Firewood Yard Bucket Measurement

[Woodcutteranon]

I am trying to convince a friend he is being ripped off on his firewood purchases. His supplier sells by the 'Yard."

The supplier scoops firewood from a pile with his front end loader the same way he sells his mulch. His bucket holds a "yard."

I know there are a 1001 variables to estimate the fraction of a cord contained within but does anyone here have good knowledge how much firewood fits into a yard bucket? How many scoops would it take to equal a cord? I don't want to split hairs but rather have a good estimate to show this guy he isn't getting the deal he thinks he is.

I want to sell him by the cord but this is going to take some educating him on my part.

Any help you can offer would be appreciated.

Thanks

WCA

 

[Deleted member 149229]

A cord is 128 well packed cubic feet. A yard bucket is 27 cubic feet and since it’s being scooped it definitely doesn’t qualify as well stacked/packed. It takes 4 3/4 yard buckets to equal one cord but that number goes out the window when you realize how much dead space is in that bucket of scooped wood.

 

[Woodcutteranon]

View attachment 669142 A cord is 128 well packed cubic feet. A yard bucket is 27 cubic feet and since it’s being scooped it definitely doesn’t qualify as well stacked/packed. It takes 4 3/4 yard buckets to equal one cord but that number goes out the window when you realize how much dead space is in that bucket of scooped wood.

Thank you... That is the # I was looking for.

 

[Mustang71]

Isn't that like throwing wood into a truck bed vs stacking it. There's a guy around here with a 3x4x8 rack for his skid steer. He stacks it and dumps it into the dump truck. That doesn't seem a whole lot harder than scooping wood. What's a yard of wood cost?

It's like when you buy stone and they measure tons by the bucket scoops unlike the quarry that weighs it.

 

[duckman]

Go get five scoops stack it and see how much it is . Then let us know how much it is .Then we'll all know.

 

[T. Mainus]

Firewood is not like mulch or gravel where you know you are getting just about the exact amount in each bucket full. The amount in each bucket could vary greatly from bucket to bucket. How many scoops is the guy calling a cord of wood? The only way to find out is to stack it out and see what you end up with. Firewood is like a bunch of puzzle pieces, they all go together differently. We used to stack our firewood in 8' wood racks that we made before we switched over to the bags. You could take a full rack of wood, take it out piece by piece and stack it in another rack right next to it, and sometimes it would fit in the next rack, other times you would have wood left over that would not all fit, sometimes you would come up short depending on how all the pieces went together. If I was selling wood that way I would make sure that you got an extra half a bucket full when we were done just so the customer didn't come up short. The labor he is saving by not handling the wood is worth the extra scoop to make sure you are getting what you paid for.

 

[Mustang71]

I stack my wood in racks 8 foot by 4 foot rows. I have a 4 foot 4 foot rack in the garage that I refill and amazingly they never add up. I stacked 8 foot by 5 foot rows this year hoping it will add up to 2 4 foot by 4 foot rows lol.

 

[sb47]

That's exactly why i stack my wood on measured racks. No guessing and no hard feelings. Take it or leave it.
My stacks are exactly 4' 6'' long by 4' 6'' tall by the width of the wood 18'' = right at 1/4 cord, full cord = 4 sections. The extra height and length makes up for the short 18'' lengths of the splits.
I could make the splits 24'' but 24'' wood doesn't sell very well. Most fireboxes are smaller then they use to be.
People that just leave it in a pile and don't take the time to stack and measure are just plane lazy and don't care if it's a correct amount.
You come to my wood yard and "ALL" my wood is stacked and measured.

 

[Little Al]

We have a Cubic metre bucket on the front loader stacking splits or logs to fill the bucket we always add an extra layer on top to be sure it is a genuine Cubic Metre

 

[sirbuildalot]

My sister bought wood that was scooped with a bucket and had about 2 yards of crap once the wood was stacked. Didn't equal out to the 4 cords she ordered. He did make it right in the end. My Kioti bucket is about a half yard capacity. Even stacked id say I can maybe get 1/6 of a cord. That's piling it higher than the top of the bucket. I'd guess a true one yard bucket could at most be 1/4-1/3rd of a cord if not stacked. Also 16" wood split small would be most optimal, to get near that 1/3rd cord. If longer or bigger splits are the case, then definitely more towards the 1/4 cord figure.

 

[homemade]

Go get five scoops stack it and see how much it is . Then let us know how much it is .Then we'll all know.

Agreed

 

[cantoo]

This means nothing if it's $10 a bucket full. Apples to apples boys. I only sell by the trailer full because I'm lazy and I don't care. If they want 5 cord then they can stack it. If they want me to give them 5 cord then they can pay me to stack it. It's actually that simple.

 

[sirbuildalot]

I agree Cantoo, he never told us the per yard price. Of all the firewood guys in my area, I don't think any of them stack the wood once delivered, and a very small percentage deliver it stacked in the truck. So at the end of the day, it's loose from a loader bucket or loose from a truck bed. Until you stack it yourself, your guessing how much wood there is. What's the "per yard" price? If it's around a quarter of a full cord price, then I don't think it's a bad deal.

 

[sb47]

The fact that it's tossed in the trailer loosely is irreverent if it stacks up to what you ordered. I'm not gonna stack wood nicely for the ride over to who ever ordered it. Thats work that can be avoided.

 

[sirbuildalot]

I agree. I wasn't implying they should stack it. I don't see the need, unless it was a long ways away and you wanted to get extra volume in the load. Even then I'd prob add taller sideboards until I was at the trucks capacity.

 

[cantoo]

Woodcutteranon, it's a new day and my smart azz pants aren't on today. If you want the your friends business and it's worth it to you then after your friend buys a load stack it and see what's there. Filling a bucket with a loader is really a crap shoot. Depends on how hard you drive into the pile, how good you are at tipping it at the right time and not bouncing it so the loose stuff falls off. Just like stacking wood three guys could get totally different amounts in the trailer. And the size of the bucket could make a big difference too, if it takes 1 big ( 1 yard) bucket full to fill the trailer or 10 tiny bucket ( 1/4 yard) fulls to fill it. The margin of error goes both ways though, maybe he is getting more wood than he is paying for. I think the price has just as much to do with it as the quantity. Amish around here sell split wood for a cheap price per cord ( always face cord) but they are light on the length of the splits (14" and calculate it as 16") and the amount of wood usually. They usually have two or 3 young barefoot kids deliver it by horse and hay wagon, the kids unload and sometimes stack and the buyer always tips them very high and gives them ice cream and pop. Some of the amish are worse than drug dealers.
And the last thing is make sure your wood is just as good or better than the competition. Nice even sized splits, consistant length of splits and compliment your friend on his good looks when you deliver the wood.

 

[Streblerm]

If we are calling a loosely thrown cord 180 cubic feet and if we assume that the operator is getting close to one cubic yard or 27 cubic feet in a bucket then there are 6.67 buckets/yards of loose thrown wood per cord.

 

[sb47]

That's why the department of weights and measurements have a set standard for a measurement. I,E a cord equaling 128cf of tightly stacked splits,rounds or what ever form you noodle the wood to. Loosely pilled wood is always going to be questionable.
The key is the amount of air vs material. A pile of round marbles rocks, mulch, sand, dirt, is always going to be of the same amount because of it size and shape. A pile of stick like material is going to have more air gaps then a round marble or rock, gravel, mulch exc.

 

[homemade]

The problem I have is. When the original seller claimed he can measure cords to number of bucket fulls IF he is grabbing it from a large stockpile.

If he is grabbing the wood from already stacked piles in individual cord stacks, then it doesn’t matter what it looks like on the trailer.

I run a loader at a gravel pit feeding a crusher. It has a 8.5 yd bucket. We also have on board scales. A full bucket averages 14 tons. In the course of 100 tons loaded, each individual bucket can very by 3-5 tons at times. My long winded point is, loader bucket size cannot be a used for measuring sale-able products. Especially with something like firewood. That’s how landscape companies make so much money on mulch and topsoil.

 

[Mustang71]

That's y I bought stone from a trucking company this year they came right from the quarry with the weight slip. 20 ton for 350 plus tax. The guy I used to get it from charged 200 plus tax for "10" ton and this year my 20 ton pile was about 3 times the size of the old 10 ton pile.