I have over 600 board feet of Cedar Lumber plus slabs. A customer bought is all but said he could only get a little each day since he didn't have a truck. He lives an hour away.
The car was packed full of 8 foot boards and he put as much on the roof as he could.
If he's happy.......I'm happy.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/24625/IMG_1723.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/24625/IMG_1724.JPG)
Good thing he did not bring you the logs to cut in that auto. ::)
Once had a customer take truckloads of lumber back home in his pickup during the sawing day. 12 foot lumber in a short bed pickup that is. He put the boards through the back window and they went from top of dash to top of tail gate. When he got back from the second load there was a hole in the windshield. :o :o :o
had a customer load 345 sq.ft of red oak floor on to the roof of his car which looked similar to the one in the picture.
I once worked with an old guy that went to the mill with his old ford pickup and got a BUNCH of long stuff to build a woodshed with. His wife had to get out and sit on the hood going up the hill near his home!
If he hits the brakes and knocks the windshield out, the roof is likely to cave in. Windshields are structural components of newer cars.
A friend worked at Southern States years ago. She said that a woman came in driving a convertible and wanted a bucket of landscaping stone dumped in the car. She argued for a while, but they refused to fill her request.
Show me the money!!!
Quote from: Delawhere Jack on August 21, 2013, 12:43:25 PM
If he hits the brakes and knocks the windshield out, the roof is likely to cave in. Windshields are structural components of newer cars.
A friend worked at Southern States years ago. She said that a woman came in driving a convertible and wanted a bucket of landscaping stone dumped in the car. She argued for a while, but they refused to fill her request.
The roof is pretty darn strong on a Honda.
That being said, what an idiot!!
What's really funny, they'll tie lumber on a small car anyway they can and then look at me and say.....
"Do you think this will be OK?" :o :o :o
no common sense there, maybe you should pile some up and let him drive over it ,then tie the ropes across the roof of the car, like a straddle carrier !!! ;D ;D i guess i will go get another vodka and 0.j. to fight my cold !! ;D
Quote from: terrifictimbersllc on August 21, 2013, 12:11:25 PM
Once had a customer take truckloads of lumber back home in his pickup during the sawing day. 12 foot lumber in a short bed pickup that is. He put the boards through the back window and they went from top of dash to top of tail gate. When he got back from the second load there was a hole in the windshield. :o :o :o
I was sawing 16' fence boards for a buddy of mine that did that. He had a 4 door, 6' bed. I saw him the next day, and he promptly told me about busting out the rear glass of his truck.
Where there's a will, there's a way.
Quote from: AdamT on August 21, 2013, 06:01:42 PM
Where there's a will, there's a way.
Where there's a MILL, there's a way. :D
I had things like that over here . one time a guy had a pickup witha 6' bed, useless thing. he buys 10' wood , now it's feb and the truck is half full of snow :D
he gets it all in the truck , he gets to leave and I ask him if hes going to put a rope on it . he said it's ok like that, ok have a nice day. my drive way gos up hill .
I just stood out at the mill and then herd a bang :D :D :D :D and I new. I walk around the the mill and could see the hole load in my driveway. stupid I thought and went back to work. he pulled the truck up the hill then the wood and left.
I was going to say "poor man, poor ways" but that all wheel drive kinda squelched that quote, in any case who cares? he's gotta be happy or he would not be traveling for it? david
You need to offer a wood delivery option, for extra $$$. ;)
Common sense isn't very common these days! That being said I believe I would have checked into renting a U-Haul truck instead of trashing my high dollar SUV!
Had a guy come in one time and get almost a bed full of 12' lumber on a short bed truck. Had a plastic bed liner. I asked him if he was going to tie it on, he said no, it would be OK. He left, my drive goes up hill. I just stood there with the guy that was helping me. We heard a crash and I started the mill up and the other rolled on another log. A little while later another customer came in and said he had to wait while a fellow tied his tailgate on top of his lumber in the drive.
I had a guy stop a few weeks ago and wanted 10 pieces of 12' long 1 x 10" white pine. When he comes to pick it up (on a rainy day - after asking me to ensure that it was dry wood), he arrives with a small hatch back with light duty ski racks. I had already told him on the phone that I was out of dry 12' long 1 x 10 so I would have to give him 14' lengths instead - no problem. He starts loading them up on the racks of the vehicle that looks shorter than the wood itself and comments that wood is heavier than he thought. Well, I wished him all the best. Haven't heard back from him. Hopefully he made it....
The funny thing is, you can't make this stuff up. :D
Quote from: POSTONLT40HD on August 21, 2013, 08:59:49 PM
The funny thing is, you can't make this stuff up. :D
No reason to make it up. They're an epidemic! :D
Hey, the guy was resourceful. I like resourcefulness :D. Looks like he was happy with the deal. You are happy with the deal. Success!
But WDH, I think how these people get through life ::). And they vote :D :D :D :D :D :D
I hate to admit it, but back in the 70's I used a Subaru sedan to haul 16' 1x12 ponderosa pine boards from Jacksonville, Florida to St Mary's Georgia. I put a total of twelve boards on the roof, tied down thru the rolled down windows (except the driver door) and tied the front and back down to the bumpers... Actually did it four or five times. Drove up I-95, doing 45 MPH. The last time it was a windy day and it got a bit scary a couple of times, though the Subaru was gonna go airborn on me.
Thankfully I'm a bit wiser now. Not sure how I managed to survive to the ripe old age but here I am...
Herb
PS, thank goodness this was before the day of Internet Videos...
Peter, not ALL of us vote that way...
Quote from: drobertson on August 21, 2013, 07:43:39 PM
I was going to say "poor man, poor ways" but that all wheel drive kinda squelched that quote,
As he said. Sometimes we have to do it that way.
on a similar note, i was driving along the freeway recently and a fella comes bombing along with a mattress and a box spring tied to the roof of his car (not even a roof rack) with twine about 4' back from the front end of the mattress. well, at 65 mph that mattress was basically a sail, and it was about to let loose on a crowded highway. luckily the next exit was mine..... :o ;D :)
I had to go way back and look at one of my invoices from 2006, when I was contract sawing for a timber-framer.
A customer had ordered 1000 BF of Western Larch, 1x4 and 1x6, clear, edge grain. Estimated weight would be around 2.5 pounds per BF, or 2500 pounds. He lives 1 hours drive away.
Guy shows up in a shortbox half-ton Toyota pickup. A lot of these boards are 16' long, but no worries, the guy has it figured out. He has cut a 2x6 that just fits under the lip of the box. His plan is to fill the box up until the load is jammed up under the 2x6 which is mounted at the front of the box :o. This guy has no understanding of the concept of "center of gravity" -- which is going to be behind his rear wheels.
He starts by putting the long stuff on the bottom. It promptly tips down onto the ground. "Do you guys have a saw horse I can borrow?" So he puts the horse under the end of the load and proceeds to fill up the truck. Half the load in the truck and the boss and I are getting a little alarmed. He's making noises like he is going to take the entire order. "What do you guys think? I should be able to get it all in." We tell him No! He keeps loading. The front suspension is starting to lift, but he keeps going.
By the time he has 3/4 of the load in, all the guys in the shop are coming around to look. Everyone tells the guy he should make 2 trips. He still thinks he can do it. Finally everything is in the truck. I tell him A) he is crazy, and B) he should keep his speed down and be very careful going around corners. "Do you really think I'll have a problem steering?" he wants to know. YES!!!
The driveway into the shop yard is paved and goes up a slight incline to the highway. Directly across the highway is a deep drainage ditch. Guy pulls slowly out of the yard but the truck is struggling up the incline, so he boots it. Truck shoots forward and as it reaches the highway the front wheels lift up about 2" off the ground :o. They touch down halfway across the road and he just manages to brake before he hits the ditch. By this time everyone is hollering at him to unload some of the wood and make a second trip, but no, he's sure he can get the hang of this.
So he cautiously backs around, gets himself pointed down the highway, and away he goes. With a 50 mile drive, mostly highway but 4 small cities to drive through, we all figure he's going to get spotted by a cop for sure.
It turns out my son-in-law knew the guy and said he made it home without incident ::).
That particular incident got me in the habit of taking a camera to work -- although I'm not sure I would have wanted any evidence that I was a party to the whole affair.
The guy that I'll never forget:
rings up... I need some 10" x 4"... 9 thereof... special straigntness requirement - gotta look like a gunbarrel... 27'6" long, class 1 hardwood. (ie it's going to be ridiculously heavy)
Okayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy... that's going to be regular footage price, plus an extra 33% premium because of the length, plus an extra 10% to make them perfectly straight. Delivery will cost....
oh, okay, you'll pick them up then. Next friday will be fine.
Cut them up, lucas job because of the length, three big guys busting their gut to get them off the mill onto the forklift... yada yada yada
Guy drives in in a pickup, takes one look...
"Can you cut them into thirds???"
$%#*&(%&)*^$*X^$#%(&*)I^*)(*%^%$^%
Quote"Can you cut them into thirds???"
Sure, for triple the price.
;D
You wouldn't believe what I loaded into an old Blazer or on my Chevy Vega.... all rough cut wet hemlock... but the bank made me sell my van to get a mortgage back in 1979. I had nothing but a condemned house and those crummy cars and a hammer and saw.
It taught me a lot about weight distribution, mechanical advantage and tying good knots ;D
A couple of years later, I managed to move a 22' beam in a standard length van... I did take a friend to help keep weight in the front...
Some people have no sense and some people have no cents but the guy with the nice Honda could afford a trailer.
Quote from: WDH on August 21, 2013, 09:34:51 PM
Hey, the guy was resourceful. I like resourcefulness :D. Looks like he was happy with the deal. You are happy with the deal. Success!
Quote from: sprucebunny on August 22, 2013, 06:15:34 AM
Some people have no sense ... but the guy with the nice Honda could afford a trailer.
x 2 Well Said!!
There's always this one on snopes: http://www.snopes.com/photos/automobiles/lumber.asp
Those Jettas are tough cars.
My granddad used to have a tandem axle dump truck that he would pull the dump bed off of in the winter, and put a rear mounted log loader on so he could haul wood in the winter. He told me the weight distribution was a bit off though, and it didn't steer very well. Well, one time he picked up a load and there was a big hill on the way out of the woods, and the front end kept sliding off the road. Finally, the guy he was hauling for told him to wait a few minutes while he ran into the local village to get some friends. He came back with a few folks, including a pretty good sized gal. They all got on the bumper and by golly granddad said they were making it up the hill, creeping on up. The problem was the guys started ribbing the lady, and she got mad and jumped off the bumper. Well grandpa said he had to tell the guys to shut up cause he couldn't steer without her on there :D
I would say that 90% of the people who have come to the house have used a vehicle just like that.
most of them with no tie downs or bungies.
just a small piece of rope and no idea how to tie it down.
Quote from: longtime lurker on August 22, 2013, 01:20:09 AM
The guy that I'll never forget:
rings up... I need some 10" x 4"... 9 thereof... special straigntness requirement - gotta look like a gunbarrel... 27'6" long, class 1 hardwood. (ie it's going to be ridiculously heavy)
Okayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy... that's going to be regular footage price, plus an extra 33% premium because of the length, plus an extra 10% to make them perfectly straight. Delivery will cost....
oh, okay, you'll pick them up then. Next friday will be fine.
Cut them up, lucas job because of the length, three big guys busting their gut to get them off the mill onto the forklift... yada yada yada
Guy drives in in a pickup, takes one look...
"Can you cut them into thirds???"
$%#*&(%&)*^$*X^$#%(&*)I^*)(*%^%$^%
Just the other day a young guy calls up and wants some 20' cedar poles to make furniture. I asked if he going to cut them down. He said yes, but wanted them long because he didn't know where he was going to cut them. He and his dad show up in a short bed pickup. I show them the poles and the head scratching begins. Finally they say cut them to 10'. I then explained it would have been cheaper to have done that in the first place. The young said. "Yup, this was his first experience and was learning". Everyone was jovial about the whole thing as problems were solved. They got their wood and I got my money. As has been said, we all learned hard things somewhere by pushing things to the limit.
I have people ask me if I have something like 1x8x12 oak. I always ask does it have to be 8" wide and 12' long. Most people say no. It is not like buying construction lumber at the Big Box Store.
Customers alway amaze me, in what they think straight logs look like:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10095/Andrews_Locust-2.JPG)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10095/Andrews_Locust-1.JPG)
This customer, hired my logger to transport these two "locust" trees to my sawmill yard. For me to cut up into 4" thick round edge slabs for him to use to make furniture.
My logger, politely laughed in his face and told him that those were not "locust" but cherry.
What a challenge to get straight lumber out of these "snakes".....
Jim Rogers
Jim, I have found that cutting them in 2' lengths, the curves tend to disappear. You can then get rather straight boards. If you cut them into 18" lengths , you even have more options. :D :D
Actually, I've slab sawed logs like that and had a delighted customer, to boot! If it will lie flat on the mill, I'll find a way to make boards. Custom woodworkers love that stuff with natural edges and pay a real premium for it.
this might be a squelcher, but if there are no customers, regardless of how the pick up the load, what good is cutting? Maybe pride? folks are folks, not all have the same recourses, but have a love of wood, david
He didn't really care what lengths I cut these snakes back to. Just so long as I could make some fairly straight pieces.
His main concern was that he also had the logger bring in a 14' long piece of "Linden" and he wanted that cut into 3" thick round edge slabs full width of the log.
I got six piece and two or three boards out of that log. It was nearly 24" at the butt and about 22" at the top.
Each of these 3" slabs I figured weighed 220 lbs each.
He was going to bring his mother's horse trailer to haul all the wood home to her place with. But I mentioned that I couldn't set these long, wide and heavy slabs into a covered horse trailer.
I suggested we could put one end in and set it on a roller pipe and slide them in, but he didn't think that was a good idea.
So, he told me he'd bring either a flatbed truck or trailer.
Well, he showed up on time, and I heard this back up beeper coming down the driveway, so I figured he had a nice easy to load trailer.
He had rented one of those: "by the hour" pickup trucks from Home Depot.
I put all the 4" thick cherry slabs on and the stack was up to the roof of the cab. He then said to put the (6) pieces of Linden on top, as the cab had a nice headboard to rest the lumber on.
Well we put on two of the six pieces and when we tried to put the next two on the "overloaded" truck beeper started going off.
I hate when that happens.
So he had to make two trips.
I forgot to get a snap shot until he was just getting ready to drive away, and my backhoe/forklift was in the way:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10095/Truck_loaded_with_cherry_and_Linden.JPG)
But you can see he had on quite a load.
When he got back here for the last 4 pieces of Linden, it was after dark. But he did get them loaded and is heading for home. He's got till 10 o'clock to turn the truck in. Hopefully he'll get them unloaded in time.
He's just sliding them off the truck with a pipe, into a barn.
Such fun in the life of a sawyer.
Jim Rogers