I called a tree service the other day and they offered me anything larger than 20" as they can't chip it. The only thing they had available right now was pin oak, which I'm not interested in. What's great is I don't have to load anything. Pull in with my trailer and they load with equipment. I'm hoping for some maple, box elder and who knows what else. Can't wait.
Take all they offer you. Cut up for fire wood what you can't use and sell. That will keep both party's happy. Sounds like they are looking for a place to get rid of what they can't use.
That's a good point. I could go up and get the pin oak and meet them and begin a relationship. Even if I don't mill the pin oak I can give the rest to my parents for firewood.
Most tree service guys are a decent sort and get many good logs as a byproduct of their business. There is always the chance for tramp iron but with a bandmill its worth the risk. Big commercial mills don't want yard trees. I get all the logs I want free and cut what the tree guys need for free, its worked for years. Frank C.
dont forget to slip them a six pack or pizza every now and then. you will be surprised the goods you will get. good luck.
Like the others said - go and take them, or they will find someone else who is less "high maintenance" - no offense intended there - just the best description I can think of if I were on their side of the equation. I have a tree service that feeds me logs, they also bring their chips, stump grindings, even pine junk they can't chip. I burn, chip, or mulch everything that does not go to the saw - one stop convince for them, income for me.
All good points. He asked me what sort of stuff I could take or wanted to take so I told him, but like south side said, I don't want to be high maintenance or he won't call me when he has good stuff.
I've been fortunate to become friends with a guy that operates a landfill that takes concrete, soil, stumps, trees etc. he calls and let's me pick the logs I want, he loads them, then loans me his dump trailer to haul them 5 or 6 miles to my house.
He accepts logs from tree services but also grading contractors. If I don't take them for saw logs or firewood, he buries them just like he was paid to do. He doesn't charge me anything but I take him something every trip I make even if I make two or three trips a day. Up to this point it's been mostly firewood I'm looking for but my business model has changed.
I contacted another tree service tonight. They offered to bring logs to me.
I would think they would give you anything to KEEP from chipping and wearing their knives out. :)
Chipping takes time...especially a 16" - 20" diameter.
But beggars can't be choosy. ( old saying )
Other than a tree service also having a firewood business, it's definitely win-win to give the logs away.
This black walnut came from a tree service that was headed to the landfill.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/43396/6857F4DA-3FE9-4829-8142-94F3D0D83EFA.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1507687357)
No nails? :D
Quote from: POSTON WIDEHEAD on February 19, 2018, 10:57:07 PM
No nails? :D
Lol, no nails! Don't ask what blade I was using though, it's the one that was on the mill when I picked it up.
Better be carful, You could get loaded up with junk logs nobody wants. Open grown , cracked, metal infested, hollow, not good for fire wood, to big to handle, etc. This is the price for free logs. The answer is a big fire pit if your state allows. This is why I buy my logs, so I can state what I will take. Otherwise I will spend all my time with the metal detector and chainsaw.
Yeah, I would prefer to just go over with my trailer and have them load up. That way I can choose. If it got to be where they said I had to take the bad stuff, I would just walk away. I'm not that hard up for logs.
Quote from: moodnacreek on February 20, 2018, 08:07:20 AM
Better be carful, You could get loaded up with junk logs nobody wants. Open grown , cracked, metal infested, hollow, not good for fire wood, to big to handle, etc. This is the price for free logs. The answer is a big fire pit if your state allows. This is why I buy my logs, so I can state what I will take. Otherwise I will spend all my time with the metal detector and chainsaw.
This has been my experience also, so I pick up the phone and buy from loggers.
We go though a lot of logs. The tree guys around here wanted me to be their landfill. I wanted to be a sawmill. It didn't work out for either of us.
I worked on a project that used urban trees as resource. No logs were purchased, and they couldn't charge to take them or they would have been classified as a dump. When hurricane Sandy struck, they were flooded with logs.
Primary species were pin oak, sycamore and silver maple. They were okay for blocking, but weren't too good for grade lumber. Metal was a major problem. Even with metal detectors, we couldn't keep it out of the product stream.
The worst part was tree trimmers had a rough time handling bigger logs. Some guys were excellent in bucking, but they had decent equipment. Others brought in logs that they could lift. Many were 7', and were only good for blocking. That's not saying there were no good logs, but they were far fewer than the bad ones. We never got to the niche markets that we wanted to develop. It could have worked, but their learning curve was too severe and log acceptance was a big obstacle, along with poor management.
As long as you can pick and choose, you will be okay. When they dump, you'll be spending more time than what the material is worth.
Trees in this area are different. I would like to have someone drop trees off to me. I have plenty of trees to cut,but this way I would not even have to go into the woods. I have a OWB,so dead trees are fine. That is what I burn anyways.
Be careful what you wish for. ;D
Right now i'm getting 3 Tri axle loads a week on average :)
I'm getting some nice saw logs and firewood logs and i'm giving the stuff i don't want to guys that do maple sugaring.
I also buy from one guy who logs and does tree work and i get some beautiful white pine and pay below market for them.
I talked to the second guy this morning and he indeed wanted to be able to dump a whole load at my place. I told him that wasn't happening, but that he could call me if he had something he didn't want and he could set it on my trailer. I may not hear from him again.
I think most ppl are just looking for a place to dump their junk.
Firefighter be very careful . I am in the tree business and run a saw mill. Here in in Georgia we get lots of nice syp but most of the hardwoods are firewood quality. I would not let them dump anything without you first going to them for a look first.
Thanks Slider. I'm kinda lucky to be living at the northern edge of the SYP. I live on about 12 acres with some pretty large loblolly and shortleaf that were planted about 55 years ago. We also have white, red and black oak. I've got a 28 incher on the ground right now. I would like to get some other conifers from the tree service. People are always taking down nice specimen trees so they can plant a Japanese maple.
I have one tree guy that knows what I am looking for. Most of the time, he calls me and I show up with my trailer, he loads. Just two days ago he dropped off some nice SYP logs. I always tell him to buck them at 12'6" unless the log is 12" on the small end, I want them at 16'6".
And yes, a 6 pack goes a long way.
I'm working on getting my ducks in a row then I'll be contacting one tree service in Klamath Falls. He's already told me that he'd save good saw logs for me. Right now my trailer needs some serious work to get it ready to hall logs.
Good deal Darrel.
I talked to another service that was recommended to me by one of our firefighters who used to work for a tree service. This might be the best one yet. He's much closer and said I should come and look at what they have and will let me know about stuff in the future. Also may set up with me ahead of time to come to job site and be loaded there.
I did that too, pre staging with the tree service. I had a big dump trailer with a crane for these jobs. I thought it was a goldmine but it was a nightmare.
Some of my most memorable negative experiences caused me to stop doing it. Most times I would drop off the dump trailer in the morning on the way to work and pick it up on the way home. Unfortunately this was a very bad scenario as the tree guys were usually long gone doing another job or done for the day. Either way I was mostly alone when I went to retrieve the loaded trailer.
The problem is that the customers thought I was part of the tree service team and I caught all the flak from the total job as if was my fault or something. They also figured I was supposed to haul off everything, even the miscellaneous branches and twigs the tree guys invariably left in the yard. That's why I was last there and had a trailer, right? Of course they'd get mad when I didn't pick the garbage up and tried to explain the situation to them.
Then customers would also get really mad when they learned I wasn't employed by the tree guy who was getting the logs hauled off for free or worse yet I was going to saw them up and make money off logs that they, the customer, had already paid the tree service a dump and hauling fee.
I've had customers tell me I needed to reimburse them for the logs.
I've had customers get mad at the tree service and take it out on me.
I've had customers tell me I needed to fix the ground up root ball and stump shavings in their yard.
I had a guy tell me I needed to fix a damaged gutter on his house.
Another accused me of damaging his plumbing.
The one that finally did me in was a big pecan log job where I parked the trailer on the driveway at the direction of the tree service, unhooked and went to work. Sometime during the day they moved the trailer into the man's front yard and loaded it to the gills. Then they left and it started raining. When I went to pick the trailer up it was sunk in the soggy ground with about 16,000 lbs of dead weight and rain forecast for the next day. I had to get it out then, before the rain got worse. When I pulled it out with my diesel 4WD it left some moderate tire ruts in his front yard, not from spinning, just soggy ground. The customer literally freaked.
So I calmed him down, went home, unhooked the trailer, went to Home Depot, bought a few bags of topsoil, some seeds and hay. I went back the the yard, fixed the ruts in the rain, at night, went home sopping wet, mad as a hornet, fired up the computer, logged into Craigslist and posted for sale, one big dump trailer with or without a crane attached. I sold both within a week and swore off tree services.
I hope your experiences are better than mine.
Robert - well said/written.
My son runs a tree service in the summer.
There's a reason people call his tree service.
The tree is dead or diseased or dying.
That poor tree has seen abuse in the city for a hundred years. Nails, signs, metal fence parts, clothes lines, birdhouses, tree forts, target practice, go ahead name it!
The poor thing is on it's last legs and then I show up. The guy with the sawmill.
Even if I can work with the guys removing the tree (see YellowHammer's post above), a forester would have a hard time not breaking down and crying when they saw the poor thing.
So, now I'm the genius that can turn the corpse into a highly valuable veneer log?
I think not.
I'm SO glad that I found a niche market in milling for timber frame and log homes.
Tree service logs are: small branches = chips, big branches = firewood, trunks = firewood, maybe one out of 50 is worth taking to the mill.
Lots of the folks on the FF make a good living selling firewood.
Let's just be reasonable about what a mill log should be.
Thanks guys. I'll be careful.
As soon as YellowHammer said that he dropped of the trailer off on his way to work I knew how the story would end. Not because I'm so smart but because I've helped out a bit on cleanup and if there's a place to throw crap, that's where it all gets thrown. Fortunately, I won't be dropping off my trailer. I'll be there to say what I want and don't want. The way the tree service guy talked, he will be glad for every thing I hall off because he won't have to deal with it.
We shall see if it really is as good as he makes it sound. Won't know until I go pick up a load or two.
Good luck Darrel! Oh, and in your free time since your in the area, can you tie an antelope to a tree for my daughter near gerber res. She should be drawing the youth tag this year :)
Yellow hammer, for 13 years I kept a picker truck on the road so I could get logs. What a mistake. At that time every bum was a tree removable expert. I would charge to pick up junk and take nice logs for free. I had the same problems you did especially with the home owners. Also if it was windy or rained they would cancel. I tried to show so many guys how to buck logs but they already knew everything. Most of them could not file a saw. I could go on but I think you covered it.
Boy, the tree service topic brings back fond memories.
One was a home owner guy who said he'd give me all the logs the tree service cut down. The place was a mini farm, and there were going to be a dozen or so good logs, some cherry and oak. Good stuff, probably no nails. This time I was going to play it smart, stay out of everyones way, not drop my trailer off, but come back and use the crane to load them the next day. I had a plan.
However, when I went to get them the next afternoon, the logs were already gone! So there I am, standing next to an empty trailer, bed full of chainsaws, gas, oil, other tools, looking around, wondering were all the DanG logs went, and lo and behold, I see a flatbed trailer with a Kubota tractor loaded on it, coming down the driveway, leaving. I flagged thy driver down, and he stopped to chat. He said he knew the landowner, who had called him to come get the good logs, because I had agreed to take the rest. Whaaa???
On the door of his truck was a large magnetic sign that said "Sawmill Service". I had been scooped. I laughed and went home empty. What fun.
I will not be leaving my trailer either. I have no need for a large volume of logs. Mostly I'm sawing for myself and I can only use so much lumber, but I do need to get some cut and drying. If it ends up where the tree service won't bother with me because I'm not taking enough from them so be it. I've got two who have said I can come to their lot and pick what I want. That may be my best bet.
Going to their lot is the best option. Cherry pick and get the good stuff.
Cherry would be nice.
Wow, there are some GREAT stories in this thread. Thus far I've been lucky to avoid any of the nightmares recounted here. I've snatched claro walnut (10,000#), eucalyptus sideroxylon (15,000#) redwood (3,000#) and white oak (13,000#) with my 14' dump trailer, and the only near-nightmare was the white oak load, which put me about a Prius over my legal weight limit, too tongue-heavy on the load, and was quite the pucker-factor drive for 90 minutes, but a GREAT test of my '97 F350 dually Powerstroke. And every legal load since then has been fairly relaxing. I have always gone to the tree yard, and been there for the load. I've left my trailer empty at the yards a few nights, pre-loading, but dodged any nightmare bullets you all experienced. I haven't done the homeowner circuit yet. Note sure I will, though I may knock on the door three houses down about the towering redwoods in their back yard, should there ever be occasion to take those down some day. My favorite tree service has two superintendents and one crane operator that have all received multiple Benjamins from me for holding a tree for me, cutting it long, and loading it for me. They are liking this cash economy. They say there is a 90' tall red oak and a 48" diameter redwood in the queue this month or next, so I think the Benjamins are working. They suggested I simply park my F350+dump trailer right next to the crane on game day. Works for me! Of course I'm not taking slash or stumps or any cleanup obligations. I don't need a LOT of logs for my new hobby, but being selective, building relationships and carrying ample Benjamins seem to be the keys to my growing supply chain. Independent of the above, I scored what is likely a once-in-a-lifetime ~80 log redwood haul, for which I paid log trucks for extract from the mountain down to an LZ on the flats, then a tree service with their beefy box truck with crane to run multiple laps the 2.5 miles from the LZ to my mill site. All-in costs (land owner + fallers + haul truck + box truck) about $1/BF (Doyle). The white oak was free (excluding my diesel), the claro walnut was 20 cents / BF, and the eucalyptus sideroxylon pennies per BF (too twisted and gnarled for any reasonable log scale). I do plan to reach out to other tree service companies in the area, and maybe a few coastal [redwood] land owners, but will likely only do the quality-logs-only-in-my-dump-trailer business model. Though dropping, bucking, chipping and complete site cleanup is in my wheelhouse for the right opportunity. All this has me thinking I need a beefier transport trailer, as my 10,000# skidsteer is ~500# over the legal limit of my dump trailer, and due to its wide tracks has 1/4" to spare on either side of my dump trailer walls. A longer, heavier flat transport trailer, whether deck above wheels or between wheels, *could* pay for itself in a couple strategic loads.