Hauling wood with a flat bottom boat?

[farmerboybill]

Hey all,

I have a plan to buy a couple manure spreaders for hauling wood at the first opporunity. Right now, I'm hauling with an 8 by 14 dump trailer. Snows getting pretty deep, and the tractor and trailer make deeper and deeper trenches. I figure another 6-12 inches and I'm done hauling. So, I got to thinking about how the farmers used to change out the wheels for runners on their wagons in the snow. Has anyone pulled a flat bottom boat loaded with firewood through the snow behind a tractor? I'm using a 4430 with chains, so lots of clearance.

I don't really NEED to do this as my wood supply is now "healthy". I brought up three loads of standing dead burr oak in the past week and I figure each load gives me three weeks of burn.

If anything else, I can pull the family through the snow for a sleigh ride, right?

 

[savageactor7]

I've heard of folks that have pulled an old car hood as a wood sleigh. I suppose a boat would pull OK but it seems the thin shell wouldn't hold up to the abuse of throwing rounds in it.

If you got the HP to pull that other stuff why not just bring the logs closer to your house to process?

 

[mn woodcutter]

flat bottom boats have a lot of surface area which means lots of friction. they aren't smooth and glossy like the small hood of a vehicle. if you can figure out a good way to put runners on the boat it might be an option but my years of experience running flat bottoms on the ol miss tells me its too much surface area to be effective.

 

[KindredSpiritzz]

I have a hunch it'd end up bent and mangled in no time and finding a solid place to tie on would be a problem.

 

[mn woodcutter]

I have a hunch it'd end up bent and mangled in no time and finding a solid place to tie on would be a problem.

that too! you would have to have runners and a frame with a hitch. seems like a waste of a good boat to me! there's nothing I would rather do than be fishing!

 

[farmerboybill]

Ok, so bad plan. I also have a busted up poly tank here. The plastic is 1" thick. Wonder if I could find a way to attach it under the wheels of my dump trailer to make a skid plate. What's happening is the axles get hung up on the snow in the middle of the wheel tracks. Any tractor smaller than my 12,000lb 125 hp 4430 wouldn't drag it through, and even then I need to back up and hit it again sometimes. Once the snow's packed down, I should be able to roll over it again.

Basically, I need to make a road. My thought was packing the snow down is better than trying to move it. I move the snow off my 1800' driveway and I just make berms that pack back in with snow the next time it's windy. What I NEED is a snowblower, but I'm not spending $4K+ for something I might use 10 days a year. And many years, not even once.

Maybe I should just wait 'til the snow melts... Actually, I'm set for the rest of the year (as long as it doesn't go into June...). I'm about ready to just unhook the trailer and go down with just the saws.

 

[zogger]

Tote box on the rear, FEL on the front to me would be the best combo in deep snow or mud (given a 4wd tractor). No dragging anything, just some weight fore and aft, dig in and go.

Not much you can beyond that except switch to a tracked vehicle of some sort. Or a much larger wheeled vehicle, a skidder with a grapple, just haul whole logs back.