Bucket Load of Firewood; Weight.??

[JDGreenGrass]

I would figure about a tenth of a cord if they are 16" sticks. (4.5'X2'X1.33')
Green beech is about 5000# per cord so you have no more than 500#. The 300# to 400# guess by KennyG is probably just about right.

Those are roughly the numbers I used to figure the weight of the Beech out of the chart provided.

After these replies I am telling myself #500, give or take %15....which puts me at a safe load for my rig.

Interesting replies. Thanks.

 

[trailbuilder]

we sell firewood by the cord and we load it by the bucket, scooped in the pile (not stacked) with a WA40 Komatsu Loader (it holds a 1 yd, heaped bucket of dirt) the wood volume is a 1/2 face cord of 16 inch firewood. Maple is about 2500 pounds per cord seasoned, so we are lifting about 1200 pounds with our setup....compared to 3000 pounds with dirt.

 

[JDGreenGrass]

we sell firewood by the cord and we load it by the bucket, scooped in the pile (not stacked) with a WA40 Komatsu Loader (it holds a 1 yd, heaped bucket of dirt) the wood volume is a 1/2 face cord of 16 inch firewood. Maple is about 2500 pounds per cord seasoned, so we are lifting about 1200 pounds with our setup....compared to 3000 pounds with dirt.

Just curious here....Is the wood measured or weighed out before you scoop with the bucket.?? Or, are you saying the cord is measured by the scoop.??

Just the other day I took a scoop of wood out of the wood pile to see well I could load the bucket. I got a load but, not nearly as efficient as stacking the wood in the bucket.

 

[Chilly807]

I'd say you're fine unless your wood is a lot heavier than ours. This a load of maple and birch, which although dry is definitely relatively heavy. I have the snow screen on a 60" bucket, which extends a full 12" above the upper lip of the bucket.

There's no mistaking the bucket is full of something when you travel over a bump loaded, my loader is rated to lift 1100 lbs. If I had to guess I'd say it was in the vicinity of 500-600 pounds like this.

Sean

 

[crazyal]

How does it feel when lifting? Do the tires squat out? Do you need to rev the motor up to lift it? I would guess it's not that close to the limit, like others have said between 300 to 500 lbs.

 

[trailbuilder]

Good question... We scoop it from a pile into the bucket and then load (dump it) in the dump truck or trailer. No we do not get as much wood as piling the wood in the bucket. However ,w:confused2:e do know the volume of our "scooped" wood and it is fast so we can load the customers wood. If we were traveling to transport the wood we wood stack or pile the would.

 

[Skyco]

I've attached a .pdf scanned from an old book, "Firewood and Your Chainsaw".

Good info- note that chart is for well seasoned wood. Green it is substantially higher, for example the chart shows 41-49 lbs for say hickory where the link below shows 64 lbs per cu ft (green).

http://www.forestryforum.com/calcs/log_weight.htm

I stack my split wood on pallets, I load them until I can just barely pick them up, using my forks on the FEL (BX24) but after a few months they are easily picked up as the wood loses its water content. I recently switched to using forks on my 3 point as it will pick up almost twice as much weight as the FEL, just not as high of course.

 

[North Country]

Looking at several CUT FEL bucket capacities and I see them averaging about 1 cubic yard of struck (level) material. A cubic yard is 27 cubic feet.

1 cubic yard = 201.974026 US gallons * 8 pounds per gallon = 1615.792208 pounds.

Holy cow - what CUTs are you looking at? That's a massive bucket. The poster's bucket was a 54" bucket, which will be a lot closer to 1/4 yard struck.

 

[Chilly807]

Holy cow - what CUTs are you looking at? That's a massive bucket. The poster's bucket was a 54" bucket, which will be a lot closer to 1/4 yard struck.

I was thinking that myself :laughing:

If that's a CUT a full size tractor is gonna be impressive..

Sean

 

[retiredmgn]

I've been doing the firewood chore for the past couple of weeks now. Load after load in the bucket.

I know this is somewhat vague but, how much does a load of firewood weigh.?? 54" bucket on an SMC loader.

I ask because my tractor only has a lift capacity of #800. And, the front axle on these 770's have been known to break. I do use the ballast box which weighs roughly #700.

A load must be #500+ I would think. Or, am I approaching it's max.??

I know, I know....Your Mileage May Vary. YMMV....

Wouldn't the relief valve on the hydraulics prevent you from damaging your tractor if there was too much weight in the bucket?
If shes-a-no-lift, take some out?