long distance wood?

[burroak]

I'm curious, what's the longest distance you have traveled to get free wood? I only have a little S10 to haul my wood in, so I only like to travel 10 miles or less for free stuff. I keep wishing I had a full size pick-up and a trailer.

What about you all?

 

[jimbojango]

I'm curious, what's the longest distance you have traveled to get free wood? I only have a little S10 to haul my wood in, so I only like to travel 10 miles or less for free stuff. I keep wishing I had a full size pick-up and a trailer.

What about you all?

Not to get free wood, but i drive 156 or 240 miles once or twice a week to deliver wood for 225 a cord not the most profitable lol

I also drive about 40 miles to get to where the wood is and bring a pickup load and a lot of times a pick up bed trailer home full to split. Don't get a big trailer, just get a $200 pickup bed, holds 2 ricks (1 cord roughly) if you stack it in there halfway

 

[CountryBoy19]

I traveled 13 miles to get hedge and black locust. I have a shortbed full-size GMC truck. I stacked the rounds up higher than the cab, about 3/4 cord per load.

 

[jimbojango]

oh by the way.. when i drive that, i'm actually driving out there for my REAL job.. this is just a way to help pay fuel

 

[Steveguy]

I try to stay under about 30 milesone way. I haul with a tandem axle trailer 16' long so I get over a full cord on a load, on about 5 gallons of gas @12mpg. I figure it's alot of wood for $15 of fuel. I'll go a little further if it's good roads etc. I get wood for free on logging landings. My nephew runs a logging operation.
The load in the picture isn't quite full, if I'm going far I pile it more carefully to optimize the load.
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/TUnS1.jpg" alt="Hosted by imgur.com" />

 

[thejdman04]

At times I have traveled 30ish miles one way, but I have a 20ft longx8ft widex4ft sided dump trailer that will hold a lot of wood.

 

[Nuzzy]

I've done about a 100mi round trip to pull a full load of wood with the truck and trailer; Sister in Law's parents had an elm taken down and I served cleanup duty. Little over 2 cords in the trailer and another heavy half in the bed of the truck.

Most of my cutting is done closer to home though, with much of it being in the back yard.

 

[zogger]

I'm curious, what's the longest distance you have traveled to get free wood? I only have a little S10 to haul my wood in, so I only like to travel 10 miles or less for free stuff. I keep wishing I had a full size pick-up and a trailer.

What about you all?

Don't sell that little truck! You could wake up one morning and crude oil be at 3-400 a barrel, due to international weirdness. That is the consensus of estimates I have read from oil guys should the mideast explode and the straits of hormuz get blocked, etc. Just think how that will translate to price at the pump. Guys with only them giant pickups gonna be looking at hundreds of dollars-if they can get it-just to remain mobile. I tell ya whut, I learned my lesson during the oil embargo. I go for mileage first..it's a truck, I can do truck stuff with it. I have just a half ton datsun, but it is a diesel, get near 40 mpg at 50 MPH on the highway, and in the thirties with a somewhat fair load going slower on the secondary and tertiary roads. You can find both the older datsuns and isuzu diesels for cheap if ya look around.

And if you get a big truck, there ain't much difference in mileage (or used cost) between a pickup and a real flatbed farm truck, and the farm truck will tote twice as much, and tow twice as much. And you can always tow more than you can tote anyway, and general smaller cargo trailers are cheaper than trucks.

Those s-10s are also dandy for electric conversion, they got kits out there now for them and the ford rangers.

With that said, I used to get a tree service deliver nice loads for me for 20$ and a six pack, or sometimes just for free. Whenever they were working close, I'd get the wood + the chips! Just from reading here it appears to be an ongoing problem for those guys, finding a place to dispose of wood, so make some calls, who knows, you might get real lucky and get years worth of firewood delivered for cheap or free.

 

[Locust Cutter]

The ranch I work part-time on (for hunting rights) is over grown with hardwood, so whenever I'm able to get out I cut as much as I'm able and bring a bedload back in either my Toyota or my F-350. It's about 35mi one way. Whenever I go out to pick up wood (everything else I cut, but couldn't drag back) I hitch onto a 20' tandem axle trailer with 5' sides and make a pretty good haul. Once my C50 is up and going, I'll get even more. Otherwise, I have a few places full of Hedge and other hardwoods that range between 2-20 miles from me that I can access whenever I feel like it.
-Bryan

 

[spike60]

Longest I've done is about 25 miles one way. Most often it's 10 or less. Right now I got a spot just 5 miles from home, that is in the "cuttin some tops" thread I started the other day. I expect to get a few loads there this Sunday.

How far someone is willing to go would likely change depending on how your wood supply is looking. If you're getting low, your going to be more willing to go a little farther to get some.

 

[danrclem]

The farthest that I have driven one way was probably about 20 miles. The wood that I got was oak so it was well worth the drive. I have an 8' bed on my truck but I have a box in it so that cuts me down to about 6'. I also pull a 5X10 trailer so I can get quite a bit of wood even though I don't like to overload them.

Quite a few years ago I got some oak and probably drove about 15 miles to get it. I couldn't get the big stuff because I didn't have a good saw at that time but I still came out with quite a bit of good wood. I'd love to find some like it now that I have a 372. It would be noodlin' time.

Oh, I forgot. Don't laugh but I drove probably 25 miles one time to get some sycamore. It was in the spring and I was almost out of wood at the time. I needed to get some wood that would be dry by winter. It worked out pretty good though because the guy cutting the tree down let me use his truck to pull his 16' trailer back with a load to my house and when I went back they had my truck and trailer loaded with the rest of it.

 

[Highbeam]

50 miles, an hour, each way. I have side boards on a 7 foot bed F350 and can load a cord of rounds. By the time I cut and load a cord of green wood I am ready for a nice hour long drive home. The crew cab gives me room to store the saw and tools in the cab.

 

[jsk0307]

I don't go very far at all. In fact it's about 1/4 mile from my home. Problem for me is that the property is tagged "Wildlife watching" area. No motorized vehicles are permitted. I park my vehicle on the street and haul everything out by hand. If I didn't live in a residential area I'd buy myself a horse or mule.

 

[porta mill]

I try to get wood close to home as possibal but I have traveled 25 miles to get free wood . when I travel any distance I usually take two trucks and trailers one is a 16Ft equipment trailer and the other is a 6x12 dump trailer, Dad is retired and likes to get out of the house he driives the other truck it makes him feel important and a big help. both trailer have 2 ft tall sides so I can get a full load and when I say load they are grossed out . and the the other pic is one of the toys I use to get wood out of the woods .

 

[TMFARM 2009]

we usually cut with in a 20 mile radius from home. the two jobs we have going now,one is 3 miles east fence row job, the other is 4 miles west from home top removal and fence rows.i have one coming in soon will be 3 miles south of us... loggers aren't done yet on it probably just tops on it...

 

[KMB]

50 miles, an hour, each way. I have side boards on a 7 foot bed F350 and can load a cord of rounds. By the time I cut and load a cord of green wood I am ready for a nice hour long drive home. The crew cab gives me room to store the saw and tools in the cab.

The beauty of a crewcab...extra lockable space. I have an extended cab only, but it's big enough for lockable space. I might have to start using my pickup box for more wood hauling than for saws and tools hauling...depending on what happens with my trailer shopping.

Back on topic, I have gone as far as about 1 1/2 hrs. (one-way) of highway driving for wood...but it was a one time deal where I cut down 2 trees for a friend and brought the wood home. I have made a few 1 hr. driving (one-way) trips to get wood, but I was able to fill an 83" x 18' car hauler with wood each trip. Lately it has been only 9 miles to some standing dead Oak. After that, who knows how far I'll need to go.

Kevin

 

[Guido Salvage]

75 miles for me, but there is plenty of wood. It allows me to check in on my mother while I am there. Only using a trailer now, but have used my International flatbed in the past. With the 6.9 diesel, it gets 12 MPG unloaded, which beat the Ford F250 4x4 that I had at one time.

 

[jimbojango]

you guys and "sideboards!" HA! get a truck to play like a big boy .. i use my c70 with 4' x 18' steel sides and floor. just load her as full as you can get her 4.5 cords. EASY you feel like you've worked by throwing it in the tractor bucket, dumping it in there and stacking it. works best with 3 guys.. each takes a turn running the tractor, loading the bucket and stacking in the truck. oh.. AND it only adds about 12,000 of weight on her back. run 75 miles an hour home and dump it

 

[ropensaddle]

About 50 miles

I have gone 50 miles to get paid for hauling wood home. I have too much wood usually, if I want any more than what I get paid to haul home, I will cut the hickories here on the 40 acres!

 

[Locust Cutter]

you guys and "sideboards!" HA! get a truck to play like a big boy .. i use my c70 with 4' x 18' steel sides and floor. just load her as full as you can get her 4.5 cords. EASY you feel like you've worked by throwing it in the tractor bucket, dumping it in there and stacking it. works best with 3 guys.. each takes a turn running the tractor, loading the bucket and stacking in the truck. oh.. AND it only adds about 12,000 of weight on her back. run 75 miles an hour home and dump it

God willing that'll be me soon. I just have to convert my C50 to a dumpbed and find or make some sides for it.