Carrying Firewood

Strap it to the bull bar - looks ratty, but who cares.
It got a couple of comments in Norseman about 'eagle's nest', but we had wood when we needed it.
We usually only need a small fire to do a bit of cooking and warm 10L of water for a shower.

Foxhound
I did a post a few weeks ago showing a vehicle that came to the C/pk I'm , see it at ThreadID: 61165 or do Direct Link

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With the camper trailer on, it goes on top of the box on the drawbar.

When out with just the car, rope it onto the front of the bull bar as austastar does. Can carry up to 2 days of wood on the bullbar for a short distance. Lights are obscured but short lengths under 1500mm leaves indicators showing.

As we all do, you are eyeing off fire wood where ever you go and pick it up on the way back to camp.

I have a tendancy to carry a small amount of firewood to gatherings;)

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Cheers Kev

I buy boxes of envio wood compressed less smoke burns longer and easy to pack

I have a mesh roofrack that sits flush on the top of my canopy. Most trips it is empty, and can carry a lot of wood. No issues with damage/dirt etc. I use heavy elastic straps (?Rok brand) to hold it firm.

Similar to what Doug has posted above, I've seen people use a pair of L-shaped brackets than hang off the bullbar and use decent elastic straps to hold the wood in the brackets. But the amount that can be carried is limited and it would be a pit to damage the front of the vehicle if a log falls off.

My preference is always to collect wood away from the campsite, so you don't turn it into a dustbowl. But also you don't want to transport it 1000's of K's where you may introduce pests into the area you're camping in.

We always have a pack of Readhead (or similar) compressed sawdust logs on board just in case. Broken up into short rings, 2 will give us all the cooking fire we need, plus a couple of hours worth of coals to gaze at.
Otherwise, we've tied logs to the bullbar, strapped 'em on the A frame when towing, and chucked 'em on the roof rack in an old sugar sack.
I like the basket off the spare wheel idea Foxy. Might develop that one.

Try not to transport frewood too far from where you gather it please!

It can carry termites obviously - but also a host of other baddies like Fungal diseases, such as Phytophthera cinnamomi (Dieback) and end up spreading the spores, and wipe out heaps of previously uninfected trees.

These spores spread thru the ground when wet - they travel slowly but over a period will work their way down slope until the whole water catchement becomes infected as far as the ocean.

Many of our trees have zero resistance to Dieback (Banksias spring to mind) and will be dead within 12 months of becomming infected, while others like a big Jarrah might take up to 40 years to die.

If you shift the fungus, via moving infected wood from one catchement to another by driving up over a ridge or saddle between two catchements, you've effectively sentenced every suscepticble tree within that new ctahcement to death - whether it is 12 months 40 or 100 or more years before it eventually happens.

Humans activities are by far the biggest spreaders of dieback, wet mud stuck to mudflaps is the easiest method to spread it - hit a bump further down the road and it drops off with infected spores in it - you just killed another million trees.

Dieback is so named because the tree dies from the tips of the crown back toward the centre of the trees crown.

This happens because the trees roots sense the invading spores of P cinnamomi fungus trying to invade the root tissue. The trees only natural defence against such invasion is to close down that root and stop intake of nutrients and water, and as it does so - it starves the trees crown and leaves of the nutrients they need to survive so we see the dreaded dieback symptom in the crown where the leaves die and the branches twigs etc stick out past the leaves.

Then the spores move downslope thru the moist soil to the next root and it in turn closes down - over a period of time ALL the trees roots close down and it dies!

The spores get into the wood and travel thru the tree - you come along - see a dead / fallen tree or branch and cut it up for firewood - and transport it to Northern territory or Tasmania - whatever and the whole shebang starts anew!

Try to gather your firewood where you intend to burn it!

Transporting wood like mud on 4wd's should be a no no - other baddies like european wood borer etc can be spread by the same practices.

Lots of ground dwelling fauna lives in that dead branches / trunks we see on the ground - we are removing our native fauna's homes, when we cut that wood up for firewood and burn it.

Numbats like to live in hollow logs as do skinks etc, phascogales, mardo's and so on.

We all have to do our bit to save the native animals and trees!

Cheers!

Fixhound

This is our method.

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Cheers
Bucky

Maybe this???

We carry one of those large woven plastic waste paper/cardboard bales, and chuck it in my mates tinnie along with the chain saw and go for a little drive every few days. The bale keeps the boat clean, and just folds up and stores away when not in use. Of course, you've got to have a travelling mate with a tinnie!! Works well for us though. Cheers.

Roger B.........

I just put it on the roof

We try to collect firewood a few ks before we camp unless we are in a heavily wooded area. We now carry an old piece of canvas which I put on the ground in front of the vehicle, stack the wood on and then roll it up in the canvas, tie a couple of bits of rope around and then tie it on the bull bar. Easy, keeps the dirt out and is not a problem when only travelling a few ks.

Used to put it on the roof and got sick of the dirt and scratches.

cheers