I have limited relevant experience here, but it seems to me you could just lay pallets out like the concrete pad you propose, and dump onto them. Course you can't lay out the whole pad because you can't drive over it, and depending on how much overhang you have on the truck & how big it is you might have to dump it in two sets. But the only extra work you'd have is laying out 4? 6? pallets or so, then dumping.
I might even consider trying to contain the pile a bit by using some scrap lumber to prop up vertical pallet "walls" on the sides, especially if the pile tends to spread more than desired when dumped. I wouldn't go actually building anything, just prop them in place.
Then you end up with a haphazard pile on pallets, instead of neat stacks on pallets, but you save $20 a chord for <5 minutes of labor, right?
BTW, did something similar on a much smaller scale when I supplemented with wood heat. Had my pile on pallets, right beside a compost bin made out of pallet walls. Got tired of stacking random free wood, so I just slapped pallet walls together for the wood pile making it a wood box I could just chuck the random logs into. Those pallets were nice, roughly 4'x8' and strong. Noticed the wood dried better in a different pile with a base 2 pallets high though it was too much trouble to move the big pile and add another base... Funny thing I learned that by being lazy and didn't feel like moving the 2 pallets on top of each other before I piled wood on top!
I imagine a double layer on the bottom would also help if the pallets break when dumping the load on...
Edit to add the idea of a plastic vapor barrier beneath the pallet base is probably a pretty good idea
I might even consider trying to contain the pile a bit by using some scrap lumber to prop up vertical pallet "walls" on the sides, especially if the pile tends to spread more than desired when dumped. I wouldn't go actually building anything, just prop them in place.
Then you end up with a haphazard pile on pallets, instead of neat stacks on pallets, but you save $20 a chord for <5 minutes of labor, right?
BTW, did something similar on a much smaller scale when I supplemented with wood heat. Had my pile on pallets, right beside a compost bin made out of pallet walls. Got tired of stacking random free wood, so I just slapped pallet walls together for the wood pile making it a wood box I could just chuck the random logs into. Those pallets were nice, roughly 4'x8' and strong. Noticed the wood dried better in a different pile with a base 2 pallets high though it was too much trouble to move the big pile and add another base... Funny thing I learned that by being lazy and didn't feel like moving the 2 pallets on top of each other before I piled wood on top!
I imagine a double layer on the bottom would also help if the pallets break when dumping the load on...
Edit to add the idea of a plastic vapor barrier beneath the pallet base is probably a pretty good idea
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