Logistics of firewood hauling and splitting?

[Verticaltrx]

I've been burning wood for years and still have yet to come up with the best way to get it from the tree into my wood pile. Over the years I've tried innumerable different configurations for hauling and splitting, but still haven't decided whats the best, most efficient way. I burn about 5 cords a year and help my father cut about another 6 cords.

Here's the equipment I use:

-Ford NAA tractor
-Kubota B3200 w/ loader
-'69 F-350, 10' flat bed (2wd)
-'88 F-250 (4wd)
-4x6' trailer
-(coming soon 5x10' trailer)
-tow-behind wood splitter
-logging arch for 3pt hitch (no winch)

I've tried towing the splitter behind my little trailer, but can't haul very much on the trailer. Trucks are limited to where they can go as a lot of the terrain is steep and trails are tight. Also tried skidding the logs out to a landing to buck and split them, but that made a mess of the trails and covered the wood in dirt. Some of the best wood is in the very back of the farm and its about 1/2mi through narrow steep logging roads to get to it, so it takes a while to get much wood out.

So based on this info what would be my best plan of action? What does everyone else use to split and haul out firewood? Pics would be great.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Pushing_Tin]

We have one of the new highly efficient Quadrafire units that uses air from outside the home. We heat with it 90% of the time and the heat pump/furnace the other times. We go through about 4-5 cords a year. All of our wood comes from our 5 acres.

I simply find a few trees that need to be thinned, fall them and then cut them into rounds. Then I bring my 4x4 truck to that spot and load up and take them near the house and wood pile. I unload them and then split them by hand, time permitting. I mix the various kinds of wood and stack them on pallets where they season for a year before burning.

 

[Adiredneck]

I cut wood on my property anywhere from 1000' to 3/4 of a mile from the house. I use a 4x8 trailer. When piled, I can get about 1/2 full cord on it. I do have the advantage of not having to climb up any hills on the way back to the house. The disadvantage is that I have to come down some really steep, rutted out trails with a trailer that weighs almost as much as the tractor.

I have electric brakes on the trailer and a controller on the tractor (a couple of close calls before I put them on). I can now stop the tractor & loaded trailer anytime I want.

We tow the splitter with an ATV. During wood cutting season, it stays in the woods covered up with a camo tarp. We only move it when we go to a different landing, until we're done, then it gets put away for the winter.

This is my first year with a skidding winch. We worked 3 saturdays in February and winched all of the logs to a three landings. All of the limbs got left where the trees fell, so the area where we piled the logs stayed pretty clean. It has been great. Now we can spend an entire day in one location just cutting, splitting & loading the trailer. We cut 4 loads last weekend, 2 this weekend. I can't remember an easier wood cutting season.

Obviously, if my woodlot wasn't behind my house, all of this would be more difficult. I have pressure treated wood "slots" on my trailer on both sides to hold multiple chainsaws, and the buckets hold the gas & oil cans. All of this stuff used to ride on the trailer, on top of a full load, but losing the cas cans & a chainsaw on the way down the mountain wasn't fun.

 

[tommu56]

I only use wood at my cabin and bring them in with my BX23 but I cut the tree in to manageable chunks like 10 /12 ft or bigger depending on diameter and weight pinch it between the boom and my hoe (some day I will build a thumb) and bring the logs to the wood pile cut and split and stack at the pile.

If they are long and and lighter I swing the hoe to the side and bring them in that way.

I rather move one log (with the tractor) than load the trailer (stack 1) unload the trailer and stack (2nd time).
Twice the handling my back still complains in evening for half the work out not nearly as much as it could be.

tom

 

[Verticaltrx]

Thanks for the pics and replies.

I guess a lot of how it's done depends on the specific terrain of the area and the distance of the haul. Once I get my new 5x10 trailer built I will be able to haul a lot more per load (3500lbs vs 2000lbs) so that will also help. Got me thinking about putting a detachable hydraulic splitter on the front of the trailer run off the tractor hydraulics.

Here's some pics of the kind of terrain I'm dealing with:

(I guess in this type of terrain a 3pt logging winch would be real handy )

 

[Chilly807]

All of mine gets cut to log length in the woods, then pulled out full length to the woodpile. When I'm ready for it ( a year ahead actually) it gets blocked and split, then stacked.

 

[Redgoatea]

When I've gotta haul wood from the back of the property I cut it down to 8-10' and throw it on the forks on the loader and haul it to the house. Takes a few trips but with the rough terrain it's the safest way for me.

 

[Don87]

I've been burning wood for years and still have yet to come up with the best way to get it from the tree into my wood pile. Over the years I've tried innumerable different configurations for hauling and splitting, but still haven't decided whats the best, most efficient way. I burn about 5 cords a year and help my father cut about another 6 cords.

Here's the equipment I use:

-Ford NAA tractor
-Kubota B3200 w/ loader
-'69 F-350, 10' flat bed (2wd)
-'88 F-250 (4wd)
-4x6' trailer
-(coming soon 5x10' trailer)
-tow-behind wood splitter
-logging arch for 3pt hitch (no winch)

I've tried towing the splitter behind my little trailer, but can't haul very much on the trailer. Trucks are limited to where they can go as a lot of the terrain is steep and trails are tight. Also tried skidding the logs out to a landing to buck and split them, but that made a mess of the trails and covered the wood in dirt. Some of the best wood is in the very back of the farm and its about 1/2mi through narrow steep logging roads to get to it, so it takes a while to get much wood out.

So based on this info what would be my best plan of action? What does everyone else use to split and haul out firewood? Pics would be great.

Thanks in advance.

The best plan I can think of would be: The splitter attached to a 4 wheeler or something.
Cutting and splitting 'onsite' minimizes dirt and mud.
as far as hauling.........I don't see anyway to get away from 'double handling' of the wood. So use a small trailer behind the 4 wheeler to move split wood to the big trailer.
I wish there was a better answer, but that's the way I would handle it.

 

[Diamondpilot]

We skid it out using my 4x4 28 HP tractor. We then cut it and throw it on a 16' tandem axle trailer and take it home. Its then unloaded and stacked. Its a lot of work no matter how you do it.

Chris

 

[aczlan]

The best plan I can think of would be: The splitter attached to a 4 wheeler or something.
Cutting and splitting 'onsite' minimizes dirt and mud.
as far as hauling.........I don't see anyway to get away from 'double handling' of the wood. So use a small trailer behind the 4 wheeler to move split wood to the big trailer.
I wish there was a better answer, but that's the way I would handle it.

One way is to palletize your wood (ie: make some bins on pallets and then split the wood into them in the woods), if you then load the pallets onto a trailer with forks and off you go.

Aaron Z

 

[crazyal]

I use a UTV with a 3x6 trailer. I don't have to leave my property though. I block it in the woods and then bring it down to where I'll stack it (I split and stack it in the same location). I find my Honda can go through much tighter and steeper spots and can travel at a much faster speed. Plus it's fun to drive. I can get about 1/3 of a cord into the trailer and back of the UTV per load. My old trailer didn't have springs and without springs it was a much slower process.

 

[Johnbro]

My neighbor and I usually double-team. We buck the logs and drag them to a pile. Cut into rounds and split, then hauled either in the bed of a pickup or in the tractor bucket back to the wood shed. Best is to split right at the woodshed, but not always practical.

I have a TPH-mounted vertical log splitter. Runs off a rear hydraulic remote. I back the tractor up to a pile or rounds, drop the splitter, run up the revs to get plenty of oomph, sit on a round and start splitting. I throw them off to the side and keep moving backwards until the pile is done. with the vertical splitter I can just roll the rounds onto the foot and it them with the wedge. Easier than picking them up and setting them on a horizontal splitter and the TPH mount means I can get into tighter spots than a towed splitter.

Probably burn about 3 cords a year. I have two small wood sheds, try to have wood that's seasoned for 2 summers so it's nice and dry. My goal every year is to get my wood done by Memorial Day, but I don't always make it happen.

 

[LD1]

Everything we cut gets cut to length in the field/woods. We haul the rounds home and split on a later date.

We have no way to haul the logs home cause out cutting is in fencerows and logged out woods which involves a little road travel.

So our logic for hauling the rounds home instead of splitting on the site is based on a few reasons.
1. We have a large old barn where the splitting and storing is done. If it is a nice enough day to cut, we dont want to waste it splitting when we can do that in the barn on a rainy day.
2. Splitters just arent that manuverable and with the two tractors we use, we would rather haul the two trailers instead of one trailer and a splitter.
3. There are only two of us cutting. We have enough saws to keep us busy without having to worry about splitting.

On a good day, we can start at 8 or 9 in the morning and be done by 2 or 3 and have about 5-6 cords of rounds at home in the barn ready to split. Which we usually do a little at a time. If we only have an hour, we can split for a little bit. VS needing a whole day free to be able to go to the woods and do anything.

My post #4 in this thread shows some of the pics or our trailers http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/175749-fire-wood-trailer.html

I am not on my home computer now so I cant post the pics in this thread yet.

 

[grnspot110]

Sometimes I use the Mule & cut up in the timber. Sometimes use the JD 420 w/log arch & bring the poles to the pile to cut up. This year I have the JD 790 & pallet forks, I can bring the poles to the pile & use the forks as a sawbuck!

I store my wood at the farm through the summer, then bring it home to split, stack & cover. ~~ grnspot110

 

[BeeferMan]

Depends on the situation...

If I got a crew (that's anything more than just me), I'll usually drop, cut to length and split on-site, into the pickup with the loader, then haul out and stack from the pickup.

If the access isn't good or it's just me, I'll drop and skid to a landing area where I'll split right into the loader bucket and stack from there. A lot of times I'll have other wood waiting to be split at the landing area that I've picked up elsewhere, from tree trimming or storm damage, etc.

As someone else said, no matter how you do it, it's still a lot of work. But what's wrong with that? What else you got to do? Sox are done, so the baseball season is over...

 

[Gordon Gould]

I am like you. I have some long hilly trails. But I find it most efficient for me to skid the logs to a landing where I can get my 1 ton truck. I cut and split there, then truck to the shed. I try to skid when it is dry or frozen to minimize mud on the logs. If I rut up the trails I just fix them when I am done.
My shed has two bays so I am a year ahead. Cleaning up the landing is a pain but I think it is worth it.

 

[Gordon Gould]

here are a few pictures

 

[knightrider955]

My FEL,3 point splitter and my chain saw is all I need. Cut and split on site then toss it in the loader and dump it in the wood shed. Dont bother stacking, thats a waste of time. Dries just as fast in a pile.

 

[Mousefield]

I do it several different ways depending on the tree's location. Most of our land, except the creek area, is fairly flat. Sometime I take the wood splitter right to the tree, then haul out the wood with my garden tractor trailer. Sometimes I cut the tree up and take the rounds out in the loader or in the backhoe, depending on the size of the round and split near where I am going to stack the wood. As well I have taken 8-14 foot logs out and stacked them for cutting/splitting.

 

[Verticaltrx]

Wow, lots of responses to this and lots of good info. I think I might try cutting the trees into rounds, loading them on the trailer, then hauling it back and splitting it at the shed. I hate the mess that piles up from splitting, but hauling rounds seems more efficient than hauling spilt wood. Any thing that is too big to load I might just skid back to the shed whole when the ground is frozen. Keep the info and pics coming, I'll try to post up some pics when I start cutting for the year.