Figuring cordage

[Jeff]

Yea, the guy that was hauling loads like that into our mill didn't use chains either.

[barbender]

I think the quality of our aspen may be higher here. Other then perhaps the conifers, Aspen would be the tightest loading wood we have in the state

I've never been over there Jeff, so I don't know about the quality of the Aspen. You get a wide variety here, some very good, some very bad. It also depends on what mill you are hauling to, UPM Blandin and the IP mill in Sartell are really picky, those loads always stack tight. But, if you are going to Sappi, if you can stack it on the truck, they will take it. I'm not kidding, I've never seen such doglegs, culverts, and other varieties of wood defects as you could haul to Sappi. I heard 1 person get culled there once, he had a few sticks of basswood on his maple load, if I remember right. That's the only time.

Barbender I have and am considering a third axle but there are so many problems to deal with that I have not done it yet. First it adds a bunch of empty weight for every trip. Second many of those long trips for me would involve interstate driving and they are not allowed on the interstates. Then the permit fees are quite high and I would have to pay in both MN and WI. And most all jobs require some travel on county and township roads and you have to get permits from those authorities separately to be legal.

They just don't make it easy.  :

Gary, I forgot about the interstate issue, you're usually using I-35 to come to Sappi, aren't you. I'm not aware of any county or township licensing requirements up here.

Doesn't sound like a big deal until you know he was hauling 10 footers crosswise.

We have a truck who hauls into out mill weekly that hauls 10's crosswise on the truck and pup and on occasion has hauled 12's in crosswise as well. Mind you to get into our log yard you are forced to drive on the state highway. He also is known for hauling 16's sticking off the back of the pup 8-9 feet with logs on top holding them from sliding off the trailer...

I've had to haul quite a few loads of 112" wood crosswise, I wouldn't do it any longer than 112". I always tried to bias the load to the passenger side a bit, not too much, I don't want to lay a truck over on a corner :(

[SwampDonkey]

We had nice aspen here in the hay day and big aspen, but I'm not so sure the next crop is going to be so nice because there is "aspen decline" across the continent. The better stems I see are in largetooth and that is pockets and any I see of that species on dryer soil seems to be stressed and then hit by target canker. On the ridge where I'm at the aspen doesn't seem to look healthy, white barked and wind swept. Down the hill on the line fence that was not cut by loggers on both side of the line there is 80 foot aspen, strait and clear for 50 feet. And the woods down there has aspen that was cut in 86 that could be cut again in 10 years with some pretty nice sticks. There is a grove of largetooth I found down there that was 8" in 13 years growth when were doing PCT. Had to go around it, too big. Then where the ground was a lot damper out to the end of the property I stayed out of it because the aspen was stunted and sick and hardly anything else there besides black ash and beaked hazel nuts. Since thinning on crown they sure let them thin a lot of trash aspen and fir, sick junk.