Purchased a New to us Splitter...

[Superduty71]

First time poster (here).... long time lurker & reader... and many thanks for the knowledge I have gained from this site.

Let me first state.... we are armature property owners (just under 20 acers in CT) & have been cleaning up the property since our purchase. I have been blessed enough to be able to borrow a splitter for the past many years either from my brother or one of my best friends (a brother from a different mother) for our splitting needs. Although not convenient it worked, but we always had the idea of owning our own splitter; we burn 3+ cord per season to heat 3K+ sqft home. We decided we wanted a few things in a splitter... a log lift, a push thru design, & fast cycle time.... we were not interested in a horizontal / vertical machine for our use.

Well I think I lucked upon a deal... right before pulling the trigger (literally hrs before pulling the trigger), on a new Rugged Made (which I was questioning my own decision); we found a "lightly" used Timberwolf TW-P1 with a 4-way wedge, manual log lift, & gate table.... for for under 2K... Not perfect, a little slower cycle time & a little lower working height that we would have liked... but it was TiimberWolf's quality that sold us.... Oh, this is a 2012 machine that sat in a garage for the past 6 years not used... (& garaged all it's life)... I may look at adding a hydraulic cylinder & valve to the log lift in the future & maybe raising it's beam height. But for now we are going to just run it as is (oil changed to synthetic, cleaned-up & greased) to see how well it works.

Basically I want to thank this forum for informing us & ultimately making us hold out for the right deal for us....

 

[Wood Hound]

TW, is not far from me...

 

[rancher2]

Nice looking splitter. Doing three cord a year that splitter will last you a life time. Enjoy the new {TOY} I mean tool for your tool box.

 

[sundance]

Pulling the tires up on a couple blocks of wood will solve the height issue.

 

[Wood Hound]

Had to raise mine ten inch.....

 

[Superduty71]

Thanks to all... It really is a super clean unit for it's age. I did notice a little bit of roughness to it running at high idle, so I figured it was from sitting for so long. I was running it with new gas & wasn't convinced it was running as smooth as it should at high idle, so I ran some Sea Foam in it today & 10 mins later.... It was running.... Smooth.

Yes, with only 3 to 4 cords a year it might even be overkill of a splitter... but for the price we needed to jump on it.

I might try putting it on some blocks temporarily to see how I like it.... but it does "raise" an issue with the log lift not touching the ground perpendicularly. The beam currently stands at 22.5" & I would really like it at 28.5" to 30", so ultimately if I decide to raise it I will most likely install 5 Bolt Trailer Wheel Hubs on the existing spindles with larger wheels & tires, or weld on some drop down framing & 1" spindles to use the existing wheels. I would then just cut & extend the front kickstand support to the right length. If I decide to go this route I would either modify the existing log lift length or just fabricate a new one to included the hydraulic lift cylinder (which I would like). We have no intension of over the road travel with it, just pulling it on our property. If I need to move it over the road it will go on one of our trailers.

The one other thing is I wish it split to the rear.... I don't like the idea of having to remove the table grate to hook it back onto a trailer hitch to move it on the property (we will store it inside). I may look at making an extension hitch so we can pull it from storage area to splitting area without removing it....

These are all small (really non) issues when compared to the quality build of the unit... just somethings we may look to change / improve on for our use...

 

[Karrl]

Another option would be to mount a receiver hitch to opposite end of your splitter. That way you can move the splitter away from a growing pile as you split. I set one up on my splitter and it’s nice being able to back your splitter right into your work area as well.

 

[kevin j]

Put it up on a pair of the cheap car ramps. That’ll give you 8 to 12 inches is a test

 

[Superduty71]

Kjorrrits... I may look into adding a receiver hitch to the other end, It would be useful for moving it around on the property without taking the table grate off.

Not to worried about moving the splitter away from the pile as the plan is to split directly in to a pallet box which we can then move & dump the splits to our wood pile with the forks attached to the frontend loader on our tractor. I stack the log lengths & rounds near the edge of the woods & setup an area there to split, that way I can just push the mess into the woods when done.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

If your thinking of modifying the log lift and adding a cylinder, maybe you could add two cylinders. One to lift, one to extend when needed if you raised the splitter. Or more simply, two tubes that slide in inside one another, like receiver tube, and then multiple holes to pin the length needed.
For a hitch on the other end add receiver tube mount, eight of removable tongue, and possibly a place for suitcase weights to counter balance if moving with something like a smaller tractor. Another idea is to simply add forklift tubes, which is what I did with a SuperSplit HD. If you do that keep the tubes narrow to avoid knocking your legs on them when splitting. If not attached tubes, a separate cradle for the forks that mates to the splitter to lift it.
.

 

[Superduty71]

I thought about the slip-tube idea with drilled holes for pins, but then thought I was over complicating it.... If I raise the suspension on the machine it will be a fixed height at that point so I should just be able to extend the existing log lift length for the additional height. My other thought is to just fab a new log lift designed for the hydraulic lift cylinder & additional length needed. Then I would sell the existing manual log lift to someone with a TW-1 or TW-2...(just another thought)

 

[Jere39]

Wow, it looks like it came out of the TW mfg museum. (meant that as a compliment on how clean and unused it looked, not an indictment of age) Congratulations.

 

[Superduty71]

Thanks,, Jere39... That picture was after I cleaned it up... It didn't look that good when we picked it up, it had been sitting for years in the back of a detached 2 car garage unused, had dried out grease on, a little surface rust on the beam & needed a cleaning so I could service it. So I was happy it looked that good after a washing; it obviously has seen very little use which is why it looks so good...

I cleaned it up & greased the wheel bearing, the pins, the beam & wedge. Changed the oil to synthetic & a little Sea Foam in the first tank of gas & it's running smooth. Then just hit it with a light coat of Fluid Film & wiped it down.... I'm sure it won't stay that clean... Now I need to get back to working on our New Holland tractor so we can actually get to splitting wood with it... (we split into the tractor loader)

 

[avason]

Nice splitter! Nice seeing others from Connecticut on here.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

Note on TW log lift.
On my TW-6 the pins on the log lift all had clip pin keepers, as opposed to cotter keys. Lost a clip pin on the bottom of the list cylinder as I pulled in a friends driveway. Only drug the cylinder end about seventy feet in the gravel. Had it happened on the road it would have been a different issue. Found the main pin and wired it up for the morning. Then replaced all clip pins with cotter pins later that day. I had strapped the lift in the up position for towing to take the bounce out of it. So the lift was still raised, and the cylinder end dragging.

 

[Superduty71]

Sandhill - Thanks for the info... you're correct they are just clip pins on ours too... Even though it will only be moved on our property, I'll switch those out to cotter pins to be safe.

Thanks