Hauling Wood As You Get Older...What Changes Have You Made?

[turnkey4099]

this saves my back

Those logs look pretty junky. You can drop them in my lot and I won't charge you a dump fee.

Harry K

 

[cheeves]

Ron, I hurt just reading your post! I've been in the same kind of situation before, trying to do too much by myself, and it is a great way to get hurt as you noted. To this day, I still flirt with trouble like that, and I am sure I am headed for a hernia or some other sort of pressure/strain injury one of these days. I need to slow down and think rather than throw my body at problems sometimes.

Start wearing a weight lifters belt. I wish I had years ago!

 

[rwoods]

Ron, I hurt just reading your post! I've been in the same kind of situation before, trying to do too much by myself, and it is a great way to get hurt as you noted. To this day, I still flirt with trouble like that, and I am sure I am headed for a hernia or some other sort of pressure/strain injury one of these days. I need to slow down and think rather than throw my body at problems sometimes.

Thanks for relating. The LORD was merciful - I didn't die and I didn't have a stroke. I have been released to go back to cutting but warned not to get too carried away. I have just one more month of precautionary blood thinners and I must have periodic MRAs. Now if I could just lose that 16 or so pounds I gained laying around. Ron

 

[litefoot]

Thanks for relating. The LORD was merciful - I didn't die and I didn't have a stroke. I have been released to go back to cutting but warned not to get too carried away. I have just one more month of precautionary blood thinners and I must have periodic MRAs. Now if I could just lose that 16 or so pounds I gained laying around. Ron

Thanks for sharing that story. I was upset by my hernia and labeled that as the most expensive firewood I ever brought home. You, however, helped me see that something so "major" is in reality not so big a deal compared to your ordeal and, of course, compared to the grand scheme of things.

 

[rwoods]

Thanks for sharing that story. I was upset by my hernia and labeled that as the most expensive firewood I ever brought home. You, however, helped me see that something so "major" is in reality not so big a deal compared to your ordeal and, of course, compared to the grand scheme of things.

Thanks. I have had two business associates have stokes recently. Me missing a little work and a cutting season, being more careful and taking a little medication for life are pretty mild compared to what they are going through right now. Ron

 

[Woodomaker]

I use logging tongs, welded to a chain that hangs on the front hook of my tractor bucket.
I use a piece of angle iron to keep tongs in position and a rope to pull tongs apart after setting log on ground.
Keeps from getting off and on tractor seat!

 

[Oliver1655]

I built a horizontal splitter with the wedge welded to the beam that stands waist high. I added a log lift which also works as a staging table for smaller unsplit pieces & my lunch table. There are out feed tables over the tongue which put the split wood right at the back of my truck or a trailer which ever I am loading into. Once the wood leaves the ground it doesn't hit it again until it is stacked.

I use a hand cart to move the heavy chunks to the log lift. (A pickaroon is handy to help hold the round in place while tipping the dolly back.)

Since I have my own splitter, & most of the wood I cut here in Missouri is where I can get the splitter close to it, I have found I can cut, split, & load in one session. It puts it into easier to handle pieces & for me I have found this to be faster than loading up the rounds or logs, hauling them home & having to cut them/split them there where I have a tendency to procrastinate.

This year I have done something new for me. I built a rolling wood shed on a 16' x 8' flat bed trailer. One side is 8' high & the other is 10' high with a slanted roof to shed the snow. The floor is the thicker treated deck boards & the sidewalls are cattle panels. They come in 16 lengths which work out great. The gaps in the floor boards & the cattle panels allow for good air movement. I did close the front with plywood to help rack the walls. I cut my wood in the early spring before the sap comes up & split everything 2" or bigger to speed up the drying process. Between the wood being out in a sunny area & the hot summer we had this year, it should be dry enough to burn this winter. If not, I have 12 cords in my regular wood shed ready that have had over 2 years to cure. My hope is to just back the trailer up close to the back door & minimize steps & snow shoveling. (My wood shed is 70' from the house to help keep the insects from visiting.) If this works out like I hope, I will build on other on a 20' flat bed trailer. This way I can alternate trailers & can give the wood close to 2 years to cure. (These 2 trailers were built from an old mobile home frame I got in exchange for dismantling & removing the trailer.)

I will cover the sides for winter with tarps made from billboard flexes.

 

[SierraWoodsman]

Powered Wheelbarrow- with out a doubt a worth while purchase.

This Wheelbarrow is Awsome Hauling loads out of the forest up-hill.

View attachment 205890

 

[mikereynolds]

Great thread indeed! I'm 53 but the older I get, I try to work smarter and not harder. For equipment I like a skid steer with a grapple a portable log splitter (a super split is next on the list) a yard truck with a dump, a conveyor and a young man with a strong back is money well spent. My rule of thumb is..."The more you handle the wood the more you have to work and the more it cost to produce!"

Buck the logs into rounds in the field, split the rounds into firewood straight from the wood hauler (whenever possible) or the pile you dump it in. Use the conveyor to load the firewood into the dump truck, dump it in a final pile for delivery.

When I haul logs to the yard I use the skid steer stack them and again to line the logs up for bucking. Use a timber jack and Peavey to save your back. Lift the logs and split them. bring the portable splitter and conveyor to the rounds, while splitting, use conveyor to load the dump truck and repeat. I guess a processor is easier but I'll have to save my money a little longer for that!

This theory is good but doesn't always happen this way...that's when we revert back to doing things the hard way with Motrin and the spa tub and a back rub from by lovely bride at the day's end.

 

[Wife'nHubby]

Well....... it's not really about 'hauling' wood but if you want to talk about 'working' with wood.....

Danged if I can un-do those clips on my chaps! I must have "old-age-weak-thumbs". I gave up and use something like carabiners hooked through both loops on the leg areas. I still have to do something about the clip on waist belt...

Shari

 

[Wood Doctor]

I still haul wood in a wheel barrow for short trips. I could use a gas-powered mule, but I let the young punks run that toy. They like to show off and let me know exactly how weak they are. Just MHO.

 

[Ronaldo]

Changes

Am 43 now and still able to work very well-but not like when I was 20 or even 30.The biggest change I have made is to just slow down a bit,like many others have mentioned.ACCIDENTS are more likely to happen when pushing to hard.Taking a break every so often helps to appreciate my surroundings and enjoy Gods great creation! Love to read about all these ideas.

Ron

 

[litefoot]

This Wheelbarrow is Awsome Hauling loads out of the forest up-hill.

View attachment 205890

Nice setup there...and good-looking wood pile. Where's you find the wheelbarrow?

 

[zogger]

that's just slick

This Wheelbarrow is Awsome Hauling loads out of the forest up-hill.

View attachment 205890

...really, cool. Depends on the terrain and season, but for some places and times, a neat tool. Even slicker would be if it had tracks! Is that little engine underneath a two stroke?

I used a powered wheelbarrow one summer working a high rise construction job. We couldn't quite get the concrete hose to all the nooks and crannies we needed to on our floor by floor pour jobs, so we used one to haul a big quantity of wet mud to where it needed to go. The engine sat up front on the top. Loong time ago now, I don't recall the actual brand name or anything.

 

[Agnes]

Love this thread and all the great ideas. It is all about not getting hurt and protecting the back from getting hurt.

Poor Man's log lift

Humble setup that keeps me going

 

[SierraWoodsman]

Tha Gas Powered WheelBarrow-Curb King Rules!

Nice setup there...and good-looking wood pile. Where's you find the wheelbarrow?

Thanks For the Comment on the Wheelbarrow and the pile of wood.

This year I Decided to really hit the firewood with everything I could muster. My partner and decided to that we would each get the maximum allowed (6-Cords each) enough for both our households and then some. We both are loaded for bear when it comes to chainsaws. I'm a husky fan with a 372xp/395xp/346xp/Makita dcs 6401, and he's a Stihl fan with 460/441/361 and we both have good splitters. We are also "Wood-Snobs" and want only the best, which in the high Sierra can offer, and that is "lodge-pole Pine" Several times in past years we have had to pack the wood out, as anything close to the road is no longer available. Each year seems to get more difficult to find Quality wood and here in Nevada the forest service frowns greatly if any vehicle goes off any of the main roads. On most occasions we take a conventional Wheelbarrow and have found that it is a definite work saver, this year we found ourselves trying to wheelbarrow out our wood up a fairly steep slope and about 300 ft was as close as we could get to the cutting area with the truck. We quickly realized that within 2 hours of cutting we had enough cut to fill his 1.25 cord truck and my 1-cord trailer and that the "fun" part was over for the day, and began transporting the large rounds to the truck. It literally took us the next 3 hours "working our ass off" to actually get all that wood up to the truck and trailer and both of us were completely exhausted in doing so. That’s when I decided to do my homework and find a better way. I went home a googled "powered wheelbarrow" and low and behold there it was. I ordered one right away from Curb-King. I have only got to use it three times but this thing makes a world of difference, and is very well built. Now with the engine providing all the power to climb up the slopes we were both Much less exhausted, and off the mountain much sooner in the day and with a better load than ever before. We both wish we thought of it before. I would highly recommend this Tool the Serious woodcutter, and personally Rank its Value right up there with a Pro-Saw or Powered log splitter. I Guarantee You will be the envy of the rest of you buddies in the wood cutting party, especially if it calls for UP-Hill Hauling. They also have battery powered units they swear by, but gas made better sense for me. Now all I Need is an “automatic gas powered wood stacker” (LoL)


Specs:
- Manufacture Curb-King
- Website: Powered Curbing Wheelbarrow | Curb-King)
- Video: Wheelbarrow Video| Curb-King
7.5 Cu/Ft Heavy Gauge steel Welded Construction Tub / Handles
Heavy duty axle & Drive train (geared pretty low for climbing steeper grades)
1.6 Hp Honda GX-35 four stroke. (sips gas-works hard all day on 1 tiny tank of fuel) and also very reliable, and like a two stroke will run in any position.

Also check out: MOTOBARROW: HOME
It Looks like the same Tough Drive Train as the curb-king but with other engine options, and a lot less money if you want to use your existing Wheelbarrow.

 

[cheeves]

Little helper!

Love this thread and all the great ideas. It is all about not getting hurt and protecting the back from getting hurt.

Poor Man's log lift

Humble setup that keeps me going

Looks like your son is able to help already! You're a lucky man.

 

[Whitespider]

I’ll turn 54 in a few weeks, I guess the biggest change I’ve made is to “work smarter, not harder.” In my younger past I believed myself to be bullet-proof… as I’ve aged (an gotten wiser) I’ve learned that those “bullets” hurt a lot more, and a lot longer, than I remember from my 20’s.

I’ve cut wood since my teens, but just started burning wood for heat again last fall after a 10-12 year hiatus. I hadn’t quit cutting for those years, as we have a fire pit used several months of the year… but a leisurely cord or two a year ain’t much. Now understand, I’ve never worked a job that put me in a desk chair 7 days a week, but at the same time, I wasn’t sweating every day either. The first thing I learned last winter is that I’d become rather soft and fat over those 10-12 years (5’9” and 215 lbs)… swollen joints and sore muscles that took several days to heal, and, at first, there was no possible way I could put in a 6-10 hour day working the wood. Around mid-December something let loose in my back and I fought that until April (I didn’t think it would ever heal-up). And even now, after a year of hard work, I’m still not as fast as I was back-in-the-day… and probably never will be either.

With what I burned last season and what I have put up for this one… probably cut and split ‘round 25 cord, maybe more, in the last 12 months. I still weigh 215 lbs, but my cloths don’t fit properly any more; my jeans are loose around the waist (I’ve sucked the belt in two notches) and my shirts pull uncomfortably tight across the chest and shoulders. Using the “work smarter, not harder” mentality doesn’t mean you won’t hard… and the work has surely been good for me.

What I do is try not to handle the wood any more than I have to. After I fall a tree, I start at the top and cut as much as I can standing up, and then cut the trunk and stuff closer to the ground. I don’t move any of it (other than maybe to roll it a few inches to make the next cut). Once the tree is completely bucked I bring in the splitter and trailer, splittin’ the rounds from where they lay. My splitter weighs 200 lbs and I can easily roll it and reposition it with one hand… loading the trailer as I split. The trailer is pulled right up next to the stacks, or if the wood is from a standing dead the trailer is backed right up to the basement coal shoot. I only have to handle the “rounds” one time this way, and the splits a minimal amount of times. I don’t cut standing-dead or blow-downs until I’m ready to toss ‘em in the basement… no handling to stack that way.

Back-in-the-day, when I thought I was bullet-proof, I’d muscle those rounds and splits several times… Buck-up the tree and muscle the rounds into a pile, later load the rounds and haul them up to the old concrete feed lot, unload the rounds, later split the rounds and toss the splits into a pile, sometime later load the splits and haul them to the stacks, and then again later load the splits from the stacks and haul them to the house……. WHAT WAS I THINKING?!?! Yep, as I’ve aged, I’ve learned to “work smarter, not harder!”

 

[mama]

I'll be 64 in one month and the only change is I use a splitter instead of a maul. I love cutting wood and getting in the woods.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Terrific!

I'll be 64 in one month and the only change is I use a splitter instead of a maul. I love cutting wood and getting in the woods.

Best exercise that there is. Fresh air, productive, and good for you.