cessna

I would like to hear from anyone who has any experience of using a Caterpillar D4or D6( fitted with winch on the back H,D brush fork on front) for timber extraction, on extremely steep banks consisting of clay soil with the odd spring flowing.4 w.d Tractor useless after the ground gets skiddy.

I have just read an article in the sunday paper saying quote "Wood is the new gold-and thanks to save th planet"!!!!!!!! It goes on to say how price of firewood has gone up from £30 to £50 over the last five years.What is so crazy is it seems sudsidies are being given to energy companies to burn wood,if they all come on stream they will need 41million tonnes of wood a year,BUT the total U.K harvest last year was only 10million tonnes as qouted from article. It seems a crazy world or am I showing my age!!! By the way used to buy "News of the World " as well ,much more light hearted articles!!!

Are many of you starting to charge £95 for Nissan/toyata single cab pickup load of logs slightly heaped up.

3ft dia beech.....a flippin' big one!!

Like stevie says- the biggest you can afford that your machine will run. Or cut the wood smaller.

Very few that diameter,but they are the ones that cause the most WORK, problems.e.g sawing them up smaller,as you may well know,especially on the side of a bank you can hardly stand up on, with mosquitos bugging one!! Cheers.

I am considering piurchasing a timber winch to go on my 4wd MF 390 tractor.

I will be using the winch to pull timber "UP VERY STEEP" banks,as no access at bottom of woodland.What make and capacity winch do you suggest,some beech trees up to 3ft diameter.Any advice suggestions welcome,for dealing with timber extraction on steep terrain.

I would like to know if many of you offer a chimney sweeping service,to compliment your log supplying business,is it a good service to offer.Do you get much demand for chimney sweeping.

With the price of cord wood rising at an alarming rate ,has anyone imported firewood ready cut /split from any Eastern European Countries and has it proved economically viable,a company called Biofuelz has a website which shows their logs crated up Wood pellets, briquettes, firewood from Lithuania - Biofuelz.com. I realise their is one hell of lot of research, that has to be done on this, especially if one does not want to be ripped of big time,but one has to look out of the box,even if nothing comes of it.

I cant see the point in cutting it up for £50 a cube?!

I charge £100 a cube of seasoned beech.

A friend of a friend that started buying loads off me this winter kept moaning of my prices so I said come and help me for a day and see how much effort goes into making 1m3, before you even start taking in the cost of the wood, fuel ect ect ect..... lets just say he doesn't moan anymore!

I think everyone needs to stick together on prices, like most other industries. every other type of fuel is gone up by over 20-30% over the last year and no one seems to want to put firewood prices up for the fear of loosing customers. If everyone sells a m3 for £90 or more than everyone has to pay £90 or more for the wood. simple as that!

I entirely agree with you ,I really do not know how some of you guys charging below £85,for a similar size load are making any money,however you get you timber unless it is stolen. PEOPLE may think us woodies are second class citizens,dont let us prove them right by working for peanuts,as you end up with monkies!!!!

I am trying to get some idea of what other fire wood suppliers are going to be charging this coming Autumn/Winter 2011/2012. I will be aiming for £100 for my pickup load,using bought in cordwood £48 cu,very little money in it at £100.Look forward to your comments.

I have the same problem.I am sure beech needs splitting or logging to dry out,especially with wood over 8" diameter, but it all takes time and double handling.O.k if you are highly mechanised.

there good on old hard dry logs, where the screw can bite and crack the log apart, not good on green/soft timber which is long grained as it does not split cleanly. can be very productive on the right timber. logs will only flip or spin if not presented correctly and thats when you get squashed fingers

I completely agree with the above.For the reasons mentioned, I suggest you purchase hydraulic splitter as suggested by other guys.I am lumbered with my screw splitter,but will change to high tonnage hydraulic one, when finances allow,fed up with it not splitting strinngy grained wood.It does split really Knotty wood which my Japa Processor can not deal with.