Logistics of firewood hauling and splitting?

[beenthere]

Keep trying different things and different ways. I have over the 40 years I've been cutting firewood on my place with less than 1/4 mile distance.

Now, have settled on the system I like best (similar to redgoatea's).
I cut the tree down, and buck it to lengths (90" for me) and haul on the forks back to my wood shed area where the logs are stacked on a slight uphill grade above the splitting area. There it is convenient to take an hour or two to block into 18" lengths, roll down to the splitter, split and stack onto a waiting pallet. Stack the pallets two high in rows for at least two years drying. Move the pallets of dry wood directly into attached garage as needed for burning.

I find this routine minimal impact on amount of equipment needed in the woods (tractor with chainsaw in scabbard and axe/log chains/wedges/water on the ballast box). That equipment is all I need in the woods and fuel/oil can be added when dropping logs off at the wood shed.

For splitting, just need to roll out the splitter, pick up an empty pallet with the forks, split a pallet full, and move that pallet to the drying area.

This is the most efficient I've been over the 40 years, and enjoy doing the work. Don't handle the wood more than three times. To stack, to unstack, to toss in the woodburner.

 

[Will_C]

I have worked at wood every way mentioned-from cutting and hauling rounds out of the woods on a truck or tractor, to skidding to a landing and bucking there, to cutting up log length loads delivered to the house-and my answer is, it depends!!

Skidding to a landing works very well if the ground is frozen- no mud or dirt on the logs. It would not be my choice in the spring, summer, or fall.

I have been helping my brother cut on his property lately. He is an excavating contractor, so we have a variety of equipment to choose from. Even with that choice of equipment, we have been cutting in the woods, loading on his Mule, and splitting off the Mule and stacking. We can haul a little less than a face cord of 16" rounds on the Mule. His woods are between 1/2 and 3/4 of a mile from his house, and we can 5-6 loads stacked in a morning's work. Of course, it is nice to pull trees out of the gullies, etc. with his Case dozer!!

Will

 

[crazyal]

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

I like your logging arch. I've thought about making two, one to two behind the tractor and a second that could be used to raise the rear of the log up off the ground. I have lots of mud, not deep but still dragging a log through it would make a mess.

 

[pat32rf]

Dirt, rocks and hills, almost 1/2 mile of trail from the woodshed to some of the trees.....
JD 4300 with forks, electric 3pth winch (at times) and an old trailer frame with steel uprights on tandem axles.
I skid out to the nearest point that I can park the trailer. Load logs (up to 18') with forks and take them back to woodshed. Most times I can cut to burning length while they are still on the trailer. The blocks get pushed/piled close to the upright tractor powered splitter which is chained to the woodshed.
When I need it the wood gets loaded into my FEL snowbucket and piled in a rack on my front porch 200yds away.
While skidding I try to keep the front of the logs off the ground to minimize dirt/mud and ease the pull, but touch up the saw everycouple of tankfuls.
A lot of my wood is dead when cut and runs from 6-16", oak, maple, birch, ash and poplar.
I have about 8 pallets that each hold 1/2 face cord that I use for storage as well, then take the whole pallet to the front porch.
I'm 65 and do most of it myself, unless I can get the kids up to help with some of the splitting and piling.
Leave a bit of mess at the woodshed, but the FEL takes care of that......

 

[doall]

We always cut to length and split in the woods. Seems to haul better that way. Usually some of our trees are so big we couldn't load them whole anyway (5-6' diameter). split with a maul, load by hand then stack again. Yeah it bites. But thats what works for us.

 

[radioman]

I really don't think its a one size fits all would work for everyone. It really depends on how much your burn, how much you need now, where is the wood and what equipment you have and the time of the year.

For me, I cut my woods from my folks land for them and me. We use the tractor, ATV, tow behind splitter, 4 different types of trailers and even the snowmobile with tow sled. During the dry season, we cut wood on dry land and take to splitting pile via tractors and ATV. During the winter, we cut the dying trees in swampy areas, we use the frozen ground/ice to our advantage. We use the snowmobile to tow rounds to the edge of dry area and stack for spring work with tractor. Sometimes the snow gets really packed down, we can use the ATV with small dump trailer and move wood with. If we cut already dead trees, we tend to use it right away and burn. Otherwise the big green stuff gets piled for spring/summer work. We don't have the need to do everything all at once.

 

[grnspot110]

I like your logging arch. I've thought about making two, one to two behind the tractor and a second that could be used to raise the rear of the log up off the ground. I have lots of mud, not deep but still dragging a log through it would make a mess.

Thanks!

I do have a trailer for mine, long tongue to tow behind the arch & help in lifting end of log. ~~ grnspot110

 

[Chilly807]

I like your logging arch. I've thought about making two, one to two behind the tractor and a second that could be used to raise the rear of the log up off the ground. I have lots of mud, not deep but still dragging a log through it would make a mess.

We use the logging arch behind the ATV to haul out to a spot the tractor can get to when it's thick going, then the skidding frame on the back of the tractor gets us the rest of the way to the woodpile. We normally only cut during winter, so ground is frozen and snow helps.

Sean

 

[Chilly807]

Thanks!

I do have a trailer for mine, long tongue to tow behind the arch & help in lifting end of log. ~~ grnspot110

Now that's an interesting idea..

The nice thing about the arches is that they can be used as a lever to lift the butt up into place, I added the winch to mine to pull stuff a few feet that I couldn't back up to.

Sean

 

[grnspot110]

Now that's an interesting idea..

The nice thing about the arches is that they can be used as a lever to lift the butt up into place, I added the winch to mine to pull stuff a few feet that I couldn't back up to.

Sean

I use a winch on mine to lift, but use chain to pull. ~~ grnspot110

 

[Chilly807]

I use a winch on mine to lift, but use chain to pull. ~~ grnspot110

Same here, the regular choker goes around the log, then the winch and a grab hook (if necessary) hooks to the choker, raising the log until I can hook the choker off to the arch.

Sean

 

[Gordon Gould]

Chilly - Do those four legged things I see with the blankets on them get involved in the firewood business? BTW I like your northern woods.

Here is my splitter - cycle time is slooow. My internal hydraulics aren't what they used to be :laughing:

 

[Chilly807]

We have a couple that can be "helpful", one youngster in particular likes to move things when you're not looking.

Have you ever looked at the electric over hydraulic splitters, Gordon? It's all we use these days, will split 90% or better of whatever we stick in it. A fraction of the cost of gas or 3ph splitters.

I started splitting with an axe a lot of years ago, I can still do it if the mood strikes me. I actually enjoy it for an hour or two.

The woods aren't too bad, but the areas we're cutting in should have been thinned before now, a lot of windfalls and blow-downs. Hard going with anything but a winch, we use the ATV or tractor with a snatch block to get the wood out to a hauling road and go from there.

Sean

 

[Gordon Gould]

Have you ever looked at the electric over hydraulic splitters, Gordon? It's all we use these days, will split 90% or better of whatever we stick in it. A fraction of the cost of gas or 3ph splitters.

Sean

I have never seen the electric over hydraulic splitter. Right now I am looking for a splitter. I find all the info and pro/cons on splitters here very interesting and informative. Right now I think I would like a stand alone unit but would not pass up a good deal on a 3pt splitter. I will check out the electric over hydraulic ones. Thanks

gg

 

[Bill Hoffman]

Greenspot,

Could you please post some more photos of your log hauler?
It seems to have a hinged section. How does it all work?

Thanks,

Bill

 

[Dead Horse]

I have tried several methods, re: the original question, with the goal of minimizing the amount of handling.

When logging where it is tight, I have cut to rounds and loaded into a dump truck, to haul to the splitting yard.

Now, after a couple years of running it, I have gotten good at skidding out logs, even in tight spaces, with a big tractor and a Farmi J601. So pretty much that is the preferred set of tactics. Fell, inch, limb and chip in situ. Skid to the splitting yard, buck ssplit and stack.

Pictures tell the story. I put up 40+ cord this year.

Second to Last pick is the '68 F800, off to the left...... good ole "yard truck"

 

[beenthere]

I've yet to see an electric splitter that wasn't very, very sloooow. And it required two buttons to be pushed simoultaneously to operate them. I've looked at the electric to use in the garage during the winter to further break down split wood for some smaller kindling-sizes, but know they are much too slow to do much production work. For sure, a bench would be needed to get the little things up off the ground. Watching some of the videos of their operation, makes ones back hurt as they are on hands and knees, or stooped over pushing the two buttons.

Maybe there is a splitter "electric over hydraulic", but I'm thinking that Chilly807 meant "electric versus hydraulic".

 

[MNBobcat]

I put up 40+ cord this year.

Wow! How long did that take you?

 

[Dead Horse]

Wow! How long did that take you?

Well, on and off since April, in between, other chores. I have an apple orchard I care for, about 45 acres, between meadows and trees. That plus about 60 acres of forest.

So between brush cutting, mowing, equipment and facility maintenance chores, I squeeze in firewood production, weather permitting.

Getting the process down to a fine science is important for me as I would otherwise spend more time on it than I would prefer.

I heat my rather large home with firewood, via a Central Boiler...... making the whole cycle quite rewarding to me. I never know how much time I am going to have to spend on the farm, so this year i really put my shoulder into it.:thumbsup:

 

[Chilly807]

Mine has an electric motor running a hydraulic pump, 4 tons of splitting force. Not much compared to the 15-20 ton gas models.

However, for the 4-5 cords we cut every year, it works fine. Occasionally a big snarly piece of wood gets set aside for the chainsaw, but that's ok with me. The two-button system is easily "got-around", mine has a spring holding one lever depressed, just one finger required to run it.

We split all our wood within 100 feet of the house, so power is never an issue. I have a folding table the splitter sits on, the splitter stores under the bench in the garage. I think the cycle time is about 12-14 seconds, which is fine if you're not in a hurry. One person splitting and the second one stacking makes for a comfortable pace for everybody. $379 Cdn at Home Depot. No gas fumes, no noise, and you can chat while you're splitting wood if you choose. Splitting kindling in the garage or basement is do-able in the dead of winter too.

Now... if you're going to split more than 5 full cords a year, if you're in a hurry, or if your wood is more than 12-14 inches in diameter, it's not the right tool for you.

There are 220 v models with considerably more power and speed, in time I'll build one of those as the parts appear. For now, I'm happy with the one we have, which is a Ryobi. I think the same splitter is sold as Homelite now.

Sean