Wood splitter advice

[sb47]

Speaking of cranes and winches, anyone heard of the GorillaBac lift? I bought one for my 35 ton Husky/Speeco splitter this spring and I love it! It's not a fast as a hydraulic lift but works well for my crowded layout.
View attachment 768903 View attachment 768905

I needs one of these!

 

[milkie62]

Personally I think design has more to do with how much wood you split and how willing you are to work. I am lazy, yep I said it. Most of the commercial cheapie splitters will serve the general homeowner for years with just a little routine maintenance. Most will split big knotty rounds with little effort. What it boils down to is how much speed you desire. Cant beat the speed of grapping a round and throwing it onto the splitter and hitting a lever and watching it fall into splits. Not a bad plan for someone that splits small wood and small quantities. Try doing that and splitting 4 or more cords in a session. Your back will give out way before the splitter does. Then you have the log lifts, yep just roll that big round on the lift and raise it up to splitting height. Works pretty good as long as the rounds are staged and dont have to be moved very far, and a mulitsplit wedge really helps. Again, your back will give out rolling those big rounds to the splitter long before the splitter quits. That lift also adds cost to your splitter, but being a lazy person, I would prefer it to picking the rounds up by hand,, even at the cost of a little speed. Than you have us really lazy people that use a boom to pick the rounds up. I simply walk over to a large round, hook up the log dogs and hit a button and the log gets dragged to the splitter and lifted on the beam. Yep it takes a little longer to get the wood on the splitter, but I can do it all day with out a hurting and sore back. My splitter probably runs rounds thru it about the same speed as any other splitter, but instead of splitting for a hour and taking a break, I can split for hours. At the end of the day, I can probably split just as much wood, with less effort as someone lifting rounds by hand and not be as tired at the end of the day. Now thats not to say my splitter can produce tons of wood a day with just one person doing all the hooking and splitting, but give me a crew of good workers and it can make their tounges hang out making production. Even with a large crew of feeders and stackers, we will give out way before the machine does. I have done a cord in fifteen minutes, split and stacked with 5 people, and every one of them was sweating and breathing hard trying to keep up. Yesterday, we did 2 cord of 30+dia rounds in two hours, split and stacked with three people. I could have beat that a little if my truck tire hadnt went flat and I had to blow it up before I could move the trailer full of splits to the stacks. As a one man splitting crew, I can do about a cord in a hour with good wood, but even with a boom I need help with the big stuff.

Have you posted your splitter pics ? Did you have a cat yellow one ?

 

[milkie62]

Personally I think design has more to do with how much wood you split and how willing you are to work. I am lazy, yep I said it. Most of the commercial cheapie splitters will serve the general homeowner for years with just a little routine maintenance. Most will split big knotty rounds with little effort. What it boils down to is how much speed you desire. Cant beat the speed of grapping a round and throwing it onto the splitter and hitting a lever and watching it fall into splits. Not a bad plan for someone that splits small wood and small quantities. Try doing that and splitting 4 or more cords in a session. Your back will give out way before the splitter does. Then you have the log lifts, yep just roll that big round on the lift and raise it up to splitting height. Works pretty good as long as the rounds are staged and dont have to be moved very far, and a mulitsplit wedge really helps. Again, your back will give out rolling those big rounds to the splitter long before the splitter quits. That lift also adds cost to your splitter, but being a lazy person, I would prefer it to picking the rounds up by hand,, even at the cost of a little speed. Than you have us really lazy people that use a boom to pick the rounds up. I simply walk over to a large round, hook up the log dogs and hit a button and the log gets dragged to the splitter and lifted on the beam. Yep it takes a little longer to get the wood on the splitter, but I can do it all day with out a hurting and sore back. My splitter probably runs rounds thru it about the same speed as any other splitter, but instead of splitting for a hour and taking a break, I can split for hours. At the end of the day, I can probably split just as much wood, with less effort as someone lifting rounds by hand and not be as tired at the end of the day. Now thats not to say my splitter can produce tons of wood a day with just one person doing all the hooking and splitting, but give me a crew of good workers and it can make their tounges hang out making production. Even with a large crew of feeders and stackers, we will give out way before the machine does. I have done a cord in fifteen minutes, split and stacked with 5 people, and every one of them was sweating and breathing hard trying to keep up. Yesterday, we did 2 cord of 30+dia rounds in two hours, split and stacked with three people. I could have beat that a little if my truck tire hadnt went flat and I had to blow it up before I could move the trailer full of splits to the stacks. As a one man splitting crew, I can do about a cord in a hour with good wood, but even with a boom I need help with the big stuff.

I am planning my 2nd splitter build after 30 yrs. I always thought a log lift was all that was needed. But after reading your post a boom seems to make a lot of sense now. I am pushing 61 and I do a lot of big rounds mostly 20"-40" and I am not getting younger. Have been noodling the big ones then wedging and splitting by hand in half then pushing them to the splitter with the FEL. Your idea would be the cats a** since I never thought of adding a winch to pull them from a little longer distance than right at the splitter.

 

[sawset]

Most box store splitters are the same, yes.

Parent company to a lot of the big box splitters:
https://ytlinternational.com/products/log-splitters/
And retail outlets they supply to:

 

[motorhead99999]

Iv never bought one but I have built a couple. My most impressive one is a 4 cyl Wisconsin with a hydolic pump out of a garbage truck with a 8” bore ram. Close to 100 ton I run a six way head on it and if for some act of god reason the dozen saws I got blow up i can just shear all my wood off with it

 

[VirginiaIron]

Iv never bought one but I have built a couple. My most impressive one is a 4 cyl Wisconsin with a hydolic pump out of a garbage truck with a 8” bore ram. Close to 100 ton I run a six way head on it and if for some act of god reason the dozen saws I got blow up i can just shear all my wood off with it

Wow, thank you for posting. You should post your splitter, along with a video or link that shows the splitter in operation to:

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/log-splitter-show-us-your-log-splitter.161359/.
Thanks.

 

[samhop]

Super Spliter heated exclusively with wood most of my life. take the time to figure out feed table and you will never look at your hydro again. my 9hp 12gm 2stage W/ split table has been sitting for 15 years, jest cant compete. and i use mostly standing dead oak.

 

[motorhead99999]

Wow, thank you for posting. You should post your splitter, along with a video or link that shows the splitter in operation to:

https://www.**********/talk/threads/log-splitter-show-us-your-log-splitter.161359/.
Thanks.

My other splitter is a 16 hp Honda with 28gpm two stage pump 4” bore ram and I also have a 6” for it. I use this one most of the time because it’s so much faster than the big one. I built a table on the end so what I split stays on the splitter so I don’t have to bend over to pick it up to stack it I’ll take some pics of that one tonight

 

[motorhead99999]

Super Spliter heated exclusively with wood most of my life. take the time to figure out feed table and you will never look at your hydro again. my 9hp 20gm 2stage W/ split table has been sitting for 15 years, jest cant compete. and i use mostly standing dead oak. View attachment 770482

I have thought about building a kinetic splitter but my 5 year old son likes to run the lever and my sausage fingers are ugly but I still like them

 

[samhop]

I want to make one using train wheels as flywheels.
your right about operation buy one experienced operator. I feed and split and the wife clears the splits and sends back any that she thinks need another split. also if you have a helper: ONLY handle wood on the sides NEVER on the ends.

 

[UpNort]

My brother and I just bought this one from Northern Tool.

NorthStar Horizontal/Vertical Log Splitter — 37-Ton, 270cc Honda GX270 Engine

We are very happy so far. It has the Honda GX (not GC) 270 engine. Right now (11-4-19) its on sale for 1800 plus 100 gift card. Dollar for dollar besides making your own is got to be one of the best values, at least that's what my year-long search revealed. You can purchase a 4-way splitter which great! Also, Northern Tool also gives a military discount (10%), which is cool since my brother was in the Navy. We got ours OTD for $2100 which included the splitter, 4-way splitter head, 5 year extended warranty (which was being offered for free at the time as a promotion), assembly (not included in the price, fyi) with all the fluids included, tax, and something else I am forgetting.

My dream splitter is a Wolfe Ridge. They start at 5K but they are made in Wisconsin, all American parts except the Honda engine. Couldn't talk my brother into the extra cost, rightfully so...

 

[MrWhoopee]

I may have missed it, but I don't think anyone asked:
Where do you live?
What kind of wood are you splitting?

This is important. If you're out west, the vast majority of wood is either softwood or relatively easy splitting hardwood. I get by very nicely with a 5-ton electric splitter, but I wouldn't recommend one if you live east of the Rockies. If you're in the SF Bay Area and burn eucalyptus, more tonnage may be necessary.

A good outfeed table is an absolute must. Dropping half a split on the ground (or a critical component on your splitter) is most undesirable.

As for log lifts, the Gorillabac is a very clever design but slow. It needs a faster winch. I built my lift from an HF truck bed crane, an old Meyer T5 snowplow pump and a pair of Northern Tool skidding tongs. It's mounted in my truck making it useful for other purposes, but it could be mounted on a splitter (though not mine)

 

[jessew]

Just put together the super splitter HD I have had a DHT 27 ton good splitter but man o man this S.S. is something else. Very pleased to have made the S.S. HD purchase with the large production table. Have 4 cords of Oak bucked up in a pile cut to 16”. Should be fun !!

 

[Natster]

Super Spliter heated exclusively with wood most of my life. take the time to figure out feed table and you will never look at your hydro again. my 9hp 12gm 2stage W/ split table has been sitting for 15 years, jest cant compete. and i use mostly standing dead oak. View attachment 770482

@samhop, maybe you could sell your old hydraulic one....

 

[samhop]

@naster come and get it

 

[Natster]

@samhop,
Where are you?
Nate

 

[samhop]

1k mi + drive and a boat ride

 

[cedarhollow]

don't know about different brands but i've found that the ability to flip the i beam to vertical sure is a back saver with big rounds of hardwoods, the ones that are fixed in horizontal are a back killer without having a lifting mechanism.

 

[fields_mj]

I am looking to purchase a gas powered wood splitter for my own personal use and was wondering if I could get some advice on what size and brand to purchase along with approximate pricing. I was thinking around 25 ton?

I just bought my first splitter this year. I think you'll be fine with what ever you choose to buy. For home owner use, I would recommend saving money by going with a used machine. If you're patient, you can find them in good shape for less than $500. After +30 years of splitting by hand, I finally bought my first one this summer. My back and shoulder wish I had done it years ago. Mine is a used 26 ton MTD splitter that originally came from Lowes. It was in good shape. I bought it from the 2nd owner for $475. I took some relatively fresh piece of Hedge with me to test it out before buying. The rounds was a little over 20" long, and about 18" across. An 8lb maul bounced off them like rubber. The splitter had no problems with them. I've split about 3 cords of hedge and hickory with it so far, and I love it. What ever you get, I would highly recommend adding a work table to at least one side so that you don't drop the splits back on the ground and have to pick them up again.

I would also suggest that you not get too caught up on speed. Most of the time the ram does not have to extend all the way to complete the split. Once the wedge gets into the wood 3 to 6 inches it normally pops the rest of the way apart.

 

[Lionsfan]

I've been in and out of the firewood game for 25 years and I've always split with a maul or borrowed my father-in-laws rig. I spent most of this summer watching around for a decent used rig and everything I found was either scrap iron or "like new" with a "like new" asking price. I bit the bullet this morning and bought a 25 ton Countyline this morning, Black Friday, on sale for $800. Not 100% what I wanted, but you can't deny the fact that there's a $#@! pile of them out there in the field gettin' the job done no matter the cost.