The Forestry Forum

I was wondering about how many mid size truck loads ared in a cord of wood i have a dodge dakota with a 6 foot bed and it is about 63 inch wide. Just wondering

Depends on how wet it is. Weight will limit you. A cord is 128 cubic feet. 6x3.5x3=63 c.f. so about two loads but if it's wet and heavey, you're front wheels might not have much turning power!!

I use a skidloader to load wood 7 buckets makes a cord. 3 buckets fills a full size pickup so I would say at least 3 loads on a small bed pickup and you had better round it up to fit.

Oh yea I wasn't thinking of weight a cord of green cut oak weighs between 5500 -5800lbs. I seen that somewhere so your truck may be rideing a little low.

Most trucks only have 18 inch high sides, so

(18 H x 72L x 63W =  81648 c.i.) / 1728 =  47.25. Minus your wheel wells and you are down to a only about 1/3 of a cord (42.66 feet). About 1600 - 2000 pounds of wet oak.

I designed my truck flatbed to hold a 1/2 a cord of wood. Basically 72 W x 68 L x 24 H.

Sounds right for that short box Dakota. The guys that haul my stove wood go on weight on logging trucks. It averages 2.5 ton per cord. And I use their averages from the scales at the mill. It works out pretty close. The boys hauled me two trailor loads with 14.5 cord each on weight, one for me and one for my brother. Once I cut it up to furnace wood and piled it up, it scaled at 14.4 cords on my load. They only charged for 14 cords. I know my brother's load was a bit bigger. My uncle hauls all his wood in from the woodlot by pickup truck. About 4 cords of kitchen stove wood and 5 cord of furnace wood.

cheers