SCMtnHaul
ArboristSite Lurker
I have access to 100 acres that was recently burned in a wildfire, not a crown fire but now there is a lot of standing dead or near dead tan oak, live oak, red oak, and madrone. Most of my past splitting was either freshly cut or less than 4 weeks cut and I only used an 8lb maul, but I was only splitting 3 or 4 full cords a year for personal use.
I'm just wondering what the best approach would be to efficiently process a lot of standing dead hardwood? Does it get easier or harder to split at a certain point? I know some tan oak I've cut down was already looking a bit rotten and split very easily with the maul, but there are some large diameter madrones and oaks that I'm unsure about. Locally the best splitter option for sale is probably the 24 ton Iron & Oak or chance it on a county line--personally I just hate Tractor Supply since at least my local store has some shady business practices and I avoid them like the plague. SuperSplit looks great but I worry about having to noodle the big rounds and that adds a lot of time. I factor in the felling, bucking, and some cleanup into my overall "cord time". I do have access to a tractor but since it's not mine I don't want my approach to hinge on it. I would like to split around 20 or 30 128cu/ft cords at least initially since I don't have huge storage space. Of course if I'm successful then I may look at a smaller commercial processor unit, but that's a future budgetary issue.
So in a nutshell, I'm looking for tips on maximizing time and labor efficiency in splitting standing dead madrone, tan oak, live oak, and a little red oak. And I will be working alone %100 the time. Thanks in advance.
I'm just wondering what the best approach would be to efficiently process a lot of standing dead hardwood? Does it get easier or harder to split at a certain point? I know some tan oak I've cut down was already looking a bit rotten and split very easily with the maul, but there are some large diameter madrones and oaks that I'm unsure about. Locally the best splitter option for sale is probably the 24 ton Iron & Oak or chance it on a county line--personally I just hate Tractor Supply since at least my local store has some shady business practices and I avoid them like the plague. SuperSplit looks great but I worry about having to noodle the big rounds and that adds a lot of time. I factor in the felling, bucking, and some cleanup into my overall "cord time". I do have access to a tractor but since it's not mine I don't want my approach to hinge on it. I would like to split around 20 or 30 128cu/ft cords at least initially since I don't have huge storage space. Of course if I'm successful then I may look at a smaller commercial processor unit, but that's a future budgetary issue.
So in a nutshell, I'm looking for tips on maximizing time and labor efficiency in splitting standing dead madrone, tan oak, live oak, and a little red oak. And I will be working alone %100 the time. Thanks in advance.