4 cord of hardwood VS a Uhaul truck

[michaelthomas]

I have 4 cord of 2 year seasoned hardwood that I bought for $100 each and have to pick it up about 40 miles from my house. The wood is in 4 foot round lengths and quite dry. Most of the wood is about 5" rounds. Do you think a Uhaul truck would stand up to this kind of load? The road that the wood is on is also "Posted" because of the spring thaw and frost heaves. What type of vehicle are they eliminating when they post a road. Can you not move into your new home if the road is posted? Just looking for some guidance.

 

[BrotherBart]

You can stuff it in their 17 footer since it has 849 cubic feet of space. But if that stuff is something like oak you are going to be over gross weight to beat hell.

The 24 footer would of course handle the cubes and the weight. I could be wrong but I have always estimated a cord of red or white oak at a thousand pounds a cord. I have heard as high as five thousand pounds a cord but I don't believe it. Somebody here probably has a good number. If five thousand is a good number U-Haul hasn't bought a truck in their life that can handle the weight of four cords.

And don't go stuff a cord in that space that extends out over the cab. You could either endup with the "eternal" headache or buying them a new van body. And with a load like that behind ya, please drive slow and start stopping real early.

BrotherBart (former truck leasing company manager, no not U-Haul)

 

[Shane]

That's going to be a beastly load. Can't you rent a little heavier truck from an equipment rental yard? That would suck to cause damage to a Uhaul and have to pay for it.

 

[BrotherBart]

That's going to be a beastly load. Can't you rent a little heavier truck from an equipment rental yard? That would suck to cause damage to a Uhaul and have to pay for it.

You bet it would. U-Haul is notorious for squeezing money out of renters. We rented commercial so we weren't competitors.

 

[bruce]

is it really worth it?
whats going rate for a cord in your area?
whats the milage cost for 80 miles round trip?
thats a lot of work

 

[babalu87]

Cord of Oak weighs 2 tons

(broken link removed to http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm)

 

[saichele]

I usually ballpark a face (1/3 cord) green at 1000 lbs, on the basis that I don;t want to put much more than 1/2 cord in my pickup.

Steve

 

[Corey]

Well, punch up the Uhaul web site and their 24' box truck is rated for 6500 pounds, and the 26' truck is rated about 7400 pounds. You have about 16,000 pounds of wood to move. I'd be tempted to say that 16,000 pounds is may be slightly low as I suspect that weight is for dried wood. I don't know how much your 4' long, 5" rounds will dry out in only 2 years. You might still be looking at some wet wood in the center of those logs.

If you have any kind of truck, you might consider a trailer. Last I knew, the Uhaul trucks rent for a fee + 50-60 cents a mile...the trailers go for a flat per/day rate...no charge for mileage. Even pushing the 24 or 26 footer, you would have to make 2 round trips.

As for a "posted" road I have not heard of that in regard to traffic. Around here we have "posted" land...you will just see signs on a fence that say "POSTED" which basically means - no hunting, no trespassing, it's my land, keep off.

Good Luck,
Corey

 

[michaelthomas]

is it really worth it?
whats going rate for a cord in your area?
whats the milage cost for 80 miles round trip?
thats a lot of work

going rate for split hardwood is $230 a cord. I have since reigned in my wood purchasing area to about 10 miles from my house. I have a friend who has a mac 24' cube truck that would carry the load but it is hard to coordinate with him since the truck is usually working.

 

[BrotherBart]

Cord of Oak weighs 2 tons

(broken link removed to http://www.chimneysweeponline.com/howood.htm)

Thanks. I have never had a reason to go looking for that info but it is good to have.

U-Haul is out of the picture. Sixteen thousand pounds of wood puts him in single axle tractor with flatbed trailer territory. And you don't even want to get involved with chains and boomers holding down a load of logs. Forget it. Just plain forget it.

A commercial trucker would be cheaper.

I would call around to rock haulers. They could pull up and dump the load rather than having to tie them or a crew up doing the unloading, which would add more expense.

 

[fbelec]

in my experience renting trucks uhaul is the worst company period. if you still think you want to rent a truck go look for a penski their trucks are usualy on the newer side and built to haul more wieght than the registration says i can. i've rented off them with only a car license and the truck was 28000 gvw truck without the air breaks.

 

[NWfuel]

Call Penske truck rental. Ask for a CDL truck. It will haul 20,000 lbs of freight. You will need a driver with the proper license. the truck should cost 83.00 per 24 hours, 16 cents a mile.

Thomas

 

[sgcsalsero]

I see where there is a discrepancy on weight. 1 cord = 4,000 pounds on one reply, 1 cord = 1,000 pounds on another, 1 cord = 3,000 on still another. Who's right ?

You get professional service with Penske, fleet is 1 year old or less. But you may find the height of the deck as a little imposing. Check the rates online frequently, they flex quite a bit, maybe customer service can give you hints on when the lulls occur.

UHaul service sucks, period, nothing but bad experiences with them.

 

[Mo Heat]

... Who's right ?

Here's a reference with wet and dry weights for various species. Scroll down a little bit to the first table.

http://muextension.missouri.edu/xplor/agguides/forestry/g05450.htm

 

[michaelthomas]

I have found a 18' picket truck with a flat bed dump to get the wood. $80 bucks a day + 25 cents per mile + diesel fuel. The rental place is closed on sunday so I have it to use all day sunday if I can't get it all loaded saturday or if it seems to be overloading. It has a GVW of 22K. I really wish that I wouldn't have bought the wood that far away but now I know and lesson learned. Maybe the wife will let me get a logging truck for the family to drive around in. Thanks for the input.

 

[Todd]

... Who's right ?

Here's a reference with wet and dry weights for various species. Scroll down a little bit to the first table.

http://muextension.missouri.edu/xplor/agguides/forestry/g05450.htm

Well this source isn't right either. It says standard cord of 80 cubic ft. Last time I heard a cord was 128 cu ft.

 

[Turner-n-Burner]

The footnote says - "Approximate weight of standard cord (occupying 128 cubic feet of space and containing 80 cubic feet of solid wood), for the first two columns of figures"

Interesting. So I guess a cord of wood is just over 1/3 air? I would have guessed less.


-Dan

 

[Todd]

The footnote says - "Approximate weight of standard cord (occupying 128 cubic feet of space and containing 80 cubic feet of solid wood), for the first two columns of figures"

Interesting. So I guess a cord of wood is just over 1/3 air? I would have guessed less.


-Dan

Oops! I missed that part. Yeah, that is alot of air.

 

[fbelec]

the air is for burning.
you got to have plenty of air

 

[fbelec]

depends on if you like that person or not.