Plan Has Come Together To keep Me Busy In Retirement.

[WM75Guy]

Congratulations on your retirement!!!!

You're a few steps ahead of me, but the goal is the same. I got the bigger tractor, now I need the bigger truck and trailer. I'm terrified of all the smog issues on new diesel trucks, but I don't want to deal with wrenching on a pre smog diesel truck either. Eventually I'll have to make a decision, I just don't like any of my options.

Did you license the truck and the trailer as Farm Except so you could haul 20,000 pounds with a Class C?

Yes, it is farm tagged, along with my new dump trailer. Headed over to Discount Tire in Gun Barrel City to get the TPMS sensors installed. I had to get new rims for both trailers, the valve stem holes in the stock rims are too big for the sensors.

I don't plan to be too hard on trucks now. Any road trips are in the wife's Cadillac XT6. I added an additional 5-year service agreement on the 3500HD, so now it is 10 years before I have to worry about anything. That shouldn't be an issue as they get traded in at 10 years. My daily driver 2017 GMC 2500HD just turned 57,000 miles.

I am starting to like this retirement life.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Nice looking dump trailer. There are times I really wish I had one. I always worry about over filling them at the job site, and then not being able to dump it (dump won't lift due to excess weight) at the dump site, when I don't have any equipment there to unload it.

 

[EddieWalker]

What do you use the dump trailer for? My neighbor has one for his place. He uses it like a dump truck to move dirt from one are to another, but that just lasts a few days and then it sits for a year at a time.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

What do you use the dump trailer for? My neighbor has one for his place. He uses it like a dump truck to move dirt from one are to another, but that just lasts a few days and then it sits for a year at a time.

That's the main reason I never bought one Eddie, most of the time it would sit. But those few times you need one, they sure are handy to have. Would probably get used mostly for bringing loads of wood to the house to be split and stacked later for firewood.

 

[EddieWalker]

I wonder how that will work for you. I've tried splitting it out in where it fell and hauling it back, or just cutting the rounds out there and hauling them back, and then splitting next to where I stack my wood. Right now, I'm hauling the log to where I split by the house with my grapple, then cutting the rounds there and splitting there. No matter what I do, I'm handling the wood way too much, but I think hauling the logs with the grapple seems to be the fastest way to get the wood stacked with the least amount of handling it. The biggest downfall to this method is the mess that I make by the house that I need to clean up and haul off.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

I guess it would depend on where/how the site location is situated? Some sites, they want you to not leave anything behind, and some don't care. Right now, if I'm looking at very large rounds, I have to cut them small enough at the site to be able to dump them in my truck bed (8' bed) and then I struggle to get them out at home. Either sling lifting them or dragging them out the rear of the truck bed. So far my back window on my pickup has led a charmed life, but...

I can't put them on my flatbed trailer, as I need that to haul my tractor home. When I lived next to a neighbor with a sizeable tractor, he could come over and take them off my flatbed, then I'd go back and pick up my tractor and haul it home. That part was easy, but my old neighbor and I were constantly doing things to help each other.

But now, none of my neighbors have any tractors of any size that could unload my flatbed for me, and don't really have that relationship with any of them here anyway. So, just "spit balling" about having the dump trailer that I could drop off to fill on site, then haul each trailer home and just dump the wood on the ground where I can use the tractor to move the logs around to work them down. I've also been mulling over buying an old grain truck with a hyd dump bed and just using that to haul the flatbed with the tractor on it, using that to fill the grain truck bed with logs in one shot, and just hauling it all home in one trip. Not sure I'm looking to buy something that has the potential to turn into a money pit with constant repairs.

Trying to come up with ways to reduce the amount of manual labor involved in just getting the wood home to process it here. And here is where the log splitter and IBC totes reside for processing and storing. Often times "free wood" has been a lot of work in the past, which current health has kind of put extra limits to.

 

[hosspuller]

Hauling logs on a flatbed ... attach a cable to the backend of the trailer. Lay the cable on the trailer before loading, excess over the front... Cable length to be double the trailer length plus enough to go over the logs. load trailer with logs about 8 feet long across the bed ... . When at destination, either pull the cable or attach cable to anchor and pull trailer away. Cable pulls logs off trailer... Then go back to get your tractor.

 

[WM75Guy]

I have to haul in dirt to fill in around the stables on a frequent basis. Horses going in and out of the stalls plus erosion from the rain. Plus fill for the arena, dirt and mulch.

 

[Renze]

Not sure I'm looking to buy something that has the potential to turn into a money pit with constant repairs.

Here, when we give up on the truck parts, we strip the front end and beat the frame rails into a V towbar.

 

[Bearsixty7]

I wonder how that will work for you. I've tried splitting it out in where it fell and hauling it back, or just cutting the rounds out there and hauling them back, and then splitting next to where I stack my wood. Right now, I'm hauling the log to where I split by the house with my grapple, then cutting the rounds there and splitting there. No matter what I do, I'm handling the wood way too much, but I think hauling the logs with the grapple seems to be the fastest way to get the wood stacked with the least amount of handling it. The biggest downfall to this method is the mess that I make by the house that I need to clean up and haul off.

Sounds like a use for IBC totes. Split and load the firewood into the totes where ever you want then use a tractor and forks from then on to move the firewood.