Kevin in Ohio , a friend was telling me that he was going to buy a cord of wood to burn for 200 delivered. He's not like us FHC'ERS and not a regular burner, just a fire pit guy. I asked a"full cord, or a face cord". He said full cord, then after he talked to the guy he found out that it was a pickup bed full. Which prompted a ton of questions from me as we all know that that's a slippery slope. I screenshotted one of those loads you posted in the maroon truck sent it to him and said, this is a true full cord of wood. I loaded our old "Whitey" 94 Chevy 3/4 ton 2wd 8' bed up like that once, but it was ~4' long logs that I stacked up on end against it's ladder rack. It was a lot of poplar, so not quite as heavy per sqft as the hardwood you've got, but with the extra height due to the rack I had the springs squished about like yours. Not fun driving like that.
I remember on those loads I was stacking and 4 loads came real close to 5 cord. Actually by weight it would stack out more than that once split as you can see those are mainly all large solid rounds. I tend to stuff the boiler house full for the Winter but I was trying to get as much of that ash in as I could to save double handling. Dad standing next to it for scale. Off road with loads just let it creep in low lock. Did have both sets of brake lines blow at once coming down the hill behind the house which was interesting. You always need to drive with an escape path in mind and use the emergency brake. Here is Dad's old one Dodge from years ago when we came home for lunch.
Stairstep roll with one person. Stack the smaller ones on the ground behind and end over end in. Tricks of the trade when you don't have a loader handy. The pics of the brown truck was when we had a gas pipeline put a line down an old railroad right of way. We didn't own the line that ran through but they told us we could take whatever we wanted as they were going to clear it all and burn it. We had a month and a half to get as much as we could working weekends and spare time. Loaded all the big rounds and put them in the barn to split on rainy days. We ended up having 170 cord under roof that year. We'd go through nearly 3 gallon of bar oil a day between the 2 of us. This shed was completely full with 80 cord in there alone.
I've got a 1949 Willys 4x4 wagon thats tucked in the barn, half-built, maybe I'll someday get to finish that. It's Ford powered (I'm a Ford guy at heart), It'll be my primary treework vehicle when completed... For now, I have my toy for occasional fun. My 1971 Maverick Grabber. It was a 54,000mi car when I bought it 6 years ago. She's got lots of upgrades including a roller 306 motor and 5-speed manual trans, the body and interior are mostly original, it's been repainted to its factory suit in Calypso Coral. She's a blast to drive...
That was just one of the barns we stored in. Another barn This barn had about 40 cord but a renter's mother decide to toss her cigarette butt in the grass near the barn. No electric in the barn on a warm calm day. Just a freak thing it started on the side where she walk the dog everyday. We had 6 barns we stored in and 2 larger grain bins we stacked to the top. Can't stand to let wood sit out and rot.
My 2007 GMC is rusted like it's been on the bottom of the ocean for 75 years. Does that count? Planning on replacing it with a vintage truck or two. They last and when they brake, they are easy to work on.
That's a cool truck in that first pic. I have to ask. How many homes are you heating with all this wood. I assume all homes have boilers. Even in the Midwest or north that's a LOT of wood!
Two homes that wood is the complete heat source of and 2 shops that we fire up stoves when we are working in there. Probably less than 4 cord a year in those. I have a boiler and heat a 36' x 50' 2 story farm hose with full basement and 36' x 50' attached garage. I've averaged 13 cord. Dad's house is a Brick ranch about 30' x 40' with full basement. He made his own stove and is tank over tank design. He uses about 7 or 8 a year. Yes, we do have a bag log(pun intended) but it's a nice problem to have. That is why I want the wood under roof. Some has been "drying" for 20 years. LOL
Wow! Nice to have that much fuel banked for the future. Get sick or injured and can't do the work, your covered. Another Great Recession & prices skyrocket, you're good to go. Can't beat that. 20 years... No issues with insects getting in it? Powder Post Beatles would be a problem around here.
We try to cycle it through and yes you get some bugs but they burn up to eventually. LOL Better to be ahead than worry about that. Growing up we had to scrunge as we didn't have our own land. We got a good reputation from people who we did clean ups for and cleaning fencerows and people started calling us. Now we can't keep up with our own fall downs and dead cuts. As I said, all nice problems to have.
‘84 with 3” lift and 33’s Not bad shape for Iowa roads and it’s interesting the comments I get about an old rough truck. And my boys enjoyed shoveling the driveway last winter too
This is my oldest "hauler", a '63. Once I was done with the resto, she was too damm pretty to use as intended.
