Firewood Gathering With A Power Trac

[cqaigy2]

You mean like this.

Zactly like that.

 

[maddmatt16052]

I really like the pic, I think i'm gonna make one for mine. I have the same type of pin conections (no quick attachment plate) like on the tractor in the pic.

Matt

 

[gtrippleb]

J_J,

What are the dimensions on your grapple? I've been digging through the different threads for ideas on building a grapple and I would have to say yours seams to be the easiest and cheapest way to build one.

 

[J_J]

For the root rake part. I spaced the tines equally across the hitch bar. For the grapple, I spaced them out so as to go between the bottom tines. Width, about 40 in. of course you can make it larger with more tines with 2 x 2 x 1/4 in, or 4 x 4 x 1/4 in tubing.

 

[3238dpw]

So JJ, do you have any action shots? I have been anxious to see this thing pick something up.

 

[MossRoad]

Just a follow-up on how the holz hausen is doing...

Great!

I've been burning non-stop (except for 4 days) since October 1st. I originally had some plywood scraps and bark side up slabs covering the pile to keep rain and snow off. However, I used the upside down slabs and the snow got between the plywood, so that doesn't work too well because the snow soaks the top pieces of wood and you have to pick them off to get to the dry center pieces.

So I bought a tarp, cut a 5" x 5" hole in the center, sewed it up to keep it from tearing and slipped it over the center post. Then I draped it over the entire pile. Two days later I checked it and the snow had melted and condensed on the inside of the tarp, soaking the top layer of wood! That's what I get for not thinking.

I gathered up the edges of the tarp and folded it under until the tarp only covered the top of the pile and the sides were open to the air. A couple days later and the pile was dry again. You need air circulation to keep it dry!

I have used approximately 2/3 of the pile. The wood is completely dry all the way to the center 4x4 post. I am very happy with it so far.

One thing I do notice is we had about 27" of snow. I had to take a shovel and shovel around the pile down to the ground. The last 15-20" of wood were getting wet from the snow. I suppose that would happen with conventionally stacked wood as well, though. I'm going to make another one this spring for next year.

 

[BobRip]

I was moving some wood with my forks on my 422 today and realized how little wood it holds. The wood will fall off either end if you stack it too high. I decided to make some wooden extenders. They seem to work well, but I find I cannot take the forks off of the PT with the back extender on. I will have to work on that. Perhaps if I cut the 2 X4 a little shorter at their bottom end it will come off.

 

[MossRoad]

This brings up a topic that I want to discuss, Bob. The harvesting of firewood efficiently... or, as I see it, how to handle the wood as few times as possible until I burn it.

I used to take the tractor on a trailer to our woods and fell the trees and cut them into 16" pieces where they fell.
Toss the pieces into my FEL bucket.
Dump them on the trailer and take them home and unload them.
Split them.
Stack them.
Move them to the house as needed.
Toss them in the fire.

I quickly realized I could not haul as much wood on the trailer because I had to take the tractor home with it every time I went out.

So now I leave the tractor at home and fell 50-60 trees in one day. That takes about 6 hours.

I go back on another day with the tractor and pull 50-60 trees out of the woods and stack them like telephone poles. That took another 5-6 hours.

Then I go back as time permits with an empty trailer and cut 16' pieces off very rapidly from the stack of poles. I can cut a full trailer load in about an hour. That is about a cord of wood. It takes me about another hour to load it, so 2-3 hours per cord.

When I get them home, I unload them in a neat stack. Another hour.

Once I get 5-6 cords I borrow my in-laws splitter and split them all up in a couple days and then built my holz hausen.

So for the 6 cords I harvested last year I'm looking at:
6 hours to fell trees
6 hours to get them out of the woods
12 hours to cut into 16" pieces and load
6 hours to unload and stack
18 hours to split and stack
So, about 48 hours of work.

If I had my own splitter, I could eliminate about 6 hours and skip the time I unload the trailer and split them directly off of the trailer.

Likewise, if I could leave the tractor at the property I could save some time and handling by cutting the 16" pieces directly in the woods and dumping them on the trailer.

Optimally, if I lived at the site I could eliminate almost everything by cutting and splitting directly in the woods and only hauling them once to my holz hausen.

Ah, the inefficiencies of living away from my woodlot!

 

[MossRoad]

By the way, our gas bills so far this winter:
October $25.00
November $35.00
December $45.00

 

[coolconnection]

By the way, our gas bills so far this winter:
October $25.00
November $35.00
December $45.00

Or you could heat and cool with geo-thermal for about $35 a month. That is with one of the most expensive electric companies in the U.S. and skip all the work. I'm just sayin