Collecting logs in your own vehicle is straightforward enough, but a small amount of preparation makes the difference between a five minute stop and an awkward half hour in the yard. As a supplier of fencing and timber supplies in Clitheroe we see a steady stream of collection customers through the autumn, and the ones who find it easy have all worked out the same few things.
Working Out What Will Actually Fit
The first question is capacity, and people routinely misjudge it in both directions. Nets are more compact than most customers expect and considerably heavier than they look, so the limiting factor in a car is usually weight and mess rather than space.
A typical estate or hatchback takes several nets without difficulty. A saloon with a smaller boot opening is more restrictive, not because of volume but because of the shape of the aperture. If you are unsure, it is worth a call before setting off rather than discovering the problem in the yard.
Protect the Inside of the Car
This is the thing customers wish they had thought about. Firewood carries bark, dust and the occasional insect, and a car boot with fabric lining holds all three remarkably well.
An old sheet, a tarpaulin or a set of groundsheets laid down first solves it entirely. Roll the whole lot up at the other end and shake it out. Without something down, you will be vacuuming the boot afterwards and still finding bark in a fortnight.
Vans, Pickups and Trailers
If you have access to a van or a pickup, the range of what you can collect widens considerably. A builders bag of logs for collection becomes a realistic single trip rather than an ambitious one.
Trailers work well provided you are confident loading and towing with weight on. Firewood is dense, and a trailer that feels fine empty behaves differently loaded, particularly on the lanes around the valley. Load over the axle rather than at the back.
Gloves and Footwear
Bring gloves. Kiln dried hardwood splinters readily and nets have rough edges, and handling several without gloves is unpleasant. Sensible footwear matters too, since a yard is a working environment with uneven ground and moving vehicles.
It is a small thing, but it is the difference between an easy stop and an irritating one, and almost nobody thinks of it the first time.
Think About the Other End
The journey is rarely the hard part. Unloading at home into a store that is not ready, in the dark, in the rain, is what makes people decide collection is not for them.
Have somewhere to put it before you set off. If a store is going in, put it in first. Our log storage solutions are worth sorting before the first collection rather than after the third.
Buying Small and Often
The advantage of collecting is that you buy what you need when you need it. A net of softwood logs is an easy single item to carry, and picking one up as you pass costs almost nothing in time.
The same applies to kindling, which is what most households actually run short of. A net of kindling takes up almost no room and solves the problem that otherwise ruins an evening.
Timing Your Visit
Collection traffic follows the same seasonal pattern as everything else in firewood, which means the yard is quietest in late summer and early autumn and busiest during a cold snap. If you can collect ahead of the weather rather than during it, the whole thing is quicker.
Weekday mornings tend to be easier than weekend afternoons through the season. A call on 01200 449930 before setting off confirms what is available and means it can be ready when you arrive.
Combining a Collection With a Delivery
Collection and delivery work well together rather than being alternatives. Most customers who collect regularly also place a delivered order at the start of the season, using the collections to top up rather than to supply the whole winter.
If you are already ordering delivered stock, it is worth checking the logs for collection range at the same time so you know what can be picked up later. Customers around logs for sale Whalley and logs for sale Waddington are close enough to the yard for this to be a genuinely practical arrangement.
A Word on Loading
Take a moment over how the load sits. Weight low and forward is better than high and to the rear in almost any vehicle, and a boot packed to the roofline blocks the mirror.
Drive accordingly on the way home. A loaded car handles differently, brakes over a longer distance and sits lower over the rear axle, which matters on the unmade tracks and steep lanes common across the Ribble Valley.
To check what is available to collect or to arrange a delivered order for the season, call us on 01200 449930. We supply certified Ready to Burn firewood from Clitheroe with free delivery on orders over £150 across all BB postcode areas.
