Log length, or cut /split in the woods?

[mainewoods]

How do you guy's haul out your firewood? Log length, rounds or cut and split in the woods? Tractor, dozer, ATV, 4x4 truck? Seems that many of you cut and split in the woods, and the size of the equipment being used, appears to be a good part of the reason why that method is chosen more often than not. Personally I like tree and log length better. I find it easier to cut and split on a cleared landing, rather than in the woods, where there seems to always be uneven ground and any number of tripping hazards present. Sometimes the wood can get dirty dragging logs, which is one reason I haul most of my wood in the fall/winter and early spring, when the ground is frozen. Maybe location dictates what method you use, more than any other reason. It's always good to hear both sides.

 

[jrider]

I've used both methods depending on the situation. I am not locked into either method, I just try to get the job done as efficiently as I can.

 

[Rburg44]

Cut buck and split in woods where the tree falls just tow the splitter right in on my pick up

 

[Nosmo]

I prefer to buck and load on my truck and trailer. I'd rather do the splitting (on my splitter) at home and some today and more tomorrow.

Those bigger trunk pieces I can load them on my truck or trailer with the crane in the bed of my truck. Oh yes, unless I am cutting at a friend's house or land I only buck up what I can haul off that day.

 

[jcl]

I cut the tree, delimb it dragout of woods with tractor cut into 12'-15'. Lengths then run it threw processior

 

[greendohn]

Buck it in the woods and split rounds as I unload at the woodshed for the most part.
Every now and then the splitter goes with me to the woods.

 

[reaperman]

I normally like to drop the tree and limb it out on the spot. Then drag the whole tree with my bobcat to a spot I have cleared for bucking and eventually splitting. If you have a way of dragging or lifting logs, its much easier keeping everything together in a area free of under brush and whatever else likes to trip us up. I recently opened a 2nd bucking area after a tornado decided my woods had too many trees.

After I have everything bucked up, and on a pile, then I figure I can split whenever I have time.

 

[muddstopper]

To me, a lot depends on what equipment I have available at the time. One tree scrounged, I would probably just pull the splitter to the tree, buck, split load and be done. Several trees, then load the logs on trailer and haul home to process at a later date. Lots of trees, I call a buddy and get trees hauled home on his Knuckleboom truck. Every situation is different

 

[Wood Doctor]

I cut logs to length in the woods but I split them at my wood depot where I keep my log splitter. If the rounds are too heavy to load onto the tailgate, noodle cut them in half or even quarter them as need be. Use stairs made out of rounds to load the chunks. There will usually be a short round for the first stair step along with standard lengths.

Towing the log splitter to the the woods is usually less efficient than hauling the rounds or noodle cuts to the splitter. That's because you still have to unhook the splitter in order to load the truck, hook it back up to a truck that's fully loaded, and then tow the splitter home to boot.

 

[newyorker]

It depends on situation bit I usually do it what ever way I have to handle it least

 

[sunfish]

I do skid some 12'-18' logs out of the woods with the tractor, but usually cut to length where the tree falls and load the truck by hand. I then pile rounds in the wood lot and split when I have time.

 

[Cheesecutter]

If I can get to them with my skidsteer I bring them home to buck them. I cut anything over 16" about 3/4 of the way through, load log length on the trailer. When I get home I finish the cut and roll the round off the trailer.
Something new I'm trying this year is cutting most 2-6" stuff 16 or 24" long. I put 3 pallets on my trailer and stack right on the trailer at the landing. Each skid holds 1/3 cord and gets unloaded at home with the skidsteer. So far this has been working slick as heck. especially when the kids load it while I'm at work so all I have to do is pull it home, unload it, and take it back to be reloaded the next day.

 

[unclemoustache]

How many times do you want to move the wood?

1. from tree to trailer
2. from trailer to driveway
3. from driveway to pile
4. from pile to splitter/maul
5. from splitter/maul to stack
6. from stack to house

The fewer moves the better. I'd prefer to split it where I drop it, but I don't have that luxury so I usually go through all the steps.

 

[VW Splitter]

I have tried it several ways, but I like bucking in the woods. hauling the rounds home on my trailer, then off the trailer and onto the splitter. Off the splitter, I am now tossing, yes piling in the woodshed. No more stacking. With a ramp I can roll a 36" round onto the trailer by myself. When they are that big I will useally noodle as they go onto the splitter.

 

[spike60]

I always buck in the woods and bring the rounds home for splitting. I've always viewed splitting as a separate operation, and something I can do at my leisure. My splitter is close to the woodshed and I prefer to split right there and move the wood directly into the shed.

When I'm cutting and hauling I want to maximize that operation and get as much wood home as I can. I want to load up, bring it home and go back for another one.. (or go to the pub) I can get twice as much wood home that way than if I was splitting on site. I've never considered dragging my splitter around with me, pretty much for all the reasons Wood Doctor mentioned.

Big stuff gets noodled or busted with a maul to make loading easier. If doing a bunch of pole wood, 6" and under, I like to just cut it to truck bed length as it's much easier to handle that way. I stack that stuff in a mini log pile and zip it up some time later with a small saw.

No right or wrong answer here. We all have different equipment, different size wood, and different logistics, both where we cut and at home. We all come up with a method that works.

 

[hamish]

I just buy my firewood at the gas station, it comes in a pretty little bag.

 

[VW Splitter]

I just buy my firewood at the gas station, it comes in a pretty little bag.

How much is a cord?

 

[Jakers]

if on my own land, skidsteer it to a pile, let the rain wash the dirt down. transfer one log at a time to another pile site to be cut up and sorted. smalls that dont need splitting go in the burnable pile, those needing split go in another pile. then i usually split it all up in the fall so it has one full year to season before being burnt.

if im doing a tree job for a customer, the wood gets whatever i have to do to get it out and then i sort it out at home with the same process as above. i usually try to have two or three piles in two spots waiting to be split and two split piles that keep rotating. im not a stacker. i barely have time to process the stuff let alone stack it.

 

[NSMaple1]

Depends on the size.

If I can get it on my ATV trailer in longer lengths (8' or so), I do that. Then I trailer the load to my splitting/stacking/drying site & buck it while on the trailer. A big saw buck. Saves a huge amount of time. Then it's all in one pile right beside my splitter.

If it's too big to do that, I hook my spiltter to my trailer, slip side boards onto the trailer, haul the whole works right beside the tree, then buck the tree up & split right there. Throw splits into the trailer off the splitter, haul to stacking/drying area, pile off trailer to pallets where it sits until I move into basement right beside boiler with FEL & pallet jack.

That's scrounging from my back yard on our own land. Different situations call for different methods.

 

[Jon E]

I've processed wood a bunch of different ways. The last few years I've had a log truck drop off tree length poles from a logging job on other land I own, so I've had the luxury of cutting on a flat landing and splitting right there. My father goes around his woods with a Jeep and splitter and drops, bucks and splits right in the woods and stacks it to dry for the summer right there. Then he goes around with his Jeep and a trailer in the fall and collects all his little stacks and puts them all in the wood shed. My preference, when falling trees for firewood, is to drop and buck on the spot and then load rounds on either my tractor bucket (for big pieces) or smaller rounds in my trailer (towed by the tractor). For limb wood 5" dia. or less, I'll cut 100" and bring them back to the wood shed that way. In the wood shed is my splitter and my "smart-holder" sawbuck, I can split rounds and saw poles into 20" lengths at my convenience.

I do have a separate woodlot that I don't use much, if I head there go get wood I will load up my pickup with rounds and bring them back home unsplit. Not a big fan of loading rounds in a pickup box because it's got a 6" lift on it and a non-skid bed liner and getting them back out is a pain in the butt. I suppose I need to invest in a pickaroon.