sled to haul wood questions

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

i am looking for a sled to haul wood we now have over a foot of snow
when there is not snow i often use a wheel barrow or just drag 4-6 foot lengths out depending on how big around they are

i prefer to cut when it is cold out , the wheel barrow works ok if i clear a path from the tree to the road , but the trees i have left to cut out on a 5 acer wood lot owned by a freind keep getting farther and farther from the road funny how that works

there are probably 40+ trees i marked for removal before the leaves fell all standing dead wood , they had some sort of oak disease all are oak or hickory most 6-14 inches in diamiter abreast.from what i cut split and stacked and am now buring from last year , it burns great.

it is me and my saw , no 4 wheeler no snomobile the good news is most of the wood lot on the north side of a hill is down hill to the road not very steep but down hill is down hill

so i have looked at some of the poly sleds , i have thought about building one i am wondering what you may use what you like what you didn't like and think guy on a tite budget if you can.

[Freeholder]

I think my hay sled would work for you. Go to the thrift shops (or check freecycle and Craigslist) until you find a pair of old skis cheap. They can be small ones, and don't need to have bindings. Then you'll need a couple of pieces of wood for blocks between the skis and the bed of the sled, and a piece of heavy plywood for the bed. Better put a low railing around the edges to lash your load down, too, or bolt some heavy eyes on. Screw everything together well. You can pull this with a rope handle, but it would be best, if you have any slopes, to put a rigid handle on it (maybe bend some electrical conduit into a U shape, and hinge it where it attaches to the sled). With skis for runners, it slides VERY well, and I've been knocked down by my sled sliding down into my ankles!

Don't make it too big, and don't make it too narrow or it will tip over easily.

Kathleen

[Alice In TX/MO]

Pick of what she described above:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It...n-Carrier.aspx

More ideas:
http://www.wintertrekking.com/index....e_view&a_id=47

Higher cost:
http://www.ntsled.com/index.html

[SRSLADE]

Those poly sleds with a flat bottom.So easy to pull.We use them all the time when we have snow and can't use the wheel barrow.Tie a rope to the front that is long enough to stay away from the sled (about 5 ft).We do that all the time in the winter to haul wood.Good daily exercise,don't ya know!

[Ross]

We make the ski sleds too, been a great help over the years. Not really tough enough to haul full trees but you could fabricate a cutter of sorts out of steel. An ol style bob sled is just two short solid hitched sleighs hitched together one after the other to make a longer sled. You just make a cradle on the end of the second hitch so the bottom first sled can pivot under the load

[canfossi]

I have a flat bottomed polysled, it's about 6 feet long with 8" sides. Great for moving wood, that's the olny way I can get the wood out of the forest in winter. I don't have a 4-wheeler or snowmobile unfortunately. Yes, it is very good exercise to. Chris

[Cabin Fever]

Cut and split the firewood now, haul it out next spring when you can get a pick up or tractor & trailer into the woods.

[The Paw]

i was just thinking about this question recently. Cabela's has a number of poly sleds, mostly for behind snowmobiles, but the shorter ones you could pull behind you walking. They seemed pretty affordable.

I am sure you can fabricate one, but odds are whatever you build is going to be quite a bit heavier than the poly option. I don't know about you, but if I have to go back and forth to the woodpile, the less sled I have to pull, the more wood I can haul.

[Freeholder]

Originally Posted by The Paw

i was just thinking about this question recently. Cabela's has a number of poly sleds, mostly for behind snowmobiles, but the shorter ones you could pull behind you walking. They seemed pretty affordable.

I am sure you can fabricate one, but odds are whatever you build is going to be quite a bit heavier than the poly option. I don't know about you, but if I have to go back and forth to the woodpile, the less sled I have to pull, the more wood I can haul.

I have a very light poly sled and prefer the heavier homebuilt one. With skis for runners, it slides so easily that you can't tell you have the extra weight, and it doesn't tip over nearly as easily as the narrow poly sleds do. Since I use the sled daily during the winter for hauling water and hay to my animals, I really don't like to have to be dealing with spills.

Kathleen

[Beeman]

Hand made sleds pulled by mules were very common here.any still use them for moving hay and such, no snow just steep hills. Look up mules and sleds and see what you can find.

YouTube

Here's some sleds and the man that made them. Foxfire books might have a plan.

[wyld thang]

my boys have a kiddie pool they used for sledding. just throwing that out there.

[Homesteadwi5]

I bought a 5ft poly sled from fleet farm,it has a nylon rope criss crossed over the top to hold a deer inside,if you cut the wood like 20" you can make two stacks under the ropes,works great.The sled was only like 30 bucks too.

[G8ful]

Yup...same here. We use a poly sled commonly referred to as a calf sled here. It doubles as a toboggan when we're not hauling wood. That thing has saved us a LOT of work so we bought a second one. Our youngest daughter and I will haul out of the bush and the oldest dd would stack it on the trailer. She's moved now but we sure do miss her on wood days! DH will be cutting, and our youngest was already hauling sleds out of the bush to the truck at 6 yrs old. As long as you don't get hung up on stumps it pulls real smooth through the snow. Even when the snow is deep it pulls nice.

[Beeman]

Tight budget? Get a hood off of an old truck.

[tinknal]

I second what Beeman says. An old car hood works great and in deep snow it tends to float on the snow rather than sink in.

[bowdonkey]

Wyld thang, thanks for posting that wonderful picture. It made me smile.

[nehimama]

LOVE that photo, WyldThang.

NeHi

[Jennifer L.]

I second CF. Leave the wood there until next fall! Is there a reason you need it out now? Even dead wood has moisture in it to an extent that it can afford to dry out some more once cut.

Jennifer

[Paul Wheaton]

Jennifer beat me to it: if you leave it for a year, it will get much drier, and, thus, much lighter and easier to pull around on a sled.

[ibcnya]

This guy has a free 16' boat, all you have to do is go get it.
http://madison.craigslist.org/boa/1502763743.html