Show your f-150 at work!

[Old_Paint]

Shoulda seen the rest of the tree that went with it. Had a tornado touch down in May that year. Put that one down behind my old T-Bird and the truck. Missed the bird by about 1 foot. Bad part was, I had about 11 more just like it down in the yard that morning.

The huge mulch pile in the background is what's left of the tree tops. I had about 5 cords of wood from all of the damage.

 

[95F350XL]

Damn thats alot of wood.

 

[A_G]

If mine only has 2WD, does that mean it only works half as hard?

but as long as it rolls right it feel like nothing


We had a mudding area that was divided by a washed up stump about that size..and i got sick of getting to close to it so a wrapped a chain around it and dragged it into the river and left it.

 

[surewhynot]

If mine only has 2WD, does that mean it only works half as hard?

Or twice as hard by the looks of that stump.

 

[Old_Paint]

The wind laid the tree down, but didn't nearly loosen the stump. You can see where I cut the roots with an axe to knock a few thousand pounds of dirt off it. I took as much dirt off as possible to lighten it, AND to fill the bomb crater it was going to leave. There was enough dirt/root mass on the bottom that when I cut the trunk, that much of the stump stood back up nearly verticle.

Getting that thing out was sorta like a cat eating a grindstone, one lick at a time.

 

[dreo2003]

Here's what i did on Saturday. Filled the bed with as many cut pieces as i could then put the wheel barrow that we used on top. this wood is well seasoned so it didn't weigh my truck down much at all. The tire on that wheel barrow blew as soon as we started loading it up. grr

These's pieces seem like a stack of poker chips compared to old paint's huge stump!

 

[msb71]

Now thats what I call getting the most out of a truck ,exactly what it is made for.

Mike

 

[95F350XL]

Wow that rear is low. Were you riding the barrow on the steel wheel?

 

[dreo2003]

nah as soon as the tire blew out we just put the barrow aside and started carrying the pieces one by one. it wasn't that far so it only added a few minutes to the job. you can see in the first pic that that wood is seasoned as hell so it shouldnt be weighing my truck down like that. I'm definitely going to put F250 springs in the rear when i get a chance.

 

[95F350XL]

Those F250 springs should help out alot. I never have the chance to get seasoned wood. I get it as soon as its cut down so like super green and its so damn heavy to lift.

 

[dreo2003]

well those pieces were sitting outside for 2 years. a lady's cat got sick and her vet told her that it could be bugs in the wood so we got free seasoned wood! there was some bugs in the mud that the pieces were sitting in but we split the wood and there's not a bug in there.

yea, if that was green wood in there, my truck would have been weighed down even farther. but regardless of the load, my 4.9L straight six handles it without a problem. i with i could say the same for my springs and brakes.

 

[john112deere]

yea, if that was green wood in there, my truck would have been weighed down even farther. but regardless of the load, my 4.9L straight six handles it without a problem. i with i could say the same for my springs and brakes.

You ain't kidding.

Grandpa had some friends who let us cut a few cord in their woodlot... Green oak packed tight in the trailer gets heavy, fast.

 

[95F350XL]

Yea it does. I just finally finished stacking all of my green wood. I didnt even split all that I have. I got tired and figured I had enoguh. Ill prob move before I burn it all. Ill go snap some pics in a bit.

 

[dreo2003]

yea i know what you mean about green wood. not only does it make more work for the truck but its more work getting it into the truck lol

 

[john112deere]

Splitting is the FUN part.... We use this beast, when it'll start.

Grandpa used wood just about exclusively, to heat his house in NH from August to June (not quite, but pretty close) to about 80-85 degrees.

I've handled a few cord of wood, at least for a guy who's never heated with wood or made a dime from cutting/splitting/stacking the stuff.

 

[95F350XL]

That thing looks like the splitter from hell. I usually split by hand. I just had to much this time so I had to rent one.
Here what I split last weekend. I didnt even finish. I got too tired and my rental time was running out.

 

[john112deere]

Splitting cylinder is from a Cat dozer. Pump is from a dump truck. Engine is a Wisconsin V-4 from a Civil Defense generator. Plus a 30" Sears cordwood saw (set up to only run one or the other; it might have the power to do both, but it would be REAL dangerous).

 

[dreo2003]

johndeere,

we use a splitter to split our firewood but its nothing like that thing! whats the deal with that thing?! it had to have cost more money to build that than to just buy a commercial splitter like we have. how do you get the logs up on the deck to cut them with that circular saw part? did you guys have all those parts laying around? that splitter is nuts! from what you've described, it sounds like it could handle a 4-way or 6-way wedge on it. do you keep the 2-way on there all the time? i've never seen a splitter like that!!

 

[john112deere]

Grandpa built it back in the '70s... He'd never have admitted to it, but the fun of building it was at least as important as the functionality of it in the end. (Though, 30 years later, it still gets used, so it was worth it.)

You gotta lift logs up to the saw (and also the splitter); it's really only easier to use the saw table than a chainsaw if you've got lots of long, smaller (maybe under 6" stuff), and even at that, it's pretty dull, and we've found it's easier to just grab the chainsaw for everything most of the time, rather than spend the time to get that whole thing sharpened right.

He had a 4-way wedge on it, but found that if he split the wood into "slabs" with the straight wedge, he could get larger pieces (i.e. longer burn time) in his top-load stove, so he hacked 'em off (you can kind of see the remnants of where the cross-arms were on the wedge in the pic.).

As to the parts, a lot of what's on there is replacing what was there originally, which was junk he had. The steel he mostly collected over the years for free or cheap; the original engine was a Wisconsin V-4 he'd had for years (this one was barely used so he picked it up when he saw it). Not sure where the cylinder came from, or the original pump. This pump came from a friend of his who owns a concrete plant and trucking company.

I've never used one of the ready-built splitters, but I've talked to a couple people who have 'em, said they make splitting the easy stuff fast and easy, but they can't handle the real knotty stuff. This thing will split anything, if you know how to run it right.

It's a hell of a machine, but it demands care and respect in it's operation.

 

[dreo2003]

yea i see where the hacked off cross arms are. thats awesome that the splitter has been in business for so long. the only splitters that will give you trouble with knotty stuff are homeowner splitters that aren't worth the gas to get them from the store to your yard.

i know what you mean about the slabs. makes sense. we always throw some large pieces in with each load for overnight pieces. thats a nice small husqvarna saw you have there. i like husqvarna and stihl saws a lot. i cant decide which i like better. that same saw you have is part of our saw collection. we also have that john deere mower for the house. thats really impressive that your grandpa built that machine to last all these years. how much wood does he split with it each year?

95f350xl, looks like you have about a cord and a half of wood to burn for next season in your fireplace (or larger wood stove). looks good. i like the random windsor block in the last pic.