Loader L3800 for firewood

[bunkydad]

I read a lot of posts about the different ways people move firewood around. Based on those, I built a pallet style carrier out of some 2x6 material to try it out. The carrier is 5' wide by 4' deep by 4' tall. It may sound like a ridiculous question but am I asking too much from my tractor to move that much firewood with the front forks?

I have rear pallet forks but I was only able to load the carrier about 2/3 of the way (rear forks). It wouldn't lift it beyond that level. The front forks were only able to lift a little less than a half full carrier. The firewood is cut 16" long and is mostly oak and maple.

I have a 6' box blade on the rear for now and I plan on building a 1000 lb rear ballast from some of the ideas on the forum. Loaded R4s.

I love the tractor so I may be asking too much from it.

Thank you in advance

 

[k0ua]

I read a lot of posts about the different ways people move firewood around. Based on those, I built a pallet style carrier out of some 2x6 material to try it out. The carrier is 5' wide by 4' deep by 4' tall. It may sound like a ridiculous question but am I asking too much from my tractor to move that much firewood with the front forks?

I have rear pallet forks but I was only able to load the carrier about 2/3 of the way (rear forks). It wouldn't lift it beyond that level. The front forks were only able to lift a little less than a half full carrier. The firewood is cut 16" long and is mostly oak and maple.

I have a 6' box blade on the rear for now and I plan on building a 1000 lb rear ballast from some of the ideas on the forum. Loaded R4s.

I love the tractor so I may be asking too much from it.

Thank you in advance

Well lets see. Oak (green) weighs about 62 to 63 lbs per cubic foot. So 5 x 4 x4 would be 80 cubic foot times 62 lbs would be 4960 lbs, plus your carrier might weight 200 lbs? so a little over 5000 lbs?.. your rear lift is rated at 1998 lbs, and your front at 1100 lbs.. so I am guessing that yep you are expecting a bit too much.. Now in your stacking you are no where near solid wood, and it may be dried wood you are trying to lift, but still. You are not going to lift that carrier full of wood either on the front or the back of your L3800. The dried oak weighs between 42 and 47, depending on species. The Maple will be somewhat lighter, but still.. ain't going to happen.

 

[k0ua]

Soft maple dried, the lightest of the maples would be 33 lbs. per cubic foot . so 80 cubic foot x 33 lbs. would be 2640 plus 200 for the carrier so a bit over 2800 lbs..? and with lots of air in the stacking process.. Closer, but still not going to lift one full on the rear, and less than half full on the front.

 

[bunkydad]

Thank you. I guess I'll have to figure out a different way to move the wood.

 

[k0ua]

Thank you. I guess I'll have to figure out a different way to move the wood.

Well, either make more trips, or get a sturdy trailer you can pull.

 

[Baby Grand]

Cut you present pallet in half & construct 2 half size pallets?

 

[bunkydad]

That'll be my next move. I like the idea of using the front forks to move the wood since I will have a snowblower mounted on the rear for most of the winter. I may have to make more trips but I still think it's easier than using the wagon I build a few years ago. Pulling, backing up and positioning is a little tight at the back of the house.

I have to do more searching on the forums...the answers are always here.

Thanks

 

[s219]

I just fill the front bucket when moving wood from my main woodpiles up to the porch during winter months. Generally 1-2 trips will fill my rack on the porch on a weekly basis. If I skip a week or we're burning a lot, it might be 3-4 trips. Used to be at least twice as many trips when I had a smaller tractor, so bucket size makes a real difference.

 

[BKBoiss]

One of these days in all my spare time I'll figure out the picture thing, but for now I'll just have to try and explain it. I use the rack idea too because I move my wood across town from the farm to my house in town. A was given some used angle iron a couple years ago so half are wood and half are steel. They are 4' x 4' x 16". I use a homemade set of brush forks that I use for handling all my tree length wood with a removable four foot high back of old crusher screen. I stack the wood in them when I split it and then load them on the one ton to bring them home ten at a time. They fit in a notch in the railing on the back porch two steps from the back door. I only handle the wood to split it and stack it in the racks then don't touch it till it come in the the little holder in the house. The racks took a weekend or two to build but now that I'm setup is great because I'm gone two weeks at a time during the winter so I stack two racks in the notch and my wife is good till my weekend off.

 

[TnAndy]

I just fill the front bucket when moving wood from my main woodpiles up to the porch during winter months. Generally 1-2 trips will fill my rack on the porch on a weekly basis. If I skip a week or we're burning a lot, it might be 3-4 trips. Used to be at least twice as many trips when I had a smaller tractor, so bucket size makes a real difference.

Yeah, do the same thing. I bought an oversized (like twice the size of the one that came with the tractor) 'light materials' bucket (quik-connect) that I use for firewood, sawdust, mulch, etc., and we move it in a bucket at a time, and stack in the basement. From there, it loads on a 'dumb waiter' deal I built in beside the chimney when I built the house, and gets lifted up to the first floor next to the stove.

 

[JLwoodworks]

I built a bunch of crates to store the wood in to minimize handling. When needed I can just bring one up and set it by the house or shop.

I used 50" x 16' cattle fence from tractor supply, bent and welded to 20ga metal angle screwed to the top of pallets.

[/url] Fire wood crate by jlaws1, on Flickr[/IMG]

[/url] 20140422_191955 by jlaws1, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[tcreeley]

Bucket works for me- I can lift it onto my deck 12 feet from my door. I used to use the carryall but the bucket gets me closer. If I roofed over the deck- pallets like above would be a nice way to go.

 

[Fallon]

I've started using IBC totes. Remove the plastic container & just use the cage which has the integrated pallet on the bottom. My L3200 lifts them just fine when full of wood. Can only lift one half full of water if I fill the tank before I remove it.

Intermediate bulk container - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They run $100 or so locally for clean ones, a little more for food grade. A local paint company sells nasty ones for $20. Just need to remove the tank & dispose of that along with the gallon or two of paint left in the tank.

 

[DieselnHooters]

I think you guys need larger tractors although I must admit JLwoodworks gizmo and his small JD look real handy in fetching from the woodpile .....as long as its snow free and on even ground.

 

[bunkydad]

I will definitely try the JLwoodworks suggestion. Thank you

 

[Creamer]

I like the concept JLWoodworks! Thanks for the photo. It looks well built.

I see where you left the back a little open for access. Is that a 42 x48" skid which would use 15' of the panel? How much wood do you get in it? I usually cut about 18" length which meant I wanted 4.5" fore aft and I was wanting at least 6' wide which means the panel would not come all the way around. I was thinking bending the back corners would help stabilize the sides but I couldn't get them completely together at the size I want.

 

[Garandman]

Nothing fancy for me, either. I load it in the bucket from the splitter to stack it. Then take the seasoned wood and bring the tractor to the porch, and load from the bucket onto a two-wheeled dolly.

Then I take it from the dolly inside to stack. Three or four bucket loads, I believe.

 

[oldpilgrim]

my attached garage is 24 ft deep. My truck is 20 feet long. I built a wall in front of my truck 5 feet high, about 3 feet from the back wall. I put 1/4 inch plywood on the inside of the wall. This leaves me a 'room' about 3 feet wide and 10 feet long, with the left end open, in front of my truck.

I stack all my wood outside in round holshausen style piles. When the pile is seasoned enough for use, I fill my bucket from the pile and drive it into the garage and dump it over the wall into the 'room'. There's no handling it in the garage that way. It takes about 8-9 bucket loads to fill the 'room' to the top of the 5 foot wall. Sometimes I'll pile it a little higher than the 5 ft wall. ... no problems yet with overfilling onto the hood of my truck. .

When I need some in the house, I have a carrier that I load up and bring it in and place it in a woodbox I have next to the stove. I can get a days wood in the box at a time with about 3-4 trips to the garage.

I don't really need any special carriers as that would prevent me from just dumping it over the wall and cause me another handling step.

I like to handle it as little as possible.

 

[JLwoodworks]

I think you guys need larger tractors although I must admit JLwoodworks gizmo and his small JD look real handy in fetching from the woodpile .....as long as its snow free and on even ground.

I would love a bigger tractor. The 855 is great, but its sort of like an awkward teenager with gangly appendages. The thing i cant argue with is picking up this whole lot (with under 1000hrs) for $7k

[/url] 20130727_145454 by jlaws1, on Flickr[/IMG]

Since I converted to SSQA I can now carry the pallets with the loader. Snow has not been an issue, and they only have to go from behind the shop to the house so no worry about side slopes.

[/url] Fire wood crate by jlaws1, on Flickr[/IMG]

Creamer

Re: L3800 for firewood
I like the concept JLWoodworks! Thanks for the photo. It looks well built.

I see where you left the back a little open for access. Is that a 42 x48" skid which would use 15' of the panel? How much wood do you get in it? I usually cut about 18" length which meant I wanted 4.5" fore aft and I was wanting at least 6' wide which means the panel would not come all the way around. I was thinking bending the back corners would help stabilize the sides but I couldn't get them completely together at the size I want.

Creamer, youre correct on the size of the pallet and the cut out. A full crate will hold at least a face cord. I suppose you can build whatever size you want by welding extra fence together.

Ive got 10 crates built so far. I have really enjoyed handling the firewood less this year. Now with the addition for the tractor etc i put on my shop I can bring a crate inside, set it on a 4 wheel dolly, and roll it up to a window that is now between buildings, and faces the wood furnace. And by shear luck, the cut out in the crate lines up exactly with the window.

[/url] 20150125_121756 by jlaws1, on Flickr[/IMG]

Jason

 

[Creamer]

That looks like great planning! The crates match your tractor and mate up well with the end usage. It looks like a great design to me. Thanks for sharing!