Michael C

any body use a compact tractor?

cant justify a real tractor and dont know if what I'm after is available - Am I asking for the moon on a stick?

 

4 wheel drive

able to run a pto chipper

small timber trailer and crane (like an atv TT)

topper.

maybe a loader?

 

am i right in thinking that i would need 35hp plus to run a pto chipper.

 

any info gratefully recieved from anyone who employs one.

I think you might be better off with a full sized 4wd tractor, maybe 60 or 70hp. It will do all the jobs you mention better than a compact and will have much better ground clearance for forest work .

It might also work out as cheap..

What about one of these?

 

 

Similar to other I believe. Have seen them in action and was quite impressed. Thought that the log would "snatch" when cut but it didn't at all.

Only problem I see with those type processors is the end product is poor. If it could shear without splitting it would be a great tool.

Its not cheap either

Kameeldooring Sun Dried African Firewood 20kg Sack - Sun Dried African Firewood - Kameeldoring Firewood

If its stubborn, this is good. Spray it on and leave for a few minutes...

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Secondly im going to do my pile outside next week, split and put in a tonne bag then put on a crate and put a tarp over the top, how long should i store them for, is it a year to season? And is this process okey

 

Nothing wrong with this, but as said use the vented log bags instead. The main thing is to keep handling the logs to a minimum.

Its a nice website IMO and is certainly worth something. (You need to lose the firewood poem though!)

2 year old stored in lengths out side, wet on the outsid, when split they are damp on the inside, once in a dry enviroment like a vented wood shed or porch ets they soon dry out and i have no trouble burning them. i hadnt had my liner swept for 2 years and when i did have it done the sweep said you must be burning good wood as the flue is pretty clean. i think you can get a bit anal about how dry wood is, unless you have a large enough storage area you can struggle to store large amounts of split stuff. I am now waiting for the barrage of abuse:thumbup:

I agree totally. Its fine if you are dealing with smaller quantities to be treating each log like a baby, but I dont think its feasable with large m3.

The main thing is to be honest with customers, and its their choice after that.

SO,

WE CAN ONLY EXPRESS PERSONAL OPINIONS AND COMMENTS THAT YOU APPROVE OF STEVE.??

 

In a nutshell, yes. Because it is Steve's name on the licence for this place, and its him that will be in bother if someone decides to get Solicitors involved.

Will you be doing single cab versions?

There has to be a cost saving when selling green/unseasoned firewood.

Green unseasoned - Get cord in today, start processing directly into delivery vehicle and selling tomorrow.

Seasoned - Get logs in today, process into vented bags (which are not cheap), stack in yard, cover, and wait a year for a return.

I supply 2 cube seasoned 2 cube green or half seasoned depending on the customer. Why does the whole trailer need to be seasoned they won't burn it all tomorrow? I do tell them which is which mind.

Do you charge less for the unseasoned?

I had stuff like u have on the left. Put it into builders bags and put it on ebay for £15 a bag had one taker who knocked me down to £50 for 5 bags. I decided it was not worth the time and diesel in the forklift. You could advertise it as kiln dried untreated joinery waste suitable as firewood. You need to watch out for the green stuff as its treated with nasties and now they have a new treatment which makes the wood a deeper yellow colour. With the right kit you could turn the stuff into kindling but it would still be labour intensive. Judging by recent replies someone will be along soon to tell me i am clueless and pessimistic that they are the god of logs.

Realistic is the word you are looking for..

Depends what you mean by profit.

If you've already paid yourself a decent wage and covered all other business costs, the 20% profit to stash in the bank isn't to be sniffed at.

I suspect there is some misunderstand of what definition is being used tbh though.

Ah, maybe thats what he meant then.

Definitly not to be sniffed at if thats the case.

I saw in another thread that Gensetseve mentioned that £5000 worth of timber will give £1000 profit.

When you think about the time and work that goes into processing, delivering etc the margin seems tight.

To put it another way you would have to buy in £50,000 worth of cord to give £10k profit

Food for thought!

I reckon an outfit the size CW pretty much have to use the KD system. It wouldnt be feasible to be holding that amount of timber for 1 to 2 years.

Imagine all the potatoe boxes or vented bags they would need. Add in a few acres of tarpaulin and massive yard space, and KD starts to look very attractive. The fact that its more saleable and commands a higher price is icing on the cake.

You boys keep piling out the wet stuff, as soon as a customer see's someone else's stove that is being fed properly dry wood then they will switch suppliers, to me !!!. I have processed hardwood at 24% inside, no way thats going out till next winter. My soft is averaging around 15% at present, some is a bit higher but most is 8-11%.

 

Almost everyone round me is selling 'seasoned' at 25% plus, some are over 40%. The only option apparant to some customers is kiln dried.

 

A

And somebody will probably complain that your super dry softwood lasts no time in the fire!

No experience with mesh sides admitted but I would worry about stability. Tipper centre of gravity is a shade higher than my GD85 range, loading 3 or 4 cube into a mesh side would put the COG quite high. 1 x cum of soft is about 600kg so you wont be overweight with 4 cube. The other issue is tipping with a mesh rear section, logs will jam underneath so it would need to hinge up, maybe they do.

 

Just my 2 bobs worth,

 

A

Good points. The 8x5 tipper is a good bit higher than any of the non tippers I would think.

Maybe off standard (homemade) mesh sides that would bring capacity up to 2.5 m3 ish might be a good plan..

I had a 10 x 5'9 nugent tipper a while back and I found it very heavy to tow. Even moving around a concrete yard by hand was a big struggle. For log deliveries, I think I would go for an 8x5 with mesh sides. Its also easier to get a reasonable £/m3 rate for a smaller load imo.

A 10ft with mesh sides takes a lot of filling!

Has your gd 85 got mesh sides on it is it electric lift if its in good nick that sounds cheep at that price ?

A gd 85 wont be a tipper, its a fixed sided general purpose trailer.

I am considering making my own firewood processor too.

By setting up a PTO driven log splitter close coupled (but quickly detatchable) to a PTO driven saw/elevator combination, a simple double groove pully on each PTO stub, with V belts, and connect the tractor to the log splitter since it is the heavier load.

This would really require two operators for max efficency but has the virtue of being able to work with any size/akward timber.

And up the elevator straight into vented bulk log bags.

Simples?

Yes?

Ps

Also cheaper than any firewood processor

See video and pics in the new machinery section.

McCord Machinery - Farm Machinery NI, Agricultural Machinery NI, Ploughs NI, Mowers NI, Sowers NI

I find you need to have your wits about you when using a factory built processor with the proper guards and safety features built in.

Personally I wouldnt use a homemade one, never mind ask somebody else to..

hi ive got the tt 105 what volume would you say if filled nearly level with the top of the mesh side. cheers

Going by the measurments on the IW website, its 3.01m long and 1.68m wide.

Multiply these together and it gives a floor space of 5.05 M2. Multiply this by the height of the sides and you have the M3. I think the sides will be about 1 metre so this gives you just over 5m3 capacity.

Length x width x height will give you the m2. Then the bit at the back of the trailer would be length x width x height divided by 2 to give you the area of the triangle shaped bit left. Then if you take the triangle shaped piece off 1st amount that will give you the overall amount

You've lost me anyway!