Amount of wood dumped into a trailer

Firewood fanatic · May 26, 2025, 10:12:19 PM

I am thinking about starting to deliver firewood in a dump trailer in around one full cord increments. I'm going to be dumping wood into the trailer with a skid loader sometimes but also by hand. I have zero desire to try to stack every load of wood into the dump trailer to try to figure out how many cords are there, I just want to know how to measure how many loose, not stacked cords of wood can be in the dump trailer, at any given time. Thank you

doc henderson · May 26, 2025, 10:27:28 PM

Well if you are just getting started, you may want to stack a few cords on pallets, then dump into the trailer and see how full it is. loose takes up more volume than 128 cu/feet. It may also vary based on how small it is split and how long the wood is. You have to know the weight limit of the trailer and the weight of the wood per cord and therefore must have an idea of the MC of the wood to estimate the weight. That will vary by species. It is prob. good business to have a little over vs a little under. eventually you will want to handle the wood the least as possible. If you stack the wood for customers you should charge for that, but then you can double check that they are getting what they pay for. dump trailers are great. If you give a little extra that will be made up for by the fact that you did not hand stack every load into a a cord the load it into a trailer to deliver.

doc henderson · May 26, 2025, 10:28:48 PM

some would say 140 cubic feet of loose wood is a cord, others maybe 180. you should see for yourself.

barbender · May 26, 2025, 10:34:01 PM

Figure out your volume in cubic feet, and divide by 180 (that number varies depending on the size and length of splits).

If, for example, your trailer measurements were 2'x7'x14'=196 cubic feet. Divide that by 180, 1.08. So if you load it loose thrown to flush with your trailer sides, you'll be just over a cord.

140 will never come out a stacked cord, Doc😊

doc henderson · May 26, 2025, 11:07:04 PM

I agree, I gave a range.

I would stack a few perfect cords in dump it in and see.

SwampDonkey · May 27, 2025, 01:24:07 AM

You have to sample the loaded trailer 2 or 3 times, that means stacking the cord and tossing it into the trailer later. A cord of firewood is a lot of wood. I gather mine in the woods after I buck and split and toss trail side. It takes me 10 stacked buggy loads to get a cord of 20" wood. I'll be a little over a cord, but not by a lot. I figure about 13 cu feet per buggy load, so 130 cu feet. I usually cut about 12 cords of wood to heat house and wood shop. I've loaded the buggy enough times that I can estimate how much wood is in my trail side piles, as in how many buggy loads. I'm never under on my estimates, bang on or an extra load full. There is always someone claiming they have 3 cord on their trailer hauled by their pick up truck and they might have 1-1/2 on a good day. I have a 12 foot x 6 foot x 20" side railed trailer that I only load 5 buggy loads onto. That fills the bed up to the rails and rounded a little in the middle toward the front half of the trailer and not as deep on the back end. Half a cord. The trailer is not designed for a heavier load and would never fit a cord on there anyway if it had higher specs unless stacked tight. A cord of green wood of the species I burn is 5000 lbs. Green maple-beech-yellow birch would be 500 lb heavier and oak closer to 1000 lb heavier in a cord. Maple is the standard firewood species up here, it grows like weeds. We have very little oak in our woods of any kind. I burn what most people wouldn't touch, but that's not my problem. I've got mountains of wood and she all burns. :D :D

thecfarm · May 27, 2025, 04:50:22 AM

As posted, stack up a cord of wood and dump it into the trailer.
I used to split wood and use a conveyor to load a trailer for a guy I worked for.
I did have to get into the trailer and lever the load to get to the paint marks in the corners.

TreefarmerNN · May 27, 2025, 06:12:42 AM

If you have access to a scale, you can weigh empty, load it as full as you think it should be and weigh full. Then use a table from the friendly internet to figure amount, considering the moisture and species.

Our local sand and gravel distributor will weigh "non customers" without hassle. I'm not sure if they charge anything but if they do, it's very minimal.

GRANITEstateMP · May 27, 2025, 06:24:52 AM

I can't remember if its the University of VT or Maine, but one of them has a known measurement for a loose or "thrown" cord. If you search it on the forum, you'll find the thread. I do go more than 180cu ft when I'm doing 22-24in wood (more air gaps) vs 16 or 18in firewood.

Firewood fanatic · May 27, 2025, 07:37:36 AM

I have in mind right now that I will offer to stack the wood for the customer if I charge $100 or so. But I mainly want to know if I throw the wood into the trailer, then dump it into the ground at the customers house without any stacking, how can a guy determine how many cords of wood are there. I have been reading up on this and a lot of the internet also is saying 180, but I really just wanted to get some really people who work with wood opinion, not just googles

Big_eddy · May 27, 2025, 10:35:29 AM

I agree with the others. You need to stack a few cords and then load them into your trailer ( using whatever technique you plan to use normally) then take note of how full your trailer looks. My son did that a couple of times, then replaced his sideboards with new ones cut to the right height so now he just fills to the top of the boards. Others paint a line around the trailer at the right height.

One caution. We load our trailer by dumping a measured cord of wood off the tractor bucket. We have a frame on the bucket that we fill 6 times. Even though we measure the wood in every time, the trailer fill does not look the same every time. It depends how it falls. Hence the need to repeat the process a few times before drawing your line.

Regardless, better to be over rather than under. Our measured frame gives us ~ 10% over and we're good with that, as are our customers. We have never had a customer call saying he's short, but we've heard from several about how they have been shorted in the past. The customer only figures it out later (sometimes much later) when they stack it and they are not happy. You might not hear about it, but you might never hear from them again either.

Big_eddy · May 27, 2025, 10:41:11 AM

Quote from: Firewood fanatic on May 27, 2025, 07:37:36 AMI have in mind right now that I will offer to stack the wood for the customer if I charge $100 or so. But I mainly want to know if I throw the wood into the trailer, then dump it into the ground at the customers house without any stacking, how can a guy determine how many cords of wood are there. I have been reading up on this and a lot of the internet also is saying 180, but I really just wanted to get some really people who work with wood opinion, not just googles

$100 to stack a cord???
If you can stack without carrying, one person can stack a cord in 30-45 mins. $30 seems to be the going rate around here.

Back the trailer to the pile, tilt it up, lift off the tailgate straight onto the pile. The closer the better.

barbender · May 27, 2025, 11:28:28 AM

I would never get a whole cord stacked in 30-45 minutes, and I'm a fairly robust and hard working guy. There's no way I'd stack a whole cord for $30.

If you stack a cord and then dump it into a trailer, it won't be the same as tossed or off of a conveyor, it will likely still be tighter stacked. The only way you can really know, is to stack up what you have loose thrown in your trailer.

The conversion numbers for loose thrown wood were developed in some cases by actual weights and measures departments, so there is no reason for guessing or by gosh and by golly estimations. The reason there are a range of conversion numbers is due to variety in size of splits, and length. 16" long, 6" diameter splits use 175-180. 20" long, 8" diameter would be 200 or more.

beenthere · May 27, 2025, 12:15:52 PM

Quote from: Firewood fanatic on May 26, 2025, 10:12:19 PMI am thinking about starting to deliver firewood in a dump trailer in around one full cord increments. I'm going to be dumping wood into the trailer with a skid loader sometimes but also by hand. I have zero desire to try to stack every load of wood into the dump trailer to try to figure out how many cords are there, I just want to know how to measure how many loose, not stacked cords of wood can be in the dump trailer, at any given time. Thank you

Sell/advertise it as "dump trailer load of split wood" and then let your customers decide.

Or just stack one dump trailer load and know what one is. Knowing that, from then on sell as "about xx cord delivered in a dump trailer" and don't try to pin it down any more than that. Avoid any stacking except for the one load.

By weight, depends on density and moisture content. Both can vary a fair amount but maybe easier to sell.

Magicman · May 27, 2025, 01:30:43 PM

I have read on here somewhere that in some states it has to be by a measured amount i.e. a cord. Advertised and sold as a truck or trailer load won't work.

beenthere · May 27, 2025, 01:42:24 PM

MM
I understand that if it is sold as a cord, in some states it must measure up to be the State's definition of a cord according to the commerce description in that state. May only apply if a dispute ends up in court.

SwampDonkey · May 27, 2025, 03:20:41 PM

In Canada we have Weights and Measures Canada that says only cords or cubic meters or parts there of will be used for firewood. No other volume measure is allowed except cubic decimetres for packaged wood. No face cords, apartment cords, trailer loads and other lingo will pass the requirement. They have a couple pages on their site dedicated to firewood specifically. This keeps the requirements to a national standard.

JJ · May 27, 2025, 04:34:00 PM

Here is some useful laws and requirements for firewood sales in New England.

https://www.bythecord.org/a-cord/

You can get in trouble in some states like Maine for advertising bulk firewood volume in anything other than cord.

https://www.bythecord.org/a-cord/maine/

JJ

Firewood fanatic · May 27, 2025, 05:39:02 PM

Quote from: Big_eddy on May 27, 2025, 10:41:11 AM$100 to stack a cord???
If you can stack without carrying, one person can stack a cord in 30-45 mins. $30 seems to be the going rate around here.

Back the trailer to the pile, tilt it up, lift off the tailgate straight onto the pile. The closer the better.

Well the way I look at it is one hour total. Between 45 minutes to just stack it, and then sweeping up any mess and most likely chatting with the customer, that's another 15 minutes. And maybe you are right, 100 bucks is high, maybe more like 75, but it's going to be a cold day in heck before I charge 30 bucks for all of that. Firewood isn't the only thing we do, if I charge even 50 dollars for stacking, I'm going to be loosing money and wasting time when I could be doing something else, that would be making me more money. The way I look at it is 75-100 dollars for stacking makes it worth my time.

barbender · May 27, 2025, 06:29:42 PM

I charge $100 for stacking a cord and hope no one wants me to🤷

Magicman · May 27, 2025, 07:01:48 PM

I agree. If it is a job that you do not want to do, double your price.

If they still want you to do it, double it again.

Firewood fanatic · May 27, 2025, 08:55:01 PM

I think in my area at least there is potentially going to be a lot of people that are willing to pay me for stacking. Personally, if I were to be working a physical 8-5 job, get home, see the firewood guy dumped a load of wood in my driveway, made a mess, and you still have to spend 1 hour stacking it. That would be a hassle that at the end of a long day, you don't want to have to deal with. I would rather pull into my driveway at the end of the day, see the firewood guy brought wood, stacked it, cleaned up the mess, and pay him 75 dollars for doing everything extra he did. You can come home, kick your feet up and drink a beer, rather than have to go stack a bunch of wood and clean up the mess.

Magicman · May 27, 2025, 10:21:04 PM

If you are not charging $100 per hour for your actual working time, you ain't gonna make it. That has to pay for your non-productive time & expenses such as loading, hauling, fuel, etc. You either get paid or go broke.

Firewood fanatic · May 27, 2025, 10:33:21 PM

Magic man, you're right. Some people just don't understand the money that goes into running a business. I'll charge 300 dollars for one cord delivered and dumped, 100 dollars to stack it. Most people will look at that and think I'm getting rich, but I'm not at all. I spent 120 to buy the cord of logs, firewood processer to split it, fuel and maintenance to everything all of the time, then the dump trailer and a big enough truck to pull the trailer. Then that just adds more costs to the equation. All of a sudden that 400 dollars to deliver and stack the wood quickly gets shrunk to around 50-100 dollars of straight profit.

Old Greenhorn · May 27, 2025, 10:36:59 PM

A couple of thoughts as I read through this. First, my son charges his clients 100 bucks to stack a cord. He is not a firewood guy, he does property maintenance and building but for some clients he takes care of whatever they need at their place, including getting them firewood. He doesn't like doing it, but it's a 'service to clients" type thing for him, so he will do it for clients that pay their bills on time. However, it's important to keep in mind that a lot of people stack their wood in a place where you cannot dump it. This means carrying the wood from 6 steps to maybe 20 steps away, which adds a lot to the time, then there are the folks that want it in the garage, shed, or basement.

Regarding your 'cord size' or load size. A cord is a cord is a cord. You can't change that. People who do stack their wood after you dump will KNOW (or should know) whether you gave them a short load or a fat one. They may not say anything, but they will know. I had a friend bought 2 cord from a guy, and he finished stacking it the day before I stopped by. He pointed at the stack and said "Do you think that looks like 2 cords? It seems a little short." He has nice stacks, so I grabbed a tape and measured and did the math and it was between 1-1/4 and 1-1/2 cord (I don't recall exactly). In addition, his 'dried seasoned wood' was anything but. I tried to get him to change 'guys' but he still uses the same guy, just dozen's like it. I'm not sure if he ever mentioned it to him.
The few times I bought wood 20 years ago when I was working 60 hour weeks, my guy knew I made neat stacks and asked me if I would mind measuring my stacks when I was done and let him know how his load size came out. I did, he was always between 5 and 10% over. Once he dropped a short load and told me. His processor broke down before he finished the load and he needed to empty the truck. A week later he brought another load and in total he was 50% over. I tried to pay for that but he didn't care to take it. He just wanted a happy customer that was flexible and he was sorry he had to do it twice.

Oh and if I could fine somebody to stack wood (well) for me at $30/cord I would hire him/her in a New York minute. I hate stacking wood with my back issues and I need 8 cord a year. I can no longer do a cord in under an hour, that ship sailed a while back. Too bad kids don't like to work anymore.

Good luck.