Hydraulic wood splitter

[ascast]

I suggest you rent for a year or two. The flip up kind look great, but you're really never going to lift wood 3-4 ft to split it horizontal. The vertical seems nice, but can be a bear to manhandle in place. Those
I have seen have the pump kinda hangin out the bottom. No good in the woods. I have 4 splitters, 1 the screw type. Avoid those. My old Agway will split anything with 2 or 3 hits. A "fast return valve" with auto stop is REALLY NICE. Adjustable wedge is very nice so you can half, quarter etc. Horizontal stroke, low to the ground is what I have found to work best. You can roll the big section up on easier than to feed a verticle shaft. If you can mount your shaft on the side , even better.

[dverna]

I had a DR Dual Action (16T IIRC) and it handled everything. You will regret a large splitter. Most are very slow and you hardly ever need that much splitting force.

If you have a huge or very tough round, noodle it or use it as a target backer for a few years.

This year we used a firewood processor and cut and split 12 cords of wood in 15 hours. Sold the splitter. Will be renting the processor for now on. But we heat with wood. My fiancé ran the splitter:


Sorry for the photo being wonky...

I would get a small gas unit for a cabin.

[toallmy]

Honestly how big and how much wood do you think you are going to feel like busting at a time . I used a 27 ton this year to bust 16-17 cords of mixed wood some 3ft or better across and it ( almost held up ) hahaha . I should have left those last couple sections in the woods . I would suggest spending the extra on the saw ...

[Pipefitter]

"I wish I would have bought that smaller log splitter"

Said no one ever...........................

I started out as a young buck splitting wood with a 10# sledgehammer and 2 wedges, (dont get them both stuck in the log at the same time), graduated to the same wedges and a 6#splitting maul. Borrowed smaller 20-24 ton splitters for a few years, and last year broke down and bought a 30 ton from Tractor Supply. This thing is a beast! Vertical for the bigger rounds that are too much to lift, horizontal for the ones that only need to be split once. We go through 5-6 cords of Michigan hardwood a year, cherry, oak, hickory, beech, ash, and maple. This splitter does not even cough when you get a knotty piece of crotchwood.

[Blanket]

Get the larger one, I have had several splitters and one of the nice thigs about it you can split forks and nots sideways

[Alstep]

I've got a 28 ton Agway splitter, bought it used many years ago, and split 8 to 10 cords a year, for a lot of years. I've yet to have a chunk of wood it hasn't gone through. For years I was a slave to the wood stove. No more. 13 years ago I changed over to coal. Handle it once. No more chimney fires. Burns clean. And the ashes are great on snow & ice. I'm done with wood.
Coal burns a lot cleaner than oil too. Spill coal and you just shovel it up. Spill oil and you've got a major environmental problem on your hands, especially if the tank springs a leak.

[rbuck351]

One day I was splitting wood with a splitting maul while the wife went to town. An hour or so later she comes home and says there is a log splitter in the back seat of her chevy cavalier. Yeah right! says I. Upon looking, I found a $300 5 ton HF electric splitter in the back seat. So, says I, what am I supposed to do with that little toy, crack walnuts? Well, after using it for an hour or two, I had totally changed my mind. I only have access to fir, tamarack, spruce, pine and a little birch and I only cut in 14" long rounds, but it has split everything I have put on it. If the rounds are in the 20/25" diameter, sometimes I have to offset the round and take chunks off the edge until it gets smaller. I've had it for 6 or 7 years without issues. Also I keep it in my garage to cut kindling for my garage wood stove and small peices for the wood cook stove. It's quiet and no exhaust fumes. One of the best ideas my wife has come up with.

[.429&H110]

Had a 5hp Didier, had a hatchet in one hand and a hook in the other, went through 40" beech, 12 cord a season. Taught my 4 year old daughter to sit on her little stool to run the lever. The boys would have cut off my hand. Daughter would sit there by the hour and watch my hands. 12 years of firewood, phooey, burn oil. Woodlot burns out saws, tractors, stoves, chimneys, vacations.
Cut split delivered, life is too short. My uncle predicted a beech widowmaker would kill me. They had their chance.

[redneck1]

I have two splitters , both are 27 ton huskee .
I bought one new with a 6.5 HP briggs . the other I got used for next to nothing with a blown engine .
I put a 7.5 HP electric 3ph motor on the one to use at home , I use it the most , its quiet and instant on and off .
I haven't found anything that either won't split ... Itchy crotchy twisted up anything . get it on the splitter and it goes .

I dunno .. Maybe I'm the only one out there who takes a few minutes and sharpens the wedge up a bit every couple years .

The splitter that still has the gas engine I only use if i have to cut something bigger then I want to man handle around .
I think in the next year or so I'm going to make a lifter arm for that big stuff .
I also tend to rip the realy big stuff in half or quarters with the saw , twenty years ago I'd pick up about anything I could get ahold of .
The vertical splitting seems like a good idea ...
Not so much in practice

[Three44s]

I like a splitter with a two stage pump and a large diameter cylinder.

The first stage is a volume pump that produces less pressure but moves the cylinder faster for light work. As the splitter encounters more resistance the smaller volume high pressure takes over and breaks a particularly tough piece.

My unit is a home made a fair and after a couple of hand me down engines we bought a 13 hp from HF. Two thirds throttle and a 4” diameter cylinder and it keeps you humping right along to keep up.

The trouble with wood is that it is plenty of work besides the splitting. We solved much of that with a 4 wheel drive Kubota with a loader. It is my wife’s tractor, New last year. She wanted her very own and it had to be new or very low hours!

She was looking for snow removal and other all around work.

She added a front mounted quick attach blade and grapple.

The grapple is a wonder! Wonder how you ever got along without it! We have some wood land several miles from our home and trailer the tractor to the work and a pair of commercial log bunks we modified to fit the goose neck equipment trailer. We skid and load the logs trailer length in the hills and then unload at home with a separate loader with forks here. Two trips and we have enough wood for a year and a half.

We get the Kubota home and use the grapple to help process. No more stooping over to cut the logs to stove length.

You get your rounds 3-5 at a time and grapple them and deliver to the splitter set up in vertical mode. We have enough white oak here at home to supplement the pine etc. The oak that die would be more than enough but it is so hot it would run us out of the house except in the really coldest weather.

A 70 hp tractor would never pay for home heating alone but with a long driveway and a 200’ vertical climb and unpredictable PNW winters that six way front quick attach blade is real sweet!

The modern cab and heat and AC round out a very pleasant tool. The moving of rocks and dirt, doing compost and manure. Getting the sage brush away so we reduce fire danger, giving the coyotes a bigger open space for me to give them a dirt nap before they can snag our cats.

My wife did quite a bit of her growing up in NE Oregon and spent summers haying loose hay on an uncles 300 cow ranch. The tractors were as old as in the 1930’s running buck rakes and stacking with an overshot.

Being a long working super saver, she splurged on one thing, that tractor!

I even get to drive it!

Three44s

[redneck1]

I've been plotting a new tractor for a few years , not quite 70hp though .
A little b series would suit my needs quite nicely. Heck even a bx would tickle me pink and be enough tractor .

I do 8-12 cord a year so cutting and splitting wood isn't a huge burden
I try to keep a year ahead and get most of my wood threw the winter when its at its lowest moisture level .

[Three44s]

Yeah, the dirt work on nearly clay soil is what got us looking at 50+ hp. Loading whole logs in the mountains clinched the larger tractor.

My wife first drove a 34 hp Hydrostatic with a loader in a Kubota but for all our jobs it was not enough tractor. She will retire in a few very years and wanted a tractor she would feel good with for the rest of her life. Hence she bought a M4-071.

After a year, she is pleased no end and not regretting that decision.

Three44s

[GregLaROCHE]

I’ve heated my homes all my life almost exclusively with wood I cut and split myself. Now I’m looking into an oil furnace and supplementing with wood. The older you get, the longer it takes to get your winter wood in. As before mentioned, life is getting too short to spend it on cutting and splitting wood. I used to enjoy it, but now those days are gone.

[redneck1]

I can understand the work getting to be to much as you get older .

I'll do it as long as I physically can , i also try not to make a huge chore of it .
I have a ford ranger with a 6ft bed , I'll usually go out for an hour or so
Cut as much as I can fit in the truck then split and stack it .
Start to finish is typically under three hours and I don't have to work all that hard to do it .
If I do that three times a month when I'm heating I can keep pretty even .

I don't burn any green wood , I use a elcheapo moisture meter , if its not under 19% I stays in the stack

[MrWolf]

I've been plotting a new tractor for a few years , not quite 70hp though .
A little b series would suit my needs quite nicely. Heck even a bx would tickle me pink and be enough tractor .

I do 8-12 cord a year so cutting and splitting wood isn't a huge burden
I try to keep a year ahead and get most of my wood threw the winter when its at its lowest moisture level .

Get more hp. I have the bx. Nice but could reuse more power a lot if the time. Of course money is always the deciding factor.

[redneck1]

I don't plan on a new tractor for a few more years , I have a ford garden size tractor right now , I think its 21hp ( diesel ) its more then adequate power wise .
I don't want or need a backhoe , I won't be running tillers or brush hogs .

I do need it to be small enough to still be easy to mow with and have a mid mount deck . and I want a loader , the loader doesn't need to be all that powerful either .
Mowing grass will be the main chore .

My ford is close to 30 years old now , the tractor is still in tip top condition .
But the mower deck is nearing the end of its life .
I'm hoping to get 5 more years out it , I'll be happy with three .

[panhed65]

I have been heating with wood for most of my life, now at 72, I have been using my 25 ton splitter for the last 4 years, as its not so much fun to split with a maul anymore. I get lots of white oak, with plenty of knots. my splitter works well, does it all. I have done close to 10 cords this year so far, not done yet. so lots of good advise here, only thing I would add, I like a machine with an I beam to split on, most I see now have some sort of pressed steel channel type thing, my buddy has one, as I expected, it collects all the debris and needs cleaning. my I beam stays clean.
Barry

[Three44s]

A couple of years ago I switched the tube steel beam out for an I beam on our splitter as well.

I added a hydraulic cylinder to raise the I beam up to vertical because I bought on long enough for moving the splitting point high enough that I can split four foot long wood for my shop stove or even split fence posts hydraulically if desired.

It’s a moose!

Three44s

[dangitgriff]

Anybody use their log splitter for cutting up chunks of lead?

[Mal Paso]

Anybody use their log splitter for cutting up chunks of lead?

Yes, pure lead. It helps to cut against some bar stock to elevate the pinch point and give the lead a place to go.