A good day in the woods until the end.

Well, I finally got headed to the woods to bring home the first trailer load of fire wood for the season. I have had problems with my 99 dodge 1500 starting on damp days. Today wasn't damp but it still would not start. Finally found a bad wire where it plugs into a coil down on athe RH front of the 318. Fixed that and it started rite up. I have to drive the tractor, splitter and elevator up to the landing and wifey fallows me in the Dodge, and then I come home and get the other 430 and wood trailer. Still the trio of Me, Myself, and I, during the week. Got things set up at landing about 11:30 and finished off the load about 4:00. Took a lunch break about noon and had to take a couple other breaks during the afternoon. Can't work like I used to. I built the gin pole and grapple to lift the heavy blocks. I can't lift the big ones anymore either. It has a HF 2500# winch to provide lifting power and I built a tray in the splitter frame to hold a group 31 12V battery. I just throw the charger on it overnight when I have worked it hard, It also works great when I am blocking logs, to pull them out of the piles that I buck up with the Kubota B2150 and loader.
I have the splitter mounted on 430 3pt hitch so the bed can be adjusted to my waist heith. No bending or working on knees like with a horizontal splitter or other close to the ground splitters. The splitter is built to push the blocks through the wedge, so the split pieces just drop off the end of the custom bed that I built, and into the elevator. Elevator chain only runs when the splitter cylinder bottoms in retracted position, and I hold the lever. Don't need it to be running all the time.
I decided not to take my new bigger wood trailer and 830 up today, as I got a late start. Things went pretty good, except for the trip home. I had a spare tire on the RH side with 45# of air, but sidewall let loose. I guess I will go to my tire dealer tomorrow morning and check out some options. Old used LT truck tires aren't cutting it. My new bigger trailer has new ST235/80R16 12 ply trailer tires on it, and I hoped to use one of them to get the little trailer home but the tire wouldn't fit under the fender. Oh well at least the tire blew on the farm road.
Loren

You shouldn't have put that last piece on.

A lot of very nice tools but still a lot of work. The pancake eaters will thank you.

You have built some real nice equipment to work with, looks like fun . And boy , does that elevator ever do a nice job of piling the wood in that trailer !!

Unbelievable the great equipment you built,everything looks better than factory

Bruce, I think you passed on your tire problems to me!!! wink. I sure wish I could build a machine to stack wood onto my trailers and also into the wood shed. I bet that it would sell well. So far all I have come up with for ideas is a much larger woodshed, and a 40' elevator to drop the wood thru the roof into the shed. That ain't gona happen.
Loren

I knew it when I saw the wood stacked that high that there would be a picture of a flat tire! How heavy is that kind of wood? Most hardwoods in MN weigh about 5100 green and 3200 dry per cord.

Your design, engineering, and fabrication skills are absolutely fantastic.

Your 400B makes me smile. My dad has one. One of the first tractors I drove. It's a gas, though, with COM. Hope to buy it and fix it up. Nice equipment!

UFFDA, Loren!

And I'm not even Norwegian.

Always thought you have things set up nice. And like my late brother would say, "nice cobs"

Dan

Trailer looks like it has no suspension, no suspension makes life extra hard on wheel bearings, and tires (you are using them as the suspension). If you can find tires that can hold that kind of weight the wheel bearings will probably be the next weak link.

Seems to me that it would be as fast to not stack the wood and make two trips.

Loren,
I noticed in a pic that tire was low, then last pic it blew. I was thinking when you were building it one axle may not be enough, wood is heavy. Ever think of adding a second axle?

It's nice to see you use your brain more than using your back, smart. Nice set up. How did you get all the equipment there with your trio, me, myself and I?
geo

(quoted from post at 21:35:39 08/09/17) Trailer looks like it has no suspension, no suspension makes life extra hard on wheel bearings, and tires (you are using them as the suspension). If you can find tires that can hold that kind of weight the wheel bearings will probably be the next weak link.

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Good grief, there are millions of farm wagons out there with the exact same hubs, bearings, wheels and tires on them, with no springs, no suspension, carrying much heavier loads. Top speed here is maybe 15MPH, and judging by ACG's meticulous style in building his equipment and maintaining his tractors, he slows down for potholes and tries to miss them when he can.

This was just a case of bad luck/timing with an old truck tire.

+1 on that. Superb engineering.

We have a metal floor hay trailer with a hoist that gets overloaded occasionally. Been running those older LT tires and they are aging and starting to let go. Been looking at some ST225 Load range E tires in 15in that Wally World has been selling. Prices around $70 each. Been thinking of trying them. Once I saw a sale price of $50 each with free shipping to the store. China tires I am sure...most are now a days.

John

George, I put 45# of air in tire before heading to woods. It was an old used tire and had some cracks. I will see what a new 8 ply farm tire service tire will cost this morning.
Loren

It is a long ways from the landing in the woods to my house, and a lot of slow travel on the woods roads when loaded.
I built a larger trailer last winter so I could still haul as much, but not have to stack it. There is a bit over a cord of wood on the small trailer when stacked.
Loren

Too bad you are not closer I have a pair of 6 bolt rims and tires off a skid steer that would bolt right on to your wagon.
Good for 6000 lb+ per tire.

Well Loren without the flat tire it would've been just another day in the woods. Just saying

(quoted from post at 07:07:51 08/10/17) Too bad you are not closer I have a pair of 6 bolt rims and tires off a skid steer that would bolt right on to your wagon.
Good for 6000 lb+ per tire.

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That would be the way to go, not to mention that skid steer tires have extra rubber on the sidewalls to protect the rim from being damaged. When you can run the side wall of a skid steer tire pretty hard into a notched disk on a very heavy disk harrow, and not flatten the tire it should hold up against any tree stumps.

ACG,You have some fine looking and well cared for equipment.

Loren,
It is recommended I run 70# in my 10k dump and
90# in my 14k implement trailer. I have dual axles too.

I think I'm adding something to my bucket list:
"Run Loren's woodworking contraptions for a day"