Options for hauling slash piles, tops, etc..

   / Options for hauling slash piles, tops, etc.. #1  

roadhunter

Elite Member
Joined
Mar 23, 2014
Messages
2,633
Location
Wyoming
Tractor
JCB 212SU
Hello,

I am looking for opinions and options on how to move piles of tops, limbs, etc....

I live adjacent to some national forest as well as some private land made up up ponderosa pine. These areas are logged regularly and I am looking for options on how to move the piles of waste back to my place. This is primarily tops and branches with almost everything smaller than 6 inches and fairly light.

Some of this material is fairly close to the country roads but there are others where a few mile drive on a 2 track road is necessary. There are some spots that are a little steep but I do not plan to drive these roads when it is wet. Most of the summer things are dry and once the ground freezes in the winter its' not too bad.

I was originally planning to chip the material in the woods but that will require dragging the chipper and something to load the chipper with which seems like a lot of move between piles. I'm thinking I would be better off to keep the chipper and tractor at home and simply find a truck or trailer with a grapple loader to keep things simple.

I've looked around for trailers with grapple loaders and really have not found a whole lot. I have seen a few gooseneck trailers with grapples in the past but they were homemade rigs. Seems like that is not terribly popular.

That had brought me back to finding a grapple truck instead of a trailer. I like the idea of the weight being on the truck instead of behind in a trailer and I also like the idea of keeping my pickup out of the woods. I know some guys who use an old flatbed truck for hauling saw logs and it seems to work well. I'd like to keep it under CDL if possible.

Right now I'm needing to move about 100 ton per month to make enough wood chips for my operation but I would like the ability to haul more as I grow.

So any suggestions on how to go about this?
 
   / Options for hauling slash piles, tops, etc.. #2  
Rear mount grapple truck would be my pick. Here's mine, it may be a bit large for only needing 100 tons a month, but the concept holds. The bed holds 76.5 yards level full.

Staying under CDL limits you pretty severely... I would suggest reconsidering the CDL.

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   / Options for hauling slash piles, tops, etc.. #3  
I like the idea of just chipping them without hauling them first. Another thing to consider is what are you going to do when not if you get a truck that big stuck? Honestly only going a few miles on country roads I would drive a truck that required a CDL without a CDL. Now if you have commercial tags this might be a bigger problem. The requirements for a CDL is pretty minimal though. Most trucks heavy enough for the task will have air brakes. My bus is on a 2 ton frame. It was conveniently derated to a 25,500 pound GVW, but it still has air brakes.
 
   / Options for hauling slash piles, tops, etc..
  • Thread Starter
#4  
I like the idea of just chipping them without hauling them first. Another thing to consider is what are you going to do when not if you get a truck that big stuck? Honestly only going a few miles on country roads I would drive a truck that required a CDL without a CDL. Now if you have commercial tags this might be a bigger problem. The requirements for a CDL is pretty minimal though.

The downside of chipping in the field is it requires 3 pieces of equipment, The chip truck, chipper, and something to load the chipper with. Then that stuff has to be moved between each pile which are a couple hundred yards apart in some cases and it needs to be left in the woods overnight unless I want to drag it back and forth. Bouncing a chipper around logging roads would seem to be tough on the equipment as is pulling a trailer with something to load with. Plus with my luck it would all break down once I got it there LOL.

I think for my situation where I will be moving material intermittently as simple operation of 1 piece of equipment will likely work best.

I'm pretty careful about not getting stuck and as long as I stay off the roads when they are muddy I should be fine. If I do I have some equipment and have plenty of farmer neighbors with giant tractors to help if I get stuck. We get less than 15 inches of moisture per year so mud really isn't a problem most of the time.

I agree on driving a CDL truck with no CDL on dirt roads. It's not like I'm going to get stopped on the 3 mile trip to the timber. Just call it my forwarder LOL.
 
   / Options for hauling slash piles, tops, etc..
  • Thread Starter
#5  
   / Options for hauling slash piles, tops, etc.. #6  
So look at it from and efficiency point of view...

A. How many times are you going to have to handle the wood?
B. How many trips are you going to have to make back and forth with pre-chipped VS un-chipped wood?
C. Is the time and fuel spent hauling equipment into the woods worth more than the time and fuel hauling un-chipped wood out of the woods?

If you pick the slash piles directly with some sort of grapple truck (can you get the truck to each pile?), that's handling the wood once. Then you have to take it to the chipper and unload it. That's twice. Then you have to put it in the chipper. That's three times. Then you have to do something with the chips. That's four times (unless you chip directly into the usage site).

If you chip directly at the piles into a dump truck, that's handling the wood once. Dumping it at the usage site is twice.

Plus, you'll make many more trips out of the woods with un-chipped wood VS already chipped wood.

Maybe some sort of grapple on a dump truck that can feed a chipper directly is what you want? I've seen pictures on the interweb of trucks with chippers and booms feeding a trailer. But man, those things look expensive.
 
   / Options for hauling slash piles, tops, etc.. #8  
I'm curious. What do you guys do with the chips?
 
   / Options for hauling slash piles, tops, etc.. #10  
Roadhunter,
Thank you. The video was fascinating. Is the biochar you produce used as a soil amendment and do you draw your heat from the machine described or burn them directly.
 
 
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