Firewood question

[barkfart]

Just signed up. Wondering on price if good or bad on a flatbed trailer 48x8x6.5 load. 20cord, $1600. 8-12" diameter. Oak some hard maple. Its log form, I'd say 17 cord at best after cut and whatever needed to be split. I'd say its a buy, considering its $4000 a year in propane to heat yearly, and I got by with 10 cord of soft wood one season..... and there's zero hardwood on the property. I'd try and burn the softwood in summer months.

What's your opinion?

I work 60+hr weeks, I just have the time to get caught up.

 

[Guido Salvage]

Kentucky is a long way from Montana, so I can't provide any guidance on what wood is currently going for in your area and whether the price is a good deal. However, i will throw out a couple of thoughts.

A) Make sure you know exactly what type of wood you are getting. I would definitely find out what the ratio of oak is.
B) If you get 15+ cords of wood at one time you will be working on the pile for a long time. Does it make more sense to get it in smaller quantities?
C) Check the prices in your area to see what other bulk sellers are getting for unprocessed wood and then find out what processed wood is selling for. If you can buy this for $100 a cord and get processed wood for $125, is it worth looking at dozens of hours of work to save a few bucks?
D) Do you currently have the equipment to process it or will you need to purchase that as well?

 

[blackdogon57]

if its all hard maple and oak the mix means nothing - both are excellent firewood. assuming you have at least a saw and splitter you should
be good to go. if you dont cut it all this year it will be good for next

 

[shelbythedog]

A load of logs will be a huge time saver versus dragging wood out of the bush, and with it being on your property you will be able to process at your leisure, not to mention reduce the number of times you handle the wood. If you have a decent size saw, 60cc+, you should have no trouble cutting through the pile in a hurry. Its likely the pile will consist mostly of tops, so remember cutting goes quick when you can cut 3 logs at a time. By Michigan standards the price is good. I say go for it.

 

[barkfart]

I have a couple of splitters, FELs with forks. The burner I built had a door 5ft in diameter., etc. I just don't have the time do drag out 20cord and processat that, softwood .... I'd rather buy it and split a few to make easier to handle and be done with it. If I can drag, cut, split, and stack 12cord over 4 weekends, I know I can cut and stack a pretty pile dumped out in the open easily in 2 weekends.

 

[CTYank]

if its all hard maple and oak the mix means nothing - both are excellent firewood. assuming you have at least a saw and splitter you should
be good to go. if you dont cut it all this year it will be good for next

It should be noted that oak will take about twice as long as other hardwoods to dry down to a MC suitable for clean, efficient burning. Some folks like to give it 3 years to dry, m'self included. :msp_rolleyes:

So, the oak will NOT be "good for next" without serious kiln-time. :msp_sad:

 

[Nosmo]

Just Curious

Just a partial quote

I'd try and burn the softwood in summer months.

The price sounds reasonable if you are going to wind up with 17 cords. That would be just under $100.00 a cord. In my area they advertise cut, split, delivered and stacked oak and sometimes mixed for about $60.00 but they sell it by the rick (1/3 of a cord).

I understand you will have to provide all the labor after delivery. I see you work full time and will only be able to process the logs a little at a time. But I believe you will get it done.

What I was curious about is the burning of the softwood in summer months. Do you have an OWB which is heating your water ?

Nosmo

 

[Guido Salvage]

Lets look at the math....

I have been thinking about this post and the amount of wood you will be getting. You have provided us with some dimensions (48x8x6.5) to give an idea of the wood you would receive.

If in fact the load was delivered in this space without any gaps (tightly packed end to end and each layer of logs a full 48') you would get 2496 cubic feet, or 19.5 cords. However, I suspect that the wood will be dumped on a trailer with a grapple which will mean that none of the rows will be a full 48' and the wood will have twists and not loaded perfectly straight. I think that you would be lucky to get 15 cords of processable wood on that trailer.

To further confuse the issue, what type of trailer will it be brought on? Will it be brought on a bunk trailer such as below or a flatbed trailer?

If it is brought on a 2 bunk trailer like that pictured you will have enormous air gaps between the 2 piles on the bunks. More bunks such as shown below will allow more continuous loading of the logs and equate into more wood.

I think that I would want to see the load before committing to having it delivered to be sure you are really getting 20 cords rather than ending up with 12-14 cords of usable wood at a much greater per unit cost than you envisioned.

 

[CrappieKeith]

15 cord will make around 3000 to 4000 gallons of propane heat depending on what is actually there and if the wood burner is semi efficient. Multiply that times the cost of a gallon...say 2.50$
You could be getting 9 grand worth of heat for 1600$...the math says do it. These are ball park numbers...the difference between a poor wood burner and a good one...you could be loosing half of the heat that is potentially available.

 

[barkfart]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gTLLPt3BVA

Like this, eceot different Guy, longer trailer. And cheaper per cord


And I burn year around.