Pickup load of firewood.

[SAWFORD79]

Been selling most of my firewood by the pickup load instead of by the cord. Can anyone tell me on a 8ft long fullsize pickup box, stacked neatly, to the top of the bed rails what percentage of a cord is on there. Some people say they can get a cord on a pickup but I have never had a cord of wood stacked then started loading to see how much I use.
Just want to make sure I am fair cause I have a per cord price but don" want to sell by the load too cheap or to high.

 

[DSS]

8ft bed by 4ft wide by 2ft deep. Half a cord.

Where's my popcorn?

 

[haveawoody]

All depends on the truck and the neatness of the stacking and how high.

Most decent sized trucks your looking at around 2 face cord of wood or as the real measure of wood goes 2/3 of a cord.
Smaller trucks maybe 1 1/2 face cord.
Big trucks well stacked you might get 3 face cord but it would have to be well packed and 4' high, 4' wide and 8' long of solid wood.
With the spaces that are sure to happen stacking you would probably need to be 5'x4'x8' to ensure the deliver of a full cord of wood when stacked back onto a measure.

As an idea my cargo van stacked very well loaded from seat to back door, floor to top of roof is exactly 1 full cord.
Rides much like a low rider tank at that point LOL.

 

[CTYank]

Actually, it's easy. Just takes a few minutes of conscious thought and a tape-measure. :cool2:

Break up the entire box into sections whose sides are rectangles. Measure them, and calculate volume of each.
Total the volumes, and divide by 128.

Doing that with my little ranger, result is 1/3 cord. YMWV

 

[autoimage]

stack a half cord on the ground 4x4x4 then throw it in the back of the truck and you will know what it looks like thrown on there, or just stack it in half cord sections in the yard

 

[sunfish]

8' bed level is around 1/2 cord. Hard to get a full cord in a pickup.

 

[Deleted member 83629]

some side boards in the bed stake pockets will help get a full cord of wood in it. but remember it isn't loaded till the bumper is dragging on the ground

 

[steved]

but remember it isn't loaded till the bumper is dragging on the ground

From what I remember, the weight of a full cord will easily overload most 2500 pickups, and probably most SRW 3500s as well.

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

To give you an idea, this is what 1 .125 cord on a pickup looks like

 

[haveawoody]

steved,

I have carried 1 full cord in my cargo a few times but it's quite the weight to haul.
I put heavy duty springs and shocks in the Van but even at that the weight is pushing the van to the max and the van spreads the weight much better than a pickup.
And really 1/2 cord is a more respectable load for most cargo vans, I would think most pickups at 1/2 cord it's pushing the limits.

If I tried to carry 1 cord even in a big pickup I would want heavy duty shocks and springs and tires and a pretty smooth road LOL

 

[Big_Al]

My pickup bed measures 98" long x 70"wide (excluding wheelwell) and is 48" high with racks on the sides & front. Roughly figures to 8x6x4 which is 196, should be 1.5 cords. Lose a little around wheel wells but the top is normally rounded so I figure its pretty close. Does ok with dry wood, green wood and it will sag. Truck is 93 f250.

 

[steved]

I have a 2500HD Silverado, and there is no way I would haul the weight of a cord of green...I have a 10k GVW trailer, and its well loaded with 1.25 cords of green.

 

[autoimage]

+1 on the silverado steve...arent we talkin around 4000lbs for a cord of oak?

 

[Big_Al]

We dont have much of the heavy hardwoods out here. Usually try to find dead standing red fir or tamarack which is probably under 2k a cord. If green oak is 4k a cord I can see why you'd be wary of it on a pickup, especially going any distance.

 

[ReggieT]

8ft bed by 4ft wide by 2ft deep. Half a cord.

Where's my popcorn?

opcorn:

 

[steved]

+1 on the silverado steve...arent we talkin around 4000lbs for a cord of oak?

Something like that...sounds about right. I always forget that I'm not talking with people from my home area...different trees.

I've had my truck filled over the rails (its a 6.5 footer) with nice seasoned mixed hardwood, and still had some room to go before it was on the bump stops. I think its rated at 3300#s, or something like that?

Anymore a 2500 doesn't mean 3/4 ton...just look at some of the 3500s, aren't they pushing something like a 5k pound carrying capacity nowadays??

 

[autoimage]

i had 50 60lb bags of concrete in my 2500hd and that was the limit, it was swaying a little over bumps

 

[steved]

i had 50 60lb bags of concrete in my 2500hd and that was the limit, it was swaying a little over bumps

This is my first GM product, but not my first HD truck. Although this is my first short bed...which I'm not sold on yet. I'm not sure how this 2012 would handle that kind of weight, haven't really had it long enough to "test". So far I've had about 1500#s right against the tailgate, and that sagged it a few inches; but it rode alright and drove fine.

Around here, they have been getting a little touchy with guys that look overloaded, including those non-commercial types with loads of firewood...at least a few guys I know have been hit for overweight (none for firewood though). I at least try to make it look legal...:msp_biggrin:

 

[Kevin in Ohio]

i had 50 60lb bags of concrete in my 2500hd and that was the limit, it was swaying a little over bumps

I really wouldn't say that is overloaded too bad. Driving with common sense, being prepared for stops, and others safety is the main thing. People tend to think trucks will not take as much as they can. I have a bit of experience here and will give you some examples.

I worked at an AG, liquid fertilizer business for over 10 years. We had a '76 3/4 and '78 1 ton Chevy with 500 gallon tanks on the back, 5 HP gas motor/circulator pump 40 ft booms and cast iron ground driven John Blue pumps. Spray rig weighed over 2000 lbs. 500 gallon of water weighs 4150 lbs. If we were spraying 32% nitrogen, 500 gallon weighed 5500 lbs. Trucks went out constantly with 500 gallon and I'd run 3 full tanks of fuel a day.

Things broke occasionally but the conditions were about as rough as they come. We'd spray over mulboard plowed ground with all that weight some times, Frame broke in two on the 3/4 ton just ahead of the front rear axle spring perch. Tore it down, welded it back up with a fishplate and never broke again. We put in an extra leaf when we first got them and did have them break occasionally. I think one time the top gave out on me but I was bouncing pretty hard. Transmission were the weak link as pulling that much weight through soft , fluffy ground in low lock made some pretty serious heat with an automatic. Shifting gears was out as you need your hand to drive and run the controls.

Never had an axle issue with the Dana 60 fronts or 14 bolt rears. I bought the 1 ton from them before I left and it's the frame under the truck in my avatar. The 14 bolt was wore out and I replaced it but it was still working. Just wore shafts and a slight bow in the tube. They replaced them with Cummins Dodges and it was the same thing, 727 trans. gave out in one year.

These were all single wheel rear trucks, Had to have that to get between the rows.

One other thing I'll mention was the tires. While I was running the Chevys only had a blowout once and that was my fault. Cord showing on the inner rear and it went. When we got the Dodges we got Michelins from the factory. They had belt shifts left and right and started blowing within 6 months of use. They bought 3 trucks and out of 14 tires 6 blew with a year and I told the bosses wife that I refused to drive them anymore till we changed them out. We went with non E rated tires and never had another issue. I've since had belt shifts on my personal Dodge which hasn't been overloaded. It too had E rated tires so I'm not a real fan of them. Might be just the new compounds or the stiffness of the steel plys. What gets me is we ran every generic tire you could imagine that wasn't load rated for what we were subjecting them to and they took it till they were bald. Now a tire that's supposed to be tougher can't?

My old 1/2 ton pictured previously has never had a tire issue either with standard tires and I HAVE overloaded it constantly. Are you guys noticing the belt shift thing more these days?

 

[steved]

One other thing I'll mention was the tires. While I was running the Chevys only had a blowout once and that was my fault. Cord showing on the inner rear and it went. When we got the Dodges we got Michelins from the factory. They had belt shifts left and right and started blowing within 6 months of use. They bought 3 trucks and out of 14 tires 6 blew with a year and I told the bosses wife that I refused to drive them anymore till we changed them out. We went with non E rated tires and never had another issue. I've since had belt shifts on my personal Dodge which hasn't been overloaded. It too had E rated tires so I'm not a real fan of them. Might be just the new compounds or the stiffness of the steel plys. What gets me is we ran every generic tire you could imagine that wasn't load rated for what we were subjecting them to and they took it till they were bald. Now a tire that's supposed to be tougher can't?

My old 1/2 ton pictured previously has never had a tire issue either with standard tires and I HAVE overloaded it constantly. Are you guys noticing the belt shift thing more these days?

I have ran E-rated tires on every 2500 I have owned, I have never had a tire issue...and that includes putting nearly a half a million miles between just the last two trucks (the 99 and 04.5 Dodges I owned). And those were anything from generics to Michelins, on any thing from back and forth to work to a 1200 mile "day", offroad at the site the next day, and 1200 miles back home the next "day" trip. And that included anything from running around empty, to a load of truck parts cross country (I used to buy and sell HD truck stuff as a hobby).

I can tell you first hand that running a non-load rated tire on the front of a Cummins-powered Dodge will cause a blowout in less than 5k miles. The one truck I bought used with almost no miles on it, but the PO had for some reason swapped on new P-series tires, BFG Long Trails to be exact...one fail catastrophically, and the others had handfuls of rubber dust inside the casings because they were also self destructing.