Burning brush piles in the winter

[shinnlinger]

Hi,

I have had little luck getting brush piles to burn come winter time and wonder if you all have any ideas?

I will tarp this time around and build it as high as I can, wonder if I should put a couple water heaters in with the ends cut off to act at a chimney? 

I also happen to have a fan out of an orchard heater that currently runs on electricity.  I could set it up with a generator or perhaps give it its own gas motor or  run it off the tractor PTO.  The idea is to let it fan the fire to help it get really going.

I have has some success with soaking trash bags of planer shavings with a gallon or two of diesel and lighting them.

Would like things to rip come winter!

Dave

[Clam77]

The planer shavings thing should work.... we just use a 5 or 10 gallon mix of diesel and used motor oil and splash it on all over the place.... a little gasoline to get it started right off the bat and you're good to go.    ;)

If you want a REALLY hot fire....  a few tires in the mix will get it going good.... but don't get caught!!       :D

[Onthesauk]

I also try to keep a pile of scrap wood, odds and ends, piled up somewhere where I can keep it dry.  Mid winter I can usually get a brush pile started, even green wood, by getting a good hot fire under it.  Get it hot enough and it will heat itself and burn.

[Clam77]

 :D   :D  How big of a brush pile are we talking here??   The kind you use a D8 Cat to make... or the kind that accumulates from cleaning a property or something??

[Al_Smith]

When it gets dry enough it will burn .

As I type I've got a pile as large as a single car garage the results of a recent wind storm . Probabley be until November before it's ready .When it is all I use is a sheet of news paper and a Bic lighter .

[chevytaHOE5674]

"Somebody" told me that with enough old tires anything will burn....  :D

[Holmes]

  I have set up the fire starting area in the fall , cardboard ,paper, kindling, like I start the wood stove but bigger. Pile on some logs then cover with cardboard or tarp to keep it dry then pile on the brush.  Just make it ready to light..  You will still have to feed the fire

[trapper]

Local farmer told me to build the brush pile on top of a bale of straw soaked with used motor oil.  Worked on fresh cut ash last winter,  Burned the brush completely.

[shinnlinger]

The hay bale idea is worth a shot along with all this stuff.

The deal is I am building the pile with a  40,000 excavator, and it will be rather large, but the machine wont be around  when the snow comes and I can light it off.

[beenthere]

As suggested (Holmes, et al), or alluded to here, build the pile so you can get (or already have in place) a dry, lightable nest of kindling in a good location that is accessible to light (either with some charcoal with small amount of lighter fluid, paper, or dry splinters). A hand torch rather than just a match works good for me.

A pile that isn't tight will not burn well.

After the pile burns for awhile, having a loader or way to keep pushing in the edges of a pile to the fire will be necessary as well. Either that or will have to hand feed to get it all burned.

[gunman63]

20 LB   LP tank and a big bertha torch end.

[clww]

We burned up close to 3 acres of tree limbs, stumps, pine, etc. this past winter clearing the land for our cabin. Most of it had been on the ground for at least 4 months. I would make several smaller piles (10 foot circle X 5 foot high) to burn. Plotting the wind direction of blowing into the pile when lit, I used news paper, cardboard, and pine cones. Get that started and then we'd put smaller limbs and twigs into the flames. Once that was going good, I'd pull the top of the pile over into it. With election upcoming, this year I would add all the OBombUS posters I could find, too. :D

[thecfarm]

Someone suggested a leaf blower. I try to burn my at the first snow fall and push it in with the tractor. I burn at least one a year.

[AvT]

I burned millions of tons of green wood in the winter time on pipelines and oilfield construction sites in the past.  We usually had equipment to push in the fires as they burned but if you don't it really helps to get up on the pile and buck up as much as you can into small blocks if possible with a chainsaw so it can fall in on itself as it burns.  Be super careful on there and have someone around when you do it.  Just my 2 cents.

[SwampDonkey]

I do all my burning in winter. But a winter with no snow (or late fall). Now when I burn it's more like work because a brush pile just burns a round hole in the middle of the pile. You have to keep feeding the burnt ends into the fire. The orchard here, I cut and burned it as I went. It was an acre and I had probably 6 fires, but not all at once. Maybe two fires and maybe one at a time. Everything was green. I used dry apple limbs, kindling and softwood bows (like kerosene) and newsprint. I might have had some burnt motor oil to but only used it to be rid of it.  Up here, in late fall and winter there is always a wind. The fires burn hot and tall flames. Sure a quick way to be rid of brush and half rotten wood. The apple trees were old and hollow.

[mikerat]

I burn in the winter cause I have a 144 year old log home and I'm careful but the best tool that I use for making things hot is my leaf blower. I'll soak broken stickers and the like with lighter fluid ( don't have diesel) and if it needs more heat I pour the air to it, works every time.


Mike

[Peter Drouin]

 I use to burn when I was young and had the time to play with it, and have some brews :D :D :D now time is money I chip brush, slabs , junk wood all of it and sell the chips, that morbark is the best thing next to the Woodmizer LT40 super :D :D ;D

[Chuck White]

I've got a long-time customer that I've finally talked into "winter" burning his slab piles!

Some of them are 5-6 years old!

Only problem is they are directly under the "high-tension" power lines!

Solution: use the small dozer and move the piles closer to the tree line!

[giant splinter]

I have very good luck with a burn pile when I use a "weed burning" portable propane torch to keep the perimeter fired up.I suspect covering the pile at the end of a nice warm summer and firing it up mid fall after the rain gets the ground soaked is also important.

[Brad_bb]

I suspect you problem has been too much snow in the pile and therefore your tarp should prevent that. Scrap plywood would work as well.  Even some big cardboard on top with a heavier wood chunk on top to hold it down.  Then you could more easily clear the snow off the pile.  I usually burn in the winter to prevent catching the surrounding area or field on fire.  I want that moisture to prevent spread.  Here in IL we usually have enough wind and open area to keep any snow build up from the pile.  Starting the fire:  I do some body and paint work/restoration and there fore usually have waste clean up laquer thinner in a can. One or two 16-20oz cups on an area of the pile will start it quickly, and a couple more will fire it up and keep it from dying before it has a chance to catch the brush wood to burning.  A little breeze helps too, to fan the flames. I start the fire, go away and come back in an hour or two and it has burned out the center, then I re-pile the outter sticks to the center and go away again for awhile.  You have to be confident that you are not going to  catch the surrounding ground on fire.

[Bobus2003]

Most the time i just use a handful of dry needles and a fistful of small branches.. Cant say i've ever had too much snow to burn, just made the burning slow goin

[chevytaHOE5674]

I must burn early in the winter as once the snow starts really falling the brush piles disappear under the snow and they are almost impossible to burn. Then again I live in the land of 200+" of snow...  8)