ROUSTABOUT
Elite Member
- Joined
- Jan 30, 2008
- Messages
- 3,186
- Location
- Luther Willis Hill, AR
- Tractor
- Pettibone, Ford, Massey Ferguson, International, JD, David Bradley, home mades
I've seen V8 car engines picked up with boat trailer winches.
I'll ask the obvious question...Why not use a hydraulic log loader? I put one on my splitter and it lifts 24" long logs, some of which are over 30" in diameter, without effort. Plus it makes a nice "table" to place smaller stuff on so it is easy to reach to load into the splitter.
You already have the hydraulics, so all that is needed is a valve, a relatively small cylinder, and some fabrication to make the lift.
What really helped my back was adding some trailer jacks to my splitter this year that allow me to raise the entire splitter up to a more comfortable operating height. Because the loader does the heavy lifting it doesn't matter that the splitting table is 3 feet off of the ground.
Don't know what a hydraulic log loader is, but will give it a search. Mean time, if you have some examples, it would help me get a clue.
Usually a hydraulic lift that is hinged on main beam of splitter and when in lowered position is on ground but when raised to allows log to roll into alignment with splitter ram...
One variation as in video below...
I built a large stainless steel "tray" and attached it to my splitter opposite the 'operator position'. Then I'd load up my bucket and place it just beyond the edge of the tray. (just in case it did creep down) As you remove and split wood you can leave a little on the tray and create a space in the bucket for the wood you just split. When the bucket load is split it is already back in the bucket ready for transport to the wood pile.Got a 20 Ton Troy Bilt log splitter, Honda engine, that runs well. Getting more painful to bend and lift and got a lot of wood to split as I clear a wooded area.
While I can tilt the splitter to vertical was thinking to add a hydraulic winch to help drag/lift log sections. Most I have found here so far is about dragging large logs uphill or get machinery unstuck. And most hydraulic winches I've seen are way too big and expensive for my needs.
Ideas?