Post #48 you figure that is a max load for the trailer?? WoW - my wood trailer must have been WAY overloaded. Same sized trailer but with five foot high sides - loaded and stacked to at least a foot higher than the five foot side racks. Thank God we only moved it on our own property.
I was playing it conservative, as it was the first time I was hauling firewood on that trailer and I was going to be driving 70 miles at an average of 55mph. But yeah, I figure by the numbers I was approaching the limit.
Here's how I'm coming to that conclusion:
- I'd say 95% or more of that load is red oak, and a handful of hickory logs mixed in that the oak took down. From what I'm reading, a cord of red oak can weigh anywhere from 4700-5700#, depending on if it's dry, seasoned, green, wet, etc.. This wood came down a little over a year ago. It's also been a very wet year and the outer area around the bark was fairly wet, centers were very hard and dry. Let's just say 5000#.
- A cord is 4x4x8, or 128 square feet. Granted those logs aren't split real small, so there's a lot of air space in there. But given my trailer is 16' long and 6.4' wide, that means a cord would be if I stacked the wood 1.25' high in my trailer. It's stacked right around that height in the back, and a little lower toward the front.
- My trailer is a 7000# trailer and weighs 1740#, which means I should be able to load 5260#.
I feel confident I could have loaded more, but given the distance, I wanted to play it safe.
The tires didn't look bad with that load on there, and the truck didn't sag much. The Tundra pulled it great. Except going up some steep hills out of river valleys, you could hardly tell it was back there. It was a joy to drive.
