Hauling a skid steer and firewood?

I find so many ads for free wood, buy you need a skid steer to load it, unless you want to take half a day and break it down where it is. I have a 4,000 lb bobcat, but how do you carry the bobcat AND the firewood? Some of these scores would be 2-4 cord. I feel like a semi with a grapple is probably the ideal way.

 

What do you have for a trailer for your bobcat?

 

Tree companies have grapple trucks and some have 2 ton dumps trailering a skid steer or articulating loader.

 

Chvymn99 has his system dialed in pretty well bringing his tractor with grapple on site, and coming home with both the machine and the wood.

 

One suggestion would be haul the skid steer load a dump trailer go home dump then go back for the skid steer
The other way would be to have a roll off (tow truck) for the skid steer and pull a dump trailer with the flat bed

 

A 30+ft gooseneck might be where I'd start if i already had the supporting truck.

 

I’d love to see your setup.

 

I have an f250, not diesel.

I have been using my brother’s 22ft 7 ton equipment trailer. The axles are too far back to carry wood and the bobcat together.

 

If you put 10’ logs on the trailer and the bobcat on back what’s the problem
Is the truck squatting too much?

 

The axles are far enough back that we can carry 30 and 40 ft logs. The 30’s balance well, but the 40’s require a few shorter pieces up front to get the tongue weight back.

 

We tried that with my brother’s cummins and the tongue weight was still pretty heavy. The axles are too far back to get it to balance out.

 

What is your set up?

 

Too much tongue weight will make the front of the pickup too light, steering will be atrocious, braking dangerous & the probability of fishtailing/whipping even at slow speeds will be monumental.
Trailers like that need be loaded carefully to ensure proper balance, they are really easy to overload.

 

A two trip scenario is your best option with out upgrading, at least in my opinion.

I pull a similar trailer with my 97 F-250 hauling my brothers Deere 333G
( 12,000 + ) machine. If it isn’t loaded just right, things get exciting quickly.

It gets hairy enough trying to haul the loader, puller, grapple & a bucket, I wouldn’t want to try & haul logs/firewood as well.

 

If you could find an old short wood skidder to modify and or rob grapple off of then you could build a custom firewood hauler with sides for behind the truck but would be some work to do it.

 

The bigger the score, the bigger and more equipment to deal with it. Or the bigger the labor bill.
Even with more equipment the time and effort is increased. Hooking up trailer, loading machine, chaining or otherwise securing equipment. Drive to the scene, unchain, unload. Gather and load the bounty. ( how are you unloading?). Possibly re hook trailer,? Reload the machine and secure. Return home, unchain, unload, park and unhook trailer. It all takes time.
The beauty of more and bigger gear is the ability to move significantly more product in a smaller time frame and significantly less physical exertion. Then once you have gathered all your plunder you can deal with it at your leisure

 

Exactly, that’s what I am trying to do. My bobcat is only 4,000 lbs, so it’s not THAT heavy or bulky. If we could convert the trailer to a gooseneck, it would be perfect. My truck will easily take 4k on the bed. I wouldn’t put more than 1/4 of that on the hitch.

 

I'm dealing with the same issue. Only mine is for loading out customers wood if they want to come get it . I only have the one ctl at this point so for longer /heavier wood and a customer that wants 3 or 4 cord loaded. I need my machine to load them . And to load out in the woods . I have a 26' Tri Axle gooseneck trailer. But still don't have much spare weight capacity for a 5,000 lb cord of wood and 9,600 lbs of loader and attachments. . My F350 is a gas and for some reason it's only rated as around 18,000 lb towing capacity. To keep the weight within a legal limit I only haul the ctl and attachments as a load . No wood . Really need a 2nd machine . Thinking about a Chinese mini excavator or mini skidsteer.