needed to haul alot of brush.It felt like i was makeing one trip to every 4 it would take a pickup plus it dumps.

 

[Barnie]

Great Barnie, just great. I'm halfway though building my log splitter and I've managed to stay away from the Timber devil website for months now and you go and post a link. I'm already 2nd guessing everything I've done so far, on Saturday I flipped my H beam end for end and started over on a hydraulically lifted 4 way wedge after I had already welded a 2 way on the other end. At this rate I'll never get the thing done. I really like the Timber devil setup.
Any chance a local farmer has a truck and you can rent him to haul when your son gets too busy? Likely cheaper than keeping your own truck all year when you likely only get rushed in the late fall?

Its quite the splitter !! we once piled a cord of blocked up wood and it took a little over 6 minute to split with two guys, the only thing with this splitter is that the wood has to be bucked up first. I flipped it on its side once or twice also, stand er up and go at it again.

 

[Barnie]

I was kind of the same boat you are but i haul scrap Iron and other stuff. My dad dealt in used trucks and i am a truck mechanic so i am not green to trucks. I dont make alot hauling stuff so it was alot of money to me to buy something that would be a big gamble. What i wanted was a 2ton truck that would pull a 30+ foot trailer. I was realy thinking about geting in but things change and i end up with a F600 ford with a 14" flatbed and hoist.It turned out to be one of the best things i have ever owned. I will never be with out a truck like this. It will go were no pickup and trailer will with out the filling your tearing up your pickup. Its alot safer with a load. Its made to haul a load. Now the down side if your not a mechanic a newer truck takes a load of cash to repair 2 small repairs is the price of a pickup. A good set of steer tires will run up to $1000.00. One truck i worked on its passenger window cost $800.00 to make it go up and down. Its a big big step up to a truck. My insureance is about the same were i live and the plates are some higher. This summer my truck realy payed off when i needed to haul alot of brush.It felt like i was makeing one trip to every 4 it would take a pickup plus it dumps.

It has 450,000 kms on it also, but it was used to haul grain and bedding (softwood shavings), one owner,

 

[cantoo]

Barnie, have you thought about using your loader to load the rounds onto a haywagon or flatbed trailer to use as a table and roll the rounds onto the splitter? I'm cutting my rounds to 36" long so that's what I plan to do. There is no way I'm going to be lifting 22" dia x 36" long ash rounds. Same idea as a log deck for a processor but for rounds instead.
Scroll down this thread and see Oliver 1655's bucking trailer.
http://www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/super-split.250832/page-4

 

[Barnie]

Barnie, have you thought about using your loader to load the rounds onto a haywagon or flatbed trailer to use as a table and roll the rounds onto the splitter? I'm cutting my rounds to 36" long so that's what I plan to do. There is no way I'm going to be lifting 22" dia x 36" long ash rounds. Same idea as a log deck for a processor but for rounds instead.
Scroll down this thread and see Oliver 1655's bucking trailer.
http://www.arboristsite.com/community/threads/super-split.250832/page-4

Yes with this timberdevil splitter that is definitely a big issue especially with large maple, I just recently traded a load of wood for a hay wagon and was wondering what to use it for, I was going to get rid of it but I think I'll use it as you suggested.
we used to use the loader for this but it only held a few blocks.
thanks for the great idea.

 

[Patrick62]

The thing on the left is a 2 ton that has a rack built to 334 cubic feet. 2 cords tossed in, not stacked. I have stacked the thing, just over 2.5 cords.

 

[Barnie]

View attachment 460070 The thing on the left is a 2 ton that has a rack built to 334 cubic feet. 2 cords tossed in, not stacked. I have stacked the thing, just over 2.5 cords.

those are really nice

 

[waterman28]

I use an old Ford F700 with a dump bed a lot. It hauls hay in the summer and wood for the winter. it has side racks also. I have recently bought a newer Chevy with a dump bed so I will be retiring/selling the old ford.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

The grain truck would be great for big loads but limited on access. Most of my clients would not want a truck of that size on their concrete or black top drive ways. I have been getting more two to six cord orders but most are one cord for fireplaces and fire pits. I'm using a GMC 5500 flatbed, which is a nice size truck. Still looking for a dump box. A new one is ten thousand bucks.

 

[Barnie]

The grain truck would be great for big loads but limited on access. Most of my clients would not want a truck of that size on their concrete or black top drive ways. I have been getting more two to six cord orders but most are one cord for fireplaces and fire pits. I'm using a GMC 5500 flatbed, which is a nice size truck. Still looking for a dump box. A new one is ten thousand bucks.

Im going to take a ride and go view the truck this weekend, take it for a ride and decide then.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

20' x 8' x 6' box = 960 cubic feet
960/190 (loose thrown cord) = 5 cord
960/128 = 7 1/2 cord stacked

 

[Sandhill Crane]

Off topic from the truck but is a variation of Cantoo's cut table idea for rounds. The forth picture of splits is large rounds that I could not lift that were run through a TW-6 and staged to resplit on a SuperSplit. The last photo shows the angled legs that nest under the adjacent rack.

 

[Patrick62]

Your results might be different than mine, however:

Monday I delivered 2 cords of lodgepole pine to a customer who wanted it stacked on his back deck. We used the two ton truck, and loose tossed the splits in until the truck was leveled off. Blocks were cut to 16", and split to 4 to 5 inch nominal sizing with the smaller rounds just tossed into the load.
The truck has a box of 334.68 cu ft.

we commenced the stacking, and (I wish I had taken pictures, I will next time) stacked up the main area 3.25 feet high, 13 feet wide, and 5.5 feet deep for a total of 232.375 cu ft. Another stack was needed to complete the task, 3.25 high, 1.25 deep, 7 feet long for a total of 28.43 cu ft. Making a grand total of 260.8 cu ft. Divide that by the 128 cu ft and you get.... 2.0375 cords. Evidently 167 cu ft is closer to the actual.

190 cu ft I don't feel like I want to give away quite that much wood....

all of this has the variable of the size and length of the splits.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I have a similar truck. Mine was just a dumping flatbed when I bought it and I made sides for it.

The pros.... lot of wood delivered in a shot, less trips on a large order. Also can "upsell"... customer wants 5 cords, truck holds 7, can sell a full load.

Cons... Expensive to keep on the road... registration, insurance, maintenance all much more than a 1-1.5 ton truck. Expect fuel mileage to be 6-8mpg.
Getting into areas can be a pain too. I explain to folks the size of truck, been a few times that "plenty of room" turned into having a few inches all around from hitting the house, cars, pulling down power lines, etc.

As far as a dump trailer.. for the cost of ONE of those things I could buy several dumptrucks. I have under 10k in both of my trucks.

You can't fit 10 cords in that truck, both in volume and in weight.

20ft bed means you can fit 14 rows if you stack it pretty tight and it's 16" wood. The math works to 15, but you'll be really hard pressed to get that unless you cut and stack the wood perfect. Plus it will be really tough to stack the last row if it's right on the edge of the bed.
Each row on a 8ftx6ft stack is ~64cu ft or 1/2 a cord. So a full load would be 7 cords, or about 17 tons of wood.


What is the dump setup on it? Make sure it can easily dump the weight of a full load of wood. I'm not sure the weight of grain.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I don't sell cords loose because there is no way to be very accurate. Get a customer that says, "hey it was only 1.5 cords" and you have no way of arguing it. They may be telling the honest truth or trying to get more wood. On the flip, they may end up with 2.5 cords. Great for them, but that's ~$100 out of my pocket.

Showing up with a load all nicely stacked, the customer can see it's really x cords, and yes I've had a few hop up in the truck with a tape measure.

I realize that a stack of wood can be stacked 5 different times with 5 different results, but it will be pretty close provided it's not stacked very sloppy or going full OCD and making a solid wall.

Now selling the wood as a "truckload" with it just off the conveyor is another thing. We do that with poplar. Or if you have a weigh scale handy, selling it by weight would work as well. Log loads are done that way in northern Maine.

But whatever works for you.

Your results might be different than mine, however:

Monday I delivered 2 cords of lodgepole pine to a customer who wanted it stacked on his back deck. We used the two ton truck, and loose tossed the splits in until the truck was leveled off. Blocks were cut to 16", and split to 4 to 5 inch nominal sizing with the smaller rounds just tossed into the load.
The truck has a box of 334.68 cu ft.

we commenced the stacking, and (I wish I had taken pictures, I will next time) stacked up the main area 3.25 feet high, 13 feet wide, and 5.5 feet deep for a total of 232.375 cu ft. Another stack was needed to complete the task, 3.25 high, 1.25 deep, 7 feet long for a total of 28.43 cu ft. Making a grand total of 260.8 cu ft. Divide that by the 128 cu ft and you get.... 2.0375 cords. Evidently 167 cu ft is closer to the actual.

190 cu ft I don't feel like I want to give away quite that much wood....

all of this has the variable of the size and length of the splits.

 

[Barnie]

I don't sell cords loose because there is no way to be very accurate. Get a customer that says, "hey it was only 1.5 cords" and you have no way of arguing it. They may be telling the honest truth or trying to get more wood. On the flip, they may end up with 2.5 cords. Great for them, but that's ~$100 out of my pocket.

Showing up with a load all nicely stacked, the customer can see it's really x cords, and yes I've had a few hop up in the truck with a tape measure.

I realize that a stack of wood can be stacked 5 different times with 5 different results, but it will be pretty close provided it's not stacked very sloppy or going full OCD and making a solid wall.

Now selling the wood as a "truckload" with it just off the conveyor is another thing. We do that with poplar. Or if you have a weigh scale handy, selling it by weight would work as well. Log loads are done that way in northern Maine.

But whatever works for you.

A face cord of wood is 4' high x 8' long 16'' wide so a 20' box x 12'' =240'' decided by 16'' = 15 cord stacked neatly in the box but this weight would be over its limits , The truck has a gvwr of 58,000 lbs with a payload capacity of 22,000 lbs, I think this truck would handle 10 cords easily, My dump trailers handle 5 face cords and their box sizes are 14' long x 7' wide x 4' high,

 

[Barnie]

A face cord of wood is 4' high x 8' long 16'' wide so a 20' box x 12'' =240'' decided by 16'' = 15 cord stacked neatly in the box but this weight would be over its limits , The truck has a gvwr of 58,000 lbs with a payload capacity of 22,000 lbs, I think this truck would handle 10 cords easily, My dump trailers handle 5 face cords and their box sizes are 14' long x 7' wide x 4' high,

when I first bought the first dump trailer we ( my brother and I) made a rack out of 2x4s that measured a cord of wood, we filled that rack then put it in the conveyor and in the trailer. we did this 5 times and the wood reached the 4' mark on the trailer walls as the last foot is mesh, this was loosely dropped into the trailer and the wood was all evened out across the trailer. Ill take a picture of what i mean and post it.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

The truck box with your measurements will hold about 7 cords of wood. Figure that being around 35,000lbs depending on the species and how seasoned it is.
It would be sitting pretty heavy for a 3 axle truck, I would look into local laws for axle weights and bridge laws.

If your maxed out at 22k load, you'd be at around 5.5 cords.


If "10 cords" you mean 10 face cords, or ~3.3 cords, it would be crazy to run a truck that size. May as well just buy an F450 or 550 and pay much less for registration, insurance, fuel, tires, etc.

A face cord of wood is 4' high x 8' long 16'' wide so a 20' box x 12'' =240'' decided by 16'' = 15 cord stacked neatly in the box but this weight would be over its limits , The truck has a gvwr of 58,000 lbs with a payload capacity of 22,000 lbs, I think this truck would handle 10 cords easily, My dump trailers handle 5 face cords and their box sizes are 14' long x 7' wide x 4' high,