Ok, you woodpilers, if you were to buy a big truck load (18-wheeler log truck or triaxle), how does the logger determine how much wood he is bringing you? Is this just a rudimentary estimation of his normal 'truckload' or is it by weight or how do they do it? If it's by weight, I wonder what chart/scale they use? If weight, where do they weigh it? Do they have their own scales or run to the mill and say, "Hey, I just need a weight, gimme a number." Or do they just assume "a truckload is about x-number of cords?" I have never known anyone around here to buy a truckload but I am curious about this; I have read of this quite often online as rather common in eastern states. I also have read that whatever size load (numbers of cords), you will end up with less when it is split and stacked, so, this is all quite nebulous until you guys spill the beans! EDIT: I *know* they sell it by the truckload and as being x-number of cords. I am asking how do they determine what a x-number of cords is? Is it by weight or volume or do they just eyeball it?
It's by the cord, most semi loads around here are 12 cords, I know the guy I got mine from so he overloaded a little and I got 13. But it will always be figured by cord and most will only deliver a full truck. That's a 13 cord load of red oak and ash with a little maple.
When the loggers were selectively cutting our property this summer, they offered to leave firewood logs in 5 cord increments. The center mount trailer they were using hauled 10 cord of 16' logs, 5 up front, 5 at the rear, and they had marks on the bunks 12" or 18" from the top which is what they filled to.
A cord is 4x4x8, a trucker knows on his trailer how much a cord fills up and the approximate weight per cord if they overload it they can get dinged by the DOT and they get fined per hundred pounds they are over limit. But if they under load it they are wasting time and fuel so you would be surprised how accurate they are.
I think it is out east (?) that some truckers sell by weight....and I also think it led to quite the spirited conversation. Around here, as Redneckchevy already pointed out, it is sold by the cord. But Yawner is asking how it is arrived at the amount whether it is by weight or volume I think (without reading the post for a third time....) I hate to use the word "estimate" but after how many years of loggers loading, hauling and unloading day after day after day, they have a pretty precise and dammed good idea of how much wood is on the truck. If you feel you're shorted, hire another logger.
Hey Yawner are you going to sell some of that firewood you've fallen into? Measure it up before its loaded and hauled.
I’d think the trucker would have to have a good idea whats on the truck and then see the results of that load after it was cut, split, stacked, measured and the number of cord calculated. At least once.
Do you agree that a stack of logs in a rack, the volume defined by that rack, will yield a different volume of cord wood? A volume defined as splits tightly stacked? I think there’s a definition here on the site as to what a cord is. Logs and trucks aren’t in that definition. So what is the conversion, a tri axle of logs to cords of wood? That’s another way to ask the question. I thought i saw it. Now it’s a counting and measuring effort. That’s still just the perfect volume of a stick. Doesn’t account for gaps or the fact that for area, a circle is the most efficient shape on a ratio of area to perimeter. Something the triangle or split can’t compete with. I don’t think math is the only tool to get the best answer to this question.
Conversion to C/S/S/firewood wasn't the question. Was it ? Regardless, it's not hard to calculate kerf cut loss and addd a typical/average slide for splitter loss by calculating the volume of crap left when done splitting. Most truck loads of logs are sold as estimates of a volume (7 to 8) (10 t0 12, etc) depending on trailer size due to variations in logs size diameters, lack of straightness of the logs and the resultant variation in air spaces between those logs. Someone good with excel could input the maths required to make those varying estimates that someone with years of experience just from doing the rudimentary math they've done for years. A driver with a lot of experience hauling could tell you he had a load on the heavy/light side just from the extra effort required to stop and take off. He would be using math to make the comparisons load to load. He might not be using exact numbers to make the calculations but he's using rate of change functions nonetheless.
Last year was my first year buying truck loads. 7 cord truck loads. I got 2 loads a month apart I just sold the last bit and I had just about 13 cords go out from those trucks. I was pretty happy with that. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Around here it's volume. A "bush" cord is the term used here for logs loaded at 8' in length as in Redneckchevy 's pic. I got a 20 cord load last spring & it will stack out to about 17cord after processing.
