Firewood - Wood Splitter - Not Tractor Attached - Whats best?

[Sheldon Hamblin]

Rugged Made | Rugged Made
I've had others, but none as powerful as this. It is heavy enough to require a tractor to move it any distance (a garden tractor will do fine)

 

[Garandman]

They are ONLY faster if you compare them to a cheapo splitter that won't allow a 4-way wedge, AND you have fairly easy to split wood.

Put on some bigger knotty crotch wood, and my Timber Wolf splitter will easily win the speed race against a kinetic splitter every time!

I wanted a splitter that would easily split EVERYTHING and I got it...

SR

Yup, for the 1 in 100 pieces you have to split, a big hydraulic is faster: at 3X the price for something big enough for a 4 way wedge. I'll bet $100 you have never used a KE splitter: they are 4-6 times faster for the other 99 pieces.

It made absolutely no sense to me to buy a splitter that would take 4X the time to split the wood, just in case I found a gnarly stump.

That said, as others have mentioned, having both would be ideal. I've got a 30" Hemlock butt that I can barely lift with the tractor. I split this up, no problem, think it's about 18-20" diameter tree. It was one of the first pieces I tried, to see if it would work, because DR has a flexible return policy. And as KiwiBro said, get the table no matter what.

 

[dmccarty]

David, where these oak trees that were cut down so that you are only left with oak tops?

I would go look at those tops real careful. If these are oaks, you are left with the narly, forked, hard to split wood. I have a TSC/Speeco hydraulic splitter I connect to the tractor, I think 22/35 ton, and while it will split the knarly wood it can take some time and repositioning. Are the limbs think enough and worth splitting? Smaller limbs will rot pretty quick and splitting them can be interesting.

You might want to rent a splitter and see how it works with the wood you have to process.

Ironically, I have not used the hydraulic splitter in years. :shocked: Instead, I have been using a Fiskar axe/maul to split the 3-5 cords we burn each year. If I have straight wood I can split faster than the hydraulic splitter but the machine beats me with narly wood. I just bang on narly wood until it splits or I give it. I need the exercise and I have burned as much as 500-600 calories an hour using the Fiskar. Though, you would not know that from my stomach size, which I prefer to call my Survival Pouch but which the kids call FAT! :shocked:

Later,
Dan

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Yup, for the 1 in 100 pieces you have to split, a big hydraulic is faster: at 3X the price for something big enough for a 4 way wedge. I'll bet $100 you have never used a KE splitter: they are 4-6 times faster for the other 99 pieces.

It made absolutely no sense to me to buy a splitter that would take 4X the time to split the wood, just in case I found a gnarly stump.

That said, as others have mentioned, having both would be ideal. I've got a 30" Hemlock butt that I can barely lift with the tractor. I split this up, no problem, think it's about 18-20" diameter tree. It was one of the first pieces I tried, to see if it would work, because DR has a flexible return policy. And as KiwiBro said, get the table no matter what.

I'll take that bet!! I've run a Super Split more than once.....so would you like me to PM you my mail addy??? Now I suppose you will try to weasel out and say it was a dollar bet, instead of a hundred dollar bet! lol lol

Like I already said, the GOOD logs go to my BSM, I refuse to be wasteful, splitting the good stuff to burn it... And as my Timber Wolf will push EVERYTHING through it's 4-way, there's no way the KE splitter is "4 to 6" times faster... Check this out at about 3:30 sec in,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RaJ_QpnOY9k

A couple times through my TW and I would have had that one all split... Ooooh, and my Timber Wolf wasn't three times the price of the SS HD I used either.... You really need to get your facts straight BEFORE you post them! lol

SR

 

[KiwiBro]

It made absolutely no sense to me to buy a splitter that would take 4X the time to split the wood, just in case I found a gnarly stump.

Horses for courses. If don't see much ugly stuff, or can afford to pass on it, then a kinetic splitter is the ducks nuts, given the budget we are working to in this thread.

That said, if lots of uglies or really difficult wood, or just don't fancy having a 'leave pile' of uglies not worth the time of day to split, then a hydraulic would be the go. There are some fantastic ones I would suggest if the OP's budget could be increased to around the $5k mark.

I also don't want to give the wrong impression that kinetics can't handle ugly wood. They, with a good operator, can split anything you can put on the table, but often it's a real PITA and takes multiple hits and tiring wrangling of wood back to the knife to be resplit down to smaller sizes. There are mods to help in that regard, but if I had lots of uglies I had to split rather than leave or re-purpose, I'd choose a good hydraulic (new or used) if money were no object.

But, under $3k and already owning a chainsaw, a kinetic is hard to beat.

Also, even though it was an early picture and you have probably worked this out by now, in case others haven't, try splitting up the tree, not down it, i.e. turn that round around so the top of the tree is facing the operator and the bottom of the tree is facing the knife. Not always possible, but for these types of knives, it generally takes less effort and leaves a cleaner split and less trash wood.

I'll take that bet!!

I believe someone owes you $100.

As for what's most productive, there's lots of variable here. Final split sizes needed, size of rounds, etc. A case could be built for either and both splitter types in certain situations.

If money no object, lots of variable wood (think arborist cast-offs or general bigguns nobody else wants to mess with, or uglies as value added firewood operation alongside a mill), I'd be buying a monster hydraulic and pushing rounds through a box wedge. No re-splits, but a ton of scrap wood to deal with.

 

[Pilot]

Look over a splitter carefully before you buy and consider the ergonomics. Can you get to the work area with a heavy log in hand without having to work around an engine, fenders or other junk too many manufacturers put in the work area. And can you easily reach the valve from either side? Most have it reachable from one side only. Do you care if the manufacturer requires you to work from the side he selects, or do you want to be able to work from either side? A good example of poor design is the Cub Cadet. OTOH, Ariens is much better & you can see both at HD. I don't necessarily recommend an Ariens, but for ergonomics it's one of the best. I bought an Ariens 22 ton and returned it--HD was very good about this. It was too wimpy & I exchanged it for a 27 ton unit. I split Douglas-fir, up to about 28 inches in diameter with knots up to 4"+ and the 22 tonner couldn't handle them. The 27 ton is a little better. Around here, the only other real choices are the DHT which I didn't like real well, the Speeco which I didn't like the valve location but was otherwise probably a good unit, & the Rugged which is over budget & has an engine brand I never heard of. Of course there is also the HF, but I won't buy expensive machinery from HF.

 

[Garandman]

I'll take that bet!! I've run a Super Split more than once.....so would you like me to PM you my mail addy??? Now I suppose you will try to weasel out and say it was a dollar bet, instead of a hundred dollar bet! lol lol

Like I already said, the GOOD logs go to my BSM, I refuse to be wasteful, splitting the good stuff to burn it... And as my Timber Wolf will push EVERYTHING through it's 4-way, there's no way the KE splitter is "4 to 6" times faster... Check this out at about 3:30 sec in,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RaJ_QpnOY9k

A couple times through my TW and I would have had that one all split... Ooooh, and my Timber Wolf wasn't three times the price of the SS HD I used either.... You really need to get your facts straight BEFORE you post them! lol

SR

So I should simply accept your "internet word?" PM the pictures along with your address....

What model and how much did your Timberwolf with four way head cost? Clever design and they seem to be a well made machine. But fastest cycle time is listed as 9 seconds.

SuperSplit (KE) vs. TW thread on hearth

Best comment: "You must be young and dumb. I buy firewood."

 

[BLUE ME]

I have this model and works great.
Wallenstein WX500 Series Wood Splitter Trailer Series - Wallenstein Outdoor Power Equipment Made in Canada

 

[KubotaToy]

I think most of the folks hit the key points but I will add that if you are splitting for production (using the wood for heating your house) and need to split a lot by yourself, get the biggest your funds can get. I was splitting a lot of oak and hickory and started out with a 22 ton and ended up with a 45 ton with a lift to save my back. I would compare the difference as cutting 1" rebar with a hacksaw and cutting 1" rebar with a bandsaw.

Just my $.02 not adjusted for inflation.

 

[dmccarty]

Ergonomics.

Most/Many wood splitters require you to bend over to split the wood which gets old FAST. Make sure you get a splitter than allows you to work standing up.

I bought a TSC/SpeeCo hydraulic splitter to run off the tractor. I built a table out of PT lumber that holds the splitter. The table allows me to easily roll rounds up to the table using T Posts and the table makes it easy to move the rounds around to split and to preposition a bunch of wood to split. Since it is hydraulic powered I just back the tractor up to the splitter and hook up the hoses. Easy peasy. I move around the table with the FEL pallet forks.

The table allows me to work standing up and the only time I have to bend over is to pick up wood to be split and to stack the split wood. Standing up while splitting will allow you to work longer compared to bending over all day.

Later,
Dan