Short length wood extraction

[onyx landscaping/fencing]

grain trailer and some cheep labour would be my choice

[JamesWood]

Hi

 

Thanks for all the advice. We need to get the wood 7 miles to our yard. The wood is in 4ft lengths due to the large variability in size within the coupe. All the logs have been cut to a size at which they can be lifted by one person. Also as anyone who has over stood hazel will know if we left it in say 8ft lengths they would be amazingly wonky and mostly airspace when stacked. Anyway as a new business were always working on improving methods and there is plenty of room for improvement!

 

Options so far are

 

Pickup + trailer, 2.7t per trip, 5 trips a day. Hand loading + unloading. 22 trips total, 5 days total with 2 people.

 

Tractor + forwarding trailer, 10t per trip, 2-3 trips per day, 3 days total, hire costs for tractor, trailer +operator.

 

Extract wood to roadside with pickup+ trailer then load onto artic by hand.

 

Tractor + Grain trailer, difficult to load (high)

 

Tractor + flatbed, hand load + unload, 18t per trip, 2 trips per day.

 

There are 6 people in our coppicing group so labour is not a problem. Will get this all costed up tonight hopefully see whats good.

 

Thanks again

 

James

[woody paul]

Why not convert to logs in wood, straight on to trailer tip in yard job done. Handle once ??

[Pinkfoot]

Why not convert to logs in wood, straight on to trailer tip in yard job done. Handle once ??

 

Sounds efficient to me!

[onyx landscaping/fencing]

Hi

Tractor + Grain trailer, difficult to load (high)

 

 

get a tractor with loader just drop trailer off load with loader job done

[TobyAllen]

I think Woodypaul has hit it on the head.

[KLMLTD]

Hi James

 

Where are you roughly bases? We have an alpine tractor with a fast tow timber trailer supplied by Riko if you need a hand - we're based on the Hampshire/Surrey/Berkshire border.

 

Riko UK :: AGT 850 (50HP Bi-directional)

 

Riko UK :: Fast tow forwarding trailer

 

Cheers - Tim

[john k]

Pickup + trailer, 2.7t per trip, 5 trips a day. Hand loading + unloading. 22 trips total, 5 days total with 2 people.

 

Tractor + forwarding trailer, 10t per trip, 2-3 trips per day, 3 days total, hire costs for tractor, trailer +operator.

 

I think you may struggle to get 2.7t of 4ft length of hazel onto your pickup trailer, and if you do you'll find it a handful to get out of the woods unless your rides are in really good condition. Banking on five loads a day seems optimistic.

 

Similarly I think that you're very unlikely to get 10t of 4ft lengths onto a forwarding trailer, even with extra bolsters.

 

Processing on site would seem the best option if possible, otherwise forward to roadside in manageable loads with whatever machinery you have available then use the biggest truck or trailer that you can get to move it to the yard.

[muldonach]

Hi

 

Thanks for all the advice. We need to get the wood 7 miles to our yard. The wood is in 4ft lengths due to the large variability in size within the coupe. All the logs have been cut to a size at which they can be lifted by one person. Also as anyone who has over stood hazel will know if we left it in say 8ft lengths they would be amazingly wonky and mostly airspace when stacked. Anyway as a new business were always working on improving methods and there is plenty of room for improvement!

 

Options so far are

 

Pickup + trailer, 2.7t per trip, 5 trips a day. Hand loading + unloading. 22 trips total, 5 days total with 2 people.

 

That has each person handballing 13.5t per day, did you say it is already at roadside? Difficult to get that weight on to a trailer as well

 

Tractor + forwarding trailer, 10t per trip, 2-3 trips per day, 3 days total, hire costs for tractor, trailer +operator.

 

You will go mad trying to handle 4' lengths with a crane and stack them neatly, and you will need a big forwarding trailer to get 10t onto - the botex in the avatar has 5t on it. Biggest issue with such short lengths on a forwarder is keeping the load in if you are on a public road. You are unlikely to manage 3 trips a day either

 

Extract wood to roadside with pickup+ trailer then load onto artic by hand.

 

The artic will want paying for waiting time, and will possibly balk at taking such short lengths unless you are talking about a flatbed truck. you are also now handling the timber 3 times

 

Tractor + Grain trailer, difficult to load (high)

 

Use a loader tractor/ telehandler/ bobcat or digger to put the timber up, as others have said process it on site for this option

 

Tractor + flatbed, hand load + unload, 18t per trip, 2 trips per day.

 

Whatever else you do use a tipping trailer to avoid handling the timber twice by hand

 

There are 6 people in our coppicing group so labour is not a problem. Will get this all costed up tonight hopefully see whats good.

 

Thanks again

 

James

 

Comments in blue

[Logan]

We had a go with a billet bundler cradle this week, took it right up to the stumps, already forwarded splittable logs out. Strapped up some round bales of all the smaller diameter stuff that messes up the life of a forwarder driver. Now have to balance them on forwarder somehow! Seemed slow process, but hopefully from now on easy to handle again.