New to log splitters Help please.

[penth2o]

Just bought a homemade log splitter. It has a Briggs & Stratton 5hp 206 cc motor.
A John S. Barnes Corp pump, Boss 2500 psi Ram Industries cylinder and a Cross valve.
I don’t know if the components are industrial and overkill for the 5 HP Briggs motor or not.
the motor is tired and has been rigged with a different carburetor and having serious problems running.

My question would be, can I go for a bigger motor and what would you guys recommend brand and size wise.
thank you for the help.

 

[Patrick62]

could use this engine:
briggs
I would eliminate that old style coupler and go to a pump mounted to engine, you might get lucky and the shaft would end up in the same height.

Your old engine has the "pulse a jet" carburetor. THey are notorious for getting a bit cranky... however... rebuild the carb with new gaskets and it will likely run ok.

This splitter looks like it's reworked, and someone in their infinite wisdom thought that adding a HUGE wedge would be the way to go. The leverage is way off the beam! It's your machine do whatever you want. I would change it back to something more or less "stock".

 

[Sandhill Crane]

You live in a very beautiful area of Michigan.
Welcome to the forum.
I would say off the cuff, not knowing anything about hydraulics, that more hp probably wouldn't do much.
I'd suggest you use what you have, get a feel for what you would like/need to improve, and look for another machine at that time, a step up.
You could resell this one or keep it set up for quartering rounds, and another for splitting to size, so your not moving it about or transitioning as much from vertical to horizontal.
The Baldwin area got clobbered last week. Hundreds of trees down, dozens and dozens of cottages with trees on them, vehicles and boats, and boat trailers as well. Huge number of lines down. Bent electrical masts on many cottages from lines coming down. Never saw so many power company trucks, chipper trucks, skid steers, boom trucks, cranes and equipment trailers jammed on basically one lane roads around the small lakes.. The clean up has gone amazingly well. Repairs will take months.

 

[sean donato]

Stick with around 5hp or slightly bigger, you only need enough hp to spin the pump at a desired max psi. More then that and your just burning gas for no reason. I too would go for a newer engine with the case mounted pump bracket. Normally you can find kits that include everything fairly easily.

 

[penth2o]

Thank folks.

The initial post was about a homemade splitter I bought because an 85 foot oak tree fell down on my house taking out my garage, laundry room, bathroom and closet trashing trusses and drywall inside.

I have six more trees the same size half down from the same storm or leaning towards the house.



After first run I joined these groups to get the feel of what parts were what and the terminology.

This thing has ancient industrial components on it. (pump,valve and cylinder. )

I wanted to get the specs so I knew what I was dealing with. The JS Barnes pump is obsolete and I cannot find any specs online nor the seven groups I joined. The company that took over them won’t/doesn’t give out info or maybe they don’t know since it’s so old. The Cross valve and Boss cylinder are AWOL online according to serial numbers.

I wanted to match or at least get to know all of my components.

The 5 HP Briggs & Stratton carburetor was shot and the choke and throttle was hacked from another machine. The carb was not usable.



Thanks for all the input as I learned quite a bit in a short amount of time.

Instead of spending $162 for the correct carb and still having many more unsorted problems with the Briggs, I went to Harbor Freight and spent $145 on a Chinese knockoff 6.5 HP instead of 5 and am back in business.

Now I just have to make a wedge as this ridiculous thing this previous owner made is not right.

 

[sean donato]

Sorry for your bad luck mate. Honestly if anything craps out and your looking to save a buck, ebay has kits with the pump, bracket, and love joy coupler for reasonable cost. Think some of them even come with an auto return valve as well. Just have to measure your crank shaft and drop them a note so you get the right sized coupler for your engine, and make sure the bracket has the proper bolt spacing for your engine. I've used a few in the past with good success, to get old units up and running again. The cylinder should be able to get rebuilt by any competent hydraulic shop. And your gonna be limited to that 2500 psi rating of your cylinder. Which is plenty to do the work you need. The wedge looks like crap, but is an easy fix all things considered. Best of luck with your clean up, and hope your house gets fixed up quick.