Do you split first, then load or load first then split?

[StephieDoll]

As I get wood from a tree service, I take what I can get. Weather it's droped off or I pick it up we just get it loaded in what ever size it is and dumped in the driveway. I will take most stuff in my truck to my partner's place were there is more room. It is then cut (and in my case) hauled to the back yard for splitting at a latter date. Not the best option, but works for me.

 

[1project2many]

It's not so much about efficiency for me but the best use of available time. I have to watch the kids every other Saturday so I don't always get full weekends to gather wood. And I don't get home from work until 7:00 or later and for much of the year it's dark by then. So when I gather wood I try to get as much as I can back to the house while I have enough time to do it. I only split on site when rounds are too large to carry so anything small enough gets loaded. I've got plenty of light around the splitting area so I can run the splitter for a two to three hours after work. One thing I did to reduce handling is to put a dump body on the truck. "Click, whirrrrrr, bangety bang bang." Truck's unloaded.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

For us the weather normally dictates what we do. Another huge factor as mentioned, is if you are cutting on your own land, which we are. This is what works best for us.

We cut where the tree falls or is dropped at. Normally spending day/days doing this when the ground is too wet to do hauling and such. When splitting day comes around, back the splitter down the length if its too big to carry throwing the splits to BOTH sides. What this allows you to do is on hauling day you can vack the truck down the same path and load from BOTH sides with little to no steps. We stack at that farm in a farm and can average about 25 minutes to load and unload/stack a cord of splits, little rounds adds time.

The main advantage to hauling rounds is you could split on a rainy day if inside. We did that one year as a pipeline went through adjoining property and we were on a timeline. What we didn't haul out they were going to burn in piles. after pushing down. We had over 50 cord of big rounds in the barn and we spent the rainy days after the deadline working in there.

We've being doing this 40 years now and it's the best way for our situation. Like was said earlier, You have to find what works best for you.

 

[Mike-M]

I live in the suburbs and get all my wood from peoples yards. I cut rounds and load them up. If the tree was big, I bring a motorcycle ramp to roll the rounds up.
I split by hand though. If I had a splitter, id bring it and split em there. Just to keep my own yard cleaner.

 

[NHMike]

I cut the trees on our own land, but I live on a ridge and it is all hill. I drop the trees and winch them out to a landing by the garden. I stack all the logs there and will buck them up once I have 30-40 logs.
I then move the rounds to another landing with the tractor where I split them and stack everything on pallets. This landing is a lot bigger and is wide open. It gets a ton of sun and wind.
I would prefer to split up in the woods, but it is just not possible. On the plus side having a tractor with a Farmi skidding winch and grapple on the loader, it sure makes short work of moving and stacking the logs.