How much do you charge for a cord of wood?

[sb47]

sb47, it's a heavy trailer with new tires on it and at 65 kms per hour I was taking my time anyway so no worries. I live out in the country only met a couple of cars and no real hills around here either.

That's good to hear. I hate to see people taking unnecessary risk just to save a dollar.
No your rig looks like it in great shape and well taken care of.
I wish I had your tractor. I need a front loader.

 

[Wood Doctor]

That's good to hear. I hate to see people taking unnecessary risk just to save a dollar. No your rig looks like it in great shape and well taken care of. I wish I had your tractor. I need a front loader.

One of my buddies had the perfect solution to all of this. He bought a picker truck that can carry 12 tons and pick up a 6000 lb log if needed. The picker truck does it all, provided he can get it to the trees. When the terrain is so bad that he can't, he drags the logs to the picker truck with a skid loader.

One year I bought a full picker truck load of 8' to 9' logs from him. There must have been 15 full loads for my pickup truck in this collection:

 

[cantoo]

Wood Doctor, a picker truck would be handy for some but not needed enough for me. I now have access to all the wood I want right behind my house so I have enough log wagons and trailers to get the wood home. Only time I need to go on the road is if I sell any and I really don't need to do that if I don't want to. I sell just enough so that my wife thinks it's "breakevenableable" to buy wood toys. My log piles are getting pretty big so I figured I might as well sell a little so that I have an excuse to go back and cut more wood.

 

[Wood Doctor]

Wood Doctor, a picker truck would be handy for some but not needed enough for me. I now have access to all the wood I want right behind my house so I have enough log wagons and trailers to get the wood home. Only time I need to go on the road is if I sell any and I really don't need to do that if I don't want to. I sell just enough so that my wife thinks it's "breakevenableable" to buy wood toys. My log piles are getting pretty big so I figured I might as well sell a little so that I have an excuse to go back and cut more wood.

That makes sense to me. I don't own any big equipment either. But, when you see one of these picker trucks in action, it makes you drool. At $400 a load, I can buy the logs and come out ahead by processing and then selling them all, like the ones in the Pic shown above. I think I sold 600 bundles from that pile and burned all the rest in my stove. That put me about $2 grand ahead.

 

[sb47]

A picker truck is a lot of truck just for firewood. The cost of owning and operating such a big truck is awful high. Smaller equipment takes more trips per cubic foot but you don't have DOT regs and high insurance. Plus the added cost of big tires and the repairs on big equipment is much higher. Big equipment takes big money to keep up with. Firewood generally has a low profit rate.

 

[Wood Doctor]

A picker truck is a lot of truck just for firewood. The cost of owning and operating such a big truck is awful high. Smaller equipment takes more trips per cubic foot but you don't have DOT regs and high insurance. Plus the added cost of big tires and the repairs on big equipment is much higher. Big equipment takes big money to keep up with. Firewood generally has a low profit rate.

Correct in all respects. The payback is not there if using it strictly for firewood sales. I think my logger buddy bought his used for $8,000 or so. He repairs it himself most of the time. Even the hydraulic hoses are expensive. He's also commercially licensed, and that costs him a bunch of bread each year. His salvation to cover all these costs is to sell 15,000 bd ft a week to a saw mill and another 5,000 bd ft of tree tops to a mulching operation. My purchase was a fly on his shoulder.

 

[sb47]

Correct in all respects. The payback is not there if using it strictly for firewood sales. I think my logger buddy bought his used for $8,000 or so. He repairs it himself most of the time. Even the hydraulic hoses are expensive. He's also commercially licensed, and that costs him a bunch of bread each year. His salvation to cover all these costs is to sell 15,000 bd ft a week to a saw mill and another 5,000 bd ft of tree tops to a mulching operation. My purchase was a fly on his shoulder.

Yep I suspect he just delivers firewood on the side for extra income. I drove large commercial trucks for 30 years. I know how much it cost to keep a big truck on the road. It aint cheap by no means.

 

[Gypo Logger]

I charge 160$ for a cord of rounds delivered for dead spruce, or 200 if I split it. Delivery radius is only 10 miles.
Overhead is about 15$/cord, so I'm really rollin in the dough if I slice and dice a hundred cords/ year.
I like it that way, inspite of being old, aimless, bald, stupid, blind, broke, deaf, ugly, bipolar, short, fat and sexualy dysfunctional, but I still have lots of wood which will never come to an end. Lol.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Picker truck? You mean a log truck?

Have this one at the shop and a 3 axle one for 20ft logs.

Equipment is a needed thing. I sold just over 500 cords of firewood last year, hope to do 700 this year.

 

[mijdirtyjeep]

Equipment is a needed thing. I sold just over 500 cords of firewood last year, hope to do 700 this year.

I agree, it is all about making you more productive. Wife has a hard time with my toy purchases (her words) sometimes, but when the cash is flowing in during the summer, there is no complaints.

As far as insurance goes, big truck/little truck/pickup truck, commercial insurance is not cheap anyway you look at it. Just my truck went up over $500/year going from personal insurance to commercial.

Thing that guys that deliver on a small scale don't realize is they need commercial insurance as you are using your truck for profit. Get into an accident one time with your vehicle and hurt someone (even if it is their fault) you are screwed if your insurance company denies your claim as you were hauling commercially.

Kinda back on topic, I am not selling a 2/cord load but buying a 2/cord load today for $140/cord split and supposedly seasoned and all Oak. That $40/more a cord than I have been paying for all Oak (green and processed right into the dump trailer of his conveyor), but my guy ran out last week

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Had a lady comment once about me not wanting to do firewood all my life, like it was equal to scrounging for bottles to turn in or panhandling.

When I told her I easily could have bought a nice house with what the equipment cost her eyes got big. I mean shoot just a new skid steer is 50-60k.

 

[sb47]

I agree, it is all about making you more productive. Wife has a hard time with my toy purchases (her words) sometimes, but when the cash is flowing in during the summer, there is no complaints.

As far as insurance goes, big truck/little truck/pickup truck, commercial insurance is not cheap anyway you look at it. Just my truck went up over $500/year going from personal insurance to commercial.

Thing that guys that deliver on a small scale don't realize is they need commercial insurance as you are using your truck for profit. Get into an accident one time with your vehicle and hurt someone (even if it is their fault) you are screwed if your insurance company denies your claim as you were hauling commercially.

Kinda back on topic, I am not selling a 2/cord load but buying a 2/cord load today for $140/cord split and supposedly seasoned and all Oak. That $40/more a cord than I have been paying for all Oak (green and processed right into the dump trailer of his conveyor), but my guy ran out last week

That's exactly I quit making delivery's. All my wood is pick up only. I also secured a contract with several tree company's to bring me wood that they would normally have to pay to dump. So I don't have to drive somewhere and cut and collect wood and I don't deliver.
I also do not make out any receipts or keep any records.
The only risk I take is having someone on my property. Witch my Home owners will cover.
Most people around here will come pick up there wood. I don't get many request for delivery's.
My tree guy's keep me stocked with all the wood I can sell so my cost is just labor and fuel, oil, chains.
I also started only keeping a smaller amount split and ready for sales.
The reason for that is simply to keep my stock small.
Wood that is still a log is not considered firewood, until it's processed and split.
The whole idea is to keep cost down, production high, and keep a low profile, with steady regular costumers.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

I rarely get people who want to pickup cords of wood. Maybe 10 cords a year.

Why would you keep a low profile? When someone thinks of firewood, I want them to think of my company!

 

[cantoo]

My wife runs a grass cutting business so the truck is already insured commercial. I haven't yellow stickered the trailer yet though. We claim the income because we are planning on claiming more expenses for the firewood business this year. We got audited a few years ago and they said we don't have enough income from the firewood to be able to claim expenses on firewood gear. He had no problem with us claiming the income but not the expenses. The dipsheet also said we couldn't claim it because we use the wood to heat our house, I reminded him that we also heat the shop with it to repair our business equipment. I hate tax people. I work my azz off all week and they get my money. I work my azz off all weekend and they get even more of my money.

 

[sb47]

My wife runs a grass cutting business so the truck is already insured commercial. I haven't yellow stickered the trailer yet though. We claim the income because we are planning on claiming more expenses for the firewood business this year. We got audited a few years ago and they said we don't have enough income from the firewood to be able to claim expenses on firewood gear. He had no problem with us claiming the income but not the expenses. The dipsheet also said we couldn't claim it because we use the wood to heat our house, I reminded him that we also heat the shop with it to repair our business equipment. I hate tax people. I work my azz off all week and they get my money. I work my azz off all weekend and they get even more of my money.

I receive my firewood from tree companies that are taking down dead or dying trees or trees that need removing for a variety of reasons.
If you are using wood from trees that normally would be sent to the land fill, could you use that as a rite off because you are recycling a wast product?

 

[Cambium]

$200 for Full cord. 128cu ft (8'x4'x4').
There are some places around here charging $300 which is Ludacris.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

My wife runs a grass cutting business so the truck is already insured commercial. I haven't yellow stickered the trailer yet though. We claim the income because we are planning on claiming more expenses for the firewood business this year. We got audited a few years ago and they said we don't have enough income from the firewood to be able to claim expenses on firewood gear. He had no problem with us claiming the income but not the expenses. The dipsheet also said we couldn't claim it because we use the wood to heat our house, I reminded him that we also heat the shop with it to repair our business equipment. I hate tax people. I work my azz off all week and they get my money. I work my azz off all weekend and they get even more of my money.

2 years ago I had a tax "expert"/bookee per do my books, she totally screwed it all up.
Had my taxes done with me owing 5k. I did them correctly with proper deductions, had a large refund.

She claimed I couldn't expense equipment. Equipment bought and used for the business.

 

[cantoo]

ValleyFirewood, Our accountant sold her business, she was to work with new owner for a year. She quit immediately and moved away. 4 years later we got audited and found out that the new owner wasn't a licenced accountant. She had made a ton of mistakes all of which we were accountable for and there was nothing we could do. $20,000 later we were finally done with the audit. They went back 5 years and did my son and daughter also because my wife had shared bank accounts with them. I could have killed the little prick auditor. We're very careful now with everything we do. I thought we owned our own small business, turns out we are just employees and our Boss lives in a big house in Ottawa and has a huge appetite for my money.

 

[Wood Doctor]

2 years ago I had a tax "expert"/bookee per do my books, she totally screwed it all up.
Had my taxes done with me owing 5k. I did them correctly with proper deductions, had a large refund.

She claimed I couldn't expense equipment. Equipment bought and used for the business.

That was an accountant who said equipment was not an expense item? Had she ever heard of depreciation? She was a quack in my book, not an accountant. Good thing you fired her.

 

[Fireaxman]

Came by one of the local stores down here that sell bundled wood today and thought about this thread. Checked out one of their "Bundles" just to see what I would be paying them for a full cord. They sell 0.75 cubic feet for $7. Gentlemen, correct me if I am wrong, is that really $1,194.67 a cord ? Man in Bedico near me sells a full cord for $200. sb47, did you say:

Firewood generally has a low profit rate.

? Dang. Sure looks like SOMBODY has a pretty good profit margin down here.