Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[goeduck]

The meters are not that expensive but there is not a lot of science to just letting the wood dry long enough under cover.

 

[Gordon Gould]

You guys with meters - What does the moisture read on a fresh cut live tree. Just curious and thinking about all those years long past when we would start cutting firewood around Labor Day for burning that winter in an old box stove. When the draft started getting a little weak it was time to climb up and run a brush down thru the chimney which was several times a winter. Some how we didn't burn anything down or even have a chimney fire - that we new of anyway.

gg

 

[Rustyiron]

I think that I've heard (on a firewood forum) that the wind does most of the drying vs. sunlight. I think I can testify to that as I used to double stack my rows and top cover with metal. Now I have about 14 single row "racks" that I fill right off the splitter cutting down handling to the minimum. I top cover with rubber roofing and each rack holds about 90 c/f (cut @26").
It does seem to dry faster but I'm just not nerdy enough to to fool with a moisture meter.
I do let it sit, (split & top covered) for about 18 months at a minimum.
My boiler (indoor gasification)
does like a little moisture, too dry and it starves for oxygen and "chugs" making the stove pipe leak. Not pleasant.

This is not the racks that I mentioned above. I built 2 of these and were too expensive and double row. I have red oak in them and I give oak as close to 3 years drying as possible. My normal fw is beech, got tons of it. I just brought this one up to the house yesterday.

 

[Loaderman22]

2) Old timers would say to cut tree and leave leaves on until they whither to draw moisture out. Wonder how this would compare to cutting dormant tree after leaves have fallen in winter?

I tried this on some storm damage back in early July 2020, cut a lot of red oaks off the stumps, and was letting the leaves draw what they could. Surprisingly, the leaves stayed on and didn't start turning until about 2-3 weeks before the rest of the trees. I have to get back to them and do some fresh cuts and check moisture. I will then cut one that was felled back in 2019 but laying in the log pile. I can compare against a fresh cut red oak that I will fell at the time of testing. should be interesting.

 

[Rustyiron]

Found a picture of the racks.

I load the "table" on the right with 3-4 log length, buck up to 26" then (without bending over) the rounds go on the splitter and directly to the rack.

There's the tractor to be in full compliance with "Tractor and wood" thread title.

 

[goeduck]

^^ I have seen similar racks but never understood the benefit of the outward sloped sides?

 

[goeduck]

You guys with meters - What does the moisture read on a fresh cut live tree.

gg

I can't recall ever checking a fresh cut but I recall seeing north of 30% on blowdowns after cutting them into firewood. I have no idea how long they were down and ground moisture is a big factor with downed wood.

 

[Rustyiron]

^^ I have seen similar racks but never understood the benefit of the outward sloped sides?

The side's fold in/down flat for storage. I built in a slight over center open position so that I didn't need to have perfectly level ground to stay open. Hopefully using my head instead of getting pounded in the head .
So far it's working.

 

[John_Mc]

You guys with meters - What does the moisture read on a fresh cut live tree.

I can't recall ever checking a fresh cut but I recall seeing north of 30% on blowdowns after cutting them into firewood. I have no idea how long they were down and ground moisture is a big factor with downed wood.

Most of these meters will not read accurately as high as the moisture content is in green wood.

Years ago, I found a table of "excess moisture content" in green wood (See attached PDF or scroll down a bit at this link). Note that this is the moisture ABOVE their target 20% moisture content, so you have to add 20 to the percent figures listed in the table. (For example, Ash is listed at 15%. For the actual typical moisture content add 20 for a 35% moisture content.)

It will vary from tree to tree and from site to site, but I found it interesting, and it seems to match my experience with Ash and Beech being two of the trees I might get away with burning with only a bit of seasoning when I'm in a real pinch.

 

[Gordon Gould]

Thanks J_Mc. So is it percent of total weight that is water or is there some other parameter or constant involved ??

BTW - this morning I made one turn on the trail I just packed the other day. . It was 24* here. It was better than expected but a second trip would have been a mistake probably. It warmed up quickly.

gg