Moving Firewood

[crossfire190]

I am trying to figure out the best way to move firewood. I consume about 10-11 cords per year. I need to get it from the woodpile to the house.

Currently I am loading it neatly into the bucket by hand - this way i get the most in the bucket. But, it takes time and effort. Would I be better off adding a grapple? Bucket teeth or something else?

My bucket is 48" on a Kubota bx2350.

Any suggestions are welcomed.

 

[amigauser]

With a larger tractor you could palletize the wood and then use q/a pallet forks. That might still work on the BX but you would need to use clamp on pallet forks Untitled Document .

Another option might be some sort of trailer but you would still need to hand load and unload it.

Norm

 

[Matt_W]

I have the light weight paynes clamp on forks and have created log racks(3feet wide X 30 inch high x 20 inch) that 2 racks can be loaded directly into my wood shed. Talked my wife into cutting a hole in my house so the log racks can be loaded into one side and then pulled out doors inside the house beside the fire place.
This is small scale but saves me alot of work. Alot of up front work making the racks but if you have enough racks you can fill them and let the wood season so no more stacking. I burn 4 or 5 cords but only enough racks for 2 cords. This will be my second year using this system.

 

[scott_vt]

I am trying to figure out the best way to move firewood. I consume about 10-11 cords per year. I need to get it from the woodpile to the house.

Currently I am loading it neatly into the bucket by hand - this way i get the most in the bucket. But, it takes time and effort. Would I be better off adding a grapple? Bucket teeth or something else?

My bucket is 48" on a Kubota bx2350.

Any suggestions are welcomed.

Afternoon Crossfire,
Your buckets too small ! All kidding aside, the bucket idea works well but a bigger bucket or some sort of a pallet fork arangment to transport skids of wood would be better. I have used my bucket to do the same thing but mine is 6 ft and I can get a fair amount of firewood in there. I would think your going to need some counter weight if you try going with small pallets.

Im not crazy about the grapple idea, I would think it would be kind of messy and would only work if your cordwood was in a big pile, unstacked and then you would be dropping it close to the house to bring inside ! Then you still have to stack it inside. Maybe others have more helpful ideas !

 

[crossfire190]

Let me clarify my burning setup. I have a wood-fired boiler in the basement and I have an exterior stairwell that I can dump the wood into. So, my thinking was that if the grapple would work to pick up the wood from a pile, then I could make several trips and fill the stairwell.

The pallet idea is a good one... I may have to give that some thought - I could get some pallet forks.

Keep the ideas coming!!

 

[scott_vt]

Let me clarify my burning setup. I have a wood-fired boiler in the basement and I have an exterior stairwell that I can dump the wood into. So, my thinking was that if the grapple would work to pick up the wood from a pile, then I could make several trips and fill the stairwell.

The pallet idea is a good one... I may have to give that some thought - I could get some pallet forks.

Keep the ideas coming!!

Crossfire,
If you have an exterior door to your basement such as a Bilco door, then the grapple might work out well for you. Especially if your using a 4 ft bucket, then your not going to be spilling alot of wood on either side of the door which only creates more work for you ! Im sure there are plenty of people out there that just split their cordwood throw it in a pile and then scoop it up with the bucket and grapple and dump it as your planning on doing ! IMO the palletized idea would work if everything is at ground level rather than the basement !

 

[jeffinsgf]

Regardless of your tractor size, you'll have significantly more capacity if you think in terms of a 3 point hitch forklift arrangement, than one on your loader. I have both, but use the 3pt for firewood. I have pallets that are 32 x 48. I added uprights and bracing to them so that I can stack the wood 5.5 feet high. That gives me just a little less than half a cord per pallet. I've got a perfect covered spot on the back porch where I can park the pallet that we're working out of. I don't think your BX could pick one that big up, but you might go 3 or 4 feet high OK. The pallets are "Euro" standard, and are extremely well made. I have four full and a pile that will fill up two of them again. Unless we have an extremely harsh winter for our area, 3-4 cords will get me to April.

 

[scott_vt]

Regardless of your tractor size, you'll have significantly more capacity if you think in terms of a 3 point hitch forklift arrangement, than one on your loader. I have both, but use the 3pt for firewood. I have pallets that are 32 x 48. I added uprights and bracing to them so that I can stack the wood 5.5 feet high. That gives me just a little less than half a cord per pallet. I've got a perfect covered spot on the back porch where I can park the pallet that we're working out of. I don't think your BX could pick one that big up, but you might go 3 or 4 feet high OK. The pallets are "Euro" standard, and are extremely well made. I have four full and a pile that will fill up two of them again. Unless we have an extremely harsh winter for our area, 3-4 cords will get me to April.

Afternoon Jeff,
Your method sounds great for what your doing and very neat also, but his boiler is in his basement, he still need to get the wood down to his boiler. Are you suggesting he use your method and just throw the wood downstairs from the pallet ?

 

[crossfire190]

Scott VT - That is correct. I have a Bilco Door and with my small bucket a load will drop in nicely.

Any thoughts on how well the grapple would do to pick up the wood from a pile? At this point, I have my wood delivered and it is dumped into a pile. Previously, I would stack the wood and then move it as needed. But if I can skip the stacking step, that would save a lot of time.

 

[scott_vt]

Scott VT - That is correct. I have a Bilco Door and with my small bucket a load will drop in nicely.

Any thoughts on how well the grapple would do to pick up the wood from a pile? At this point, I have my wood delivered and it is dumped into a pile. Previously, I would stack the wood and then move it as needed. But if I can skip the stacking step, that would save a lot of time.

Crossfire,
I personally dont own a grapple so I really dont know how that would work ! If the wood is being delivered seasoned than stacking is not so imperative IMO. But if the wood is wet its not going to saeson out as well just being dumped into a pile, it really needs to be stacked for sun and air circulation.

 

[Mith]

Can you have the wood delivered onto a few sheets of plywood, and make a sort of plywood 'enclosure' for the wood, so you can scoop it up with the bucket? Saves stacking, just scoop a load and dump it where you need it.

 

[escavader]

I am trying to figure out the best way to move firewood. I consume about 10-11 cords per year. I need to get it from the woodpile to the hous

Any suggestions are welcomed.

If i had to burn that much wood,i would consider an outdoor wood boiler.You could have the furnace at the wood pile,just think how much work that would save per year.yet they aint cheap either
ALAN

 

[russG]

I use pallets. I stack the would up about 5 feet and I then shrink wrap the pallet. I store the pallets out side till I need woodI will use my 3 point forks and bring them into my garage. Some times it takes everything my tractor has to lift them. The loader would not have enough power to lift that much wood. This works out well. I have been doing this now for 3 years.

 

[jeffinsgf]

Afternoon Jeff,
Your method sounds great for what your doing and very neat also, but his boiler is in his basement, he still need to get the wood down to his boiler. Are you suggesting he use your method and just throw the wood downstairs from the pallet ?

The basement does present some challenges. If he is stacking into his loader bucket now, my method would at least cut down a little on the handling and get more wood in the door faster.

That said, being the lazy cuss that I am, I think I would l look at opening the Bilco's, throwing some 2 x 8's on the stairs and sliding the pallet into the basement, where a pallet jack was waiting to wheel the pallet over by the stove. Think I might put a chain or tow strap on the pallet and ease it down in, instead of just assuming it would slide politely into place. Personally, I have been known to spend more time figuring out how to finesse a job than it would have taken to just do it -- but then that's half the fun.

 

[jeffinsgf]

If i had to burn that much wood,i would consider an outdoor wood boiler.You could have the furnace at the wood pile,just think how much work that would save per year.yet they aint cheap either
ALAN

Outdoor boilers are exceedingly inefficient. They are made for people who have trash wood in their way. Buying wood to feed one of those beasts isn't something I would suggest to my worst enemy.

 

[srossman]

I've got the same problem. I currently stack the wood in the bucket and carry it to front porch where I then stack it again. One thought that I had was to fabricate some type of sides for the bucket so that I could get more wood into it. I know my bx-23 has no trouble carrying what I can fit in there now, I just need a way to be able to get more wood into the bucket. I would love to see some pictures of what everyone else uses to maybe give me some other ideas of how to make this work.


-Scot

 

[SpringHollow]

What makes you say outdoor wood boilers are extremely inefficient? I have had indoor stoves and outdoor boilers. There was no noticeable difference (<20%) in the amount of good wood that I have burned when comparing the two systems. My wood boilers have been forced combustion. Now, when I am burning lower quality soft woods in the outdoor boiler, it takes more volume but when burning hardwoods, I could not notice the difference but given the fluctuations in weather from year to year, I would not be able to tell a change less than 20%.

Ken

Outdoor boilers are exceedingly inefficient. They are made for people who have trash wood in their way. Buying wood to feed one of those beasts isn't something I would suggest to my worst enemy.

 

[jpm]

i too have a outdoor boiler and i can burn any type of wood because of a short stack and a hot fire to burn off the junk.it is also as efficent as some indoor wood stoves with out the mess of wood on the house or the possability of a chimine fire.also if you are buying split wood you mite as well just buy oil

 

[Youare]

First, I would not let the wood just set in a "dumped" pile. My experience with this method of non-stacking is the bottm of the pile never dries out and the middle of the pile gets wet with rain but never dries out only the sides where wind and sun are get dry. Wood will dry better stacked and the top of the pile covered.

Since you are dumping your wood down into the basement now how about using a dump trailer. You would still have to throw the wood intoo the trailer by hand but then you could back up to the openning to the basement and dump the contents of the trailer.

Plus you could use the trailer for other projects.

Randy

 

[fatboyinmaine]

Anyone else out there who likes the wood boilers, i plan to buy one and would like more feedback. thanks and some pics would be nice too.