How far to drive?

[turnkey4099]

I spent most of last summer making a 60 mile roundtrip for locust, hauled about 1/2 cord per trip in a pu getting at most 13mpg. I usually break the boredom of the drive by mentally figuring how much oil I woiuld have to buy to get the same heat as I had in the back end - wood comes out way ahead. Of course I also amortize the gas cost by figuring the fun I have fooling around with wood and the exercise I get without paying a gym fee.

Harry K

 

[Wood Doctor]

Steve said, "Some guys on here use a delivery/appliance cart with big tires and an extended bottom plate for moving rounds. It'd be worth looking into for sure."
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A heavy duty dolly with balloon tires doesn't work too badly if the terrain is flat and hard. You can tie the log to the dolly. Trouble is, the terrain is usually bumpy and never flat.

 

[blackdiesel]

If you put one of these behind it, that Dodge will haul 4 cords, and dump it too.
It'll do a lot better than 5 mpg doing it too.

Andy

You must not cut oak. 4 cords of fresh cut oak will weigh in at 22k + the weight of the trailer is going to be alot over the 2-7000# axles weight rating and we won't even talk about the poor tires. 4 cords is all I put on my 10wheeler with a 22 ft dump bed, it weighs 21k empty and 45k loaded and the GVW is 54000.

 

[redprospector]

You must not cut oak. 4 cords of fresh cut oak will weigh in at 22k + the weight of the trailer is going to be alot over the 2-7000# axles weight rating and we won't even talk about the poor tires. 4 cords is all I put on my 10wheeler with a 22 ft dump bed, it weighs 21k empty and 45k loaded and the GVW is 54000.

You're right, I don't have the privlage of cutting much oak. Mostly Pine & Fir, but 4 cords of green Ponderosa Pine will weigh in at about 16k. If I were cutting oak I'd get a 20k trailer (I need to get one anyway).
I've had over 20k lbs. on my 24' 14k gvwr trailer, 12 ply tires help somewhat. But yeah, I'm probably a little over loaded.

Andy

 

[beerman6]

I drive 53 miles 1-way to get my "free" wood.
I drive 53 miles 1-way to get to work.(wood is close to work)
When picking up wood,I drive a 3/4 ton 4wd Ram,pulling a trailer that will hold a bit over a cord and I fill the bed as well.It cost me about double what it does to drive my 99 Olds.
It works well,but was better 2 years ago...My buddy would call me up and say

"The truck and trailer are loaded,leave me the keys to your car and bring em' back in the morning"

I would make sure his tank was full and do any small repairs on them that I could.

 

[gwiley]

Since we are way out in the country I set my soft limit at 45 minutes one way - provided I know that I can take a full load on the 1-ton truck. If I can load the 10K trailer then 45 minutes is a comfortable place for me.

When I can't get the bobcat in to do the work I use a large dolly (hand truck) and a heavy duty garden wagon to move rounds to the truck. For the big ones I split them in place until the splits are small enough to man handle into the truck.

I have to say though, I really, really like forklifting 12-14' logs onto the trailer so that I can finish bucking/splitting at home. I have seen good used bobcat 743 for under $6K, another $1K for a trailer and you can move some serious wood. I recommend starting a savings pile for that gear.

 

[STLfirewood]

You must not cut oak. 4 cords of fresh cut oak will weigh in at 22k + the weight of the trailer is going to be alot over the 2-7000# axles weight rating and we won't even talk about the poor tires. 4 cords is all I put on my 10wheeler with a 22 ft dump bed, it weighs 21k empty and 45k loaded and the GVW is 54000.

Oak is all I cut also. I load the dump trailer (14k model) with 2 1/3 cord. The I put another cord in my F-550. it's a pretty good load for the truck but it does it. I'm over 30k with loaded like this. The truck does pretty good on flat but it doesn't like hills much. I don't pound on it and see how fast it will pull a hill. I just take it slow and steady.

Scott