solid firewood cart 4 a ATV

[clawmute]

Dumping type trailer

I built this little trailer for my ATV several years ago. I can pull it with my Yahama Big Bear, tractor or pick up. It has a pivoting bed and will dump its load. I recently put a larger axle/14" wheels under it since my originals were a little over the hill (blew out a tire on this load up the mountain), a little small, and also I wanted to be able to carry a heavier payload.

It measures 4ft. wide x 5 feet long. I have a latch at the front of the bed I un-pin when I want to dump. Recent improvements also include a new bed liner. Higher sides are next. They were 12" and I will change to slope outward to double volume to approx. 80 cu. ft. I should be able to carry a prettty good chunk of wood after it's totally redone.

Pretty easy to build from junk parts and scrap metal.

Frank

 

[dlk]

So far, so good with a Swisher dump trailer I got at Tractor Supply

 

[logbutcher]

The area I get all of my wood from doesn't have access for a truck. Most of the trails are just wide enough for an ATV. A lot of people won't consider this area for getting wood since these are the conditions. My strategy saves me money, takes more time but I have the available time to do it. I can get my wood for home heating at a cost of about $5 a cord (give or take a little) and my old truck cannot even be started for less than $5. (454 under the hood) As long as the wood is cheap and I can do the work, I'm going to haul with an ATV and trailer. With the energy prices going through the roof, I'll use the method that saves me $.

Ditto for us here---exact conditions and methods: homemade trailer and the Honda Foreman. Besides firewood, I do TSI ( Timber Stand Improvement ) as part of my long range forestry Management Plan, cut pulp logs, and buck the trees in place leaving small brush on the ground to rot ( woody debris ). Skidding on this small scale gets to be inefficient: dirt and debris to deal with on the logs, and the logs need to be bucked somewhere. The big hump is getting the butts on and off the trailer. For every firewood tree harvested, there's usually at least 5-10 junk trees to clear around the ones to save for future mast(seed), pulp, sawlogs, diversity in the woodlot, or firewood.
The low tech, high labor, low cost method has worked when all is said and done .....for me. Even got rid of the 22 ton beasty splitter for a tiny 5 ton electric ( see other post ). Hard but cheap, good for the body:censored: , and gets what I need out of my woodland for some $$$ and full time heating. When the ground freezes in a few weeks, the round for 2010 firewood etc.. will begin once again.

Loknlod: I'm no CPA. How do you figure the $5./cord cost ? Gas/oil for the ATV and saws gets much more than $5. What's missing here ?

 

[loknlod]

$5 a cord (give or take a little)

Ditto for us here---exact conditions and methods: homemade trailer and the Honda Foreman. Besides firewood, I do TSI ( Timber Stand Improvement ) as part of my long range forestry Management Plan, cut pulp logs, and buck the trees in place leaving small brush on the ground to rot ( woody debris ). Skidding on this small scale gets to be inefficient: dirt and debris to deal with on the logs, and the logs need to be bucked somewhere. The big hump is getting the butts on and off the trailer. For every firewood tree harvested, there's usually at least 5-10 junk trees to clear around the ones to save for future mast(seed), pulp, sawlogs, diversity in the woodlot, or firewood.
The low tech, high labor, low cost method has worked when all is said and done .....for me. Even got rid of the 22 ton beasty splitter for a tiny 5 ton electric ( see other post ). Hard but cheap, good for the body:censored: , and gets what I need out of my woodland for some $$$ and full time heating. When the ground freezes in a few weeks, the round for 2010 firewood etc.. will begin once again.

Loknlod: I'm no CPA. How do you figure the $5./cord cost ? Gas/oil for the ATV and saws gets much more than $5. What's missing here ?

Like I said, give or take a little. I haven't combined my total expense in a season and divided by the number of cord but I am pretty close with my guess. I put gas in the atv and that is the only expense since I ride it for fun also. The area that I get the wood from is basically right off my front doorstep so I am not putting on a lot of miles. I have one saw, MS230C which does all the work. 1 tank of oil/gas to 1 heaping trailer load (Super Xst trailer previously mentioned) is a pretty good return.

I really don't plan to figure my expense out to the nearest dollar, wood is the cheapest way to heat here and going rate is $200/250 a cord right now. If I go by those prices, I actually have about $2500 worth of wood piled up which cost me more time than anything.