I am sawing cross ties for the first time and wondering how many to haul on my 550 Ford.
Been Sawing 20 years and this is a first.
An average cross tie weighs about 250 lbs. How much can your 550 haul?
It might be cheaper to get someone to haul a trailerload. You'll save time and money on the hauling, and can spend more time sawing. We haul 220 ties on a typical load of ties. But, we're a little heavy.
What state are you in?
Your 550 a flatbed? And you're loading it on it? Or are you pulling a gooseneck?
Our koppers buyer would buy at the mill and he arranged the hauling.
We'd haul 32 7x9 9' on our 3500 Dodge but that was way overloaded. May be about right on F550.
The 550 GVW is 17500#
It is a 12 foot flat bed and I have a couple of good hills to pull. I am figuring about 32 to a load would be in the range.
I have an F Super Duty. There was a couple of years when they first came out that didn't have a number on them. I think it would later become a 450. I haul 40 at a time.
Just for us fella's who don't have a cross tie market , what are they worth ?
7"x9"x8'8" around $22 picked up at the mill and it doesn't take much of an end defect(rot/shake/split etc.) to drop the price to less than a third of that.
I think ours is $21 delivered. In our area, it seems to be linked to the price of 1 Com Red oak. When that goes up, so does the tie prices.
Anyone know the closest buyer to Richmond, va ?
Are you guys selling your ties to a treat plant?
We're selling to Koppers. We've sold to others in the past and they have all been treating plants. You don't need the middle man.
Couldn't you have them treated yourself then sell them or is that too much?
You don't want the toxic waste problems on your property. Best to sell the ties to a treater who has the markets. You won't make out very well trying to sell them on your own. This isn't an area for value added that many people can take on. I only know of one guy that did that with landscaping ties. He didn't attempt RR ties, and he had the deep pockets to do it.
I didn't mean to treat it yourself but take them to be treated. I've done it with fence posts and was considering the green treat for landscape ties also. But you're right marketing is always the issue. However seems like a small scale mill could supply something like that to help support our fun times running the mill. I don't advertise milling here but I'd like to cut and sell a little something to help pay for the diesel. There's lots of band mills around here and they're doing most of the custom milling, I'm not portable and just get a few friends dropping by once in a while and I don't usually charge them, they bring me wood sometimes to trade.
was at strata products today with load of poplar mine props. got new price sheet. $22 for 7x9x8.5
I'm interested in finding out more about this too. We have two railroads that run through here, CSX and Norfolk Southern. Does anyone know of any tie buyers around here? Greenville, SC area? If the tie buyers are far away, trucking would become the issue. I heard rumors they've been buying a lot of sweetgum ties, but nobody has specifics.....
Quote from: stavebuyer on May 08, 2012, 02:41:11 AM
7"x9"x8'8" around $22 picked up at the mill and it doesn't take much of an end defect(rot/shake/split etc.) to drop the price to less than a third of that.
Anyone have photo's?? I'm guessing all Red oak material.
Thanks DGDrls
i sell mine to browns timber products in campobella sc for about 20$ hauling 50-60 on a f700 ford thats not too far from okra farmer
Thanks, doghunter, I'll check with them.
8)
From what I've figured out, for an 8' tie that is 7" X 9" that would be somewhere around .50 / board foot if my math holds out. If I can get that for sweetgum, as a steady thing, that would be doable, me thinks. Plus the outer boards which I can sell for quite a bit more than that.
A couple of questions for those who make ties-- do they have a precise length they have to be? How much leeway is there on the dimensions? Do they have to be within a quarter inch? eighth? The length, does it have to be within an inch, or half an inch, or what? Do the ends have to be sawn off smooth, and how smooth? Chainsaw ok? How about the pith? How much leeway do you have on centering the pith? What if you have a log big enough to get more than one tie out of? Do they have to have the pith inside them? What about knots, crooked logs, crotches, and so on? What species are acceptable, or unacceptable? How about sycamore, for instance? Hemlock? cypress? red cedar? oaks, sweetgum, locust? tulip poplar? yellow pine? :P
The most common cross tie is 7 by 9 105 inch which is 8 ft 6 in with trim . Most will take + ΒΌ on size . The Railroad Tie Association is great source of information they have all the specs and a training video on there web site. rta.org. There all kinds of specs on wayne, cracks, holes, and many other things. You can print out the specs from there site . The video is a great learning tool for what is good and what is not .
I believe they take all species excepts the really soft ones, as long as they can treat them
Probably the best thing to do is talk to the buyer or company and ask for there specifications. I have sold to 2 companies and they have had different requirements on species and heart. Most will take 7 by 8 and 6 by 8 also. Understanding rail bearing area and Wayne rules will make sawing small logs more successful.