Measuring Firewood To Sell

I have some wood that I want to sell. I'm a little confused about selling a 1/2 cord or cord of wood. I know how many cuft they are but I don't know how to efficiently measure them out. I don't want to have to stack every stick of wood I sell. I want to be fair to the people I am selling the wood to and myself. Any ideas would be appreciated.

 

I know some sellers around here do stack n measure , because if someone gets shorted it costs to much time and money to get back out there and make it right

 

However you get to 128 cu ft is your cord of wood. Swags is right in finding a way to measure your wood prior to loading and then "loose loading" your truck. A premeasured loose load can then be used as a standard load when you get going on a regular basis.
The people you don't know may want to see a "stacked load". This is a tight fitting load of wood in your truck that can easily be measured and counted.
Either way, as HD said, you try to eliminate return trips after the homeowner has stacked his delivery and found it to be short.

 

I've even tried counting the splits in a "face".
Since the sizes vary so much, that number can be pretty inconsistent.
If you use a pickup to deliver, load that up as you would for a customer with a known quantity and see how it looks.
Should be able to get close time after time.

 

as much work as it is, i stack a full cord in the truck before i go deliver. i also stack the first load a new customer buys for free in order to gain trust.
sorry, i am picture happy today.

 

Man, I love that truck.
That's a good practice when dealing with a new customer.

 

it may be good practice, but it sucks! it takes me every bit of an hour to unload and stack that cord. i feel they do appreciate it tho.
i dont really want to be selling wood any more...

 

Yeah, I couldn't do it, but I know a guy older than me still doing it.
An hour to stack a cord?
I'd be dead at that pace. I'm good for about 1/3 cord an hour.

 

trying to make a buck. the height of the bed hurts. and it takes me ~6 hours to go from vertical trees to stacked splits in the truck. and thats selling fresh split. to heck with stacking, seasoning, and then moving into the truck again. the only way to make decent money doing this i think is to have a tree service drop cut rounds off to you. plus i am tired of people arguing with me about seasoned wood. it hasnt been cut long enough, its too dry, why did you keep the bark, etc... i hate people! now i sell fresh split, cut to order, only oak unless other is requested, clean wood with no rot or bugs. a few appreciate that and now i only sell 3-5 cords a year. good enough for me. i got other plans in the works anyways...

 

Thanks for all the replies and thanks for the welcome Dennis.

The truck I will delivering the wood with is a 1 ton truck with a dump. My original idea is similar to what most of you guys said. I'm going to setup and area 4'x4' and stack my 16'' wood in there 3 times for a 1/2 cord. Then I am going to load it on to a pick up with an 8' bed to see what a 1/2 cord looks like. I'm pretty sure a 8' pick up load thrown on is a 1/2 cord. Once I see what a 1/2 cord looks like on the truck I can load it onto the other truck. I'll use this truck with the 8' be as my measuring device. I will also be able to load the wood onto this truck with the tractor which will speed up the process. I will still have to throw it onto the delivery truck though. I had 2 people contact me about wood today and I think the one guy wants a cord.

 

I'm surprised that people are interested this early in the season. I had 3 people contact me today.

 

I think some people are upping their game after the hard winter last year

 

I'll be happy to sell them wood. Like every year, I hear people saying it is going to be a bad winter.

 

I made it through last winter just fine but, but because of the hard winter last year I am getting things ready sooner and making double sure I don't get caught with my pants down

 

Sorry, I tried to quote but the site keeps locking up and erroring out.
The loose cord deal doesn't work out. I've tried getting around not stacking in the truck... It would save A TON of time and work. I deliver on average 10-15 cords a week to give an idea. I could easily sell double that, just only so much time.

I just stack in the truck. I did the math a while back, 4 rows to a cord in my little truck, 2 in my big truck.

 

Over 500 cord/year? That is allotta wood. No wonder you are up so early! You need to increase price if you cant meet demand. If you maintain a quality product you can benifit HEAP$.

 

I bought wood from two different guys the first year I had a stove, before I got started scrounging. Neither delivered the agreed amounts the first time, but at least the second guy made it right after I complained. Of course it was all advertised as seasoned, and actually ranged from half-seasoned to soaking wet. It was a disappointing first winter as a woodburner. Still, I can't think of a way to process and deliver wood such that someone like me would be happy with the quantity, quality and price, and also have the seller make enough for it to be worth his while, all at the same time. Even honest sellers are vulnerable to being underpriced by dishonest competitors and to they unpredictable expectations of customers who don't know anything about firewood. In my (urban) area I suspect most firewood sellers are tree services trying to reduce disposal expenses, and otherwise would do something more rewarding... like maybe work at McDonald's.

To the OP's original question, Maine recognizes a loose-thrown cord measurement as an alternative to stacking. The volume of a loose-thrown cord depends on the length of the splits, because piles of long splits tend to have more air space. Maine law specifies that a loose-thrown cord of 12-16" splits is 180 cubic feet, and it goes to 195 cubic feet if the splits are 24" long.