Urban logging success! Finally a tree company employee who cares!

[Kelvin]

Howdy all,
For all my gripeing i wanted to share a success story.  I was called out of the blue by a realing nice guy who works for a tree service.  His boss said he can do with the trees as he wishes and he gets so much firewood he finally looked around for someone willing to pay for the butt logs.  Thank goodness.  I pay guys  $.25 a bd ft for aver. stuff and $.50 on up for really nice stuff like cherry and walnut.  (remember these are urban trees, and i am providing them a service removing their material from their job site)  Here is a load i got of red and white oak logs.  The picture of the logs on the ground. (the shattered ones are from someone else.  Talk about quarter sawn oak

Here is a picture of logs i arm wrestled from another tree service.  When i was out picking up the white oak from above, i saw the trucks of another tree service.  I went in the back yard and saw they were cutting veneer grade red oak logs, and asked, whatcha doing with these?  "just leaving them lay man"  Can i ask the owner for them?  Sure.  I went inside found a nice guy who was cutting the trees so he could get satelite TV.  "oh, i gave them to one of the workers for firewood."  Me... "hmmm... i'm just after the butt logs do you think they might share?"  "go ask them, its okay with me."
So i went and asked the worker who got dibs on them.  He was a real jerk of course, i don't know why his boss didn't know he asked for them, but he had a firewood company on the side and these would split real nice.  He started acting all weird when i asked if i could just have the butt logs, and he could have 30' of log for firewood.  He said "i'm not playing that game man"  Which i have no idea what he meant.  I guess he thought i was going to make him clean up the mess but they were paid to drop them and leave them.  Finally he just said "screw it, take 'em" all mad.  so they left and i finally got a few nice ones by the skin of my teeth.  Man they really want to saw up those veneer logs really bad.  THere is sooo much firewood everywhere and that is all they want.  Now i know why that company never wants to sell me any logs.  Their employees take them all on the side, which  is good for the employees, so i don't want to wreck what little they have.  They deserve all the money they can make.  I just don't know why they don't sell them for more than they get for firewood plus all the work.  Maybe they  have a processor they have to justify by running logs through.
Here is a pick of that load....


 

[Captain]

Good to hear something positive up there Kelvin!!  Looks like a respectable haul...

Captain

[thecfarm]

Looks good.Good luck on future loads.

[Brad_S.]

Geeze Louise Kelvin, if you passed a Trooper here in NY with that load, he'd have a field day with you!
Congrats on the nice haul though.

[sawguy21]

He would be whipping out the scales here for sure. Looks like you got some work ahead of you, good job.

[WIwoodworker]

Nice load Kelvin. You're right on the money about the second tree service. If the employees are getting those logs they might be threatened by a guy like you who can also use them. Some people are weird about competition. The cool part though is that you have a great opportunity to go back to that second tree service and thank them. If it were me I might go back and offer them something even though they gave them to you. See if coming back bearing gifts makes them see you in a different light. Granted, they were just paid to drop them but if they have an opportunity to see you as someone that benefits them even when they weren't expecting it you might be greeted differently next time you run into them.

[Kelvin]

Howdy all,
Scales?  You mean it looks like it might be overweight, or it just looks loaded bad.  This truck is a 36k gvw, and weighs less than 20k empty, so even with 6 yards of crushed concrete i still don't go over weight.  I don't think i was close to 16k #'s, but who knows.  I should've looked at the springs to see if they were compressed like my concrete loads, as i know how much they weigh.
Thanks for the input,
KP

[Brad_S.]

I was thinking more about the way they are piled. I believe the law here states that you can't stack above the height of the truck/trailer sides or stakes. And I assume you have already taken the chains or straps off by the time the picture was taken?

[Ironwood]

I believe here in Pa. at least, the standards (posts) need to be fixed (or at least pinned in place) and be 24" taller than the highest log. Then minimum of three chains per 10' of log length.

                                 Ironwood

[stonebroke]

Brad s

I think in NY you can go 1/2 a log diameter above the side of the truck.

Stonebroke

[Frickman]

In Pennsylvania the stakes have to be above the logs completely. You basically have to be able to see across them. Sometimes on local trips on back roads I'll have them a few inches high in the middle, but not often. Big fine for that.  Three straps, chains, cables, whatever, are required on each tier, no matter the length. If I had a tier of five foot long mine props on I need three chains, no exceptions.

[Ironwood]

Frickman,

 Now I remember, that is correct, up to 10 or 12' then you need more than 3 chains. Pa. trooper told me that directly 

             ironwood

[ironstumper]

Hey Kelvin,
                 If you're having trouble getting urban logs you may want to consider one of logrite's arches. I just broke into sawmilling a few months ago because of the frustration trying to make a go of stump removal. Lots of competition down here for that. After talking with a few of my friends in the tree business it became obvious that there main problem is the damage associated with skidsteer loaders tearing up the lawns. I purchased one of logrites big ones 3 weeks ago and havn't had the time to saw since then. My backyard is filling up fast.....Good luck....Doug

[Justin L]

If you made a list of the log sizes, and how much you would pay for them, it would show the employees how much they could make. Wouldn't they make more than turning it into firewood? Maybe the employees would call you even... Offer a bonus for logs delivered to you.

Of course you would have to state the quality for the prices...

[mdvaden]

Nice load Kelvin. You're right on the money about the second tree service. If the employees are getting those logs they might be threatened by a guy like you who can also use them.

Threatened employees or not - I find that most tree service owners are very happy to skim a few extra dollars for themselves.

Once we move back to northern Oregon, I'll have to keep in mind the urban log recyclers and not just the wood lathe operators.

[Tom]

You might want to keep in mind bartering and alternant disposal too.   A lot of the little sawmills are yearning for wood but don't have the funds to chase, or buy logs.  People in the tree removal service need a disposal area.  Around here, they charge to pay for the landfill fee and get dollar signs in their eyes when someone makes them believe that the log might be worth something.  The problem is that they quit thinking of "sharing" and want it all, landfill fee, sale of log and all. They could give or trade the log to a sawyer and both of them solve their problems.  That generates long term relationships and friendships.


We have a firewood company here that charges tree services for disposal and then creates and sales firewood.  He draws wood because he charges only half as much for the disposal as the county.  I think that the only reason he charges at all is because he gets a lot of trash (limbs, leaves and aromatics) dumped on him too.  It's hard to sell a camphor log as firewood. 

[metalspinner]

It's hard to sell a camphor log as firewood.

Camphor is one of those logs I call a domestic exotic and would love to my grubby little fingers on.

[olyman]

Howdy all,
Scales?  You mean it looks like it might be overweight, or it just looks loaded bad.  This truck is a 36k gvw, and weighs less than 20k empty, so even with 6 yards of crushed concrete i still don't go over weight.  I don't think i was close to 16k #'s, but who knows.  I should've looked at the springs to see if they were compressed like my concrete loads, as i know how much they weigh.
Thanks for the input,
KP

use the log calculator on this forum--youd be surprised at how much weight you had on the truck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!