Happy Easter everyone! I was recently visiting some family and I was asked to help clear a grove of ice damaged trees. Wondering if anyone has hired a semi with a log trailer before and cost? I have heard anywhere from 12-24 cords can fit on a tractor trailer. Be about a 150 mile round trip. I have a chance to get about 4 years ahead =)
I've had a tractor haul for me before but it was only a few miles and a friend owned the rig. I don't know if you can get that much on a trailer though, maybe a bigger one. But I think the guys that get log loads delivered get around 8 cord in a load.
Good question. $100 to $150 per hour is my guess. Usually time is from when they leave their yard to when they get back. That's got to be a good way to go if you can find a log loading rig near you.
Do you have a tractor or something to skid the logs to a landing? Maybe you could be better off selling the logs there to a firewood processor and using the proceeds to buy a load closer to your house.
Hopefully something works out, I have a few favors to try and call in. There are going to be some large excavators and I have access to a few large FEL's and grapple. Good thought on the firewood processors, but I have seen what the locals sell around here and it is less than impressive. Some of the trees are walnut, maple and ash and have plenty of straight/large diameter trunks to get a lot of nice board length out of.
Log trucks aren't exactly standard but generally a load is about 10 cords. All depends on setup. Many places consider a cord to be 5-6k lbs of logs. Figure on 50kish capacity for a 5 axle setup with log loader and 80k CGVWR.
If you have access to a big FEL, you might be better off at least blocking on site and then finding a triple axle dump to move it. Unless you know someone, it seems like you would be very low on the priority list for a log truck where getting access to a dump truck should be fairly easy. For that matter, Hertz will rent you one if you have access to someone with a CDL.
I am starting to think maybe stacking everything in log length and hauling 2-3 cords at a time home with the one ton and the 18ft trailer might be an option. I might have a spot 2 miles down from the site to pile up logs, only barrier is that I would have to move the logs off site and re stack. I am guessing the logs would last a long time in log length stacked off the ground? Could process up the wood 8-10 cords a year. This by far is a wood hoarders dream, but also the biggest single job I have ever had the chance at. Wife says I should leave it as a dream with the short time frame, that this project has and the family rifles that are going to be caused by this grove getting taken out. Ugh! Regardless, I ordered up a new 36" bar for the 910 and a 28" with skip tooth for the 2171. =)
All depends on your truck and trailer. One thing to load heavy and go 10 miles, but 150 is a bit of a trip. Figure roughly 5k lbs a cord. A heavy duty 12-14k equipment trailer would be ok.
Thanks, that is the case. 14k. Last fall I had a long haul with the smaller trailer, a tire blew out on a pot hole and bent the axle real bad. Put the jack under it, borrowed a farmers cutting torch heated it up, jumped on it until the axle was straight and slammed the spare on. The rest of the way home was hot tounge and cold shoulder from the better half.
I have a 14k trailer and a 2 cord load is a good one. I've hauled a few of those and they pull good as long as you keep the majority of the weight on the tongue. I had 1 last year loaded heavy on the back and that led to a jackknifed trailer after hitting an icy spot.
No direct answer for you, but maybe some ideas. My wife works for a logging company, but it is rare to send firewood this far, so she doesn't have a good idea of the price. On a local haul (40 mi round trip), with the trucker doing the loading, it is about $325 for a 12 cord load (truck and pup trailer). They send pulp (hardwood and softwood) to a paper mill and it costs $19/ton for a 220 mi round trip, including loading (truck and pup). She thinks it holds 35 ton. They also send logs to Canada on semis doing back-hauls. Her company hires a local trucker to do the loading with his truck's loader ($50) - usually this is wood that was stacked at the trucker's yard, so the charge is just for the loading.
Those costs (and destinations) are exactly in line with what I saw when we were logging our land in southern VT 2 years ago. Trucking eats right into the profitability if you are cutting low value timber. It isn't cost effective for the buyer to haul firewood very far.
I'm not sure about log trucking, but most truckers charge by the mile...and that can vary pretty widely from $1.50 to $3.50 depending on if they can get backhaul (don't come back empty...and they will be coming back empty). Then there are detention charges. Most trucking companies give you 1-2 hours to load and and another 1-2 to unload (varies widely as well)...anything over that you get charged by the hour. If you're not loading/unloading with a grapple or sizeable loader you're going to break the bank in detention fees.
Appreciate your guys input and ideas, there are lots of wheels turning. I wish work was not so busy right now! Couple thoughts, there is a lot of walnut, maple, ash which are all very sizable with straight trunks. Maybe some of that being sold on market or to a sawmill will offset the costs of hauling? I know around here if you get the rootball and all from a walnut they are valuable to stock makers. I am plenty fine with the ugly trees for firewood. Anyone from northern Iowa or Southern MN on here?
If you are hauling yourself you will be spending around $65-75 a load. If you carry 2.5 cords at $75/load = $30/cord So ... 8 cord truck = $240 is break, not counting wear & tear on your truck & trailer. 12 cord truck with pup = $360 load. Even if they charge you a more, if they have a grapple & you don't have a loader to load with, it would be worth it to me to have it loaded & hauled.
Thought I would give an update to this old thread, sorry guys its been way too long since I have been on! Wound up buying a used 15K 22 foot trailer. Brought 9 saws and two helpers over the course of 3 weekends and hauled 20 full log loads back up. A lot of ash and walnuts were saved from the burn pile and wrath of the excavator. Cost about 30 gallons a trip but we wound up with a nice stack for the saw mill and a big pile of logs for cutting up firewood. Wound up being a true blessing, now I just take the forks on the skid steer with logs and lop them up and split. Found some very creative loading and unloading techniques along the way with skidsteers and 30+" diameter logs, but if there is a will there is a way!
