One and a half cord load.
The old way, and the "more gooder" way.
Most firewood vendors around here use dump trailers or one tons with landscape dump beds.
When I bought the GMC 5500 flatbed we did not have a pickup, and this was affordable. It worked pretty good for many years. However, it cost about $2,000. to $2,500. a year in plates, maintenance and insurance. Loading and unloading were very time consuming. Especially unloading by hand. Strapping the load would make removing the yellow socks, used as load containment when transporting, difficult at times. I carried a 2" x 4" and long pry bar to shift the pallets apart. Strapping two pallets at a time, in order to run the straps, then up/down for two more, etc. It also required cleaning gravel and leaves from the bottom and inside of pallets with a broom. All very easy, but lots on on/off the forklift to load. Then stopping in route to tighten straps due to settling wood.
Opps...
The new way. Five of the seven rows loaded.
They wanted it dumped in two piles. 2/3 ended up in the second pile.
Wrapping up the control cable to pull ahead. There is a fob, but it doesn't always connect to the antenna so I don't bother using it. Yesterday our son gave me two magnetic hooks. One for the front and one for the back of the trailer to hang the yellow control box on. Very handy when using the tailgate ramp mode when loading.
16' box gets pretty high. Lower end of box is only inches off the ground.
Sweet! What's not to like?
I used to spend a lot of time loading and unloading. Stacking takes a little time but I don't mind it. I calculated the cubic inches in a cord and a half. The trailer is 82" wide and the firewood 16" long. Seven rows 36 1/4" high. Snapped a chalk line on both sides, layed out seven pieces along the edge for seven rows, for a balanced load on the truck and trailer.
With the tailgate in horizontal position, I can walk around the bundle to unwrap the netting as I stack in the trailer. The bundle is suspended above the tailgate. Works very, very well. The mess for the most part stays home, and the pallets get stacked to reuse.
Why stack in the trailer? The numbers. The bundles are 1/4 cord plus. The plus part... is about 15% over a cord for four pallets. At four hundred pallets, 100 cord, that 15% stacks out to fifteen cord. I have about 120 cord, so that's 18 cord more when stacked, which is basically a semi load. A semi load of logs, or 20 cord load of logs yields 16-18 cord, cost to me $2,100. In the cord and a half load pictured, 15% over would be almost 29 cu. ft. or .225 cord overage. At $300./cord that's $67.50 worth of sellable wood, previously given away when sold in pallet form. More than that, the customer can now see they are getting the full quantity that they are paying for. The old way, they just had a pile of wood and no context to compare too. So even though they got more, 115% actually, they were still uncertain they were getting enough. Kind of a lose/lose for both buyer and seller.
I took delivery of the trailer in Dec. Just beginning to really use it for firewood and our sons deck project, hauling equipment and materials.
I am really happy with this decision after some initial second thoughts about cost. As things get more repetitious, as processing and deliveries both via for my time and energy, I'm predicting I'll like it even more. And in a couple years the cost factor will seem less relevant, like the Thule atv pull behind tandem axle trailer that was $1,200. twelve years ago. There is already a savings over using the larger dedicated firewood truck. How much depends in part on how much additional maintenance the ten year old pickup requires.
The old way, and the "more gooder" way.
Most firewood vendors around here use dump trailers or one tons with landscape dump beds.
When I bought the GMC 5500 flatbed we did not have a pickup, and this was affordable. It worked pretty good for many years. However, it cost about $2,000. to $2,500. a year in plates, maintenance and insurance. Loading and unloading were very time consuming. Especially unloading by hand. Strapping the load would make removing the yellow socks, used as load containment when transporting, difficult at times. I carried a 2" x 4" and long pry bar to shift the pallets apart. Strapping two pallets at a time, in order to run the straps, then up/down for two more, etc. It also required cleaning gravel and leaves from the bottom and inside of pallets with a broom. All very easy, but lots on on/off the forklift to load. Then stopping in route to tighten straps due to settling wood.
Opps...The new way. Five of the seven rows loaded.
They wanted it dumped in two piles. 2/3 ended up in the second pile.Wrapping up the control cable to pull ahead. There is a fob, but it doesn't always connect to the antenna so I don't bother using it. Yesterday our son gave me two magnetic hooks. One for the front and one for the back of the trailer to hang the yellow control box on. Very handy when using the tailgate ramp mode when loading.16' box gets pretty high. Lower end of box is only inches off the ground.
Sweet! What's not to like?I used to spend a lot of time loading and unloading. Stacking takes a little time but I don't mind it. I calculated the cubic inches in a cord and a half. The trailer is 82" wide and the firewood 16" long. Seven rows 36 1/4" high. Snapped a chalk line on both sides, layed out seven pieces along the edge for seven rows, for a balanced load on the truck and trailer.
With the tailgate in horizontal position, I can walk around the bundle to unwrap the netting as I stack in the trailer. The bundle is suspended above the tailgate. Works very, very well. The mess for the most part stays home, and the pallets get stacked to reuse.
Why stack in the trailer? The numbers. The bundles are 1/4 cord plus. The plus part... is about 15% over a cord for four pallets. At four hundred pallets, 100 cord, that 15% stacks out to fifteen cord. I have about 120 cord, so that's 18 cord more when stacked, which is basically a semi load. A semi load of logs, or 20 cord load of logs yields 16-18 cord, cost to me $2,100. In the cord and a half load pictured, 15% over would be almost 29 cu. ft. or .225 cord overage. At $300./cord that's $67.50 worth of sellable wood, previously given away when sold in pallet form. More than that, the customer can now see they are getting the full quantity that they are paying for. The old way, they just had a pile of wood and no context to compare too. So even though they got more, 115% actually, they were still uncertain they were getting enough. Kind of a lose/lose for both buyer and seller.
I took delivery of the trailer in Dec. Just beginning to really use it for firewood and our sons deck project, hauling equipment and materials.
I am really happy with this decision after some initial second thoughts about cost. As things get more repetitious, as processing and deliveries both via for my time and energy, I'm predicting I'll like it even more. And in a couple years the cost factor will seem less relevant, like the Thule atv pull behind tandem axle trailer that was $1,200. twelve years ago. There is already a savings over using the larger dedicated firewood truck. How much depends in part on how much additional maintenance the ten year old pickup requires.
