Firewood Long Hauling

[robinlbird]

I have looked at selling oak firewood for some time in my area because of the prices. My problem is the cost of getting the firewood here. Wondered if I was missing something simple. Have submitted requests to several commercial carriers but were charging outlandish prices to haul and left me wit no profit. Is there some way to find local private haulers? Not sure what makes the most sense, I would not be able to do it myself because of the time involved hauling it I would not be able to manage the sales part of it. I was looking at hauling firewood from Missouri where I can usually get good prices for large qty purchases of cut and split firewood. Getting it to Colorado was the issue...

 

[super3]

Can't expect the trucker to work for nothing.

 

[treeman82]

If I was you I'd be looking into truckers who are already going there with something. Around here they send 100 yard garbage trucks to PA and upstate NY SEVERAL times a day. Go there loaded, come back empty. I think as long as there are no restrictions on how far you can move wood in your area, you should be able to come up with something.

 

[rtrsam]

First concern would be rules, laws etc governing interstate transport (or in some cases, inter-county transport) of unprocessed or minimally processed wood. Thinking in terms of disease, bugs, etc. If your suppliers can give you bark free wood, that might ease the strain.

Second concern in terms of efficiency would be hauling the least waste product and air possible; processed firewood neatly shrink wrapped on half cord pallets would minimize this waste/maximize efficiency, if a supplier could provide it. Loose firewod belched into a box would be much less efficient, although if you were using shipping containers you might be able to get enough wright on board that even inefficiently loaded, you still have some pretty good loads.

Given the volume of traffic on the I-70 corridor, I'd be challenged to think you'd have diffculty finding a shipper. Look at cargo brokerage houses perhaps? Consider rail shipping in cargo containers?

I assume you know the buyer's market in MO and the seller's market in CO well enough to know the break points for the numbers.

Just thoughts

 

[STLfirewood]

PM me and we ca talk. Thanks Scott

 

[Dalmatian90]

First concern would be rules, laws etc governing interstate transport

Second concern in terms of efficiency would be hauling the least waste product and air possible

You'll run out of weight before volume.

3528# / cord for Red Oak.

46,100# cargo on a TT, that's 13 cords.

13 x 128 = 1664 cu. ft.

48' Trailer has 3,700 cu. ft.

Kiln drying I believe satisfies any needs to ship wood across quarantine lines, and might let you fit on a smidge more wood. Without hunting down the math, I'm figuring something like 1/2 to 1 more cord if it's kiln dried down to 15% or so.

Part of the problem here is wood is not a manufactured good. The actual weight is going to vary by each and every load, so you can't just count on 13 cords per load. Some will be more, some will be less in order for the truck to remain legal.

Based on the consensus from round v. split threads, if weight wasn't a limiting factor you'd be best off stuff it with rounds for the least volume. I would like to be a fly on the wall when DOT weighs a 53' trailer stuffed with red oak rounds though

 

[robinlbird]

Just thoghts

First concern would be rules, laws etc governing interstate transport (or in some cases, inter-county transport) of unprocessed or minimally processed wood. Thinking in terms of disease, bugs, etc. If your suppliers can give you bark free wood, that might ease the strain.

Second concern in terms of efficiency would be hauling the least waste product and air possible; processed firewood neatly shrink wrapped on half cord pallets would minimize this waste/maximize efficiency, if a supplier could provide it. Loose firewod belched into a box would be much less efficient, although if you were using shipping containers you might be able to get enough wright on board that even inefficiently loaded, you still have some pretty good loads.

Given the volume of traffic on the I-70 corridor, I'd be challenged to think you'd have diffculty finding a shipper. Look at cargo brokerage houses perhaps? Consider rail shipping in cargo containers?

I assume you know the buyer's market in MO and the seller's market in CO well enough to know the break points for the numbers.

Just thoughts

I had thought of the rail portion but couldn't seem to get a price from any rail companies, have web sites but couldn't get answer to any of my questions.
The other issue would be handling the wood from there to my house.

Trucking I think would be the best for my situation, just getting it priced fair is the problem. I did try one of the bidding places for costs but seemed like I was getting the same people responding as the ones I went to direct (Swift, etc.)

I would love to catch someone that was coming from MO empty after hauling there but finding that as a dependable source has eluded me at best. Don't know how to find out if there are independent truckers that may be doing that and would probably love hauling a load back, it would be a win-win for sure. I would need a lot of loads is the only issue so would have to be some kind of dedicated runs. I am close enough to Denver you would think I could find that out, just don't know how to do it......

 

[robinlbird]

Weight concern

You'll run out of weight before volume.

3528# / cord for Red Oak.

46,100# cargo on a TT, that's 13 cords.

13 x 128 = 1664 cu. ft.

48' Trailer has 3,700 cu. ft.

Kiln drying I believe satisfies any needs to ship wood across quarantine lines, and might let you fit on a smidge more wood. Without hunting down the math, I'm figuring something like 1/2 to 1 more cord if it's kiln dried down to 15% or so.

Part of the problem here is wood is not a manufactured good. The actual weight is going to vary by each and every load, so you can't just count on 13 cords per load. Some will be more, some will be less in order for the truck to remain legal.

Based on the consensus from round v. split threads, if weight wasn't a limiting factor you'd be best off stuff it with rounds for the least volume. I would like to be a fly on the wall when DOT weighs a 53' trailer stuffed with red oak rounds though

I had actually based my calculations on 12 cord per haul because of the weight. White oak is about 2 tons per cord and as you stated there is a weight limitation of 46,000 gross. Not sure whether it is a feasible or doable endeavor. It just bothered me a lot at the price for Oak here, and by the way the worst looking scrub oak I have ever seen. I know if I could get it here from MO or even Kansas I could probably do well once established. Just have to figure out if it is feasible or not.

 

[Suz]

Another thing that you will have to make available would be a loading and unloading facilities with a dock and towmotors. You cannot expect a trucker to wait around while a bunch of "grunts" get around to unload his trailer by hand.

Plus the firewood would have to be in bins or securely fastened to pallets so the trucker can secure his load in the trailer. You cannot just throw or even stack 10 to 13 full cord of split wood in a trailer without securing it. (Unless the trucker used a trailer designed for dirt or loose dunnage.)

Another thing working against you with this idea is there aren't many truckers who would want a load of wood in their expensive trailers who normally haul bananas, paper, or other things like insulation!!

But, if you are bound and determined to find a trucker do as what another poster suggested. Contact a Freight Broker and tell them what you want to do. They might find a hungry independent trucker for a haul back.

 

[1harlowr]

:deadhorse::bang:Ship the logs, buck the logs, then split the logs. Easier than shipping 16" pieces of wood. Simple logging trucks could be the shippers then. Simplier I'd think.

 

[JayB]

PM me if 2-5 pickup/flatbed trailer loads would be of interest. I have family in Co Springs and travel there from central Oklahoma several times a year.

 

[rtrsam]

You'll run out of weight before volume.

3528# / cord for Red Oak.

46,100# cargo on a TT, that's 13 cords.

13 x 128 = 1664 cu. ft.

48' Trailer has 3,700 cu. ft.

Kiln drying I believe satisfies any needs to ship wood across quarantine lines, and might let you fit on a smidge more wood. Without hunting down the math, I'm figuring something like 1/2 to 1 more cord if it's kiln dried down to 15% or so.

Part of the problem here is wood is not a manufactured good. The actual weight is going to vary by each and every load, so you can't just count on 13 cords per load. Some will be more, some will be less in order for the truck to remain legal.

Based on the consensus from round v. split threads, if weight wasn't a limiting factor you'd be best off stuff it with rounds for the least volume. I would like to be a fly on the wall when DOT weighs a 53' trailer stuffed with red oak rounds though

I'm not so sure about maxing out weights with loose piled (not stacked)wood. Last summer I had to haul some wood for work, mostly using a flatbed one ton truck; bed dimensions 8' long, 8' wide, 4' high side rails. We were getting wood from an outfit that sold 108 cu ft "cords" (they clearly identified it as 108 cu ft, but also used the term "cord").

At any rate, the truck should have held 2 full cords of wood ("real" cords, 128 cu ft). After dumping 108 cu ft in the back, just letting it fall out of a loader bucket, there was no way a second cord was going to fit. Even rounding it up to make a full "real" cord would have required a little finagling to ensure nothig fell out of the top of the racks.

So...I reckon based on these very non-scientific observations, that loose dumped wood fluffs to nearly double the volume of closely stacked wood. Of course, the calculations you provided show you could still fit 13 cords even at double the volume with some room to spare.

I'd think the slick way to make such a thing work would be to "own" some open topped shipping containers, puke wood from the processor conveyor into them from above, and when full, truck them to a railyard, train them to CO, then truck them to wherever you want to sell it. If the market is tight enough in CO, I bet you could make it pay. (That's a brilliant statement. If I could sell empty beer cans for a hundred bucks each, I could probably make it pay to haul them across the country...)

 

[robinlbird]

Firewood to CO

All good ideas and gives me something to work with or new angles to explore.

Appreciate everyone's input.

It is a logistical nightmare but I was looking for fresh eyes or experience for something like this and appreciate all answers.

 

[Turkeyslayer]

Another option would be find a local gravel/dirt hauler with a walking floor or dump trailer. I know around here winter is there slow season so some of them haul wood into the cities. You might find one willing to do it for a reasonable price. Just a thought.