log-splitters

[tstex]

Guys,

I have had about enough Abraham Lincoln splitting logs with an axe, sledge-hammer and the like.

Looking for a good, reliable log-splitter.  Live in the Hou TX area, but have a place 65 miles west of Houston.  Do you have a make/model you would recommend that could hook-up to the tractor?  I have a 60HP Kubota I bought new in 1996 w/ Frt-end-loader, but did not buy it with a remote hydraulic attachment.. can upgrade to one if needed.

Looking to split mainly live oak:  both right after being freshly cut, as well as the real hard oak that has naturally cured over the years/decades.

Thank you very much for your advice.
Be careful,
tom

[Tom]

I've priced 3point  hitch splitters against splitters that  have their own engine and there isn't much difference.  I think I would prefer to have the splitter separate from the tractor because it leaves you with a tractor to do other log work and the small engines 8-10 horse, are misers on fuel too.

I thought about a tractor mount because I had a neighbor who had one.  Finally I asked him and he said he would prefer a splitter with a small engine.  The only thing good he could think of about he tractor mounted one was that fewer people asked to borrow it.

I have an 8 horse that I got from Sams or one of those club places.  It has split everything I've thrown at it including live Oak.   I think it was retailing for around $1100 and my wife got it on sale for about $900.  Mine is vertical/horizontal and has the axle built as the hydraulic fluid reservoir.  The ram shaft has the wedge attached to its end and the foot of the splitter is a heavy flat piece of metal with a small dog in the center to keep the log from slipping out.   I've used it in both postions and prefer the vertical for most jobs.  Two of us sit there in chairs, small stools, or on a piece of log and feed it at leisure.

[Chuck White]

Tom;
I'm pretty sure that you can add any number of remotes to your Kubota!  Talk to your dealer.

I don't know much about log or firewood splitters, but you need to let people know if you're talking about splitting firewood or actual logs!
With the mention of Abraham Lincoln, it sounds like you're talking about splitting long logs. 
Wouldn't surprise me that someone on here has split long logs, if so, they'll chime in sooner or later.
Lots of good info on this forum.

[york]

Hi,

long logs?   http://www.timberwolfcorp.com/log_splitters/default.asp?id=14

[stonebroke]

I started out with a tractor mounted one but I have come to the conclusion that it is a very expensive way to split wood. You have sixty horsepower when you only need five. They don't give tractors away and anything I can do to keep the hours off I will.

Stonebroke

[mike_van]

You have sixty horsepower when you only need five. They don't give tractors away and anything I can do to keep the hours off I will.

Stonebroke

What he said -  8)

[sawmilllawyer]

Done it both ways. Used a hydraulic unit via remotes on a John Deere tractor, seems like a lot of hours and fuel used alsotied up the tractor with front end loader. Currently have a independent unit with a 6.5 hp chinese knock off motor and it has a faster cycle time,  plus it will go both vertical and horitzontal. Like Tom said pull up a stump and start splitting.  How much wood do you want to split?

[cheyenne]

I have a 33 ton Troy-bilt with a 9 hp honda engine. Best splitter i've ever owned. It's much easier and cheaper to have a small versatile piece as opposed to a big cumbersome one you have to put on & take off all the time....Cheyenne

[pineywoods]

Go with the stand alone unit.. It will actually be faster. They use a special 2 stage pump that pumps about 12-15 gpm at 250 psi for fast cycle time, then switches to 2 - 3 gpm at 3000 psi when the load builds up. Your tractor pump won't do that. Fuel consumption will be a small fraction of what the tractor will burn. The fuel tank on mine (25 ton unit) only holds a quart, enough to split continously for an hour. I just toss the split pieces in the bucket of the front end loader and go dump them in the barn...

[VT]

I agree with small mobile unit  . mine is 6hp , separate .
Hyd unit from the Kubota to any external attachment that use's the same oil from the tractor for the attachment is a VERY RISKY .
Any attachment that is lent / borrowed  will have there oil and if any crap they have in there oil  , is now going to be introduced into your tractor .
I have seen some of the folks around here have the so-called same water in the oil / milky ..

I have enough to keep my normal maintenance on just mine without having others infecting my stuff.

VT

[bandmiller2]

Tom its quite clear stand alone wins.The bigest buster is picking up the chunks to put on the splitter.The splitter I built has a hydraulic lift to bring the big chunks up to the horizontal splitter,and serves as a table to hold the chunk that falls off the back.Jacksonville Toms splitter pivots to verticle ,chunks don't have to leave the ground ,only dissadvantage is alot of stooping,but its worth it for the big stuff switch to horizontal for lighter stuff.Their is anouther type of splitter made not far from me,it uses a flywheel rack and pinion ,no hydraulics.Name escapes me at this moment but they are quick and durable,they use a smaller engine than hyd.flywheel stores energy.A friend that sells firewood ownes two, they have split a mountain of wood.What it boiles down to ,my opinion,alot of big hard to lift stuff splitter like toms,medium liftable stuff flywheel splitter.Frank C.

[Cedarman]

We made close to 12,000 split rails out of logs 6" to 12" x 10' 6" long, give or take a few inches.  I used my 3165 tractor with loader and extra valve.  The front PTO pump is very fast and cycle time on a 4" cylinder is fairly fast.

I took a 14' I beam and welded a vertical knive at one end.  Then made  knives that would bolt to the side so that I could split 4 rails at once out of 6 and 7 " logs.  For 8" and bigger I made it 6 way to make 6 rails at once.

I used a 2' stroke x 4" cylinder for pushing.  I did not attach the cylinder to the I beam.  I attached it to a slide so that I could slide the assembly down the  beam to follow the log. I had holes in the top of the I beam that we dropped a bolt in as something for the cylinder to push against.

This is slower than if I had a 10' cylinder to push all at once.  The tractor only used about 1 1/2 gallons of diesel per hour and is a mid 60's model.  Probably has 20000 hours on it as it was well used when I got it 25 years ago for 2500 bucks.

We can make about 50 to 70 rails per hour using 3 people.  It takes 2 people to roll and center the log and 1 person to run the controls and tally the rails.

[bandmiller2]

Tom Tex,many of us here have built splitters,you have probibly thought of it.It is practical if of course you have the ability,and many of the componants at little or no cost.If a fella has to buy everything your probibly better off buying one all made.Frank C.

[tstex]

Guys,

As usual, great advice.

First wanted to clarify that i am splitting 2' logs mainly for firewood and smaller for BBQ'ing.  They just burn a heck of a lot better than a 12" diameter log. ;)

Great observation on the exchange of hydraulic fluid...the Kubota's are pretty sensitive to mixing other h-fluids [and other H2O of course].  I once let someone borrow 2.5 gals of Kubota oil when their baler broke a h-line...returned the oil pretty quickly by the weekend; O'reilly's, what a deal !  I know people will want to borrow it and mix with their emulsified fluid...no can do.

Now I need to locate a cost-effective unit?  Just want to get something with a good reliable engine and quality construction...i would rather pay $1,500 and have it last 20 yrs then buy a $750.00 unit and replace every 7-10 yrs...

Finally, when I mentioned "cured-live oak", this stuff is like semi-petrified and is extremely hard/dense..it dulls the stihl pretty quickly and i have seen it throw sparks [no nails or sand/dirt either]...it is really hard and when it burns, & you get long, coal-like embers.  If this has any bearing on the model, let me know.

Again, thank you very much guys for your feedback, it sure makes for a much better & informed decision...anything i need to ask when buying, pls advise.

Regards,
tom

[ksu_chainsaw]

 



the first picture is of the splitter I built and use a lot.  It used to have an old craftsman riding lawnmower engine to power the pump-16GPM 2 stage.  There are other pictures of this splitter in my gallery.





This picture is of a tractor powered splitter- it was always hooked to an 8n ford with no hydraulics- so it has a pto pump on the front of it- it works well, but doesnt have the power to split hard or knotty chunks.

I used to use a splitter powered by the tractor hydraulics- but I wanted to be able to take the splitter out further away from the house at a faster rate of travel- 40MPH vs. 10MPH.  I also got tired of using 5 gallons of diesel per day- 706 Farmall where the stand alone unit only uses 1-2 gallons of gas in 10 hours of splitting.

Charles

[thecfarm]

I have a 6.5 hp,22 ton splitter.Will split vertical or horizontal. I have split some 3 foot pine when I had it tipped up.Mine sounds just about what Tom's is like.

[customdave]

I built log splitter out old massey square baler , works very well . I wanted splitter faster then hydraulics. Lot of welding to fab into splitter but sure works slick , had to build conveyor to take wood away &stack it into big pile. Sound dangerous , its not really , slip clutch on PTO & shear pin on flywheel . Can pickup old balers cheap ,also could mount small engine &run belt to flywheel ,because flywheel does all the work . I even custom split firewood for hire , don't take long to split big pile  customdave

[RSteiner]

TimberWolf makes a good splitter with assisted chunk loading options and work tables that make splitting much easier.  Most splitters will handle 24" lengths.  There are many advantages to stand alone splitters many which have already been given. 

I think that stand alone splitters operate with faster cycle times than 3 point hitch models in general. 

Randy

[nas]

I built log splitter out old massey square baler , works very well . I wanted splitter faster then hydraulics. Lot of welding to fab into splitter but sure works slick , had to build conveyor to take wood away &stack it into big pile. Sound dangerous , its not really , slip clutch on PTO & shear pin on flywheel . Can pickup old balers cheap ,also could mount small engine &run belt to flywheel ,because flywheel does all the work . I even custom split firewood for hire , don't take long to split big pile  customdave

customdave

Yes it sounds dangerous but fast.  Can you show us a picture?  This is something I would like to see.  Maybe you could also make it bale the firewood too ;D.

Nick

[Engineer]

I've been up one side and down the other of the mountain of information here and on other sites/forums.  I wanted to put a three-point splitter on my tractor and decided that it was colossal waste of the tractor's potential.  I would be better suited to use the tractor to move logs and split rounds and have a good but inexpensive independent splitter and upgrade parts if necessary to improve splitting force or cycle time.  The best value out there appears to be the Husky/Speeco splitters from Tractor Supply Co. Most everyone that has one seems to like them.  The next step up might be a Super Split, which is an unusual flywheel/ram operated device that gets rave reviews.  And the next step up from that would be any of the Timberwolf splitters. 

Me, I've decided that unless I build my own someday, I'm going to stick to splitting by hand, or spend $80-$100 a year to rent a machine and do it that way.

[customdave]

Nick , Don't have digtal camera @ prsent time , but will shortly . Short description to tide you over untill I get pics . First cut pickup off baler , narrowed up axle then pulled plunger out , all thats left ji stripped chamber. Then mounted rect beam in bottom of chamber, Then mounted big formed angle standing in V, cut rect hole in bottom of V & through beam & boxed in with heavy steel plate to make socket for different splitter knifes to slip in. Then made new sq tube plunger with hardwood slides on bottom to ride in big V . The V center log &plunger pushs threw the knife , plunger strokes every 2 seconds, slicker than pockets on a shirt .    Dave

[beenthere]

An ya left the twine tier and the bale thrower to end up with small, tied bundles of split wood ready for resale... :D :D

Sounds like a great project. And sure anxious for you to get that camera.  We like pics. Or...a short video.   

[nas]

I was hoping I could just windrow my logs and have them come out cut split and bundled.  That being said hmmmm smiley_sidelightbulb I may have a plan for a new firewood processor.
I do look forward to your pictures.  BTW where are you located?

Nick

[AJ]

Tom,

My brother bought one of the Northstar's from northern toolhttps://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=position"> Note:Please read the Forestry Forum's postion on this company in Houston.  It's a 30 ton, 5.5 hp Honda.  You can set it up horizontally or vertically.  Vertical is nice when they're too big to lift up, just leave them on the ground. I think he paid around $1500 for it.

We used it at my place on some live oak and mesquite, didn't haven't a real problem with any of it, including the crotches.  When it got in a bind, the second stage kicked in and continued the split.  Worked like a champ!

The Honda is very quiet and fuel efficient, great little motor.

You may want to check on these if you're near one of their stores.

Andy

[woodsteach]

Check out the one on www.hahnmachinery.com for your skidsteer.   8) 8) 8)
Might be a bit out of the price range at $23,900!!!
But man it looks cool.
woodsteach

[WH_Conley]

This is the setup to work up firewood out of junk logs. Seein' as how I have a bad back and no one trying to give me a check I have to make adjustments.

The log is placed on the old truck bed with the loader and cut up with chain saw, standing up straight. Wood is them rolled to the other side of the bed and on the splitter, don't matter how big they are they still roll, no lifting. Split wood is thrown in the box at the end of the splitter then picked up with the loader. It is easier on me than setting the splitter upright and bending over on the big ones. The splitter is a 35 ton Huskee, a Speeco rebranded for Tractor Supply.

[ohsoloco]

That's a SWEET setup ya got there WH    My back is in rough shape as well, and I've always thought it would be nice to have everything on a platform.  I also split all of my wood by hand (5-10 cords a year), and that constant bending over is a real pain.  Gotta try that splitting in an old tire trick I just read on here the other day.

[bandmiller2]

Superdave,I have often thought about a hay bailer splitter but the bailers I've owned were always making too much money bailing horse hay to cut up.There is an old time tool you see at shows called a woodpecker.Big overhead flywheel crank and wedge that constantly travels about 8"up and down.Under the wedge is like a piano stool threaded to adjust up and down.You hold the chunk[by the side] and when the wedge is going up put it under.Osha wood surely fudge their rompers if built today.Frank C.

[Rockfarmer]

I would stay away from anything with a Briggs motor. Nothing but poor assembly/performance from these motors lately. Sad but true.

[wi woodcutter]

I would stay away from anything with a Briggs motor. Nothing but poor assembly/performance from these motors lately. Sad but true.

Got that right! You could not give me a B+S motor, maybe for a boat anchor. Too bad because they are only made 60 miles from my house.

[ErikC]

  On the Briggs motor-we have a troy built rototiller with one it starts and runs fine, and is 8years old. But only has about 15 or 20 hours probably. We had a generator with one, the motor blew a hole in the block after 150  hours. Good thing I don't use the rototiller more than a couple of hours a year.

[bmill]

 I have a troybuilt 27 ton with a 5,5hp honda and couldn't be happier. have had it for a bit over a year and have split about 8 cords with it. It is amazing how big a piece you can split with it. I split Burr Oak and Red Elm with no problems.  I got mine on sale at Lowes last year for $945. They run about $1300 now, but they should go on sale in a month or two.

[cheyenne]

Unfortunately Troy-Bilt was bought up by MTD after Troy-Bilt went bankrupt due to the foriegn import invasion of the market place & the stiffling business enviroment of New York State. But I have seen a drop in the quaility of Troy-Bilt since then. It's to bad because Troy-Bilt was a familey owned business that took pride in their products. Cheyenne

[ErikC]

  My dad has an older troy-built rototiller. I'm happy with the one I've got  but there is definitely a noticeable difference in how heavy duty his is compared to mine. I think he has replaced the motor on his 3 times, and he has beat the daylights out of it in rocky ground, but the tiller is still going strong. I assume their log-splitters have followed the same pattern.

[sawmilllawyer]

Engineer, my brother and I bought our splitter at a farm auction for about 1/3 of new price. Just a suggestion. Why rent if you can find a deal and buy? The convenience of splittiing wood when you decide you want to is worth it. Besides in one hour working steady I can split a heap of wood and burn a quart+ of gasoline.