hydraulic splitter or rapid?

[bullet20]

who here has used the newer rapid splitters by speeco or   dr   ?  ive seen some impressive video's out there. worth it or not?  im also curious on how tough the pinion gears are? issues?

[Al_Smith]

Well just how fast can you stack wood? Some of those rapid splits can really split wood  but if you fed that thing for an hour at top speed most people would be panting like a hound that gave chase to a fox for two miles flat  out .

[bullet20]

that's what in hearing  or seeing on the ole you tube lol.  there are none of these units around these hills yet .

[thecfarm]

Depends on what size wood you split too. I split ALOT of big wood. Like 2 feet and even 3 feet across. With the Rapid one,I would have to lift the wood up split it,then lift up each half,split that and maybe lift them again. With a hyd splitter,most will split vertical. I just find it easier in the vertical.I have split a few good size pieces hortizatal and I did not like one half falling off. No way to control the fall.
If power is close by see if you can get an electric motor. Nice and quiet. I saw an electric one at a show. seemed odd,no noise but it was a splitting.

[Dusty Rhodes]

while I have never used the rapid split splitters I am with Thecfarm on this.  I split more in the vertical mode than horizontal.  also usually splitting by myself so split wood goes right to the wheelbarrow and then wood pile or into the bucket of the tractor and to the woodshed.  Guess if I was splitting smaller wood and had a crew to help out I might think differently.

[Holmes]

If you want to split wood quickly then the flywheel splitter is the way to go.  If you buy a Supersplitter or Logrite splitter you will get a great piece of equipment.  The dr and speeco might be chinese knockoffs and you will get what you pay for.  tractor supply sold a unit like the speeco a few years ago , they were junk. Pinion gears would  last a few pieces of wood then the gears would shear off.

[angelo c]

who here has used the newer rapid splitters by speeco or   dr   ?  ive seen some impressive video's out there. worth it or not?  im also curious on how tough the pinion gears are? issues?

I run a 20+ year old Super split. Replaced the pinion last year for the first time in i guess about 1300 hours. Cost about $90 including shipping. I looked at many different splitter options and have run many others..the SS is hard to beat. If its too big to lift the round it gets wedged in half then split. Gallon of gas runs about 3 cords. Holy jeepers is it cheap to run and maintain. Best of luck.

[Buck]

I've produced firewood for 30 plus years. Two years I bought a Supersplit. Very Good(and fast)!

[Yatt]

I have seen the videos and supersplits are impressive.

How does it do on really large hickory that is string?  I often have to run the ram all the way through the round, and then turn over and do again to break all the "strings". 

On a real large round of oak with a 12" limb in the middle can a SS do it?  The hydro splitter ends up just cutting through enough fiber until it breaks.

[Al_Smith]

I think those inertia splitters just keep pounding on it until it goes through or something breaks .

Some of the  vids some taken in Southern Ohio at the Guernsey county fair grounds show about 3 young strong farm boys in their early 20's putting wood through those things at some remarkable pace .--but only for a few minutes.They couldn't keep that pace up very long . Maybe if they tag teamed it with a half dozen more so they could rest .Now just how much time would that save ?

[Holmes]

At least with the inertia splitter you can choose the speed you want to work, fast or slow.

[Al_Smith]

True and a valid point also .It's a Ford /Chevy thing .Some swear by inertial splitters and some swear at them .Myself I'm tickled pink with my homemade hydraulic unit .It certainly is a break from swinging an axe . I might get tired but that thing doesn't need a break now and again .I get a drink of water it gets a drink of gasoline to sustain it .

[Roger2561]

who here has used the newer rapid splitters by speeco or   dr   ?  ive seen some impressive video's out there. worth it or not?  im also curious on how tough the pinion gears are? issues?

I run a 20+ year old Super split. Replaced the pinion last year for the first time in i guess about 1300 hours. Cost about $90 including shipping. I looked at many different splitter options and have run many others..the SS is hard to beat. If its too big to lift the round it gets wedged in half then split. Gallon of gas runs about 3 cords. Holy jeepers is it cheap to run and maintain. Best of luck.

Do you know how well they work on wood such as Elm which is all twisted with the fibers going in no particular order, or rock maple (I get a lot of this from my supplier) beech which is full of knots, etc...?  Everything I split is 2ft long.  Would it handle that okay?  My Cub Cadet 37 Ton horizontal/vertical splitter works great but I trying to speed up my operation a bit.  I cut and split for myself but I live alone and time is in short supply at times.  Thanks, Roger

[r.man]

If you were able to find a dealer within range you could take a sampling of blocks to try out. That would let you know. Company I do work for sent a container of logs to a processor manufacturer to see how well it would work on a cross sample of what they deal with. The only way to know for sure before you buy.

[Oliver1655]

Rodger, It may seem like a step backwards, but if you dropped down from a 5" cylinder to a 4" cylinder using 2" rods & 2,500 psi, you would go from a 14 sec cycle time to a 9 second cycle time.  I use a a 4" with a 4-way wedge 95% of the time.  I can remove the 4-way option to split the really gnarly pieces.  It is rare I have one that doesn't split. (Elm, pecan, hedge, ...)

On the question of stringy wood, I made my 4-way 16" tall & bolted a block of wood with a groove where the vertical wedge edge goes so the round is pushed completely past this edge.  This took care of most of my string problems.

[Holmes]

Roger2561 I will try to cut some elm this weekend and see how my 1 hp electric supersplitter works on it. This could be a fun experiment.  Stay tuned... 8)

[r.man]

I am assuming you are burning in a OWB. A friend of mine had a Dahl and now has a Heatmor. It has been his habit to not split any wood. Both had big doorways and I have known him to lop off a bit from a big piece to get it through the door but if you ordered a load of wood with the stipulation of no large logs you could stop splitting altogether with a large furnace. How's your back?

[Oliver1655]

Even if the round will fit in the door of my stove, I would still split it so it could dry much faster.  I have seen oak rounds which were split 3 years after being bucked to 16" & they were still wet in side.  I like burning dry wood.

[sawguy21]

I worked in a rental yard that had a Gripo, similar if not identical to the Supersplit. It worked reasonably well, certainly fast, but there were a couple of issues. It had a series of small bearings on the ram that rode up against the underside of the beam lip when the pinion engaged the rack. Those bearings didn't last long. The operator also had to keep the beam free of pitch so the ram would fully retract on it's own. Spraying the beam with Pam helped.

[Philbert]

If you are burning stove size wood (16") you might also want to look at the 2-way splitters. Deceptively simple; they split in both directions, so your cycle time is cut in half.

northern toolhttps://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?action=position"> Note:Please read the Forestry Forum's postion on this company sells one, Split Fire sells one, there may be others.

I ran one and was very impressed.

Philbert

[Oliver1655]

A 2 way splitter splitter like the Tempest where the splits are pushed away from the operator onto out feed tables I could see using. However any splitter which drops the splits on the ground at my feet just isn't an option to me.

[Philbert]

Yeah, on most any splitter (except maybe a firewood processor) you want a table. On the one I used, there were tables on each side where I could slide large splits to the other side for second splits, if needed.

Again, these were for stove sized wood, but we got pretty good sized rounds through using a flat bed trailer as an in-feed table.

Philbert

[r.man]

The logrite one has the splitter on a decent sized flat trailer with a place to cut on one side. Looks like a good way to do it. Nothing drops no matter what until you throw it off.

[Holmes]

I just cut down an 9" elm and put 12 pieces of it thru my supersplitter . All but 1 piece split with 1 attempt.  I had to hit a knotty 1 twice

[thecfarm]

You might of hit one twice,but I bet you did it still quicker than my hyd splitter.     I've only seen them supersplitters at the logrite and  supersplitter booth. Those things are fast.