At Home In The Woods

   / At Home In The Woods
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#4,552  
I have gotten to do some firewood cutting and splitting some over the holidays. I have made good use of the the cant hook I bought last year. Rolling the big logs would be a chore without it. I load the pallets as full as possible. If I get too much wood in the pallet, the tractor will do acrobatic tricks. I am considering getting the tractor tires filled with liquid ballast so I can carry more wood in a pallet.

I tried my splitter in vertical orientation for the first time to split a couple of heavy pieces. It's handy for that big heavy pieces but I prefer the horizontal position so I don't have split the wood in a squat position.
 

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   / At Home In The Woods #4,553  
Obed...In your last picture I noticed you have your splitter attached to your lawn tractor....I did that once with mine and threw a rod....the engine was not level and got starved for oil...I never gave it a thought...that is why they have that brace under the tongue on your splitter...You may have had it level but I just mention it as a caution...you don't want to lose an engine....Looks like you have your firewood system set up nice.
 
   / At Home In The Woods #4,554  
Splitting in vertical position... thats why you either sit on a log upturned or get a milk crate like one member on the woodburners forum i frequent. I almost never split horizontal anymore unless i have a second person. Its way easier to pile a pile reach over sitting get the wood and then split it up then chuck it on the pile, and repeat vs standing at the splitter and having to keep picking up the pieces as well as bending over. But i may be taller than you and, therefore it may not bother a shorter persons back as much as me??

Fill your rears your self, its easy and not that expensive. I used winshield washer fluid and a 15 gallon electric sprayer as suggested from this site and my thread on it.
 
   / At Home In The Woods #4,555  
I am considering getting the tractor tires filled with liquid ballast so I can carry more wood in a pallet.

Or just put the backhoe or box blade back on... Though filling the tires is a wise move. I'm sure there's a beet juice dealer nearby...even if these yokels refuse to put a proper dealer locator on their site (said they want to be able to answer questions and all that - hogwash). At least they respond next business day, typically.

Rim Guard - Liquid Tire Ballast Contact Information
 
   / At Home In The Woods
  • Thread Starter
#4,557  
Obed...In your last picture I noticed you have your splitter attached to your lawn tractor....I did that once with mine and threw a rod....the engine was not level and got starved for oil...I never gave it a thought...that is why they have that brace under the tongue on your splitter...You may have had it level but I just mention it as a caution...you don't want to lose an engine....Looks like you have your firewood system set up nice.
Bob,
That's something I never would have thought about. I'll take it into consideration next time I split wood. It is pretty easy to disconnect the splitter from the lawn tractor.
Obed
 
   / At Home In The Woods
  • Thread Starter
#4,558  
Splitting in vertical position... thats why you either sit on a log upturned or get a milk crate like one member on the woodburners forum i frequent. I almost never split horizontal anymore unless i have a second person. Its way easier to pile a pile reach over sitting get the wood and then split it up then chuck it on the pile, and repeat vs standing at the splitter and having to keep picking up the pieces as well as bending over. But i may be taller than you and, therefore it may not bother a shorter persons back as much as me??
I may try that method when I build my round firewood pile since I can just toss the wood in the middle. If I have to stack the wood, I like to split the wood beside the pallet or "wood stack" and immediately stack the wood as I split it. That's one less time I have to bend over and pick up a piece of wood.
Fill your rears your self, its easy and not that expensive. I used winshield washer fluid and a 15 gallon electric sprayer as suggested from this site and my thread on it.
I'll have search the site and find the description of how to do that. Loading the tractor on the trailer and taking it somewhere is a big hassle. It seems that for simple maintenance, it's faster to do the work myself faster than hauling my tractor somewhere and then going back to get it and haul it home.

Unfortunately, I don't really enjoy automative, tractor, lawnmower, and other types of work on things with engines. In college, I had a junker car that needed lots of work to keep it running. So I spent many nights and weekends with a Chilton's repair manual in one hand and a wrench in the other hand. After wiping the sweat out of my eyes working under the hood during the hot sweltering NC summers and banging my knuckles during the winters, I determined that when I could afford it, I wouldn't work on a car again. I still drive junker cars but I pay someone else to fix them now.

Regarding the tractor maintenance, I now choose the route that seems to be the least headache, ie. do the work myself or haul the tractor 20 miles each way to the repair shop.

Obed
 
   / At Home In The Woods
  • Thread Starter
#4,559  
The reason the box blade is not on the tractor for ballast is because that configuration would prevent me from pulling the 5x8 trailer around behind the tractor. MotorSeven fabricated a receiver hitch on his box blade and I am seething with jealousy.
 
   / At Home In The Woods #4,560  
Since I know you don't weld (yet...), I'm sure you could find a local weld shop to weld on a receiver to your BB. Shouldn't cost much or take long. A receiver is $10-20, and prep and weld time should be under 30 min for an experienced shop. Load the BB into the truck, buy a receiver tube, and take them a photo of what you want done (like M7's setup)

It is true that the common small engines can run into trouble if run on too much of a slant as they are just splash lubricated. A slight unlevel condition won't be an issue, and of course make sure the oil level is correct. I have a friend that toasted a motor on an old Troy Bilt tiller that way - working some ground that was on a side slant for too long. I think he found a motor that was pressured lubricated to replace it and solve the problem for good. This is not something to worry about too much, just be aware that level is better, and too much tilt for too long could cause loss of lube and grenade the motor. Set up as level as you reasonably can and go to it. Keep a couple 2x6 blocks handy to prop it up as needed...
 
 
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