New SpeedPro Kinetic Log Splitter from TSC...

[Circle B MN]

Different strokes for different folks...

I'll buy store brand food, cheaper t-shirts and jeans, and similar items, but learned a long time ago not to go cheap on boots, or tools. It just doesn't pay in the long run. Best of luck.

 

[COUNTRY6543]

I don't know if anyone else is experienceing this but I know exactly when I bend my engagement rod. I hit a hard knot or fork and the rack disengages the pinion with an extreme amount of force, so hard that if you have your hand on the handle that it hurts during kickback. With this force I know this is when the rod bends. This is also probable when others are experiencing the broken rack. I checked my rack and it does not seem to be worn or hurt. I think so far my engagement rod is the week link.

As for thoughs who keep condeming us for buying such a cheap peice of crap... I would appreciate you moving your comments elsewhere. I do not believe that the SS or the DR is worth the price you paid. There is not 3000.00 worth of steel or machining in these units. As I also don't believe there is 1800.00 worth of steel in the Speedpro. Know doubt the Kohler engine on these came from China also and probable cost about 100.00 or so. I did not know this was chinese before I bought it. I thought it was from Colorado and thought someone got there act together. I was wrong and now have to deal with it. I really feel that a company could put one of these units together for 1/3 to 1/4 the price paid and still have a very good product with quality steel and make a profit selling them for 1500.00 or so.

 

[philwillmt]

Different strokes for different folks...

I'll buy store brand food, cheaper t-shirts and jeans, and similar items, but learned a long time ago not to go cheap on boots, or tools. It just doesn't pay in the long run. Best of luck.

MNGuns,

I agree whole-heartedly with what you are saying, within reason, as long as one can afford the higher priced tools. However, one can go overboard with that philosophy too! Example: I don't see the need to buy Snap-On tools over Craftsman for a non-professional mechanic or casual user. To me, the application and frequency of use determine whether or not one can justify a lower quality tool or piece of equipment. If I were in the business of processing and selling firewood, then believe you me I would have invested in the highest quality splitter that I could find, and probably would have found a way to afford it. I only use my splitter for me and a few others, so I could not justify buying the most expensive model out there.

 

[Dozer Man]

Cheap tools ??

Different strokes for different folks...

I'll buy store brand food, cheaper t-shirts and jeans, and similar items, but learned a long time ago not to go cheap on boots, or tools. It just doesn't pay in the long run. Best of luck.

I will definately agree with you, but only to a point. I've had problems with or broke tools that were supposed to be considered "high end" or "name brand". Proper use and proper maintanence goes a long way with today's equipment, be it high end or low end. Sometimes we're buying a name brand, and I'm not talking splitters at the moment, just to be buying the name. As the saying goes, "things aren't built the way they used to be".

Philwillmt...I agree, just because I saved some money doesn't mean they were giving these things away. We still made a substantial investment and deserve a good product. And you're absolutely right that "frequency of use" has to be used in determining the quality/price of a tool.

Rack/Pinion Lube...What grease would you all recommend for the rack? Bearing grease? Moly? Corn picker grease? BlackJack? Lithium? Marine grease?? Someone said axle grease, is that the same as wheel bearing grease?? I was thinking of using regular moly grease, although I still have a couple tubes of Ce##### synthetic grease (which I will be using on the flywheel bearings). It's real sticky and stringy. Opinions are appreciated greatly.

 

[Cmccul8146]

I know exactly when I bend my engagement rod. I hit a hard knot or fork and the rack disengages the pinion with an extreme amount of force, so hard that if you have your hand on the handle that it hurts during kickback.


Country, I haven't seen one of the SpeedPro splitters, but what you're describing as to when you bend the engagement rod should not be happening at all. The SS, DR, and my homebuilt splitter aren't built to AUTOMATICALLY disengage when you hit a knot , "hard spot",twisted stringy stuff, or whatever. The centrifugal clutch SHOULD SLIP, and the flywheels stall. You should have to MANUALLY disengage the gears, & springs pull rack back to "home' position. From what you are saying, your clutch is not slipping as it should. Spray a little WD-40 on the shoes to help them to slip. I have read some comments here on AS about rust on some areas of the SpeedPro splitters. Possible that the clutches have rusted up from the salty air while crossing the pond and are not slipping well enough. If that's the case, there may not be a problem with the gear hardness . If that clutch doesn't slip, something has got to give , & it'll likely be the teeth on the rack. Hope this helps someone who has bought a SpeedPro, and saves them some headaches .

 

[Dozer Man]

I Agree Very Much

As for thoughs who keep condeming us for buying such a cheap peice of crap... I would appreciate you moving your comments elsewhere. I do not believe that the SS or the DR is worth the price you paid. There is not 3000.00 worth of steel or machining in these units. As I also don't believe there is 1800.00 worth of steel in the Speedpro. Know doubt the Kohler engine on these came from China also and probable cost about 100.00 or so. I did not know this was chinese before I bought it. I thought it was from Colorado and thought someone got there act together. I was wrong and now have to deal with it. I really feel that a company could put one of these units together for 1/3 to 1/4 the price paid and still have a very good product with quality steel and make a profit selling them for 1500.00 or so.

:msp_thumbup:

 

[ziggo_2]

Looks like i offended some....let me clarify, im not condeming anyone for trying to save a buck. This is a speeco problem, plain and simple. They shouldve did more research and development instead of copy and paste. I believe that speeco will do the right thing here. But only for so long. If you only split a cord a year with it it could last awhile, then when it does break they may not fix it.

I didnt read all 28 pages of this thread but the tid bits that i did read make it sound like all the problems are either manufacturing or design flaws. Dont beat yourself up over it. take it back.

Dont get me wrong any metal on metal and especially gears should be lubed...but...if its defective metal no amount of lube is gonna help. True it may prolong it, Do you want it broke while under warranty or not?

Wernt they recalled?

Buyer beware is all im getting at.

 

[sunfish]

I don't know if anyone else is experienceing this but I know exactly when I bend my engagement rod. I hit a hard knot or fork and the rack disengages the pinion with an extreme amount of force, so hard that if you have your hand on the handle that it hurts during kickback. With this force I know this is when the rod bends. This is also probable when others are experiencing the broken rack. I checked my rack and it does not seem to be worn or hurt. I think so far my engagement rod is the week link.

As for thoughs who keep condeming us for buying such a cheap peice of crap... I would appreciate you moving your comments elsewhere. I do not believe that the SS or the DR is worth the price you paid. There is not 3000.00 worth of steel or machining in these units. As I also don't believe there is 1800.00 worth of steel in the Speedpro. Know doubt the Kohler engine on these came from China also and probable cost about 100.00 or so. I did not know this was chinese before I bought it. I thought it was from Colorado and thought someone got there act together. I was wrong and now have to deal with it. I really feel that a company could put one of these units together for 1/3 to 1/4 the price paid and still have a very good product with quality steel and make a profit selling them for 1500.00 or so.

My SS does not disengage when it hits something hard to split. The clutch and or belt slip and the ram stops. I then manually disengage and hit it again. That sudden disengage while the ram is moving under power is likely a big problem and could be part of the problems you guys are seeing with these machines. Hope y'all get it figured out.

BTW, I did not pay $3000 for my US made Super Split. Had it delivered to my door for less and worth every penny. :msp_wink:

No more comments from me here, on the price, quality issues, or country or manufacture...

 

[COUNTRY6543]

CMCCUL8146: I am having a hard time explaining what and when My machine acts up. You gave me some helpfull insight as to what to look for with the clutch. 98% of the time the machine hits a hard spot, slips the clutch, I disengage the rack (manually), hit it again and we have split wood. It's that 2% of the time that it hits something hard and the rack disengages with a hard slam. No rhimm or reason to it. As someone stated right now the engagement rod is the week link and I just want to try and figure it out before the rack becomes the week link. You told me to WD-40 the clutch, do I just spay it between the inner and outer drums. I really wonder if there is something going on with the clutch and it is not engaging that 2% of the time that it is supposed to. I am not that familiar with the way the clutches work. Is it possible that a small peice of rust or material could get lodged between the disks and lock it up. Thanks

 

[COUNTRY6543]

Oh... and by the way, Is a $50,000 dollar Cadillac twice as reliable as a $25,000 Honda. You spend twice as much so it should be twice as reliable correct?

 

[Circle B MN]

MNGuns,

I agree whole-heartedly with what you are saying, within reason, as long as one can afford the higher priced tools. However, one can go overboard with that philosophy too! Example: I don't see the need to buy Snap-On tools over Craftsman for a non-professional mechanic or casual user. To me, the application and frequency of use determine whether or not one can justify a lower quality tool or piece of equipment. If I were in the business of processing and selling firewood, then believe you me I would have invested in the highest quality splitter that I could find, and probably would have found a way to afford it. I only use my splitter for me and a few others, so I could not justify buying the most expensive model out there.

I do agree. I use hand tools a lot, but they don't feed the family. Craftsman tool have never let me down. If you want to get caught in the tool truck pay by week racket, got for it. But all them mass produced tools are punched out by the same chinese worker.

 

[Circle B MN]

Oh... and by the way, Is a $50,000 dollar Cadillac twice as reliable as a $25,000 Honda. You spend twice as much so it should be twice as reliable correct?

No, it is not,but...When you go to the bargain basement store, and spend cash on a machine that promises to do the same work as the more expensive machines for a whole lot less....should you really be surprised when the thing comes apart...?

Go look at a new Cat, Deere, Kubota, etc loader, hoe, skidder, etc....Then look at the Shindiggy, Taiwwawa, Erfmauwn brand.....tell me about the parts availability, reliability, resale value, etc....You get what you pay for regardless of the name, cost, how you nurse it along....you always get what you pay for.

 

[Dozer Man]

I did not realized TSC was a bargain basement store. They sell the same crap as other farm stores. I also thought that speeco made a good middle of the road splitter. I still think its just a teathing issue. Maybe speeco should have bought a couple Supersplits and just made copies of it. I guess that's been done though.

Fyi...I believe most of craftsman hand tools are made in china now. I heard somewhere that the original makers of craftsman hand tools now makes kobolt. I haven't confirmed that rumor though.

 

[COUNTRY6543]

The Kinetic design is over thirty years old. Patents have long since expired. I have no idea why it has taken so long for others to jump on the band wagon and start trying to market these spliters. Seems that SS has been the only company that has been serious about this design throughout.

Next, as everyone knows, How does a business introduce a new product to a competative market. They release a similiar model at an appealing price to boost sales. This is standard business. Speedco just forgot the part about making the product reliable. If they had hit the nail on the head in the first place they would have sold a ton of units. This thread could have just as easily been somthing like this ( I love my speedpro and saved a ton) If they would have only done a little more homework.

Not everyone that splits wood or will split wood reads this forum so if they get the bugs worked early they might be able to save their hide and the new thread may be something like this . (The first run had problems but they are great now) Everyone has to realize they did not set out to create an inferior product. Bottom line is they are in it to make money and they ain't making much shipping all those units back for refitting, dealing with negative forums and bad sales. Their other products has to pick up the Speed Pro's slack.

 

[KiwiBro]

Yeah, there's a connection between price and quality, but too many idjits check their brains at the door or close 'em while opening their wallets and paying through the nose for premiums based on uncompetitive markets.

It's some R&D (the back of which was broken about 30-ish years ago), some steel, a few flywheels and a small engine, for crying out loud. Parts can be bought off the shelf or easily made to suit - it's not like they've spent years developing unique, highly intricate and technical parts and in the case of SS who has been around a while, what the hell have they developed in the last, say, 10 years other than a wee bit of tweaking here and there while ignoring/avoiding the freak'n obvious lack of towing, top-heavy nature of their product?

There's just no way anything approaching anything like $3k can be justified on a producers cost basis. On the value to the end user it could be for commercial users, but lets face it, if this site was for commercial users only, it would be largely a boring, circle-jerking waste of bandwidth for most of us who keep many of the sponsors earning returns on their sponsorship of AS.

Mistakes happen, simply because we are human, we rush, we don't check properly, etc. If Speeco had decided to charge $5k for their splitter, I'd wager the same mistake would have happened anyway b/c I don't for a second think it's a margin-desperation, cost-saving issue, rather, a human screw-up. Moreover, I'm very disappointed in Speeco's product from the perspective that they had the chance to show the market that a very worthwhile and durable splitter could make money for the producers at something around $2k or even less, without the premium loaded by competitors. They have thus far screwed that up and it's a shame we'll have to wait for them to get it sorted.

I suspect they have far too much to lose to not get it sorted, and reasonably quickly. They've undoubtedly proven the potential of the market to themselves with their first round of sales and their brand is too valuable to take the goodwill hit and not come back and prove to the market they want and can, put it right. I doubt Blount (owners of Speeco if I'm not mistaken) are happy about all this either.

 

[ziggo_2]

Oh... and by the way, Is a $50,000 dollar Cadillac twice as reliable as a $25,000 Honda. You spend twice as much so it should be twice as reliable correct?

I hate hondas with a passion...lets not go there.

 

[Peacock]

Oh... and by the way, Is a $50,000 dollar Cadillac twice as reliable as a $25,000 Honda. You spend twice as much so it should be twice as reliable correct?

I understand what you are saying, but no Caddy is HALF as reliable as a Honda Accord.

 

[Peacock]

I do agree. I use hand tools a lot, but they don't feed the family. Craftsman tool have never let me down. If you want to get caught in the tool truck pay by week racket, got for it. But all them mass produced tools are punched out by the same chinese worker.

I have Craftsman tools at home. At work(Honda auto tech) I use Sanp-On, Mac and Matco tools. Broken way too many Craftsman tools to count on them at work.

I don't own any of the above hand tools that are made in China.

 

[indiansprings]

As a result of what's happened with the Speeco, it has left a huge void in the market for another company to bring out yet another version of the kinetic splitter. The profit margin being enjoyed by both Super Split and DR leaves ample room for another company to fill the void with quality made machine that could potentially sell for 30/40% less than either the SS or DR both of which are top notch excellent machines.
You'll prolly see MTD enter the market with a machine. Like many have said if you start costing out the components the machines are likely costing the mfgs, less than a thousand dollars in materials. I would anticipate that you'l see a company start shipping in the components broken down in containers from either China or India and assemble them here to save on freight, and take advantage of any duty loopholes that may exist. Then you use unskilled minimum wage labor to assemble them. It's just a matter of time before it happens. I don't agree with it, but it is inevitable, Paul and his predecessor at SuperSplit paved the way for all these other knockoffs, maybe if they would have had a good patent attorney, kept making operational changes in the machine, kept the patent a moving target it might have held the competition off for a few years. i just received the CD and marketing material from DR, I wonder how many poor sob's have fell for their "buy it on their credit plan" no payment for 6 months, then in fine print it shows that 24.99% interest starts after the six months, holy chit Martha, talk about legalized loan sharking. Put a pencil to 25% interest on the unpaid balance on those babies.
I really need one of these type splitters, the only thing that has held me back is I just don't know if we are going to run our wood business after this year, my health is up and down, I have to depend on the boys to run it on a daily basis and they are starting to have other opportunities, but if I were going to by one tomorrow it would be a SuperSplit, for the 700-800.00 you are getting a machine that is proven, proven in hard commercial use, built in the USA by a man you can get on the phone, over the lifetime of the machine, prolly twenty years or more the extra 800.00 equates to about 40.00 a year more a hair over 3.00 a month. The bitter taste of marginal quality will last much longer than the sweetness of what was thought to be a bargain. I learned the hard lesson 35 years ago with a cheap tool set, I learned to save and buy only when I had the funds to get what I really wanted, I seldom ever have to replace Wiha,Wera,S&K,Knipex,Klein Craftsmen or Snap-On tools, they were a long term investment.
Speeco will get it figured out, they know the demand is there, they rushed in without the proper testing on the front side, or partnered up with the wrong Chinese factory, they'll get the issues ironed out, the heat treating down and hopefully make it right with those who laid down their hard earned cash. But I think you'll see many variations of these machines that hit the market in the next yeat, some better than others.

 

[Dozer Man]

Then lets use a different approach...

I hate hondas with a passion...lets not go there.

Is a Cadillac Escalade any better vehicle that a Tahoe? Suburban? Yukon? Avalanche??
Well, some would say they are nicer looking and have more bells and whistles.
But will it tow your boat better because it's a Caddy? No, it won't.
Will the Lincoln/Mercury trucks tow better than the Ford truck?? No, they won't.

I've always wanted an SS. But I've always thought they were way overpriced too. After watching several videos and break downs of the machine, I actually thought about building one myself. There just aren't that many hard parts to purchase. I didn't think it would be any more expensive to build a kinetic splitter than a to build a hydraulic. Obviously I never got around to building and bought the speedpro instead.

Cmccul8146 built his own kinetic splitter. I wonder how much he has invested in his project. If memory serves me right, from reading his thread, I don't think he made a substantial investment. Hopefully he will tell us.

MNGuns...Nobody is knocking the SuperSplit, it's the industry standard for kinetic splitters. And has been, without much competition, for many years. Now there is some competion out there and I don't think you like it. I'm guessing that is why you like bashing the teathing issues of the speedpro so much. I'm sure you will be the first to bash the DR rapidfire (rapidSplit??) if and when they have any problems.