Pallet fork bust

   / Pallet fork bust #12  
How big a tractor? My Boomer 2220 would never pick up a half cord on a 4' deep pallet.

Last year I would bring it in about 1/4 cord at a time, about a weeks worth. I have a pallet jack in the shop so it was a matter of setting the pallet on the slab and wheeling it to the stove room with the jack. Now, it is even easier. I have these two puppies that I keep full weekly, so they rotate. All the wood gets to sit in the stove room for a week before it hits the stove. Take the rack out, load it, the narrow build keeps the weight close to the tractor for more stability. Roll the racks from the center of the shop to the stove room. Slick!

Now if I could find enough of them to preload my entire winters worth of wood. :D

I also keep a couple stacks of "crap" wood, poplar and pine, just outside the door to steal from on warmer days and weekends. Also are these three racks of big chunks that I keep ready for when, or should I say if, we get a real cold snap or I have a lazy weekend where I really don't feel like recharging the steel racks.

Nice looking cages!
 
   / Pallet fork bust #13  
looks good! Have you tried stacking the pallets? Or do you need to?

I have not tried stacking the pallets. I don't see why it wouldn't work. I have ~ 20 of them all around the property.

ac
 
   / Pallet fork bust #16  
NICE! But with the capacity of an L39 (2200lbs loader lift) you probably don't experience any of the lift problems the others have had.

The only problem I have is that I NEED to have one on the back. The backhoe on works also.

The other issue I have is that the driveway is quite steep from my wood processing area to the house for burning. The machine has to crawl up the hill with 2 pallets on board.

ac
 
   / Pallet fork bust #17  
The location of your forks pretty much halves the capacity of your loader. Get a proper set of forks for your loader arms, or construct your pallets so that they are shallow and wide to keep the load as close to the bucket as possible.
 
   / Pallet fork bust
  • Thread Starter
#18  
The location of your forks pretty much halves the capacity of your loader. Get a proper set of forks for your loader arms, or construct your pallets so that they are shallow and wide to keep the load as close to the bucket as possible.

I thought to have something that would just pop on and off since the bucket is used for snow removal. They are super for that. I understand about making the pallets shallow but I would need to make so many of them for 6 cords of wood I'm not sure it would be worth it. It is surprising that once you are out36" how much a loader scheduled for 800# won't pick up. I believe you when you say its cut in half. I did find a company that has the shims to boost pressure and I also think it is a good idea to get some rear pallet forks as well. I need to be able to lift these things at least 4' to stack them on top of themselves
 
   / Pallet fork bust
  • Thread Starter
#19  
I do the firewood pallet thing with my BX24. Found the 3 point hitch will lift a lot more than the FEL. I've also found that after a year of seasoning the FEL forks will lift a pallet load that only the 3 point could lift while green.

So- Since the BH has to come off to use the rear forks, I split and stack on a bunch of pallets to move them all same day to where they season.
Once seasoned I move them one at a time to the house for use in the woodstove, since I can put my FEL forks on in a few seconds compared to 10+ minutes to remove BH and install 3 point hitch parts then rear forks.

Good point Skyco. I was thinking the same thing today while sitting on the tractor and pondering the situation. The wood would get lighter by at least a third
 
   / Pallet fork bust #20  
Having gotten sick of stacking the wood for drying and then unstacking and bringing the wood into the woodshed, I thought to go to a more efficient way of handling and that was moving the wood on pallets. Or so I thought. I built these easy on-off pallet forks to carry all the wood you see in the pictures. The pallets are 36"x40" with the wood retaining uprights at 3' measured from ground level. I could only stack the wood 2' high to get any lift at all. At this rate, I'd have to make or get 60 pallets to store 6 cord of firewood. With the help of a very accommodating TBN member, I attempted to order the shim kit for the JD 750. $3.16 for the kit and $16.38 to mail them to my house. My local JD dealer is of no help as he states they are unattainable. Just wondering where everybody else got their kits if indeed they are still available.

I've been doing something similar for the last three years. It does make managing firewood much easier.
Wood skids are about 42 inches square so two are a little less than a cord. I love these things. Stackable when taken apart. Just have to add 2 more 2x4's to the bottom. See pics
 

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