Help me stop my stacks from falling over

Very cool and very creative. Nice work Sir.

 

Thank you very much for posting those pics. I might be able to do that in the same area my boy got his first buck.

 

I think hunting season is over; evidently the deer go into hiding during hunting season and come back out when it is over. If anyone wants to come and do some off season deer hunting, be my guest.

 

Sounds like your biggest issue is time. Depending on your pallet supply, I recommend just piling your wood on the pallets (or a paved surface) keeping it up off the ground until you are able to stack it properly using one of the many techniques outlined above. While it won't really start drying too well except on he surface, stacked loosely on pallets, it'll prevent losses to due rot and insects.

Once you're ready to stack, level your pallets first. I use cobblestones, old bricks and slate pieces. Get a level out to ensure it's good. When you support the pallets, support the corners and the middle of each side. The middle so when the pallets sag, they don't crack. I don't support the pallets under the middle of the pile as the sag in the middle only draws the two parallel rows closer to each other. Another thing I do is interconnect the two cribbed ends about every 18" of height and tie the two parallel rows together with 36-40" saplings. Had a few stacks tumble, probably due to my own laziness. Recently, I've been doing a lot better using the techniques outlined above.

 

I do the pallets and bookends, but also add a vertical pallet in the middle between the stacks.
I find that the pallet in the middle kind of locks into the rest of the stack and works against the shrinking and twisting that causes good stacks to turn evil.
I set the bottom pallet on patio pacers or pressure treated lumber only on the corners. This causes them to sag toward the middle of the pallet, forcing the stacks to lean inwards, counteracting the natural tendency for the outside ends to dry and shrink first. This also keeps the pallet from rotting out
I stack over three pallets in a row, with 12 foot steel roofing over the middle to keep leaves and snow out of the stack.

 

Looks like everyone hit the nail on the head. Level is number one, but settlement is kinda important. The one picture appears to show the pallet sitting on a crown, so I am not surprised it fell over. A little practice and planning and you will be fine.

 

Loaded before the next round of rain.
You'll notice the bite out of the right side that was meant for September.
Burning now and will probably have a fire tomorrow.
Just need to put the doors back on the backside and I'll get back to cutting.

 

Like others have said, my cribbing starts at the splitter, make like size pieces (and shaped). Throw the best to the side of your pile from splitting and start your end with them. Start about a foot or two high. Fill in some wood to same height 4 or 5 feet long, the length of the skid. All should be solid stable right now. Replace/refit any wobbly crib ends if needed. Repeat the same thing up another couple feet, if the base is solid the top is too. You get to the point, as you look at the wood in your wheelbarrow, you can see where the piece should go should go.

 

I don't have time to crib. And I get the skids for free.
My 2018-19 stack
(skids are 5' 5" square. takes 5 skids. 3.25 cords)
Top covered with roofing rubber

 

Very nice. I have a couple ends like that also.

 

The wind was really whipping and flipped the rubber up

 

I got some of this rubber stuff last week, its this diamond tread rubber, kinda neat stuff but I think it does need a few bits of board to keep it from getting sunk in from the rain. About 3 feet wide, i got my accurate representation of a cord top covered. Maybe I need to show the Savage?

 

No low spots

 

I have been stacking along a chain link fence so seldom have a stack fall over because I make sure it leans into the chain link. A couple of years back I cut down some fence buster trees and they were so close to the fence I left the stumps fence height. Now I am using the stumps as intermediate supports along the length of the stack and the fence as the back so not much even tries to fall over.
This is one of the stumps before I started to use it as an intermediate support.

 

damm moles!! This was perfectly stacked and I noticed a lean yesterday. It fell about an hour ago while I was outside.

 

Moles knocked your stack over?!?
That's some badazz moles!!





Sorry to hear about your falling stack, BCB!

 

They walked right up to it and pushed it over! lol

They tunnel in that part of the yard so the ground got real soft. We also had some strong winds a few days ago so that combo did in my stack.