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Log Splitters - School me.

Pocahontas said:
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Best setup I saw was similar to this he would stack the rounds on the uphill side and roll them onto the table. He would stack 4x4x4 skids and move them with his tractor. Said firewood is all about handling the log as few times as possible from dropping the tree to burning it.
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is it just me, or does that thing look like it has a 24" deck height?
 
SomeGuyFromOlympia said:
is it just me, or does that thing look like it has a 24" deck height?
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That’s just a picture I pulled from google but it does look awfully low. His was 32-34 high if I had to guess felt slightly lower than kitchen counter height. He burns a lot of wood though I think he said around 12 cords a year and is in his 70s.
 
I've got a lowes special that was like 1200 new. Split the cost with a buddy, and he stores and maintains it. 3 summers ago I did like 7 cord in 3 days, but hand loading into and back out of a pickup truck and stacking was way more of the time than the splitting.

I'd buy it again.
 
Old Ugly 54 Chevy said:
I have a DR rapid fire kinetic and absolutely love it, way better than the hydro splitter I used growing up. I guess DR stopped selling them? It's weird using a splitter that is waiting for you, instead of waiting for a cylinder to return. My vote would be kinetic hands down.
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I've used a couple flavors of Super Split kinetics and they're great for doing production on 12" or smaller stuff. Big rounds of knotty wood can put a real beating on them, so it's best to leave that aside to bust up with a slow hydraulic.

Cycle time in a hydro can be helped with a big two stage pump and an oversized piston rod to cylinder dia so it has less oil volume on the return.
 
AKnate said:
Hell growing up i would have felt like a million bucks if my Dad gave a "good job" let alone $$ for doing something that needed done.

Keep the house at 55* this winter just to prove a point.
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I stayed at my aunt's guest cabin in WY one winter and left the heat at 40 to keep the pipes from freezing. I was just happy to be living indoors. Her daughter lived in it the next year and my aunt about shit herself when the propane bill came in! Turns out 75 is a LOT more expensive than 40.
 
I have a Troy Built splitter that was $600 when we bought the house. Son of the owner had two of them, and offered it to us cheap. Used it for 3 years, it did the work, but was slow, has a 16 or 18 second cycle time. It was helpful to flip it vertically for big rounds. I split 5-6 cord or so of red oak, ash, and hard maple, and a couple cord of poplar for shoulder season wood.

Upgraded to a Wolfe Ridge 28 ton compact commercial splitter with auto cycle, log lift 4 way and 6 way wedges. More than you want to spend, but if time is important or limited it’s a game changer. I can split a cord an hour and not sweat. Cycle time is 6.5 seconds, I can set a round, hit the two levers, grab another round and drop it on and hit the levers again. Oversized red oak 30” plus dia, needing to be split 4 or more time slows production down a bit. I split 8 cord for us now (no oil bill anymore) and 4-5 cord to sell to friends.

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Krackle959 said:
I have a Troy Built splitter that was $600 when we bought the house. Son of the owner had two of them, and offered it to us cheap. Used it for 3 years, it did the work, but was slow, has a 16 or 18 second cycle time. It was helpful to flip it vertically for big rounds. I split 5-6 cord or so of red oak, ash, and hard maple, and a couple cord of poplar for shoulder season wood.

Upgraded to a Wolfe Ridge 28 ton compact commercial splitter with auto cycle, log lift 4 way and 6 way wedges. More than you want to spend, but if time is important or limited it’s a game changer. I can split a cord an hour and not sweat. Cycle time is 6.5 seconds, I can set a round, hit the two levers, grab another round and drop it on and hit the levers again. Oversized red oak 30” plus dia, needing to be split 4 or more time slows production down a bit. I split 8 cord for us now (no oil bill anymore) and 4-5 cord to sell to friends.

IMG_4863.jpeg
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If I was heating with it that would absolutely make sense. This is just recreational so I'm not sure I really want to spend that much money if that makes sense
 
I'd be inclined to buy about the cheapest/MOST capable one I could find and modify as needed.
Adding regeneration for double quick retract is easy, adding cable operated log lift is easy.

Engine swap/replacement is easy if needed.
Old vertical shaft riding mower engine makes a great re-power.
 
Java230 said:
If I was heating with it that would absolutely make sense. This is just recreational so I'm not sure I really want to spend that much money if that makes sense
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It makes sense, we’ve move to heating with wood and oil backup as we have the acreage of trees to support it. Not quite free, but cheaper than $1,000 oil tank fill ups multiple times a winter over the cost of the splitters life. My wife considers my time free, as I’m not buying implements or truck parts to drag home.
 
ExWrench said:
We have this Champion "34 Ton" (grain of salt taken):

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Splitting ~40" oak rounds was a pain in the back, but the vertical splitting option made it possible.

Powered retract w/ detent is great: finish a split, throw handle back, grab next log.

I have no complaints so far, would buy same unit again.
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I've got the 27 ton. only thing it flinched at was the knot/V notch of some 20"ish oak. nasty shit I shouldn't have stuck on there anyway

almost sold it since I moved to a property with less trees. but the wife said I should keep it, so it stays a little longer :emb:


edit: whichever one you go with, pay attention to what's exposed to falling shit. the champion design allows for split chunks to fall onto the hyd oil filter and/or engine area. some scrap 2x12 and screws made a good cover. Didn't split enough to justify adding onto the loading bed/feed area

I'm confident it'd do what you need and is $1300 before sales and shit. I shopped around used, and anything that wasn't junk was $750+. Think I paid $1000 "open box" cause the idiots at the plant put a check valve in backwards and it just puked out hyd fluid till i figured it out. It's quick enough I didn't find myself waiting for it to cycle back. some guys put adjustable "arms" on the ram to kick the auto-return handle off earlier, so you set the return to 18" instead of the full 24" if you're splitting 16" rounds

from what you're saying, something like this new is gonna meet the needs better than a $800 thing made 30 years ago. you need it to work and be reliable, then if you want to when you're done you can dump it as almost new

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I was eyeballing the champion ones earlier. I can decipher their model differences tho!
 
the 30's are definitely beefier frames than the 27. no idea between the 34 and 37

i'd guess everything with the same tonnage rating is the same, but 27a vs 27b is some yearly P/N change because a gas cap changed or some shit like that

IMO the 27k is about the most I'd want to move around manually, and it better be mostly flat. I'm 6'2 200ish and it takes all the ass i've got to pull it up ramps onto a cargo trailer, or up a 15-25* hill.


IMO you won't regret the Champion or any equivalent brand in that price range. Pine and soft shit, I can't see you needing more than the 27k rating
 
OK looking at the champion ones.

40ton 24.7 GPM, 11.3 sec cycle time.

37ton 13GPM 16 sec cycle time.

I assume its the pump that makes the time difference? The 40T has 2x the oil capacity as well.

From what I can tell its the same engine and cylinder. Easy to swap the pump for faster cycle?
 
27 ton is also 11sec cycle time. any of them can be sped up if you make the handle reset thing I mentioned above so it stops retracting at not-full retraction distance


i'm a northeast guy so i don't have experience splitting your stuff, but if its a lot of pine I'd expect the 27 to be plenty. Price to the 37 isn't that different tho if you're going new, guessing that's what you're weighing. would defer to a local on input on ratings/needs
 
I can add more info later I split about 20 cord per year for our home heating. The biggest catch to the bog box splitters most are over powered for their size and turn up the relief on the first stage of the pump so it almost kills the motor or it will drop in the second stage as soon as it hits the log and the cycle times will double or more as to what is advertised.

A 10-11 second cycle time is about as fast as a guy wants to go for any length of time.

I'm a Northern Mn guy. split mostly green Oak.
 
budget76 said:
27 ton is also 11sec cycle time. any of them can be sped up if you make the handle reset thing I mentioned above so it stops retracting at not-full retraction distance


i'm a northeast guy so i don't have experience splitting your stuff, but if its a lot of pine I'd expect the 27 to be plenty. Price to the 37 isn't that different tho if you're going new, guessing that's what you're weighing. would defer to a local on input on ratings/needs
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Yes I think the bigger frame might be better on the 37T. But cycle time I think I want as fast as possible?

Looking at a new unit, used is ~500$ off. Seems silly.
MadJack said:
I can add more info later I split about 20 cord per year for our home heating. The biggest catch to the bog box splitters most are over powered for their size and turn up the relief on the first stage of the pump so it almost kills the motor or it will drop in the second stage as soon as it hits the log and the cycle times will double or more as to what is advertised.

A 10-11 second cycle time is about as fast as a guy wants to go for any length of time.

I'm a Northern Mn guy. split mostly green Oak.
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This will mostly be fir and pine..... Much softer than oak.
 
my last input since I'm just a guy with a nearly brand new 27ton that's only split 3-5 cords with it: the splitter was able to cycle plenty fast to keep up with me (~35, decent shape) running it and dad (70ish) rolling the rounds towards my standing area. Only time I waited on the machine was when I missed tapping the auto-return handle to stop it going all the way back. I never made the adjustable stop thing mentioned above

if I was splitting that shit you see in Russia that cracks when you look at it funny, I'd probably care a little more about cycle time. not sure how much more tho.


I think you'll be happy with anything you buy new. IMO the key is buy something that works. don't dick around buying something used cheap, then spending more time fixing it. I learned that after wasting way too much time on my chipper I've mentioned in other posts. Now that I've got 1 kid and another any day, I get the value of time more than ever
 
JD Mark said:
split-fire.com

Log Splitters & Wood Chippers | North American Built

40 Years of Manufacturing The Best North American Built 2-Way Log Splitters, Wood Chippers & 3 Point Hitch Buckets.
split-fire.com split-fire.com

If you want to spend the big bucks, but they're freaking awesome.
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bump, was told to find a splitter for a local community area that tends to get huge wood rounds dropped off and needs to be split. have some that are 2-4 foot diameter.

Was looking at this unit via youtube:

They are good units? Also was looking at the Eastonmade but I sorta like the orientation of the above unit Split Fire.
 
Weasel said:
bump, was told to find a splitter for a local community area that tends to get huge wood rounds dropped off and needs to be split. have some that are 2-4 foot diameter.

Was looking at this unit via youtube:

They are good units? Also was looking at the Eastonmade but I sorta like the orientation of the above unit Split Fire.
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Seems like a lot of work...but I'm sure it is.

I don't really need a splitter, but I was going to buy one this past winter...then it didn't snow.

Rental yard I use only uses this brand. They are freaking fast compared to a normal one. He says they are very reliable and all he will use.

Pretty sure the company was founded/run by wooden shoe wearers...kinda partial to those types. They do a pretty good job of engineering and building equipment.
 
JD Mark said:
Seems like a lot of work...but I'm sure it is.

I don't really need a splitter, but I was going to buy one this past winter...then it didn't snow.

Rental yard I use only uses this brand. They are freaking fast compared to a normal one. He says they are very reliable and all he will use.

Pretty sure the company was founded/run by wooden shoe wearers...kinda partial to those types. They do a pretty good job of engineering and building equipment.
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I almost bought one when was doing firewood full time to bust up the stuff too big for the processor. (22" is about it)

I have just been quartering them with my saw, but might have 5-6 rounds a month.
 
Weasel said:
Sweet gonna get one on order. I like easy solutions, thanks.
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I'm going to be that guy...what does it run?

I think I was up to about $6k for the log splitter with the options I wanted.
 
That's a good price.

I'd probably get one for my Dingo if they made one.
 
What the heck?

I had just looked at their website again. Obviously not close enough.

Thanks
 
I ordered the 37T from HomoDepot. They would not fork it into my trailer (old datsun truck bed)..... I told them I would come back and they cancelled my order. WTF. There may be one sitting there still when I get my flat deck trailer done.....
 
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