This is a first for me....I'm buying log length.

[Beetle-Kill]

I've had zero time to scrounge or get out and drop-n-haul wood this summer, so I'm having a load delivered. 19-20 cord of log length for $1400., all Lodgepole. I've talked with numerous loggers this summer and most agree that it cost's them about $50. per cord to get the wood out of the hills before final destination. This guy has to drive 1-1/2 hours one way just to get it to me, so I'm thinking this is a pretty fair price.
I've never measured a load to guess what the net result would be, but the lengths are averaged out at 45', and 10"- 16" diam. If the load works out to close to the 19 cord mark, I'll have him drop off another load and I won't have to think about heat for a while. Nor will my deserving neighbors. So...
How do I toss a tape on this incoming load to figure out how much wood is there? Is there a rough formula to throw a flex tape around a load and say -"it's X diam. and Y length, so it should be Z net"? Thanks, JB.

 

[Applesister]

Im sure there are forester formulas for those things but if its straight lodgepole and the truck is dropping 20 cords. There must be a green weight per cord. I bet there is a DEC chart somewhere.

 

[Applesister]

It would be helpful to know GVW of truck. Theres a junk scale down in the Port of Albany but...cant imagine the scale goes up that high.

 

[Beetle-Kill]

Not green wood in this area, 99% beetle-kill. The loggers are clearing out vast areas of dead-standing. I don't know, maybe 50T per load at most.

 

[Applesister]

Oh...no...not you guys too.

 

[Ashful]

Good idea, Applesista'. Lodgepole is 29 lb./cu.ft., but that does NOT multiply out to an ideal 4992 lb./cord at 128 cu.ft./cord, since you have to take into account stacking density. Most sites listing density by cu.ft. and cords estimate 85 cu.ft. of wood per cord, putting split and stacked lodgepole at roughly 2500 lb./cord. Ask him if he has a weigh slip.

Another method is the DBH method. There are calculations to how many cords of wood are in a given tree by its diameter @ breast height (DBH) measurement. I have not seen such a table for Lodgepole, though.

edit: just saw the comment about not green. Washington State University has a table putting Lodgepole seasoned (20%) at 2610 lb./cord. The numbers above were from Engineering Toolbox. Obviously, one is not correct, or WSU is assuming a lot more than 85 cu.ft. of wood in a stacked cord.

 

[Beetle-Kill]

Sorry,- meant 25T per load, not 50 ton.

 

[Applesister]

Sorry phone is acting up. You could just ask if the driver wil honor any difference in cordage. Its what I would ask.
It would take me years css that much wood. It would be years before I realized I got screwed.

 

[Ashful]

Sorry,- meant 25T per load, not 50 ton.

25T = 19.2 cord, according to the WSU paper.

http://ext.wsu.edu/forestry/resources/index/documents/firewoodselection.pdf

 

[Applesister]

Its a good thing to do though, help to process the infected plots of land. It seems firewood processing would be a good solution.

 

[Applesister]

25T = 19.2 cord, according to the WSU paper.

http://ext.wsu.edu/forestry/resources/index/documents/firewoodselection.pdf

Great work!

 

[Ashful]

Great work!

Hey... it was your good idea, in the first place! I just punched the numbers.

 

[Beetle-Kill]

Thanks Joful, that's a great starting point. I appreciate the link. JB
Applesister,- Oh yeah, we've had the beetle-kill for quite a while. I was hunting Elk this past weekend from 9-10.5K, all dead standing and no hope of harvesting that wood. BUT- new blue spruce and and other pines are springing up to replace them. It's a cycle, tough but natural.

 

[Woody Stover]

I've had zero time to scrounge or get out and drop-n-haul wood this summer,I was hunting Elk

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

But yeah, it would take a lot of time for me to get 20 cords. A little easier with lightweight dead Pine I guess, but still. You need that much for one season??

 

[Beer Belly]

All these numbers first thing in the morning.....now my head hurts

 

[Ashful]

...but still. You need that much for one season??

No clue on the OP, but I will say that when I burned 1.25 cord of Poplar last winter, I went thru the full 1.25 cord in 8 days. Softwood burns shamefully fast!

 

[mudr]

I did log loads this year for the first time, been burning for three years. I used to help my uncle in law cut for his needs, as well as other needs around the over sized hobby farm. In return I got firewood. Was a great deal, but took A LOT of time. Now with a kid, and moving half an hour away (it was already a 20 min drive), I switched to log loads. Got 1.5 loads this spring. One load from this guy is about 20 FACE cords, so I got about 30 FC. Let me tell you, I think it is definitely the sweet spot between scrounging and ordering pre split. It's half the price of pre split, and 1/3 the work of scrounging.

 

[930dreamer]

Post a pic of the logs and the truck when they arrive. I grew up in the PNW haven't seen a log truck in a while.

 

[Ashful]

Post a pic of the logs and the truck when they arrive. I grew up in the PNW haven't seen a log truck in a while.

 

[930dreamer]

I have a cool pic of my father in law at a local mill, I'll dig it out sometime.

 

[jeff_t]

I've had zero time to scrounge or get out and drop-n-haul wood this summer, so I'm having a load delivered.

And you said don't tell anyone

This is what a 20 cord load looks like in Michigan. With this axle configuration, the truck can legally gross 164k. If this load was dense hardwood, I'm sure it would be 200k+. That's lbs, not kg.

 

[Slow1]

And you said don't tell anyone

This is what a 20 cord load looks like in Michigan. With this axle configuration, the truck can legally gross 164k. If this load was dense hardwood, I'm sure it would be 200k+. That's lbs, not kg.

View attachment 114588

I'd like to see my neighbors faces if a truck like that started unloading in my yard. The pile might fully cover my front yard! I don't even want to know what my wife would do, ha!

 

[Beetle-Kill]

Day-yum Jeff, my back went out just looking at that picture.

Well, the load is coming one way or another. I think we'll wait until the ground freezes, don't need him to rut up the front or get stuck. I'm good until spring, most of this is for next year and a few neighbors.

 

[jeff_t]

I drove trucks like that, with dump bodies instead of log racks, for a lot of years. I put them in a lot of really messed up places that a 150,000 lb truck shouldn't be, but when I bumped into one of these guys on a two-track one day, I realized I had a bit more to learn. He was trimming a few inches off a log so he fit between two trees. That's truckin'

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Beetle, I'd probably trust the guy. The end result, after you buck it up will probably not match but should come close. I'd guess a bit less than in the log length but that should still be okay. I would ask the guy (but he'll probably do it anyway) to lay down a couple logs then stack the rest on top at the 90 degree angle. This will help you in bucking up the logs.