This is stupid and kinda just for fun, but I wanted some opinions: I have three large piles of logs on my property. One is about 30 feet from my wood shed, one is about 350 feet away and the third is around 500 feet away. All are very easy to get to with my tractor and bucket loader. This is all wood for 2021-22 and beyond, so there's no race to get it done here, just a point of contention. Most of this wood still needs bucking to length, so there's some processing prior to splitting. Probably 3-5 cords in each pile. My son, who is 16 and knows everything there is to know, he is an expert on all matters (no, I'm not being sarcastic! what gave you that idea?) is insisting that we need to bring the log splitter to each pile and split there, load the splits into the tractor bucket and drive them to the wood shed and dump them into a big pile for stacking later. That way stacking can be done quietly after dark with the help of a couple LED floodlights and some music piped into the BT headphones. We will have to move the splitter multiple times and handle the splits twice, but the job can be done easily with two people and also fairly easily (but takes much longer) with a single person. My plan is to bring the rounds to the splitter, which will remain stationed at the wood shed, so that they can be split right off the bucket and then taken from the splitter tray and stacked immediately. This might mean more trips (since you can't easily pile rounds above the top of the bucket but I do it all the time with splits), and would be an ideal operation for three people (one splitting, one driving the tractor and loading rounds at the pile, and one stacking). If it doesn't get stacked immediately, it'll jam up the operation. Also harder to do any work after dark. You technically have to handle the rounds twice (load the bucket & then load the splitter) but the splits only once (off the tray & stack). This can also be done very leisurely as a solo operation (load a bucket with rounds, split it, stack it) one bucket at a time. I honestly don't know which idea I like better but I'd like to put Mister Know-It-All in his place (never mind invoking the Dad rule). What say you o mighty hoarders of the firewood? What method would you pick?
I think bringing the wood to the splitter at the woodshed and stacking immediately would be more efficient. Both would involve 3-4 touches I think but yours means it’s done quicker. No going back to stack.
My take. Buck up the piles and split where they are. Throw the splits in the bucket, right off the splitter,not stacked and dump at the wood shed for your son to stack later. Yes you can get more in the bucket by stacking but more time to do. If you pull the splitter up to the rounds and tractor to the other side you can throw right into the bucket.
I like your plan better...more tractor trips (winning ) trump's more manual handling. (and bending over) If the women don't find ya handsome, let them at least find ya handy! Or, work smart, not hard! Edit: this assumes you can scoop most of the wood from the piles, not hand load.
It's almost a horse a piece. Now, what about clean up from the splitting process? If you can split in the woods, or where you don't need to clean up, then there's an efficiency in not having to do that. Also, I like to lose as much bark as possible before stacking. If you split at the piles, then throw them in the tractor bucket, you might lose a little more bark in the bucket which can be disposed of easily. There's a lot of variables.
Or option number 3: Get pallet forks for your tractor. bring splitter to logs and cut/split and stack on pallets.
If day light is an issue and the stacking can be done by setting up lighting near the wood shed easily enough, I think that's the way to go. Are you looking to see what you can get done in the fewest amount of hours or the fewest amount of days? More than one way to look at time when light is a factor.
Cut rounds on site load into bucket and bring to splitter split and stack seems like the most efficient way much less bending over to pick up wood.
My "two cents": reduce moving small pieces as much as possible (i.e. move BIG stuff, not little). And so... in theory, drag multiple logs to the wood shed per trip and cut/split/stack there. Those iron ore carriers on Lake Superior are BIG for a reason. They built oil tankers to carry 2 million barrels of crude at a time for a reason... I suppose that means I have to trade in my Astro van which carries my firewood for a tractor trailer!
Buy a short length of chain and log tongs. Move logs with tongs on bucket to splitter at shed. Buck split and stack all at same area.
Set up the splitter at the wood shed and let your son do the splitting and stacking while you bring the rounds from the piles of logs you have. You can even enjoy running your chainsaws.
First and foremost I want to support you in your battle with mister know it all. I have the same battle with my son (21) all the time. Most times I am happy to be working the pile myself. Otherwise, he's just like my dad, telling me I'm doing it all wrong. That said, if he's willing to do the work after the sun goes down for you (and actually do the work), then I'd let him do it his way. The one thing I'll do with my son is giving him the chance if he'll actually do the work. My problem has been follow-through with my son. If he's not going to follow-through, and you end up doing it, then you do it your way.
I don't mean to be whiney at all, really don't but upon coming back to this thread the second time, it struck me... if I had a son willing to work and he didn't agree with my assessment of how to do it, I might just go along with his way. I don't have children and the 'loss' of not having any gets worse as I age. A better 'solution' might be to make it kind of a fun experiment and do it half his way and half your way and see which way wins just out of curiosity.
For efficiency I prefer to place splits in the bucket and stack them right off to save from picking them up off the ground. That could be done no matter where the splitter is located, but I usually bring the logs or rounds to my dedicated processing area. It helps my body tremendously to not be in one position for long so that really breaks it up and I think it saves a lot of extra handling. I’ve brought the splitter to a couple really big ones that were just too hard to move until split but I still stacked as I split. Throwing splits into a pile to be stacked later never made sense to me. It’s just another step added to the process unnecessarily unless you really like handling wood.
Given that for many tasks there's often more than one way to skin a cat, I usually go with the one that has less impact on my lower back. Sometimes it doesn't matter how you do as long a s you do .