How much wood do you think this will haul?

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ColdNH

Minister of Fire
Hearth Supporter
Oct 14, 2009
600
Southern, NH
Not the most ideal setup, but i have a stepside 05 Tundra (pre sticky gas pedal, hugeness) so its somewhere between a mid-full size truck

And i have a small two place snowmobile trailer. I would hope to be able to carry a cord, but i think that may be a pipe dream. what do you think 3/4 a cord?

first pic shows the trailer

second pic shows the bed fully loaded
 

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2/3 be my guess
 
Sorry double post.
 
Less than 1/2.
Here's 1/2 cord stacked in an 8' bed fullsize truck from a Craig's List ad. I have a real truck.
[Hearth.com] How much wood do you think this will haul?

[Hearth.com] How much wood do you think this will haul?


EDIT. Forgot you had the trailer too. I'd say 1/3 in the truck and about 1/2 on the trailer if you made some side for it.
 
I'd say 1/2 to 2/3.

On a related note, looks like Flatbed has come around and got himself a GM! :)
 
J-Man said:
I'd say 1/2 to 2/3.

On a related note, looks like Flatbed has come around and got himself a GM! :)

That will NEVER happen. Previous post edited for clarification. I copied the picture from a Craig's List ad. :-)
 
I'd say close to 3/4 cord in the bed if you STACK it up to the top of the cab. Looks like you've got 1/3 cord or less by just throwing it in there. I can get nearly 1/2 cord in my little Toyota Pickup if I stack it all the way up to the top of the cab. Warning: Don't try this with a Ford Ranger!!!!! My stepdad has one with a new suspension and it won't carry half of what my pickup will.
 
1/3 of a real cord just tossed in the pickup. I've sold wood many times to people with that size truck. As for the trailer, not very much before it falls off without sides. And if you put sides on it, it won't take too much to overload it. I broke an axle on a snowmobile trailer hauling firewood with it, and I didn't even have sides on it.
 
quads said:
1/3 of a real cord just tossed in the pickup. I've sold wood many times to people with that size truck. As for the trailer, not very much before it falls off without sides. And if you put sides on it, it won't take too much to overload it. I broke an axle on a snowmobile trailer hauling firewood with it, and I didn't even have sides on it.

good to know! ha

it does have a new axel and i replaced both leaf springs with stronger ones last fall, but i still think it will be a worthless wood hauler.
 
I think Quads nailed it. 1/3 in the truck and less than a 1/3 on the trailer. Snowmobile trailers are not built very heavy and typically have low gross vehicle weight limits.
 
I have the similar truck, well 06 tundra but not step side.
I have a 3500 lb trailer 6-1/2' wide, 10 feet long 26" sides. Which filled level will "physically" hold a cord. But it starts to fishtail when towing over 45 mph.
Loaded with birch (green) about 5,000 lbs/cord.
I just hauled 1.5 cords in 1 trip from a highway project. (trailer a little over full on the front (tongue weight heavy to help not fishtail)
Split, stacked & measured (198 cubic feet) the last load (which was a little lighter than previous loads )
The truck will hold just over 1/3 cord if I load it just a little above the sides. (but the head lights point to the moon)
The trailer had over a cord, I was over loaded a little so I drove 40-45 all the way. Spring almost bottomed out on the trailer & was real careful on bumps & heaves.

All this is to say, your snowmachine trailer will haul 1,000 lbs max, your truck will haul what you can safely fit in the bed.
so if you take some straps, & drive slow 3/4 cords or just a bit less would be a pretty good load.

PS Inflate the truck tires to the max (45-50 psi) before loading that much weight, I was lucky & had a battery air compressor to fill the tires, they looked
almost flat. & take a piece of plywood to put in the bed to cover the rear window glass & load the cab end of the bed heavier, ahead of the rear axle (some weight will be on the front tires that way)
When I stack it above the bed, I strap the front 2 rows down too (or any rows that need it). Don't want any rolling off or hitting the rear glass.

top right shows how much a PU various sizes will haul: (broken link removed to http://forestry.alaska.gov/pdfs/08BTUFirewoodHandout.pdf)
 

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Make sure you stack it in the truck, it makes a huge difference in capacity. It doesnt take much longer to stack it, and will eventually save u trips. I think Flatbedford is right on in his estimation. I stack wood as tightly as i can in a full size F250 and get somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 cord. The the trailer will only handle as much weight as it says it can. I know we all overload our trucks, but trailers usually show it when you overload them. I'm going to guess and say that the absolute max of that trailer is 2,000 lbs, which is a 1/2 cord, and thats if you build some sides for it.
 
I've hauled some wood on my ATV trailer 4x8 which is rated for about 1500lbs. The weakest link on my trailer is the axle. I'm real careful on how much I load. I'd rather make an extra trip than snap something.
 
it'll haul a LOT of wood in many trips. That's my guess. If you want to know my opinion, i figure it will hold 2x as much as everybody here estimates. It may only do it once or twice, but I bet it could. If you don't want to die or fix stuff, though, I wouldn't try that.
 
Be careful loading the snowmobile trailer. They are not heavy duty and don't handle a load real well. Make sure you have enough tongue weight, but not too much. Without tongue weight it will start swaying back and forth and that gets ugly.

I think without severely overloading the truck or trailer you'll be able to move about 3/4 cord at a time.

My old 3/4 ton with an 8' foot bed carried exactly a half cord, piled up over the rails.
 
should find out tonight, got a nice score of hardwood and pine, approximatly 2 cords +/-, cut and bucked last year, but not split 13 miles away, all back roads. after this score, I will be sitting pretty for a while
 
Since you already own the trailer, My answer is: It will haul more than the truck alone so just use common sense when loading it!

To Flatbed; We will never fault you for not coming to the "Dark Side"! (when I say that I do mean the brotherhood of owners who know better), ;-P ;-P ;-P
 
Well, tested her out with the trailer tonight, not sure how much i got total as it isnt cut split or stacked yet, but it was probably at the point of being just the right amount, any more and trailer toung wound have been too close to the ground, ended up having to put alot of the weight on the center/back of the trailer as is in order for the chains to not drag. need a beefier rear suspension in the truck.

anywho, the tarp and tiedown method for the snowmobile trailer worked well and kept me from overloading it.
 

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You could put a little more on the trailer ,I have one and have bent an axle and blown out a few tires ,even lost a wheel one day . Needless to say I overloaded just look and judge by your wheel to trailer clearance when it gets down below 2" be careful . Your truck is way overloaded safe to say if you keep it up you will break an axle or spring they are just not made to take that weight. FYI its the truck load not the trailer load thats dragging the chains. My wife once loaded so much crap in our 1/2 van that the chains would have dragged pulling the 1300lb jet ski lucky I had a cable tie to take up a little slack.
 
Seeing that load, I am sticking with my 1/3 in the truck and a little less than 1/3 in the trailer guess.
 
ColdNH said:
Well, tested her out with the trailer tonight, not sure how much i got total as it isnt cut split or stacked yet, but it was probably at the point of being just the right amount, any more and trailer toung wound have been too close to the ground, ended up having to put alot of the weight on the center/back of the trailer as is in order for the chains to not drag. need a beefier rear suspension in the truck.

anywho, the tarp and tiedown method for the snowmobile trailer worked well and kept me from overloading it.


Just an idea here . It looks like you have aclass 2 or 3 hitch from what I can tell in the pictures . You could just get another slug to raize your trailer hitch for when you are hauling loaded like you are . I do this on my F250 when I am hauling a cord on that with another 1 + on my car hauler . then instead of me useing a 6 inch drop I use a straight slug .
 
Thats a good idea. I ended up doing four loads with the trailer on saturday. worked out well, putting no sides on the trailer and using the tarp method kept me from overloading it, and worked out pretty good. not ideal, but definilty doubled my carrying capacity which was very usefull, (half as many trips) judging by the pile of unstacked unpslit wood in my yard, im guessing 2.5 cords +/- in 4 truck/trailer loads, so you guys were spot on with the 2/3's a cord per load



webie said:
ColdNH said:
Well, tested her out with the trailer tonight, not sure how much i got total as it isnt cut split or stacked yet, but it was probably at the point of being just the right amount, any more and trailer toung wound have been too close to the ground, ended up having to put alot of the weight on the center/back of the trailer as is in order for the chains to not drag. need a beefier rear suspension in the truck.

anywho, the tarp and tiedown method for the snowmobile trailer worked well and kept me from overloading it.


Just an idea here . It looks like you have aclass 2 or 3 hitch from what I can tell in the pictures . You could just get another slug to raize your trailer hitch for when you are hauling loaded like you are . I do this on my F250 when I am hauling a cord on that with another 1 + on my car hauler . then instead of me useing a 6 inch drop I use a straight slug .
 
bogydave said:
I have the similar truck, well 06 tundra but not step side.
I have a 3500 lb trailer 6-1/2' wide, 10 feet long 26" sides. Which filled level will "physically" hold a cord. But it starts to fishtail when towing over 45 mph.
Loaded with birch (green) about 5,000 lbs/cord.
I just hauled 1.5 cords in 1 trip from a highway project. (trailer a little over full on the front (tongue weight heavy to help not fishtail)
Split, stacked & measured (198 cubic feet) the last load (which was a little lighter than previous loads )
The truck will hold just over 1/3 cord if I load it just a little above the sides. (but the head lights point to the moon)
The trailer had over a cord, I was over loaded a little so I drove 40-45 all the way. Spring almost bottomed out on the trailer & was real careful on bumps & heaves.

All this is to say, your snowmachine trailer will haul 1,000 lbs max, your truck will haul what you can safely fit in the bed.
so if you take some straps, & drive slow 3/4 cords or just a bit less would be a pretty good load.

PS Inflate the truck tires to the max (45-50 psi) before loading that much weight, I was lucky & had a battery air compressor to fill the tires, they looked
almost flat. & take a piece of plywood to put in the bed to cover the rear window glass & load the cab end of the bed heavier, ahead of the rear axle (some weight will be on the front tires that way)
When I stack it above the bed, I strap the front 2 rows down too (or any rows that need it). Don't want any rolling off or hitting the rear glass.

top right shows how much a PU various sizes will haul: (broken link removed to http://forestry.alaska.gov/pdfs/08BTUFirewoodHandout.pdf)

I have a similar trailer and it fishtails only when there's not enough weight on the front. If I move some weight forward it stops fishtailing.
 
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