Firewood Gathering With A Power Trac

[American Bulldog]

Yeah, it is the wood handling that makes it more work. Of course, I could use the exercise, but when I'm on cord #4 and have two more to load up and I'm carrying the same piece of wood for the 3rd time.... it makes me wonder if I could do it more intelligently. :laughing:

I think I mentioned this before, but lets see how many times MossRoad touches a piece of firewood before it actually heats his home:

1. Drop tree.
2. Chain tree and drag from forest.
3. Unchain tree.
4. Cut tree into pieces.
5. Toss pieces on trailer and drive home.
6. Toss pieces off trailer.
7. Stack small pieces.
7b. Split large pieces and stack(requires more touches depending on size of log).
8. Remove from stack and put on cart.
9. Remove from cart and stack in cellar stairs.
10. Remove from cellar stairs and load in stove.

Good grief that seems inefficient. :mur:

I tend to cut up tree where it lands, and load into PT bucket. Skips the dragging step. Also, unloading PT requires no touches, just dump into pickup truck. If I am close enough to the splitter, I can bring the wood all the way with the PT. Of course I have the 1460 though, and it will hold almost 1/4 cord of wood in the LMB.

Time to upgrade Moss...:thumbsup:

The great thing about the PT is that I can get it anywhere in the woods that I am cutting. No way could a normal tractor get to some of these places.

 

[MossRoad]

I tend to cut up tree where it lands, and load into PT bucket. Skips the dragging step. Also, unloading PT requires no touches, just dump into pickup truck. If I am close enough to the splitter, I can bring the wood all the way with the PT. Of course I have the 1460 though, and it will hold almost 1/4 cord of wood in the LMB.

Time to upgrade Moss...:thumbsup:

The great thing about the PT is that I can get it anywhere in the woods that I am cutting. No way could a normal tractor get to some of these places.

My firewood is 9 miles from my house. I had to drag trees out of the woods to make room for a road to get my trailer in there. At the time, if I cut it into firewood lengths and hauled it out of the woods in the PT bucket and loaded my trailer with wood, I could not bring the PT home. If I have the PT on the trailer, I cannot bring much wood home. Catch 22 kind of situation.

So, I drug tree after tree out of the woods to my landing where I could then go back with my empty trailer and cut it into firewood lengths as time permitted.

Now that the area has fewer trees, I can back my trailer right up to the felled trees, cut them to firewood length and be on my way. No need to take the PT out with me.

If we are ever fortunate enough to be able to afford to build a new house out there, then by all means, I will use the PT to haul it directly to the splitter and skip the trailer step.

 

[American Bulldog]

Hey it's all good Moss. Just bustin your chops. No doubt every move you make is well thought out.

Firewood gathering is very time consuming. I estimate it takes on average about 6 hours per cord to cut, deliver split, and, stack. Then of course there is a seasoning period, then the pile needs to be moved once again to where it will be burned.

It seems so much easier to buy oil that was drilled somewhere in the middle east, then tankered half way around the world to the US, then refined, and then tankered again to an oil service, and then tankered again to my house, lol.

 

[SpringHollow]

One advantage of an outside wood boiler - you split and stack the wood where you burn it.

Ken

 

[MossRoad]

One advantage of an outside wood boiler - you split and stack the wood where you burn it.

Ken

That's a good point. I didn't want to invest in one in our current house, hence, the freestanding wood stove in the basement. But I will definitely consider one if we ever build new. The only thing I don't like is going outside to stoke it in really, really bad weather. With the indoor stove I can keep two weeks of wood indoors and never have to leave my cave during hibernation! :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

Hey it's all good Moss. Just bustin your chops. No doubt every move you make is well thought out.

Firewood gathering is very time consuming. I estimate it takes on average about 6 hours per cord to cut, deliver split, and, stack. Then of course there is a seasoning period, then the pile needs to be moved once again to where it will be burned.

It seems so much easier to buy oil that was drilled somewhere in the middle east, then tankered half way around the world to the US, then refined, and then tankered again to an oil service, and then tankered again to my house, lol.

If I move well and don't mess around it takes me about 4 hours to drop enough trees for the entire year (6 cords), then about an hour per cord to cut into firewood size pieces, so another 6 hours. (10) Then another 6 hours to load it (16). Then another probably 2 hours to split and stack each cord so 12 (28).... plus driving time, repairs, etc... let's say 32 hours and that makes 4 full days of work this year to heat my home. Then it takes me about 3/4 hour every two weeks to haul in wood to the basement.... 6 months of wood burning, so 12 trips to the wood pile so another 9 hours on top of the 32 for 41 hours or about a week out of my life. :laughing:

If I worked for $10.00 an hour at, say, 40 hours, I could make $400.00 (before taxes). I saved about $800.00 in natural gas last year by burning wood. So I came out ahead a few hundred bucks. The advantages, don't seem much monetarily, as I make more than $10.00 an hour. However, I get a bunch of exercise, I enjoy being outdoors, I enjoy running a chainsaw, I enjoy running a tractor, I enjoy vigorous work in snow on a sunny day at -20, I enjoy the heat of the stove, the smell of the wood and the feeling of working for warmth. Call me kooky! :laughing: :confused2: :thumbsup:

 

[J_J]

David,

Sounds like you are getting the most out of your situation. Carry on my friend and enjoy.

 

[MossRoad]

David,

Sounds like you are getting the most out of your situation. Carry on my friend and enjoy.

Now I just need to find some time to go fishing and finish up that backhoe! :laughing:

 

[American Bulldog]

However, I get a bunch of exercise, I enjoy being outdoors, I enjoy running a chainsaw, I enjoy running a tractor, I enjoy vigorous work in snow on a sunny day at -20, I enjoy the heat of the stove, the smell of the wood and the feeling of working for warmth. Call me kooky! :laughing: :confused2: :thumbsup:

I couldn't agree more. I do it just because I like it, not to save money. I spend too much buying new equipment for it to save me anything at all... lol!

Most of my friends and coworkers buy fancy cars, and boats. Not me. I buy Power Tracs, and Deere's, and Dolmar Chainsaws, and wood splitters, etc.....

Now who is the kook?

 

[MossRoad]

We have had several discussions regarding the pros and cons of having a log splitter attachment for the PT. I have always maintained that I want as few engines as possible to maintain, therefore, as many PT attachments as possible. A log splitter attachment seemed a natural.

This is my third year heating with wood. The last two years I have had 12" and under locust to deal with. I split right next to my holz hausen wood pile, so there is no need to have the PT free to transport wood. I am currently using my father-in-law's stand alone 20ton splitter with 5hp motor. It is old, solid and works really, really well. :thumbsup:

However, a few weeks ago someone gave me two maple trees. I'm talking big monster maple trees. Well over 36" in diameter, because my 18" saw won't cut through them. We had to quarter the 16" thick rounds. Some quarters weighed over 200 pounds. I got over 120 pieces of firewood from one of the rounds! :shocked:I absolutely had to use the forks on the PT to move them onto the splitter. I just could not lift them. And since they were quartered, they had flat sides on four of the six sides, so I could not roll them all that easy, either.

So, I have made a few decisions...

First, I will NEVER take another "free" monster tree. It just takes too much time and energy to gather, haul, unload, move, split, and stack those huge rounds. I split about half as much wood as I did when using 12" locust in the same amount of time. Much of the time is wasted just moving those huge pieces of wood around.

Second, I will probably stick with the stand alone splitter until it dies. At that point, if it is the engine, I will probably re-power it with a cheap gas engine. If it is the hydraulics, I will probably convert it to PT powered and then commit to small wood only. Just stuff I can lift by hand.

 

[J_J]

If you should use the 8 GPM's on the 425, there is a valve made by Prince that has a fast extend mode that will save some time. It does not work with a 2 stage pump.

Prince also have those two lever log splitter valves that are automatic after setting the levers.

 

[MossRoad]

So 5 years later and I'm still burning firewood! :laughing:

I fell and limb the trees that are usually 12" and under locust, very much like telephone pole sized trees. Then I take the PT425 into the woods, usually with my forks, and either drag them out with a chain or carry them cross-wise with the forks. Carrying them cross-wise with the forks goes very fast, but it requires me to cut the trees into 8' lengths or they won't fit down my narrow trails. So I'd rather drag 20-30 footers if at all possible to save some cutting time. Problem with dragging is it requires me to get off the tractor, un-stow the chain, chain up the log, get on the tractor, drag log to landing, get off the tractor, unchain, stow the chain and go get the next one. Get kinda tedious after 30-40 trees.

I was playing around with building a grapple, but after several experiments, I realized a couple things...

A grapple weighs quite a bit and that takes away quite a bit of lifting capacity from the little PT425's 800 pound lift (at the QA plate) since it would hang out a foot or two at least and was a bit over-kill for what I was doing.

So last week I ordered lifting tongs from from Northern Tool...

Roughneck Lifting Tongs — 16in. Jaw Opening, 750 Lb. Capacity, Model# 2504Q046 | Log Skidding Lifting Tongs| Northern Tool + Equipment

For $29.00 I figured I'd give it a shot.

I put it on my ring like this into my 2" receiver that's mounted on a QA plate.



That QA plate has been used for various projects, like a soil slicer and a pipe puller, so there's a heavy angle iron sticking up that's perfect for wrapping a chain around.

And I took it out in the back yard this morning and tried it out on my spare telephone pole (doesn't everyone have a spare telephone pole?).

Works pretty darn good. I just drove up to the pole, lowered it down, it opened itself as it slipped around the pole and when I raised the loader arms it grabbed the pole and lifted it right up. Then I set it back down and had to get off the tractor to remove it from the pole and set it to the side. That was quick and painless. I hope to take it to our property next weekend and give it a workout. I'll take more pictures.

- - - - -

 

[SpringHollow]

I have used a set of tongs on my lifting boom to drag out logs and sometimes to load a trailer. Using a boom allows you to release the tongs by lowering completely and then driving forward and to the side. The swinging mini hoe is nicer to use.

Ken

 

[MossRoad]

I have used a set of tongs on my lifting boom to drag out logs and sometimes to load a trailer. Using a boom allows you to release the tongs by lowering completely and then driving forward and to the side. The swinging mini hoe is nicer to use.

Ken

I thought about putting it on a longer stick for just that reason and never getting off the tractor again! :laughing:

However, I know that would increase the leverage and as it is, I frequently get the rear off the ground with just the chain so I wanted to retain as much of the lift ability as possible.

An option I'm considering is to mount a thin steel cable to one of the tong fingers and through a loop on top of that angle iron, back up to the canopy with a pull handle. Then I could just pull that cable to release the tongs. I'll give it a try as-is over the next couple trips to the firewood factory and see how it goes.

 

[cqaigy2]

I like the lifting tongs! I'm going to do that for sure.

 

[SpringHollow]

I thought about putting it on a longer stick for just that reason and never getting off the tractor again! :laughing:

However, I know that would increase the leverage and as it is, I frequently get the rear off the ground with just the chain so I wanted to retain as much of the lift ability as possible.

An option I'm considering is to mount a thin steel cable to one of the tong fingers and through a loop on top of that angle iron, back up to the canopy with a pull handle. Then I could just pull that cable to release the tongs. I'll give it a try as-is over the next couple trips to the firewood factory and see how it goes.

You might need to put a crossmember on the angle for the cable setup.

Have you tried pushing the tongs all the way down so the log is forcing them open and then drive forward a few inches while turning the PT or are you just lowering until they unhook? Extending the hitch 12 - 18" would make that easier and would make accessing the logs a little easier if you can not do it as is.

One other possibility - I wonder if it would work better for you if the clevis were connected to the ring with two pieces of chain instead of directly - might let them open more.

Ken

 

[MossRoad]

Yes, I was thinking of a cross member out to one side, perhaps an L with the ring for the pull cable on the top of the L and the bottom of the L welded to the side of the angle iron. That would allow me to still store the chain wrapped around the angle and not have the pull cable interfere with the chain.

The way I have it now, the chain hooks onto the angle, goes through ring on the hitch, through the ring on the tongs, and back up through the ring on the hitch, then there's probably 8' of chain wrapped around the angle for storage. I like taking the long chain into the woods. It helps to get stuff I can't get the PT directly to.

I haven't experimented much with the tongs and the telephone pole, as you can see in the picture, I had to come at it on and angle because the pole was buried a couple inches on the end due to the cana lilly bed that's on the inside and end of the pole. We just cut them down last weekend and I don't want to damage them.... we only have 350 of them left!

I'll play around with trying to push down to open and then turning to remove when I get out to the woods. That would be the bees knees if I never ever had to get off the tractor ever again in my entire life!!! :laughing: Thanks for the tips! I'll let you know how it goes. :thumbsup:

 

[woodlandfarms]

Hmmm... I have 2 sets of those tongs... never could make them work right. Because I cut down so many trees at atime I now just grapple to a bundle then put a logging cable around them and drag them out.

I need to be careful, I have put on some serious weight since I bought the PT.... clearly this machine is aming to kill me by how little labor I need to do, I mean implement connection? I once had to get off the tractor to align something but, that was on a big slope.

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah, I've packed on the pounds since giving up manual labor, too. :dance1:

 

[ponytug]

You guys are clearly better at this than I am. I moved 50 cu yards of compost on Sunday ahead of the rains, and while the PT did a lot, I still shoveled some, and I was definitely sweating and getting my exercise.

Perhaps my bar for exercise is lower...

Love my PT. Spreading the compost a cubic yard at a time was great, after rototilling the whole pile first. I can't imagine how many days it would have taken with a wheelbarrow.

All the best,

Peter

Yeah, I've packed on the pounds since giving up manual labor, too. :dance1: