Scrounging Firewood (and other stuff)

[92utownxh]

Finally got some pictures of the tree service wood I've been getting. It's been amazing. Drive the truck to work, get wood on the way home all within minutes of work, have the boy's help unload. In the one picture they are making chainsaw sounds wanting to cut that tree down. The guy called thus morning and I have about 3 truck loads of hard maple waiting for me right on the way home.

Since we've been talking about lightening, look closely at the tree the wood is around. It's a poplar tree that got struck my lightening when I was a kid. I remember it. My grandparents lived there at the time and I lived next door. The tree is now hollow. Luckily it's away from the house and everything.

 

[al-k]

I scrounged some re-bar in the shop yesterday and made a guard for the motor on the log slitter .

 

[chipper1]

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Finally got some pictures of the tree service wood I've been getting. It's been amazing. Drive the truck to work, get wood on the way home all within minutes of work, have the boy's help unload. In the one picture they are making chainsaw sounds wanting to cut that tree down. The guy called thus morning and I have about 3 truck loads of hard maple waiting for me right on the way home.

Since we've been talking about lightening, look closely at the tree the wood is around. It's a poplar tree that got struck my lightening when I was a kid. I remember it. My grandparents lived there at the time and I lived next door. The tree is now hollow. Luckily it's away from the house and everything.

That's quite the deal you have going there .
Get what you can while you can as long as you have the room for it, even if you don't need it someone will.
In two summers I collected enough for 20yrs as long as it doesn't rot , even if I lost a little it doesn't matter to me as much of it would have been chipped or rot where it was anyway, at least here it has the potential to be put to use .

 

[92utownxh]

I plan to keep getting it while I can. I have plenty of room for it. I wish I had a bigger truck. It's only a 1500, and I could easily overload with the green hard maple. Or at least have the truck sagging more than I want.

 

[Huskybill]

I built a one ton k30 out of a ‘76 c30. The k30 wasn’t offered till ‘77 but I couldn’t justify spending $25k on one. The c30 had the heavier frame for $3,000. Cost to build was $5k with Detroit lockers, 400+ hp sb Chevy, 400th. Six super swampers duallies on the rear. The rear was a Dana 70 11,000lb. I put 72 leaf springs in the truck no sag with 16,000lbs of 1 1/4” stone. I built this truck to haul diesel to the skidder down the road. But the wimpy corporate engineering job came along. I hated it but the money and bennies were good. I still regret not staying in the woods.

To do firewood you need to get the truck close to the wood. I could go off road right up to the fallen trees.

Both truck frames were the same width. It took me seven days to build. I had seven days to spare between wood permits.

In life you can do anything you put your mind to. You only limit yourself.

 

[92utownxh]

Yeah, really don't have the money to buy a different truck. I had to replace a rear spring shackle a couple weeks ago. It rusted through. The rust is bad on that thing. It has all new brake lines and new tires. Needs new shocks. I need to at least add some helper springs to it. I need to keep it as long as possible. It has the 5.3L with only 135K miles. About have to have 4x4 if I want to get out in any snow in the winter.

 

[Huskybill]

The previous year I sold firewood and had the cash for the build. I reinvested money most of the time. Then the fork in the road came to purchase the equipment or work for somebody.

I made my own leaf springs. I took good used leaf springs and cut them to stagger the lengths and purchased new u bolts. The truck empty road like my dads 3/4 ton 57 chevy truck. But when loaded it road like a caddy.

 

[Philbert]

Saw this at Sears. How many Sears customers do you think buy this thinking, 'It's Universal Saw Chain: it must fit any chainsaw'?



Philbert

 

[Huskybill]

I been away from this for a while I went to order chain loops recently it’s confusing even more. A short time ago we had 72LP chisel, full skip, chipper chain. What up today we have more choices than a dessert at freindlys. Some of these different chains I don’t see any difference with or without my eye glasses.? Lol

 

[92utownxh]

Just picked this up on the way home now. There's at least two more loads of all sugar maple to get this evening or tomorrow morning. Near the stadium of IU.

 

[Huskybill]

When the wood is available we gotta go for it.

 

[James Miller]

I plan to keep getting it while I can. I have plenty of room for it. I wish I had a bigger truck. It's only a 1500, and I could easily overload with the green hard maple. Or at least have the truck sagging more than I want.

I thought if you weren't staring at the sky you needed to put more wood in the bed.

 

[chipper1]

I plan to keep getting it while I can. I have plenty of room for it. I wish I had a bigger truck. It's only a 1500, and I could easily overload with the green hard maple. Or at least have the truck sagging more than I want.

You gotta jump when it's time that's for sure, things can change fast. I just helped my neighbor get some wood last night, his reserves are way down, doesn't even have enough ready for this winter yet but he has 5 acres with a lot of dead standing black locust so he will be just fine. He told me that just last week he was told he could take all the wood at a local tree company(about 20 cord), then the guy called him the next day and said as long as you can have it out in a month, another call the day after and said two weeks, then another call saying tomorrow , then the guy said I have to get it out now so I'll bring it over for you to which my neighbor said I'll give you some cash for the fuel and all(he's generous and I'm sure it was a good amount), then the guy never showed up and won't return his calls . Point being get it all and then worry about what the heck to do with it.

As far as the truck goes I feel your pain. I used to drive semi so I'm a big fan of trailers(some here might say you need a van ), you can do a lot with a small trailer and even more with a big one.
My first decent trailer was a 6.5'x12' with a 3500lb axle, I hauled a lot with that heavy trailer behind my mercury villager/nissan quests for many years and it paid it's value and then I sold it for what I paid because the steel prices went up . As you will see in the pictures I hauled a lot of stuff on the lighter weight and lighter duty(2200 GVW I often exceeded that ) aluminum trailer I replaced it with but you have to know how to balance a load. I have Many trailers now and the 20' aluminum is a big trailer, but hauling/loading it and then pulling it behind my little suburban has challenges of it's own, many times as in the picture you can see you need to get creative.
Last picture is 114k on an eight axle I drove for quite a while, anyone who has hauled a heavy load knows how hard it is to get that load on the trailer and secured let alone to get it loaded somewhere close to the legal axle weights, it's a lot of precision guesswork .

 

[James Miller]

You gotta jump when it's time that's for sure, things can change fast. I just helped my neighbor get some wood last night, his reserves are way down, doesn't even have enough ready for this winter yet but he has 5 acres with a lot of dead standing black locust so he will be just fine. He told me that just last week he was told he could take all the wood at a local tree company(about 20 cord), then the guy called him the next day and said as long as you can have it out in a month, another call the day after and said two weeks, then another call saying tomorrow , then the guy said I have to get it out now so I'll bring it over for you to which my neighbor said I'll give you some cash for the fuel and all(he's generous and I'm sure it was a good amount), then the guy never showed up and won't return his calls . Point being get it all and then worry about what the heck to do with it.

As far as the truck goes I feel your pain. I used to drive semi so I'm a big fan of trailers(some here might say you need a van ), you can do a lot with a small trailer and even more with a big one.
My first decent trailer was a 6.5'x12' with a 3500lb axle, I hauled a lot with that heavy trailer behind my mercury villager/nissan quests for many years and it paid it's value and then I sold it for what I paid because the steel prices went up . As you will see in the pictures I hauled a lot of stuff on the lighter weight and lighter duty(2200 GVW I often exceeded that ) aluminum trailer I replaced it with but you have to know how to balance a load. I have Many trailers now and the 20' aluminum is a big trailer, but hauling/loading it and then pulling it behind my little suburban has challenges of it's own, many times as in the picture you can see you need to get creative.
Last picture is 114k on an eight axle I drove for quite a while, anyone who has hauled a heavy load knows how hard it is to get that load on the trailer and secured let alone to get it loaded somewhere close to the legal axle weights, it's a lot of precision guesswork .
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How much for the hatch back delivered. Haven't seen one around here with solid wheel wells in a long time. Still have my B series mounts for that chassis. Building another soul crushing civic crosses my mind now and then.

 

[Huskybill]

After the northeaster blizzard of ‘78 it was my first winter in our house on top of a mountain. We had 6’ of snow in the street. Lucky the power didn’t go out. We were snowed in for three days. That spring I installed a Woodstove, all of a sudden everyone’s asking me if I want free firewood. I had twenty cords of firewood right away. Wood heat was my backup. So I thought. I had a surplus to heat the house with them I sold a few cords and it increased every year. Then when I lost my job(recession) I poured it on.

I have a 10k short dual axle trailer I built sitting here. Someday I’ll rework it.

 

[woodchip rookie]

Cost to build was $5k with Detroit lockers

I would love lockers in my dually

 

[Huskybill]

I also installed lockers in my 55 jeep cj5 with a snowplow.

 

[Huskybill]

I would love lockers in my dually

There easy to install. Checkout lockrites.

 

[woodchip rookie]

Theres no "on-off" control? Did you do front and rear? I'm not sure whats in the rear...Dana 70/80 and I think a 60 in the front.

 

[James Miller]

Lunch box lockers are pretty simple to install. A full case locker like a Detroit is a little more complicated but still not terrible. If you can setup a diff installing a locker is pretty straightforward.