hi folks - I am told that a skeleton bucket is great for picking up firewood. Assuming this is true...if I am looking to load a dump trailer with firewood, any advantages / disadvantages between one for a FEL versus one for a 12K excavator. Obviously, if I am looking to transport in the bucket, the tractor / FEL is going to be the winner. thanks - josh
picking up split firewood - skeleton bucket for excavator or loader?
- Thread starter jkahan
- Start date
oldtimer 66
Gold Member
I have been using a grapple for the last couple of years to load my hay rack. I cut and drag my logs out into the edge of the field in the fall. I let them set until spring so that the snow some what cleans the mud off of them. This is what is in the back round of the picture. I cut all the logs into fire wood length , approx. 22 inches in the spring. I then mount my splitter and grapple and hook up to the hay rack. The picture shows what a load looks like. I have re-positioned by hand the exterior logs so that won't come off during the trip down to my garage.
It takes about .50 hr. to load the hay rack using the grapple. I have a hydrostatic transmission so there is minimal tractor effort loading the wagon. The grapple is 72 inches wide and I will mod it at a later date to 84 inches. At the 72 inch width I loose the 4 pc pickup a lot of times due to the grapple width. On smaller pcs. I push them into a pile and take what I can get. I am also thinking of adding cross bars to the structure to help with picking up the smaller wood. I have already added structure between the two lids to close off that area and that has helped a lot. To finish the sequence, I park the wagon next to my building door and unhook the wagon. I back around with the splitter in-between the door and the wagon and start splitting. This year I did just over 9 cord with 7 wagon loads as a reference. I have loaded tires and wheel weights and the splitter is around 1000 lbs. The grapple was listed a 700 lbs. but it is a little more weight since my modification. If I pick up lets say four 20" something pcs, that's about all I would want to load on to the wagon on uneven ground. Have at it.
It takes about .50 hr. to load the hay rack using the grapple. I have a hydrostatic transmission so there is minimal tractor effort loading the wagon. The grapple is 72 inches wide and I will mod it at a later date to 84 inches. At the 72 inch width I loose the 4 pc pickup a lot of times due to the grapple width. On smaller pcs. I push them into a pile and take what I can get. I am also thinking of adding cross bars to the structure to help with picking up the smaller wood. I have already added structure between the two lids to close off that area and that has helped a lot. To finish the sequence, I park the wagon next to my building door and unhook the wagon. I back around with the splitter in-between the door and the wagon and start splitting. This year I did just over 9 cord with 7 wagon loads as a reference. I have loaded tires and wheel weights and the splitter is around 1000 lbs. The grapple was listed a 700 lbs. but it is a little more weight since my modification. If I pick up lets say four 20" something pcs, that's about all I would want to load on to the wagon on uneven ground. Have at it.
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workinonit
Elite Member
I like that splitter. I don't need one but once a year for barbeque wood. A fried was selling her husbands "stuff" after he passed away and he had a brand new 30 ton Norther Hydraulics splitter I bought for $1k. I don't think he ever used it. Good thing I didn't see one of those you have before I bought that one.
4570Man
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I’d rather have a bucket on the tractor for loading firewood vs a mini x.
spruce Deere
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I have used my rock bucket, more or less a skeleton bucket, to gather, load and transport firewood from a pile or laying were I cut and split it. Works real good. Saves on time, bending and handling with large/small amounts of firewood
Only thing with loading/moving wood that way is the sticks and other 'things' that the bucket accumulates while gathering....
Only thing with loading/moving wood that way is the sticks and other 'things' that the bucket accumulates while gathering....
DieselBound
Elite Member
I load my firewood into crates by hand. The trade-off, for me, is that I then don't touch that firewood until I'm grabbing it out to put in the wood stove. It's the most optimized overall process that I could come up with, for me: individual aspects could be more optimized, but at the expense of the overall process.
Crates only hold about 1/3 of a cord: I've also pulled a small trailer with one crate, so 2/3 of a cord a trip is possible; if I really wanted to I could drag my utility trailer out, but I have ditches and such which aren't very accommodating to wider axles (my culverts aren't very long). All is a balance in minimizing the overall amount of work that I need to do by hand.
Obviously, if one is looking to optimize for a sales operation then things are different.
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Crates only hold about 1/3 of a cord: I've also pulled a small trailer with one crate, so 2/3 of a cord a trip is possible; if I really wanted to I could drag my utility trailer out, but I have ditches and such which aren't very accommodating to wider axles (my culverts aren't very long). All is a balance in minimizing the overall amount of work that I need to do by hand.
Obviously, if one is looking to optimize for a sales operation then things are different.
thank you all for the awesome replies - really appreciated -- I am going to try a rock (skeleton) bucket for my tractor for loading wood - I think the skeleton bucket for the excavator is a)not big enough and b) more of a digging versus material moving implement (though I would still love an excavator skeleton bucket for rock collection).
I ended up ordering a skeleton bucket from Titan.
FWIW - I use a kinetic log splitter -- game changer in terms of speed -- but requires frequent (but not complicated) maintenance due to to mechanical nature of it's design.
I ended up ordering a skeleton bucket from Titan.
FWIW - I use a kinetic log splitter -- game changer in terms of speed -- but requires frequent (but not complicated) maintenance due to to mechanical nature of it's design.