hydraulic splitter or rapid?

[John Mc]

Tractor Supply used to sell the Speeco version of a flywheel-type splitter.  They were a lot less expensive than the SuperSplit or the DR Products versions... but for a reason.  The Speeco units had a lot of quality control issues: teeth breaking off the rack gear, pinion gear wearing out, both after just a few cords run through it.  TSC quietly discontinued selling it.

The SuperSplit ones are very well built, and seem to last forever.  I've not heard any durability complaints about the DR Products RapidFire splitters, but I have heard a few complaints of splinters of wood getting jammed in the rack and keeping it from returning on occasion (DR's facility is just a few miles from me).

Logrite bases their "Firewoodinator" around the SuperSplit splitter.  They have videos of it in action in their section here on the Forestry Forum.  THey even show it splitting some gnarly wood - a refreshing change from most splitter/processor advertisements that like to show their product splitting White Ash or something similar that splits if you look at it too hard.

If you do go with a flywheel splitter, you DEFINTELY want the feed table option. It saves picking the split pieces back up if you need to resplit them. You just slide them back along the table

[highleadtimber16]

The reason I didn't buy the Rapid is that I would never be able to lift big fir rounds onto the table. My splitter goes vertical and horizontal. I can't complain.