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

[gwiley]

I burn 10 cords each year and it is all split with a 22 ton Speeco from TSC. Great splitter. I have wrestled rounds up to it that were well over 24" diameter - the only thing that ever stopped it was a mean white oak crotch that I knew better than to even bother with.

 

[LD1]

Everyone has preferences.

IN a case where you only use a splitter to split nasty pieces and crotch pieces because all the prime stuff is for other than firewood, then yea, I imagine a hydraulic would be the way to go.

But I would guess 90%+ of us that split firewood, those nasty pieces comprise a very small portion of what we actually split. Cutting tree tops, clearing fence rows, storm cleanup, etc all has some quite nice wood that is pretty quick to split with a kinetic design.

A fairer comparison for a shoot-out would have been to pretty much just pick a few similar trees. And split the whole tree. I personally dont like 4-way or 6-way wedges. Always seems to create a larger pile of waste when done, or pieces that are too small or too large. Just hard to get right. In a production environment or on a processor, I am sure the added waste is acceptable for the speed gain. But for 1 guy working a splitter, I prefer without a 4-way

 

[Garandman]

Everyone has preferences.

IN a case where you only use a splitter to split nasty pieces and crotch pieces because all the prime stuff is for other than firewood, then yea, I imagine a hydraulic would be the way to go.

But I would guess 90%+ of us that split firewood, those nasty pieces comprise a very small portion of what we actually split. Cutting tree tops, clearing fence rows, storm cleanup, etc all has some quite nice wood that is pretty quick to split with a kinetic design.//

I just did 100 some-odd splits and only had a couple I had to double-hit.

We have Ash, Birch, Oak and Maple for hardwoods and some big Hemlocks. I'm sure some people have much more ornery species.

 

[Scooby074]

For an off the shelf model, no question, a Splitfire 3255. ITs what all the rental shops offer here. If it can take a rental user it can take anything lol.
Manufacturers of high quality, custom engineered wood splitters, log splitters and wood chippers. | Split-Fire Sales Inc. Quality Built. High Performance. | Split-Fire - Your Best Choice

 

[s219]

I just did 100 some-odd splits and only had a couple I had to double-hit.

We have Ash, Birch, Oak and Maple for hardwoods and some big Hemlocks. I'm sure some people have much more ornery species.

I can send you some Gum that will make you want to tear your hair out. That stuff defies any type of splitter. Luckily, if you mill it, stack, and season properly, it makes awesome looking stair treads:

 

[David P]

I can send you some Gum that will make you want to tear your hair out. That stuff defies any type of splitter. Luckily, if you mill it, stack, and season properly, it makes awesome looking stair treads:

View attachment 428136

That's purrdy!

 

[dave1949]

I can send you some Gum that will make you want to tear your hair out. That stuff defies any type of splitter. Luckily, if you mill it, stack, and season properly, it makes awesome looking stair treads:

View attachment 428136

That's nice wood. Always wondered what gum looks like.

 

[CalG]

I can send you the link to the magazine download ($3) which provides the results etc but nothing else is available. I found a short YouTube clip of a tw-5 v ss but its not the firewood shootout I referred to. I believe in the YouTube clip the guy uses a 4-way wedge and in the competition they were using a 6-way adjustable. I'll send you the link later as I'm on my mobile.

I'm not knocking timberwolf just refuting the claim about super splitters.

Edited to add: search YouTube for a guy running a ss with a wedge. Pretty neat.

Link to a comparison video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNHIXuqHJUM

 

[Sawyer Rob]

aaaaaaw SS owners love to post that vid BUT, comparing a SS WITH a table, to a TW WITHOUT a table, makes for a huge stacked deck for the SS... Especially, with easy to split wood...

SR

 

[Marveltone]

A little off topic, but I find it terribly ironic (and a bit comical) that the people who live in southern climates have the milder winters, but have access to the biggest, heaviest, hardest, highest BTU trees, therefore, needing the bigger, tougher splitters. Meanwhile, up in northern Minnesota and Canada, we have long periods of below zero winters, but have to heat with these mild burning, spindly, stunted excuses for trees. We (or, at least, I) can easily get along with 22-ton machines.

Anyone else notice this? :confused3:

 

[David P]

Link to a comparison video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNHIXuqHJUM

That's the video I was referring to but not the shootout for the magazine. I'm not going to copy/paste from the article but I will post the results.

Time was how long each splitter took to split 1.5 ricks (one rick is a 12 foot by 4 foot of 16 inch long firewood)

Timberwolf TW5FC 44 minutes, 13 seconds (2.0 ricks/hour)

Super Split HD 30 minutes, 49 seconds (2.9 ricks/hour)

The TW has a 6-second cycle time, a work table and used a 6-way wedge.

Link to sawmillmag: https://www.sawmillmag.com/app/home/index See "back issues" and look for the Oct/Nov 2009 issue

 

[Garandman]

aaaaaaw SS owners love to post that vid BUT, comparing a SS WITH a table, to a TW WITHOUT a table, makes for a huge stacked deck for the SS... Especially, with easy to split wood...

I agree. Life is to short to split wood without a table. I'd recommend it for any splitter. A lifter would be nice for big pieces but I use the tractor bucket, and a wheelbarrow.

Again, if you focus on the 1-10% toughest-to-split pieces on your lot, you are going to wind up with a hydraulic, with a cycle time of 9-15 seconds. And if you focus on the 90-99% of the "normal" wood, you're going to buy a KE with a cycle time of 2-4 seconds. We've got plenty of wood so I ignore the stumps and crotches.

 

[s219]

Anyone else notice this? :confused3:

Yeah, ironic, isn't it!!

 

[s219]

Again, if you focus on the 1-10% toughest-to-split pieces on your lot, you are going to wind up with a hydraulic, with a cycle time of 9-15 seconds. And if you focus on the 90-99% of the "normal" wood, you're going to buy a KE with a cycle time of 2-4 seconds. We've got plenty of wood so I ignore the stumps and crotches.

In the past I would just noodle crotches with my saw. But recently I had a lot of white oak to split, and it had a ton of burls/knobs along the entire tree. Every round was a challenge, almost like every one was a crotch.

 

[dave1949]

A little off topic, but I find it terribly ironic (and a bit comical) that the people who live in southern climates have the milder winters, but have access to the biggest, heaviest, hardest, highest BTU trees, therefore, needing the bigger, tougher splitters. Meanwhile, up in northern Minnesota and Canada, we have long periods of below zero winters, but have to heat with these mild burning, spindly, stunted excuses for trees. We (or, at least, I) can easily get along with 22-ton machines.

Anyone else notice this? :confused3:

From the comments and videos I'm sure I could get along well with a Super Split or 22 ton hydraulic splitter. Trees take a long time in the northern states to reach any size and they usually don't get it. I cull junk and release trees and use quite a bit of limb wood too. None of it is big diameter stuff. Over 12" dbh would be unusual.

 

[Garandman]

A little off topic, but I find it terribly ironic (and a bit comical) that the people who live in southern climates have the milder winters, but have access to the biggest, heaviest, hardest, highest BTU trees, therefore, needing the bigger, tougher splitters. Meanwhile, up in northern Minnesota and Canada, we have long periods of below zero winters, but have to heat with these mild burning, spindly, stunted excuses for trees.

Population density and the need to keep warm...

When I was stationed in Germany we hated to take tracked vehicles though their "forests" as there were multiple sets of stumps that would pop a track pin when turning. Our lot in NH has two sets of stumps and was partially logged in the 50's and again in the 80's.

We burn almost all hardwoods and the Ash, Paper Birch, Red Oak and Sugar Maple is all good to excellent. We also burn a little Hemlock and it burns fast and well, with little ash, no coals and less heat. But folks in the high plains happily burn it because that's what they have . Heat output is pretty directly proportional to mass.

Waaaay off topic, but the USS Constitution used Live Oak in construction. This was very hard wood, but there is more to her nickname of Old Ironsides.

An American Naval Strategist named Mahan made the point that the US Navy would have to operate as raiders: they were going to have to win one-on-one battles on the high seas, but run from large British fleets. So Constitution and her sister ships were larger, with heavier guns and framework than most British Frigates. She was faster than the largest British ships, which wee heavily armed to provide firepower in fleet actions. So that was part of her success.

There were several other advances that were Top Secret in the day. Her masts were made in sections, so that of one was shot up it could be replaced: the Brits used whole tree sections. Constitution also had a set of longitudinal stringers which prevented "hogging." This latter technology was only discovered in her last rebuild in the 1990's. She is in drydock as we speak and will not make her usual July 4th turn-around this year.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Again, if you focus on the 1-10% toughest-to-split pieces on your lot, you are going to wind up with a hydraulic, with a cycle time of 9-15 seconds. And if you focus on the 90-99% of the "normal" wood, you're going to buy a KE with a cycle time of 2-4 seconds. We've got plenty of wood so I ignore the stumps and crotches.

And again, every 9 sec or less, I get FOUR splits, not just ONE...

SR

 

[Garandman]

And again, every 9 sec or less, I get FOUR splits, not just ONE...

And the price of that unit is?

And do they sell the add on head separately? No reason I couldn't use it on a KE for what we are splitting. Seems like a worthwhile add-on.

How do you adjust the height for different-sized rounds?

 

[Sawyer Rob]

And the price of that unit is?

And do they sell the add on head separately? No reason I couldn't use it on a KE for what we are splitting. Seems like a worthwhile add-on.

How do you adjust the height for different-sized rounds?

I paid $3,500.00 for mine and it INCLUDED the 4-way wedge and table grate... As I remember, a SS HD was around $3,000.00

Optional, I could have got the hydraulic option that allows you to adjust the height of the 4-way... After looking a 4-way over, I could see that it has two heights built in, and that was all I needed to get the size splits I wanted.

You put a TW 4-way on your bam bam and you will need a new rack and pinion in pretty short order... lol

SR

 

[David P]

And again, every 9 sec or less, I get FOUR splits, not just ONE...

SR

Wouldn't that be every 18 seconds? (cycle time is 9 seconds to fully extend the ram and another 9 to retract it)