# Wood Splitters and Cord per Hour



## Chainsaw_Maniac (Dec 18, 2011)

I'm curious about which splitters are common and how much 16 inch wood they can split an hour. Don't exaggerate! This is not a contest to see who is the hardest worker, but rather it is about brand vs. brand of splitter.

For purposes of this thread, assume you (or the operator you work with) are GIVIN 'ER (i.e. trying to be fast) but at a pace you can maintain all day. Also, assume the wood is decent to split (8 to 20 inch hardwood). No people assisting. Do not include pieces that don't need to be split (ie. limb wood loaded up with the split wood).

I'll start:

9 hp Spitfire – 5/8 cord per hour
5 hp Wallenstein – 5/8 per hour
3ph mounted on 80 hp tractor (Deutz Agrolux 80) – 1/2 cord per hour

Axe/maul – 1/4 cord per hour 

I'm sorry if the poll options are a bit off. I know there is a huge differance between the higher and lower end models of each brand. Also, I don't know all the common wood splitter types.


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## ponyexpress976 (Dec 18, 2011)

I can crank out 1-1.5/hr with my timberwolf tw-6. Wood is cut to rounds and staged. I have the 4 and 6 way wedges.


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## allagashwoods (Dec 18, 2011)

*cords per hour*

Hi, I can split a cord an hour with my super split. Big chunks are noodled before hand and any thing really,really knotty is tossed off to be used for my kiln furnance
Len


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## Longshot (Dec 18, 2011)

I'm using a honda powered American CLS 25HH. Working alone, without any elaborate staging, preliminary culling, or stacking; I would estimate the steady rate to be about 3/4 cord p/hr.


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## wdchuck (Dec 18, 2011)

25ton speeco, 9.0hp briggs I/C 17sec cycle time, full stroke out/in

8" - 20" dia wood, cut 16", staged in 12 foot by 4foot rows within 2 steps behind the operator

An 8" round will yield 5-6 triangle pieces. 

1/3 cord or a bit more depending on grain of wood; clean splitting with short stroke vs battles with stringy grain on full stroke.

Fuel runs out around 1.5hrs engine running time. 

Three hours per cord has been a pretty consistent time frame. The splitter cylinder sets the pace and my goal is to never have it idle, it's a maintainable pace.


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## jrider (Dec 18, 2011)

Iron and Oak with a 4 way wedge. No staging of wood I average a cord ever hour and 20 mins.


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## Roy Cobb (Dec 18, 2011)

Longshot said:


> I'm using a honda powered American CLS 25HH. Working alone, without any elaborate staging, preliminary culling, or stacking; I would estimate the steady rate to be about 3/4 cord p/hr.



Yes sir, on my American 25HH I use the 4way wedge or 6way wedge,depends on the block size , usually about a cord /hr.


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## Swamp Yankee (Dec 18, 2011)

Yesterday

Hitched the TW-2HD to my tractor at 10:30 am, drove 1/2 mile to the landing, split 2 cords of 8 to 16 inch red oak, black birch, and red maple rounds I had cut from the pile the day before. Drove 1/2 mile home, put the tractor and splitter away and it was just about 1:30 pm.

The most important feature, by far, to expedite splitting when working by yourself is the Prince Auto-Cycle valve. My splitter came with one but I will never be without it again. The cycle time on my splitter is no longer wasted standing there holding a valve. Throw the 2 levers and go grab the next piece. Drop it on as the ram is on the return stroke and repeat.

Take Care


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## BrokenToys (Dec 18, 2011)

I can do a little over a cord an hour with my Lickity Log Splitter (16" tall wedge and auto-cycle valve). Average size pieces 24-36" diameter are optimal for it since I sit it on the ground and go from there.
I know my friends TW-7 will blow it out of the water-we're estimating about 1.75-2.0 cord and hour with it. We tried it on about 15 logs and it just plowed through them.


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## mikereynolds (Dec 18, 2011)

My home made vefrtical beast with a Honda 13hp and 4" ram with two people working our record is 1 cord of Avocado split and stacked and loaded in the trailer and in one hour and five minutes. but usually more like one cord in an hour and a half. That's with rounds stacked close by. Looking forward to my new DR Rapid Fire to speed things up a bit...


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## beerman6 (Dec 18, 2011)

35 ton Huskee.

Me and my son just split and stacked @ 150cuft. in 3 hours.

3 pieces in the trailer did not need to be split,only 6 pieces did not need cutting and had to noodle a few more. I LOVE TREE SERVICE WOOD...

That is start to finish which includes getting everything out of the barn and clean up...It also includes inspecting why the clearance between the curb side tire and fender never changed even when the trailer was empty :msp_mad:


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## Chainsaw_Maniac (Dec 19, 2011)

Thanks everyone. 

Numbers are all over the board though. Is everyone talking about a 4' by 4' by 8' cord? Of hardwood? Alone?

Two people is fine, but your production per person would only be 1/2.

I use facecord as a measurement myself (as is common in real life for me), but I convert when posting on this forum using the ratio 3:1.


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## Richard Dupp (Dec 19, 2011)

Chainsaw_Maniac said:


> Thanks everyone.
> 
> Numbers are all over the board though. Is everyone talking about a 4' by 4' by 8' cord? Of hardwood? Alone?
> 
> ...



Don't know if anyone else voted like I did, but I did not have an educated idea, so I voted on the one I owned so that I could see the results. If others did the same, this could skew the results considerably.


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## greendohn (Dec 19, 2011)

*a one man show,,mostly.*

old truck, full of wood, with splitter behind the truck sitting in front of wood shed..get out of truck, have a smoke and admire the great heap of wood on back of truck,,5-10 minutes. Start the splitter and let 'er warm up for a minute. drop the tail gate on said truck, stand back listening to the beautiful sound of a Honda engine and again, admire the great heap of wood on the truck...a couple minutes...shoot the breeze with neighbor who just walked up, pop the bottle cap off top of beer bottle the neighbor just offered, and because it's a delicious Belgian Ale,,swill it slowly while savoring the deliciousness of it, 30 minutes,,,give or take 15 minutes. In kind, pull two delicious beers out of my refrigerator, offer one to my neighbor,,and swill, turn fuel off to splitter and start a fire in the garage,,,5 minutes,,,,Keep in mind that one must pace themselves so as not to make work of it,,as the wife has no idea how much wood a wood chuck cuts when a wood chuck goes cuts wood,,,close garage door, continue to tend wood stove in garage and offer up another cold beer to aforementioned neighbor, turn on stereo in garage, pull chair up to wood stove, have a smoke and discuss with neighbor jest how much wood is on the back of that old truck,,,could take all nite..


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## fields_mj (Dec 19, 2011)

greendohn said:


> old truck, full of wood, with splitter behind the truck sitting in front of wood shed..get out of truck, have a smoke and admire the great heap of wood on back of truck,,5-10 minutes. Start the splitter and let 'er warm up for a minute. drop the tail gate on said truck, stand back listening to the beautiful sound of a Honda engine and again, admire the great heap of wood on the truck...a couple minutes...shoot the breeze with neighbor who just walked up, pop the bottle cap off top of beer bottle the neighbor just offered, and because it's a delicious Belgian Ale,,swill it slowly while savoring the deliciousness of it, 30 minutes,,,give or take 15 minutes. In kind, pull two delicious beers out of my refrigerator, offer one to my neighbor,,and swill, turn fuel off to splitter and start a fire in the garage,,,5 minutes,,,,Keep in mind that one must pace themselves so as not to make work of it,,as the wife has no idea how much wood a wood chuck cuts when a wood chuck goes cuts wood,,,close garage door, continue to tend wood stove in garage and offer up another cold beer to aforementioned neighbor, turn on stereo in garage, pull chair up to wood stove, have a smoke and discuss with neighbor jest how much wood is on the back of that old truck,,,could take all nite..



Wow, you sound a lot like my brother inlaw. Especially if it's my dad that walked up with the original beer(s), only with him they would have been of the home brew variety, and after 3 or 4 of those you'll be done period


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## RAMROD48 (Dec 19, 2011)

Just get yourself a TW5-FC and be done with it. 6seconds flat full cycle time, out and back...


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## greendohn (Dec 20, 2011)

fields_mj said:


> Wow, you sound a lot like my brother inlaw. Especially if it's my dad that walked up with the original beer(s), only with him they would have been of the home brew variety, and after 3 or 4 of those you'll be done period





Sounds like some fine men,,???HOME BREW??? Sounds like my kind of people,,,you fellas ever find yourselves in Rush county,,bring a pile of them cold ones with ya' and I'll provide the wood stove fire and a place to sit !! :hmm3grin2orange:


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## amscontr (Dec 20, 2011)

Chainsaw_Maniac said:


> I'm curious about which splitters are common and how much 16 inch wood they can split an hour. Don't exaggerate! This is not a contest to see who is the hardest worker, but rather it is about brand vs. brand of splitter.
> 
> For purposes of this thread, assume you (or the operator you work with) are GIVIN 'ER (i.e. trying to be fast) but at a pace you can maintain all day. Also, assume the wood is decent to split (8 to 20 inch hardwood). No people assisting. Do not include pieces that don't need to be split (ie. limb wood loaded up with the split wood).
> 
> ...



What species of tree/wood are you splitting, Sugar Maple, Red Oak or?


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## indiansprings (Dec 20, 2011)

A major factor is the type of wood being cut, in good tops, I've got a couple of guys that will split and load (stacked on) a cord about every 75 minutes. One guy saws, one guy keeps the two guys running the splitter and loading in rounds. That is getting with the program with hydraulic splitters imho. In good easy 8-16" wood a lot of times we'll just use splitting mauls, faster than the hydro's. Kinetic splitters are the ticket.


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## Chainsaw_Maniac (Dec 24, 2011)

amscontr said:


> What species of tree/wood are you splitting, Sugar Maple, Red Oak or?



Let's say 80% sugar maple, 15% ash, 5% oak.



indiansprings said:


> A major factor is the type of wood being cut, in good tops, I've got a couple of guys that will split and load (stacked on) a cord about every 75 minutes. One guy saws, one guy keeps the two guys running the splitter and loading in rounds. That is getting with the program with hydraulic splitters imho. In good easy 8-16" wood a lot of times we'll just use splitting mauls, faster than the hydro's. Kinetic splitters are the ticket.



You could do this 6-8 times a day then. This operation takes FOUR guys though?


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## CRThomas (Dec 24, 2011)

*How much wood split a hour*

I have three log splitters a 20 ton electric. A 20 ton three point on my MS tractor. A 30 ton for back up for big stuff very slow. After it warms up in the morning and dew ice is gone. I don't have perfect wood so I start about 0900 and finish a one cord about 1500 in the after noon. The fellows across the highway any were from 2 to 4 people with a 22 ton do a cord about every two hours they say. I sell firewood and that takes care of my business. For personnel use why would a person want to work that hard. Cut tree, cut tree into 16 inch chunks. Haul it from woods or split it there. Stack it. Haul it to shed. A cord a hour. When I get in the truck to go get the wood that is my starting time not when the work is half done. Some of you fellows are fast. My friend in Marion has a processor her and her son can only do a cord a hour and they have a $64,000.00 dollar machine. Later


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## Chainsaw_Maniac (Dec 26, 2011)

CRThomas said:


> For personnel use why would a person want to work that hard.



That's true. Cutting to sell is another story, of course.


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## CRThomas (Dec 26, 2011)

*Need info*

Do they make a hid. Control that will make splitter split and return by it's self. I would like to put the chunk on the splitter pull the handle it go out and split and return while I am getting another chunk. Thanks Later


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## blackdogon57 (Dec 26, 2011)

CRThomas said:


> Do they make a hid. Control that will make splitter split and return by it's self. I would like to put the chunk on the splitter pull the handle it go out and split and return while I am getting another chunk. Thanks Later



You need an auto cycle valve. Something like this:


Prince Hydraulic Auto-Cycle Valve - RD523MMEE5A1A1


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## CRThomas (Dec 26, 2011)

*Thanks*

Thanks blackdog CRThomas


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## Swamp Yankee (Dec 27, 2011)

blackdogon57 said:


> You need an auto cycle valve. Something like this:
> 
> 
> Prince Hydraulic Auto-Cycle Valve - RD523MMEE5A1A1



CRThomas

Just got done installing one of these last week for a friend with a Timberwolf TW-P1. Drop me a PM with your e-mail and I'll send you a list of the valve and parts needed to install that I ordered from The Surplus Center. Total cost with shipping was around $335 and the complete installation took just under an hour including setting the valve kick out pressures.

Take Care


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## ropensaddle (Sep 6, 2013)

Standing ten cords of rounds on end 4 to 5 hrs including o0ne drill hole in center and det cord instaled after prep 10 sec count down and >5 seconds u have 10 cords blown apart total time 6 hrs plus ten year sentence


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