I help a friend in his firewood business, and he usually runs two splitters - a Supersplit, and a 20-ton Yard Machines / MTD hydraulic. Gives me a good view of them in a head to head comparison, and I see the bottom line as a "Rabbit and Tortoise" race...
He has a conveyor to carry splits into his trailer, and has things set up so that the Supersplit pushes the finished splits off the end of the table onto the belt, while the hydraulic is set up in vertical mode next to the belt so that done splits are just tossed to the left onto it.
He uses a tractor with a front end bucket to push the supply wood, which is usually pre-split medium to large chunks up to the two splitters.
My understanding is that he has upgraded the stock pump on the hydraulic to a 16gpm for a faster cycle time...
I've used both splitters, and feel more comfortable with the hydraulic. The SS is fast, but not unmanagably so, however you have to stand to operate it, and bend over to grab each new split and bring it up to the table - even using pulp hooks, that's a lot of bend and lifting. With the hydraulic, I sit on a comfortable little mechanics stool and just drag the chunks over... When we get big stuff, I have a big advantage getting it into the hydraulic to break it up w/o having to deal with getting a big round onto the SS table, and then keeping it there while breaking it down.
That said, while you may have to hit it several times, I think the SS will get through anything a hydraulic would get through, eventually. It has a wedge that's very narrow, like an axe blade, so it will shear what it can't cut. It will also kick out and throw (sometimes violently) peices that aren't cut square or properly lined up, and the operator is much more in the line of fire when it does. However because the flywheels take a moment to spool back up when you get a tough peice, you lose most of the speed advantage. Where the SS shines is on reasonably straight grain, easy splitting wood.
Because the SS is so very much faster in it's cycle time, I feel it's a far more dangerous machine - there is NO room for error, if you have a body part in the way it will get hurt... With the hydraulic, there is at least a LITTLE bit of time to react - however while either machine can be used safely by a good operator, if I had to deal with a semi-skilled person I'd feel less nervous putting them on the hydraulic.
WHEN both machines are operating, the SS puts a lot more splits on the belt, but it seems the SS is MUCH more maintainence intensive - with the hydraulic, you check the fluid occasionally, and slap a bit of grease on the beam, otherwise it's just pour gas in it and go...
With the Supersplit, there seems to be far more of a problem with getting chips or bark in the track and jamming it, it seems to need more frequent cleaning and lubrication, and has more frequent mechanical failures - there is a little spring and a roller bearing on the pusher arm that both seem to break frequently...
In the end, it seems I sit all day in front of the hydraulic and crank out splits at a slow but steady pace. My friend does some other stuff, periodically pushes up more wood with the tractor, answers the phone, etc... Then comes over and spits out a bunch with the SS - and we both end up getting about the same amount in the trailer at the end of the day.
My conclusion is that the SuperSplit is a great machine if you are wanting to crank out big production, and have the appropriate size raw wood to feed it. However a hydraulic is probably more versatile and better able to handle the really nasty stuff. If I only had one splitter, I'd go hydraulic...
Gooserider
