Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[Gordon Gould]

I do a lot of thinning to. But if I filled my wood shed with this stuff I would never make it thru the winter. I only burn it in the early fall and spring so I can easily get over loaded with it. Most of it I give away because it is to hard to find someone who wants small wood and will buy it because we have so much good fire wood available around here. Especially hard maple, beech, yellow birch, ash, and the like.

To bad you guys aren't closer - I could load you up.

gg

 

[Jstpssng]

Thanks for the offer GG, but I have plenty of that on my own land. The bigger stuff will go for pulpwood either now or in the future, or will grow into sawlogs. That's my other consideration; why burn something when I can sell it?

 

[Rustyiron]

Thanks for the offer GG, but I have plenty of that on my own land. The bigger stuff will go for pulpwood either now or in the future, or will grow into sawlogs. That's my other consideration; why burn something when I can sell it?

That's where I'm at too. I like rounds up to about 6-7", right into the rack with no splitting.

Don't think that I've ever seen a reflection of wood stacks in the water before yesterday

 

[Jstpssng]

That's where I'm at too. I like rounds up to about 6-7", right into the rack with no splitting.
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Don't think that I've ever seen a reflection of wood stacks in the water before yesterday

You have a lot less snow down there. It's still about 3' deep here... yet the sap hasn't run good in 3 weeks.

 

[Gordon Gould]

That's where I'm at too. I like rounds up to about 6-7", right into the rack with no splitting.

Don't think that I've ever seen a reflection of wood stacks in the water before yesterday

Don't think I have either Those are some nice racks Eric.

Most of the wood from my thinning isn't as big as 6" or 7". Here is a pic of where I would typically thin. It is looking across a fir stand that I cut the previous winter into some young hardwoods that needs thinning. Most of what I cut when thinning I just let lay to rot but I pull some out for myself and any of the neighbors that want some small wood.



gg

 

[MossRoad]

I like that telephone-pole sized and smaller stuff as well, mostly locust on our place, but I also have some cherry and sassafras coming out as I clear a maple grove. I much prefer the locust for firewood, but the others have to go, too, and I don't want it wasted, so I burn it. With my small machine, it comes out very fast and easy. Here's some pictures I posted last week over in the PowerTrac forum... sassafras and cherry to the left, locust to the right.

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[Creamer]

I had plans to bend electrical conduit on on some boards on the side of my trailer. the conduit would be bent in a U shape with relatively sharp corners so the logs would not roll in them. Then they were attached to boards on the side of the trailer so that once you were done cutting you just flipped each section up so that you dumped the cut pieces into the trailer and then all you did was straighten them out to have them stacked. There are plastic ones of these for sale on the web but I wanted bigger ones and it would have been lower cost to just make them out of conduit.

I didn't do this because I went to the cages I have so I use a cutting buck and then stack them in cages that I move with the tractor right to the door. The trailer is tougher to get into tight spaces in the woods and I need to unload it and use it again which meant more handling once I got it home.

 

[Paystar]

Well I woke up to this, this morning. But still managed to get 6 hours of cutting, splitting and piling in. Sun actually came out in the afternoon.

 

[Creamer]

Well I woke up to this, this morning. But still managed to get 6 hours of cutting, splitting and piling in. Sun actually came out in the afternoon.

What's wrong with that? It is much better to cut below freezing - not near as messy and a whole lot prettier!

 

[KenB2920]

That's where I'm at too. I like rounds up to about 6-7", right into the rack with no splitting.
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Don't think that I've ever seen a reflection of wood stacks in the water before yesterday

Can you send some closeups of those wood racks? All my racks are filled and those look nice. Can you move them full with your machine and pallet forks? What machine do you have? I see a Stihl sitting there too, which model.

 

[donaldj]

I second the request for some detail shots of that rack. (I feel weird saying that to a guy...)

I'm using a bunch of small logs as 'runners' on the ground and stacking atop them. Green fence stakes keep them on the sides. I'd love to have a solution like this where I can pick up an empty rack and move a full one closer to the boiler.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

It was a really nice day today, so it was a good day to cut some firewood!

My helper came over, so we hooked the wagon behind the tractor and pulled it out back, to my stockpile of "scrounged wood" and got started cutting,

You can cut a LOT of wood pretty fast with the tractor doing all the heavy lifting,

So it wasn't too long and we had a full wagon!

"Johnny" really kicked azz again today,

So we hooked the wagon back up to the tractor and headed to where I do my splitting,

We ran EVERYTHING through the 4-way wedge,

and it didn't take too long before the wagon was empty,

and S N we had another two cord pile of NICE oak splits...

AND, there's STILL another load left in our "scrounge pile" too,

and even more in the woods left to skid out too, but that's work for another day!

SR

 

[Rustyiron]

Can you send some closeups of those wood racks? All my racks are filled and those look nice. Can you move them full with your machine and pallet forks? What machine do you have? I see a Stihl sitting there too, which model.

I took notice of Rob's (SawyerRob) wood box's he makes & uses :thumbsup:. I can't mill up my own lumber like he does so there were cost concerns as I am transitioning to putting it directly off the splitter into the rack, then at least a year of drying then move it to the house handling the wood 1 time except for the machine to move it.

This was my first version, but iirc they cost about $70 even with local sawmill Hemlock @ .50 bd/ft. Nice but too expensive when I want about a dozen or more.

The SS moves them around well.

These are what I ended up with (thanks to another guy/forum) You could build them any size, these hold just over 80 cu/ft (I cut @26") I was concerned about their stability. They cost me under $30 each including a couple of PT 2x4's for the "feet".

The hinge is just a pc of pipe, one side folds down on the outside of the bottom 2x6's and the other on the inside. If the sides were shorter they could both be on the outside.

I have 6 of them now with one more to fill.
Let me know if you want a close up pic. They're not rocket science but I did learn a few tricks that I didn't think of at first.:laughing:

 

[Rustyiron]

What machine do you have? I see a Stihl sitting there too, which model.

The tractor is a M9540 but I usually use the SS, it's got a better load capacity and for "forking" the visibility is a million times better and it seem's a bit more stable not hanging 5' out in front of the tractor's axle. The saw is my good old 044 with my "baby" Echo also in the pic. My first non Stihl ever, and for $350 for a 50cc saw, I'm impressed so far. (I think it's 50cc - CS490)

 

[Jstpssng]

The tractor is a M9540 but I usually use the SS, it's got a better load capacity and for "forking" the visibility is a million times better and it seem's a bit more stable not hanging 5' out in front of the tractor's axle. The saw is my good old 044 with my "baby" Echo also in the pic. My first non Stihl ever, and for $350 for a 50cc saw, I'm impressed so far. (I think it's 50cc - CS490)

I had an Echo CS 450(?). It',s a little heavier than a comparable Husky and may not turn up as fast; but it cut a lot of wood and did a precommercil thinning on 15 acres with it. In the end it gave me 6 good years..
The trouble was that I kept it for 8.

 

[KenB2920]

I took notice of Rob's (SawyerRob) wood box's he makes & uses :thumbsup:. I can't mill up my own lumber like he does so there were cost concerns as I am transitioning to putting it directly off the splitter into the rack, then at least a year of drying then move it to the house handling the wood 1 time except for the machine to move it.

This was my first version, but iirc they cost about $70 even with local sawmill Hemlock @ .50 bd/ft. Nice but too expensive when I want about a dozen or more.
View attachment 546865

The SS moves them around well.
View attachment 546866

These are what I ended up with (thanks to another guy/forum) You could build them any size, these hold just over 80 cu/ft (I cut @26") I was concerned about their stability. They cost me under $30 each including a couple of PT 2x4's for the "feet".
View attachment 546867

The hinge is just a pc of pipe, one side folds down on the outside of the bottom 2x6's and the other on the inside. If the sides were shorter they could both be on the outside.
View attachment 546868

I have 6 of them now with one more to fill.
Let me know if you want a close up pic. They're not rocket science but I did learn a few tricks that I didn't think of at first.:laughing:

Wow! Fantastic!! I’d like to make these or something very similar. I have a bunch a thrown together racks but need something a little more uniform, stable and portable. Like you, I’m trying to handle the wood the least amount of times as possible.

Look at that Gehl sitting in there! I’ve looked for essentially that model for two years but can’t yet financially bite the bullet. I’ve looked at the Gehl 7810 and the sister model from Mustang. Beasts of machines!!!

 

[4570Man]

I've got some steel racks laying in my uncompleted project pile. The idea was to load 2 rick in 2 racks and set it in the bed of my dump truck and throw a chain around the front of the truck to prevent dumping the rack. Them once I got to where I was going I'd take one side of the rack off and dump the load. The side that dumps will probably be hinged at the bottom and held together with ratchet straps at the top. I was going to make it a 4 rick rack but I decided 2 two rick racks would be easier. And to clarify on paper the 4 rick in question is 1.3 cord but it really stacks out to be more. I've cobbled together several pallet racks but none were able to survive my solid wheel forklift and without a sawmill building proper racks was cost prohibitive.

 

[4570Man]

I split and delivered 4 rick of wood. It took about 3 hours to split and load the 4 rick. The log lift is a real back saver. Then I cut down the tree that previously knocked the mirror off my truck.

 

[Creamer]

I split and delivered 4 rick of wood. It took about 3 hours to split and load the 4 rick. The log lift is a real back saver. Then I cut down the tree that previously knocked the mirror off my truck. View attachment 547061View attachment 547062View attachment 547063View attachment 547064View attachment 547065View attachment 547066

Revenge on a tree??? You need help!

 

[4570Man]

It’s time was limited anyway. I’ll probably take down several more so grass will grow on that hill.