What do you do? Postpone, cover, let it get wet? My next 3 days is packed with deliveries and it’s supposed to rain. It’s cold (for the south) and folks want wood when they want it. I was already stressing and just took another order that wants it asap.
I believe I would cover it, seems that would be best for the customer if it may be going from the truck directly to the stove.
Like you Chud, I worry about the same thing. Because I have mine on pallets and it is movable, I move it into a covered lean-to if the delivery is coming soon. I think it makes a strong impression when you deliver dry wood after a raining day.
I cover pretty religiously, so if it were me I’d treat it like I’d want to get it, covered until delivery, then it’s their choice. Delivery in the pouring rain would definitely get postponed though.
Let the customer decide if they want dry wood or wet wood. Tell them you would prefer that they get dry wood and postpone delivery until they can. I don't deliver so all my wood is covered. If rain is forecast soon when a customer picks up I tell them to cover it or get it under roof because they won't be happy if they try and burn wet wood.
On my way back from the first. Watching radar and dodging showers is working so far. Got a nice tip. I have a few hours to get another one in before the rain is back. Rolling Nashville style
Ifs its raining when i have to load ill postpone. Folks are understanding for the most part. Ive loaded the night before and covered the load in the truck for the night and delivered the next day. If you are willing to work and folks dont mind getting rained on wood go for it. I dont mind a light rain/drizzle but anything heavier i postpone. I hate wearing raingear. Ive bought a package of cheap thin plastic painters drop cloths and have covered a delivery with it after i dropped it. Not 100% dry but the effort looks good on your part.
Oh yeah! Make the bucks Chud Only one of my BL regulars has gotten his delivery. Two cords sold so far. Expecting the others to cal;l soon.
I set one nice split aside for myself. The rest went to a deserving family. I don’t remember getting a BL of any size but it must have happened sometime in 2019.
The customer got around 10 splits of it. There may be more further down the rack. It’s been almost entirely red oak until I got into the patch of BL. Delivering to the foothills today. It must be hard to find decent firewood if folks are paying me to drive an hour one way.
Only if I could get $300 per face cord. So far it’s just an exercise in making less than minimum wage and giving the wood away.
If it’s raining today and I’m delivering tomorrow, I will cover what’s going out the door. Other than that, it’s just surface moisture and will dry out in a day typically.
I use to watch the weather like a hawk and work my delivery schedule around rain. Not any more. Typically have 2-4 face cords to delivery everyday from mid-October, so delaying deliveries I believe would lose more customers than delivering wet wood. I almost always load the day before between 2-7Pm, so that provides me a good window for loading when dry. I then park my truck in the garage and tarp the trailer. If a customer needs some dry wood, I put a dozen pieces on the back seat of my truck. Since most of my deliveries are in the 60-75 mile range, have found anything wet is always dry by the time I arrive from 55-60 mph created wind. When delivering in the rain, I peel back the tarps a little when loading my wheelbarrow and I cover the wheelbarrow with a bath towel. If some of the wood is wet, I stack it on the bottom and the driest stuff goes on top. Nashville Tractor is a new customer of mine (a party site seeing tourist thing), you can see the bottom stuff is wet and the top is dry. Finally, guessing around 40% or so of my customers don't cover their firewood. So why fret when they let it get wet?
Finally received a tip from a restaurant customer. Nashville Tractor contacted late in the afternoon and I had them their load at 10am the next morning as they were firing up their smoker with the last pieces of hickory limb rounds. Previous supplier ran out of wood. The biggest sin in the firewood business. And these new customers are paying up to get my stuff on a regular basis.
