Wood In The Back!

[Scott Greaves]

After reading about Sophie's mishap with the bad, bad burl, it got me thinking about driving around with wood in the back of your vehicle. It can't be just me! Don't we all have some wood in the back seat, the trunk or the bed of the pickup?

Here's my confession: I drive a 91 Geo Metro, two-door coup. Fortunately the back seat folds down because I have two nice big pieces of walnut in there (thanks, Matt!), two juniper logs about 1 1/2' long by 10" across (thanks Jeff!), and a nice big piece of spalting Russian Olive!!! My Wife gives me a hard time about keeping wood in my Geo, so I keep it in there.

So come on! Who else keeps wood in the back of their rig?

Scott.

[Tony Falotico]

My bed was empty when I bought it, hasn't been since.
(spare tire, wood scraps, couple concrete blocks, couple scrap pieces of iron, empty can or two, old filter from lawn mower, .............)

Why have a truck if the bed is always empty?

[Mike Sweat]

I have have a bunch of old oak flooring in the back of my van for about two weeks now. Just haven't had the time to remove nails and clean it up or the room to store it out of the weather.

[Tony Falotico]

I'm a Traffic / Safety Engineer for the State Department of Transportation, and have read several articles about injuries caused not by the initial impact, but by the resultant projectiles within the cabin area. Remember, an object on the back seat or rear window panel will continue forward after the vehicle makes a sudden halt at the same speed the vehicle was traveling until something stops it. Too often, its the driver or passengers head or other body part, causing serious or fatal injury. I've read of instances where the rear passenger without a seat belt has slammed into the back of the front seat passenger who was wearing a seat belt and causing serious injury to both parties. While I'm not personally aware of any fatalities of late in my district caused by flying objects, I have seen instances in crashes where the load in a truck has ended up in the driver compartment.

I can go on and on (it's what I do for a living), but I won't. I Know, I know, the post I put above admits my guilt, but sometimes we need to be reminded. Thank God Sophies incident involved only material damage. How 'Bout we all commit to cleaning our rigs out this weekend?

Please be safe on the roadway, driving is a serious matter and it's a jungle out there.

Off my soapbox, thanks for listening, Tony.

[Steve Roxberg]

How's this, when my wife met me I used to fish for meat. Yes, I was poor, so I kept a magic worm farm.

Basically is was a cooler that I kept worms in.

Wood, I havent' tried that yet, nor can I afford a pickup.

[Dominic Greco]

Scott,
I just removed a huge piece of poplar from the back of my truck. I had it secured pretty well though. I drive quite a long distance to and from work and know first hand what can happen with a loose load in the back.

But does that stop me from picking up wood? NAAAAH!

People even bring me some at work. I've had (2) people drop off Dogwood trees and another guy bring me fiddleback maple. This has been a great month for free wood!


See ya,
Dominic

[Jeff Rich]

My poor little Chevy Tracker wouldnt know what to do if I didnt have the seats folded down and something back there!
I have hauled a lot of wood in the 3 short years and the long 109,000 miles on that little suv.
Probably the most unbelievable was a 6' lfreshly cut red cedar log.
It was a bear getting in there, passenger seat all the way forward and leaned up and the log in there diagonally.......

[Lee Schierer]

The back of my Explorer often gets used for hauling stuff. I am happy to say at least for the moment the deck is clean and all gear is secured back there.

[Jim Becker]

I have a truck and I use it to haul wood. But that doesn't exempt the car...as illustrated by the photo below. SWMBO and I were visiting with Joe Quesada and, of course, the wood pile got inspected...and raided! Our Prius was only a few days old, but it got introduced to haulin' right quick! (Never pass up free wood...)

[Ron Smith ... Richmond, VA]

Last weekend I did a show at the Beaverdam Heritage Day and people who stopped by kept asking about the wood I turned. Almost everyone came up with "I've got some wood if you're interested." I got to be real choosy (there's a lot of oak and hickory) and accepted several people's offers. Yesterday I made the rounds with my FIL and the chainsaw. I picked up some Apple, Bartlett Pear, Peach, Pecan, Cedar, Cherry and Walnut. Most of it is cut long, sealed and stacked in my FIL's shed (he cleaned it out for me this spring and I've been stockpiling wood for when we build our house there next year). I cut a few blanks of each, sealed them and yes, they're riding around with me in the back of the Explorer until this weekend.