1st Day with Pro XL
Picked up my new ProXL Tuesday night at the Yellow Freight Depot here. Guy at the dock said that they had three of them delivered Tuesday and "at least 10" since Jan 1st.
The crate is pretty big- around 7' long x 3'8" wide x 5' high, and the fork openings are set up for side loading. The dock forklift had the extra long forks, so it was no problem to put it in my p/u bed the long ways. At home though, I have a set of 48" forks for my JCB 150T track machine. Long story short, the whole crate flipped upside down and sideways while I was taking it off the truck- all my fault because I have no patience. I pulled out the chainsaw and chopped the crate in pieces, then righted the machine. As expected, no damage, except to my ego. In hindsight, I should have loaded the heavy end (motor and flywheel) toward the tailgate so that when I unloaded it, the weight would be close to the JCB. Or...just hook up the damn trailer, slide the crate out with the dump, and remove all risk.
Anyhow, after the crate mess, setup was 15 minutes, inc. putting on the table and my anal-retentive checkout. I checked all the screws, bolts, nuts, belts, etc.. and they were dead-on. Filled up the Subie engine with 30 weight, and pulled thru w/o ignition about 5 times to move the oil around a little, then filled fuel with 100 octane no ethanol, and it started right up. I ran it at idle for 5 minutes, then shut down, rechecked the oil, looked for fuel leaks (none), and checked the spark plug torque (fine).
Dragged the beast down to the back yard, started and bumped to full throttle, and in about 10 minutes, BURIED the outfeed end in split wood, mainly oak and ash, 10" dia to 18" dia. We moved the machine 4 times in 90 minutes of off and on splitting, and I'd estimate I've got near a full cord or wood to stack. Normally, with a hydraulic splitter, I'd expect this to take 3 hours off and on (I usually buck to ~8', then cut to 16" at the splitter a few logs at a time). My old hyd unit didn't have an outfeed table, which I think it the key to efficiency with the RapidFire.
A few thoughts after the first day of operation:
1) I don't think there's much this machine wouldn't be able to split. We had some big gnarly hickory rounds, 24" dia, that it blew through without hesitation- the challenge was lifting them to the table. I have a roughly 40" oak stump I'll try next weekend.
2) The little nubbies on the table are a non-event, and I actually think they help keep the big stuff under control. I was able to near-continuously feed the machine with both fresh rounds and re-splits, and never felt that they were in the way. I also didn't notice them to be particularly pointy as a previous poster did. I would NOT buy this machine without the table, unless you're fabbing up one yourself. It runs so fast that you need an outfeed device and a surface to bring your re-splits back around on w/o lifting them. The table is really beefy, 1/16" steel, good welds, and is held on by 2 sets of 4, 14mm bolts.
3) The lack of auto-cycle (like the SS) is also a non-issue, and a nice safety feature. I originally thought I'd modify the linkage to get it to auto-cycle, but again, it's so damn fast you don't mind holding the lever. Plus, it auto-retracts if you let it go. Worst-case, if your head's in your ass and you put your hand in between the log and ram or log and wedge, you just let go of the lever and all forward motion stops immediately. I wouldn't change this at all.
4) With twisty wood, you'll get some "kick-out" as the ram blows through the round, especially on a 2nd split when you're hitting a half-round. I was wearing double-fabric Carhartts with saw chaps over them, and still got a few bruises on the front of my legs. Luckily, none hit me in the jewels dead-on. That might hurt. I'm 6'0", and mid-thigh is where I got tagged. 5'8"?- wear a cup.
5) The machine is heavy, but it's pretty easy to maneuver by hand using the front post. The towing bracket is as easy as it gets. Sure, official roadworthiness would be nice, but here in Iowa I'll hang an "ag-machine" triangle on it, and tow it slowly behind my truck without too many worries.
6) We burned about 1/3 tank of fuel in 90 minutes. That's at least half of what the hyd splitter used.
7) The overall quality is what I expected from DR: that's to say, excellent. Paint is very good, flywheels were wobble-free, and the ram moved well and straight. I'm a big DR fan: We've had several pieces over the years, inc. a tow-behind brush mower (beefy as hell) and an elderly Powerwagon we still use almost daily. A business partner has the walk-behind brush mower as well, and I've used it quite a lot. All have performed damn near perfectly, and the DR service is also excellent. As I understand it, the flywheels and the engine are the only parts of the splitter not USA made, and they come from Taiwan and Japan, not China. I have a Ridgid pressure washer with the Subaru engine, and I've been very happy with it over ~200 hours- I think they make a very good small gas engine- similar to Briggs 20 years ago. Other than Honda (which are pricey), this is as good an engine that's out there.
8) I would like a 4 way wedge, but not all the time. I think I'm going to fab up a slip-over unit, as there's about 3/4" of clearance between the end of the ram travel and where the wedge ends now. It would cut down on re-splits, especially in nice easy-splitting seasoned oak.
9) A rain cover would be nice, but a 6x8 tarp covered it with ease.
