Cedar Eater's Oak Sawlog Sale

[Cedar Eater]

I split one of the big stump blocks on Sunday. I planned on cutting more cordwood from the tops, but my trailer tires were flat when I went out and nobody fixes tires on Sunday.  : It took me way too long to get this big block split. I wanted to see if the splitter could handle it without cutting it down to size, but I bent the hoist trying to lift it.  :-[ : About 20 minutes with my old 6-pull Stihl 031AV and a few whacks on my wedges and I split the double trunk into two blocks.




Then I hoisted the taller block up onto the splitter. By this time, the hoist was so bent that I had to straighten it make it useful for normal duty. Unfortunately, the gods of metal fatigue finally caught up to me. It seems the multiple bendings and straightenings of the old trailer axle that the hoist swivels on have taken their toll. :'( :'(




So I switched to Plan B. I repositioned the tractor to use the bucket for hoisting. Since I use the bucket roll connectors for the splitter ram, I only had the bucket lift and the tractor position to work with for setting the block in place. I finally got the taller block split. 8)




I decided I had learned the capabilities of my equipment for splitting big blocks, so I cut the other block in half before proceeding. Mrs. Cedar Eater came out to see how I was doing, so I taught her how to operate the splitter. ;D ;D ;)




Here's the pile from original doubletrunk block after about five hours of work and a broken hoist. It looks like I'll need a complete rethink on the hoist swivel. I'm not the original designer of it, but I would like to get it back in service. Lesson learned: No more 4' X 4' oak stumps.




Just in case anybody thinks I'm the only person to underestimate the weight of these mighty oaks (or overestimate the capability of his equipment), here's a look at the claw of the logger's old TreeFarmer forwarder. Note the broken weld and missing pin.




Here's what happens when a claw breaks.




This is probably the log that did more than the logger bargained for. :(





Cedar Eater

[Rob]

C.E,

      Good to see you got some time in on the splitter but man that stinks that she got some damage in the process..Using the equipment to it's maximum potential are you  ::)I see your logger found out just how heavy a fresh felled oak log weighs,I once saw a log loader do something similar at a log yard a few years back..Well keep up the good work

                                             Rob.

[Mark M]

Hi CE

How much can you lift with the cute little tractor? ;)
I sure would like to have something like that.

Mark

[Cedar Eater]

How much can you lift with the cute little tractor? ;)
I sure would like to have something like that.

That tractor is a 23hp 4WD with hydrostatic transmission and has a 5ft wide bucket rated at 1/2 yd. I've moved over 300 yds of sand with it, but if the sand is wet and heaped, the bucket won't lift, unless you know a little trick. By rocking the tractor backward (a benefit of the HST) while lifting, you can inch the bucket up high enough to dump into a Ford F600 5yd. dumptruck. To do this you also need weight on the back to keep the rear wheels from lifting. I've also lifted a full bucket of gravel up two feet, but didn't want to try the rocking with gravel because the sand sometimes spilled onto the hood.

With the 3 pt. hitch, I've lifted huge round hay bales on a spike. I think they were 800 lb. bales. The same size bale couldn't be lifted at all with a spike on the bucket.

Cedar Eater

[Cedar Eater]

Here are some pictures or the firewood from the oak tops. I sell these loads to my uncle for his outdoor woodstove. He prefers red oak. still green, 3"-10" dia., and cut to 24". This first picture is of my overloaded trailer with about 1.25 full cords on it. I'm guessing the weight was well over 4500 lbs.



This picture is the truck and trailer combo headed out with 2 full cords. The trailer started to wag the dog at about 38mph, so I drove the whole 20 miles at 35 and under.



I added side panels to the pickup for the next load and put more on the truck and less on the trailer. That helped a lot.

Cedar Eater

[Rob]

Looks like a nice load of cordwood you got out of them tops C.E.  ;DHave you started splitting any more of the big chunks.Also nice pictures.

                                                later Rob

[Cedar Eater]

Have you started splitting any more of the big chunks.

I'm saving up the big chunks so they will stay greener. My uncle needs about 12 cords to get through a winter so if I can get 8-9 cords of round wood to him and then split another three in late fall and put them closer to the stove, they will be greener when he burns them. The stove has a forced draft and green wood burns much slower when you don't need heat and then gets plenty of air and cranks out plenty when the house calls for heat.

I cut the broken spindle from the hoist off the splitter yesterday with an angle grinder. I'm hoping to get a new hoist design installed before using the splitter again.

Cedar Eater

[Rob]

Well thats good to hear C.E. , Hopefully you can get the splitter back up an running with your new hoist set up maybe it will be a little stronger this time  :..Well keep us posted.

                                            Thanks Rob.