how to deliver w. oak timbers

[centroid]

after careful consideration regarding buying the 75 yr. old colin archer, i've decided to go back to my plan of building instead. (24' hess cutter)

i'm talking to the people at New England Naval Timbers, CT. for my white oak timbers. they seem to have what i'm looking for. research for a closer location here in the great lakes area was not too sucessful (no luck from buskirk & sebastian's). so i'm seriously thinking about getting it out east and delivering back to MN.

i'm looking for a truck delivery service that is reliable and reasonable in price. any recommendations ? (approx. 650 b.f., 19' is the longest piece, most are 10' long, 5200lbs. @ 8lbs/bf)

[Seth Wood]

Hi Centroid, two things. First, I'd read that white oak, even when green, is 5.5 lbs. per board foot. If that's the case you may have a lighter load than you think.

Second, I don't know of any trucking companies to recommend, but at a couple thousand lbs. it might be worthwhile to investigate renting a pickup and trailer, even if you're driving it halfway across the country. Depends on how much time you have, I guess (the wood goes on the trailer, not in the truck bed). I've transported long heavy oak timbers this way, though only 40 miles or so.

[Bruce Hooke]

The first thing I would do is check with New England Naval Timbers about who they have used in the past because lumber is a somewhat unusal cargo and so they may have specific trucking lines that have done well for them in the past. If they ship a lot of stuff by truck they may even have negotiated better pricing with some lines.

If they don't have any recommendations then I can at least say that I have had fairly good luck with Yellow Freight, but I should note that I was shipping a crate, not lumber. When you call for pricing you will need the Freight Classification Number for your load. New England Naval Timbers should be able to provide you with this information. There may be different codes for bundled lumber of uniform length and a more miscellaneous load like the one you are talking about.

Be forewarned that while you can request that the trucking line call you to schedule a delivery they often just show up. In many cases the easiest thing is to just have them hold it at the nearest warehouse for you to pick up because then you can gather friends to help move the stuff and plan when to go based on your schedule rather than hanging around and waiting for a truck. As you may know, if the truck pulls up at your house you will have to be ready to unload the lumber on your own. Some drivers will help and some won't. It sounds to me like at least some of your lumber might be much too heavy for one person to get off a truck.

By the way, have you checked into local sawmills in your area? There is some White Oak out your way and if you contact local sawmills you might be able to track some down or find someone who has some White Oak who can custom mill it for you.

[ 09-18-2002, 12:37 PM: Message edited by: Bruce Hooke ]