OP
mickeyw
Bronze Member
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2012
- Messages
- 64
- Location
- Surrey, UK
- Tractor
- 1987 Renault 68-12, 1981 JD1640, 1973 Ford 3000
Good day everyone. Not so much a thread revival, but a long overdue update and report of the first real functional test.
I seems it's been the best part of two years since I started this build thread, and in that time I have moved home, made a human addition to the family, and changed my wheels. So if you'll excuse me, I haven't had a lot of time on my hands.
Anyway, at the new house we had a tree come down on the neighbouring derelict land, and it heaved a fair bit of our lawn up. Since no one was claiming the tree I didn't want to see it go to waste. It's an Ash measuring 26" diameter at the base. We currently have no use for logs, but I have a couple of friends Barry and Simon that do, so last weekend we decided to have a bit of a play.
Out came a real vintage Stihl 070 saw that went through this timber with ease, and soon we had a pretty big pile of half rings.
Now my splitter has sat under a cover outdoors since we moved, and I haven't had an opportunity to use it since the first run attached to the JD. Now as I've said before, I always wanted to run the splitter from my Landrover, but I have yet to get the hydro kit installed. However my mate Barry who was having some of the logs also has a 1987 Defender 110, with the requisite power source. The hydro pump runs from the back of the truck's transfer case, and provides on board power to the winch, as well as external ports.
This gave the perfect excuse to try the splitter out powered in the way I had always wanted to
After a little trial and testing we found that we had a good operating speed for the wedge with the truck's 2.5 litre turbo diesel engine at idle, and fourth gear selected. Increasing engine to 1500 RPM made a fair difference to wedge speed, but the extra speed and noise seemed unnecessary. One comment Barry made was how pleasantly quiet this setup is compared to his own splitter that is powered by its own noisy petrol engine. No ear defenders needed today.
Video Link of speed comparison
We soon had a good pile of split wood.
Video link of the guys in action. Probably could run a bit faster if I'm honest, but we are amateurs really, and not doing this for a living.
At the end of the afternoon we had a good pile of logs, filling both Defenders and plenty more.
I'm really pleased with how well the machine ran, and how easily it dealt with the job. The piece in the video above was one of the easy bits, but there were a number of knotty and stringy bits that caused us to raise the engine speed for a bit more pressure, but it did the job. Why split all that on a hot day with a maul?
When it had to push hard there was visible deflection in the beam, which given the nature of that type of beam is not really a concern. Nothing seemed to want to twist, and the welds seem to have held up OK.
The next day Barry remembered his dash cam had been running all the time we had been splitting. This is 3.5 hours footage condensed into around 9 minutes. It had me laugh good 'n' proper. I hope you enjoy it too.
Youtube link
I seems it's been the best part of two years since I started this build thread, and in that time I have moved home, made a human addition to the family, and changed my wheels. So if you'll excuse me, I haven't had a lot of time on my hands.
Anyway, at the new house we had a tree come down on the neighbouring derelict land, and it heaved a fair bit of our lawn up. Since no one was claiming the tree I didn't want to see it go to waste. It's an Ash measuring 26" diameter at the base. We currently have no use for logs, but I have a couple of friends Barry and Simon that do, so last weekend we decided to have a bit of a play.
Out came a real vintage Stihl 070 saw that went through this timber with ease, and soon we had a pretty big pile of half rings.
Now my splitter has sat under a cover outdoors since we moved, and I haven't had an opportunity to use it since the first run attached to the JD. Now as I've said before, I always wanted to run the splitter from my Landrover, but I have yet to get the hydro kit installed. However my mate Barry who was having some of the logs also has a 1987 Defender 110, with the requisite power source. The hydro pump runs from the back of the truck's transfer case, and provides on board power to the winch, as well as external ports.
This gave the perfect excuse to try the splitter out powered in the way I had always wanted to
After a little trial and testing we found that we had a good operating speed for the wedge with the truck's 2.5 litre turbo diesel engine at idle, and fourth gear selected. Increasing engine to 1500 RPM made a fair difference to wedge speed, but the extra speed and noise seemed unnecessary. One comment Barry made was how pleasantly quiet this setup is compared to his own splitter that is powered by its own noisy petrol engine. No ear defenders needed today.
Video Link of speed comparison
We soon had a good pile of split wood.
Video link of the guys in action. Probably could run a bit faster if I'm honest, but we are amateurs really, and not doing this for a living.
At the end of the afternoon we had a good pile of logs, filling both Defenders and plenty more.
I'm really pleased with how well the machine ran, and how easily it dealt with the job. The piece in the video above was one of the easy bits, but there were a number of knotty and stringy bits that caused us to raise the engine speed for a bit more pressure, but it did the job. Why split all that on a hot day with a maul?
When it had to push hard there was visible deflection in the beam, which given the nature of that type of beam is not really a concern. Nothing seemed to want to twist, and the welds seem to have held up OK.
The next day Barry remembered his dash cam had been running all the time we had been splitting. This is 3.5 hours footage condensed into around 9 minutes. It had me laugh good 'n' proper. I hope you enjoy it too.
Youtube link
