3-pt Hitch Log Splitter or Gas standalone?

[KenB2920]

I like my standalone. It was cheap ($900).

I like the fact that my tractor is "free" to assist with the wood splitting. I can use the machine to move rounds closer and bring them to splitter height. I can also use the tractor to move the full pallets of wood. All the while the splitter is working if I have a 2nd person.

I also don't have to worry about swapping 3 point implements. Plus I can take my splitter with me if I want to help a buddy out or split wood off property.

Diesel also costs A LOT more than regular around here. Not to mention that maintaining the little gas motor costs <$10/year for oil and a filter. Maintaining the tractor costs A LOT more.

Agreed 100%

I debated this as well last year.
I like being able to tow it with my quad where the tractor can't go
I like being able to use my tractor to drag out trees while another man is splitting wood
I like being able to tow it out with my tractor, drop it at a location and turn my tractor around and throw the split wood right into the front bucket, this eliminates having to moving the wood yet another time.
I like being able to tow it to a buddies and split wood and they give me a case of beer. I can't just give my tractor out for people to use.

Pro of it on the tractor, yes you can cut at all different heights. If you have a big log just drop the 3pt arms and you won't have to lift it but the height of your I beam. (However my stand alone will also cut vertically so that shoots down that pro)

Nice not having another motor to maintain. Sure, but having just one more engine isn't a big deal to me. Maybe to some it is.

Now you mention hours on the tractor does not matter to you. That's all fine and dandy, hours don't really matter to me either. HOWEVER, I change my oil once a year in the splitter and I split 10 face cord. Hydraulic fluid will be every other year if not every third year. Running up hours on a tractor and speeding up the time frame on oil and hydro fluid will cost you more in the long run. Initially the stand alone will cost a couple hundred more. It will definitely be cheaper in the long run though. Maintenance was my deciding factor.

I received 4 cases of beer last year for the use of my splitter to a couple buddies. That's $60 in beer which brings Down the cost of the splitter in my opinion. Trivial maybe, but still true.

 

[crazyal]

I like the Northern tools splitter with the idle down feature but they don't have any stores around here and shipping would be by freight. Northern doesn't seam to have cheap truck shipping so it was out of the question. Like others I'll skid logs to the wood pile while others will be splitting. Although my stand alone will split both vertical and horizontal but I like using the bucket to lift large rounds to be split. I can split part off and let the large part roll back into the bucket while I continue to dice up the small chunk.

 

[Don87]

I like my standalone splitter also. I can park it anywhere, and if need be......just hook it to the pickup to go to sister's, FIL's, Bil's, or wherever.

 

[likeOwlNotCrow]

KenB2920 - your last point just about seals the deal for me . that's a point i hadn't considered.

thanks to everyone for all the thoughtful replies, advice, and info. i learned a lot and laughed a good bit, too. looks like i'm in the market for a standalone splitter. and possibly and iPad or something for the wife - the toys are leaning ever more heavily in my favor....

 

[crazyal]

Just remember one thing, stand alones are much easier to be borrowed by friends and family.

 

[John_Mc]

Just remember one thing, stand alones are much easier to be borrowed by friends and family.

Is that a pro or a con?

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Just remember one thing, stand alones are much easier to be borrowed by friends and family.

Now that hit the nail on the head, reminds me of the first smoker/cooker we built, put a 2" ball on it to tow it with, got to where I had to hunt it anytime we wanted to use it, cut the trailer coupler off the tongue and installed a pintle hitch, now I know right where it is anytime we want to use it.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Is that a pro or a con?

Depends on your friends and family Of course friends with enough ambition to split their own wood are usually pretty good friends. The ones that want you to come bring the splitter and do more then half the work I can do without.

 

[spruce Deere]

hey guys,

i'm new to the forum, and have seen a few threads that discuss this topic, but none that are specific to it - so i apologize in advance if this is a duplicate post...

i'm trying to decide between buying a 3-pt hitch log splitter or a gas splitter. we heat our home with a woodstove, so CSS wood is a weekly thing around here, and i've got the back to show for it. so i need to lay down the maul and add some equipment to the arsenal. we have 20 acres and i'd be doing 75% of my splitting on the property. the rest would be helping out my aging dad and getting together to get wood with friends at their places. i get the utility of a 3-pt splitter - it goes where me and the 4400 go in the woods, i can raise and lower it to work on uneven terrain, it's one less gas motor to deal with (in addition to the 0-turn mower, trimmer, tiller, couple of chainsaws, couple of leaf blowers, generator...). but if i want to split wood somewhere else where the tractor isn't, suddenly i need a trailer for the tractor, and all that comes with that..

so what i'm hoping for are anyone's opinions on the pros/cons of the two, and hopefully those who have at one point or another owned both and what they think.

thanks in advance
-jc

I am Look'n at splitters also lately..... looked at both 3pt types mostly do to pricing, and gas splitters. I am really leaning toward a gas powered splitter. Splitter mobility and not tie'n up the tractor has got more votes thus far.

I burn wood as a main source of heat and I have come to terms that I am getting older...... I could get more done faster if a splitter is implemented and if a splitter is implemented, It will not matter if the wood is green, notty or burled or not, it WILL be split.

A splitter plus the help of a tractor would save ALOT of abuse from my back, and I have an endless supply of green wood at my whim... More than good seasoned wood. Green wood is heavy when handled by hand, typically harder to split compared to nice, dead, cracked stuff. both activities become just lever-pull labor with a tractor and splitter.

That DR rapidfire splitter sure looks nice.... also like the options of the hydro splitters offer horizontal/vertical or the log lift option, not to mention the 4-way split wedge too.

 

[likeOwlNotCrow]

i'm of a similar mind. i figure i can fill the FEL with cut logs to split and raise it to splitter height. no need to bend over and pick them up again. and i really like the idea of the horizontal/vertical ones for those monsters that can just be rolled into place rather than lifted.