cwarrix
Silver Member
I hope this is the right forum, my splitter is not really a tractor attachment, but my question is related to hydraulics, so here goes...
I found a home made log splitter for a decent price, $250 over the summer. It is mounted on an old truck axel and has a hitch to tow it with. They used an 18HP lawn tractor (at least the front half) as a power unit. The pump is under the motor and connects directly to the shaft with no belts, etc. I mounted a different (safer and larger) fuel tank that I had left over from an old pontoon boat and was able to get it running in short time. Oh, had to add a new battery as well for the electric start.
I was able to split about 1.5 cords of wood, over a couple of days, and it started spitting hydraulic fluid out of the fill hole in the tank. The guy told me there was supposed to be a vent cap there? Anyway, I didn't seal it up and just stuck a plastic cup over the hole to prevent water from entering the tank. Any ideas why it would be doing this? It sprayed fluid out hard enough to knock the cup off and shoot about 10 feet in the air! One other thing... the hyd tank is about 2 gallons, does it need to be bigger to allow the fluid to cool more? I'm not very good with hydraulics so any ideas would be appreciated.
I'll try to snap a couple of pics of this beast tomorrow.
Thanks in advance!
I found a home made log splitter for a decent price, $250 over the summer. It is mounted on an old truck axel and has a hitch to tow it with. They used an 18HP lawn tractor (at least the front half) as a power unit. The pump is under the motor and connects directly to the shaft with no belts, etc. I mounted a different (safer and larger) fuel tank that I had left over from an old pontoon boat and was able to get it running in short time. Oh, had to add a new battery as well for the electric start.
I was able to split about 1.5 cords of wood, over a couple of days, and it started spitting hydraulic fluid out of the fill hole in the tank. The guy told me there was supposed to be a vent cap there? Anyway, I didn't seal it up and just stuck a plastic cup over the hole to prevent water from entering the tank. Any ideas why it would be doing this? It sprayed fluid out hard enough to knock the cup off and shoot about 10 feet in the air! One other thing... the hyd tank is about 2 gallons, does it need to be bigger to allow the fluid to cool more? I'm not very good with hydraulics so any ideas would be appreciated.
I'll try to snap a couple of pics of this beast tomorrow.
Thanks in advance!