Putting my BX1870 to work splitting wood

[SteveNH]

I've had my tractor for a week and have almost 10 hours on it between mowing and splitting wood. I added some fuel just be safe but the gauge read a little under half. even it was close to empty that's still way under a gallon/hour. I run the tractor at ~1800 when I split which seems to be more than enough to run the 11.4 gpm PTO pump and I run the mower at ~3000, I tried 2500 since the manual states to not run WOT until 50 hours but the tall stiff weeds weren't getting cut so good. The dealer said to run it like I stole it. So far I am happy with it.

The small 8x12 shed in the picture fits the tractor and snow blower nicely along with a few other things.

 

[Tractorrr]

That's pretty impressive. Looks like you will have plenty of wood for a while.

 

[sutphenj]

What kind/brand pto splitter is that? What is the average speed? Looks like a nice set up

 

[SteveNH]

What kind/brand pto splitter is that? What is the average speed? Looks like a nice set up

Thanks. I built the splitter myself - so far it has held up decent using it off and on for a few years. I put on a Prince PTO pump, I tried running it off of the tractor hydraulics on my BX-25 but it was slow and I had to run it at a higher throttle. I have a spread sheet at work that I made to calculate the cycle times based on RPM and PTO speed and I'll post the table later on today.

I should have enough wood for the year, that was just one pile and my wood shed is almost full. Less work to do next spring.

Here are the numbers I calculated a few years ago. I probably have a 10-11 second cycle time ~1800 rpm which is fast enough for me. I used a 3.5"x1.5"x18" long cylinder and the pump is 11.4 gpm. Hopefully the formatting comes out OK on my table. if not, the columns are - RPM, PTO, Pump Displacement, Extend (sec), Retract (sec)

Pump Displ. EXTEND (sec) RETRACT (sec)
RPM PTO 5.7 (cu in/rev) 9.62 (sq in) 7.853061224 (sq in)
---------------------------------------------------------------
1200 211 5.206493111 8.638563889 7.051888889
1250 220 5.428571016 8.285168094 6.763402525
1300 229 5.650648921 7.959550134 6.497591946
1350 238 5.872726826 7.658558742 6.251884687
1400 246 6.070129409 7.409499921 6.048571364
1450 255 6.292207314 7.147988159 5.835092375
1500 264 6.514285219 6.904306745 5.636168771
1550 273 6.736363124 6.676692237 5.45036101
1600 282 6.95844103 6.463606314 5.276413318
1650 290 7.155843612 6.285299933 5.130857088
1700 299 7.377921517 6.096110303 4.976416574
1750 308 7.599999422 5.91797721 4.831001804
1800 317 7.822077328 5.749958929 4.693844024
1850 326 8.044155233 5.591217732 4.564259373
1900 335 8.266233138 5.441005912 4.441637479
1950 343 8.46363572 5.314101984 4.338042436
2000 352 8.685713626 5.178230059 4.227126578
2050 361 8.907791531 5.04913291 4.121741151
2100 370 9.129869436 4.926316164 4.021482583
2150 379 9.351947341 4.809332403 3.925985635
2200 387 9.549349924 4.709914679 3.844828309
2250 396 9.771427829 4.602871163 3.757445847
2300 405 9.993505734 4.500585137 3.673947051
2350 414 10.21558364 4.40274633 3.594078637
2400 423 10.43766154 4.309070876 3.517608878
2450 431 10.63506413 4.229088122 3.452316834
2500 440 10.85714203 4.142584047 3.381701263
2550 449 11.07921994 4.059547841 3.313916605
2600 458 11.30129784 3.979775067 3.248795973
2650 467 11.52337575 3.903077046 3.186185344
2700 475 11.72077833 3.837341012 3.132523275
2750 484 11.94285624 3.765985497 3.074273875
2800 493 12.16493414 3.697235255 3.018151228
2850 502 12.38701205 3.630950161 2.964040947
2900 511 12.60908995 3.566999962 2.911836704
2950 519 12.80649253 3.512017304 2.866952901
3000 528 13.02857044 3.452153372 2.818084386
3050 537 13.25064834 3.394296053 2.770853921
3100 546 13.47272625 3.338346118 2.725180505
3150 555 13.69480415 3.284210776 2.680988388
3200 563 13.89220674 3.237543482 2.642892639

 

[wrooster]

Hi Steve,
Would you post some closeup pics of your splitter setup? I am considering a similar project for a similar sized tractor (BX1860) and wanted to see how you handled a few things.
Thanks
wrooster

 

[General Lee]

Steve, great set up. A couple of questions if I may:

How did you get your ROPS to fold down that much? They don't go that far on my 1870

Second, Only if you feel like it LOL, could post a pic of how your steering lines on routed on the left side of the motor? You will have to slide off the engine cowl/surround. I'm curious to see if they run behind a GRAY bracket that supports a motor mount. Mine were and because of that, they ruptured at 20 hours. Just curious how other 1870's are routed.

 

[Tomtint]

FWIW, I have a very nice pto splitter that I used on my BX22. The cycle time as I recall, was 10 seconds or so. It was plenty fast enough for me as I don't think I wanted to work much faster anyway. I no longer burn wood and if someone here wants it 850.00 will take it away.

 

[Ductape]

FWIW, I have a very nice pto splitter that I used on my BX22. The cycle time as I recall, was 10 seconds or so. It was plenty fast enough for me as I don't think I wanted to work much faster anyway. I no longer burn wood and if someone here wants it 850.00 will take it away.

Pics ?

 

[Ductape]

FWIW, I have a very nice pto splitter that I used on my BX22. The cycle time as I recall, was 10 seconds or so. It was plenty fast enough for me as I don't think I wanted to work much faster anyway. I no longer burn wood and if someone here wants it 850.00 will take it away.

Pics ?

 

[ds10]

Steve, great set up. A couple of questions if I may:

How did you get your ROPS to fold down that much? They don't go that far on my 1870

I suspect he may have an 1870-1, the new version, where the ROPS goes straight up without the flare-out. Kubota changed that, and added a fold-over that goes most of the way down. I suspect they took a lot of heat for the ROPS on the original 1870. I bought one of the last 1860s because I didn't want the 1870's ROPS. Very happy with the non-folding ROPS on the 1860, BTW.