ATV for moving firewood around the yard?

An atv would work great especially if it has 4 wheel drive. There are people on here that use their riding mowers for the same thing.

 

Can we get a write up on your log lifter that is attached to your splitter? I sure could use something like that. More pics too, please!

 

Sure. I never took any comprehensive pictures but the build itself isn’t that difficult if you have a welder.
One caveat, or more, to that. My ATV came with a front hitch mount. Most don’t that I’m aware of.
Basically I used two boat trailer bow rollers as wheels to get the Synthetic winch line above the splitter.
Started with the standard stiff black rubber rollers straight from Napa. Didn’t last too long before the line cut through. Switched to the super hard yellow rollers from Amazon. Much better.
The pipe has been rebuilt. I found for reasons I’ll never understand that pipe is subject to much greater forces than I would ever expect. It’s gotta be ten times stronger than you might think. Don’t know why. Much depends if a round gets jammed between splitter and tire and you try to power it out. 3500# winch will tweak that pipe fast if your not paying attention. It’s beyond beefy now.
I started with both log dogs hammered in and tongs. Liked the dogs at first. Eventually switched back to the tongs. Faster and easier once you smarten up and don’t leave them hanging in front of your face . Now I lift and drop and move the tong out to the next round before I split. Keeps the tong and rope out of my way.

The bad: Connecting a spare 12V deep cell battery to the atv electrical system wasn’t easy. That’s what the dealer told me anyway. Took them three days of fudging to get everything working the way I wanted it. Supposedly atv electrical systems are a hodgepodge of + and - systems molded together. If you’ve ever tried to disable all the safety switches ona sit down lawnmower you may know what I’m talking about.
Luckily they didn’t charge me for all the labor. They were too embarrassed about what I thought was a simple job too charge me a ton of money.
Also the Polaris wireless winch control has been a nightmare. Hate it hate it hate it. Almost brought it back and got a wired controller installed,,,,,,if they let it in the door LOL
Wireless is nice but that particular remote is terrible.
Now that they remote has been broken and held together with zip ties it’s working better. Also switching from Duracell’s to Energizer battery’s seems to have helped a lot.
I would try a cheap Chinese wireless remote system before I ever would recommend the expensive Polaris model.

All in all I like it. It’s not often I need to revamp my designs but even with that I’m fairly dependent on it. I doubt I’d be doing firewood without it.
Any questions just holler.

 

I can see that...probably wanted to bend right at the top of the splitters base plate...the force on it there would be tremendous!
Slick setup!

 

Your right. I used pipes like that for years in masonry on scaffolding. But that force was exerted more straight up and down. This pulls down and sideways. Two different worlds. It might have been ok until I geeked it once. Bent it back but it was only a matter of time after that.
I also had a few rounds that split and went over the top of the foot while splitting. While using the fourway the top of the round went over. Pushed against the pipe with splitting force. Makes a mess fast.
That and I have a sneaking suspicion black water pipe is no longer as strong as it once was LOL

 

Slick setup. Thanks for the info. I may have to do something like that at some point!

 

When you swing sideways to pick a round off the ground, how do you keep your crane from swinging back parallel with the splitter beam, which would probably cause the round to be basically drug up the side of the splitter?

 

I bought my Sportsman 500 while my wife was in Florida with the boys visiting her parents. I found the whole process easier that way.
I knew in the long run she would agree it was the right decision.

 

It’s welded solid in a half and half position. On a big round I pull out with a few pounds of pressure to clear the beam. Mostly to make sure it doesn’t get jammed between the beam and tire. Then push it over the beam with a few more pounds of pressure. Works well. I’ve considered welding a few round pipes under the sharp edges of the beam too allow the tongs and rounds a better chance of sliding past. Havent done it yet. Last time I had the welder fired up I did tack a few tiny pieces of half rounds to the tongs themselves. Just that 1/8” projection from the tips on the outside caused a lot of catching.
By sideways I meant pulling towards the ATV/winch.

 

Hilarious
Is the long run over yet? LOL

 

I think it is as far as having the equipment, she’s on board. Not quite there yet on the tact. It’s only been 9 years!

 

I use a 2003 Yamaha Wolverine for wood hauling duties. It's a half sport, half utility machine. It's a 350cc single with a 5 speed semi auto. Has a super low first gear and reverse. It'll top out at maybe 45-50mph with a tailwind. I used to do a lot of ridding back in the day. Now, it's mostly for firewood hauling. Works well! At this point, it's hard to justify getting anything newer. I would like something with an automatic and IRS. But given how much I use it, I can't justify the expense.

 

We bought a Rhino Yamaha new in 2007, it has just under 7600 miles on it with it getting an oil change and grease yearly. It is still going strong so if you can find a good deal, do it. Ours has been kept in the garage since we bought it.

 

Been using my Suzuki 300 King Quad in 4wd low range with a log arch we built to get the tops out that were left in an area they select cut. Lots of good oak, hickory, maple and cherry that would have gone to waste otherwise.
I can’t get pics to load lately, keeps telling me it’s a security reason. I only use my phone so guess I ain’t posting pics. It works on the other site.

 

Resize your pics. If it's over 9 mb or so, you'll get that"security warning"

 

Since I am technologically inept if someone can explain how to do that then I’ll try it.

 

What phone do you have, is it newer? You can literally screen shot the picture, and get rid of extraneous pixels and megabytes by doing this. I do it all the time, otherwise a lot of my pics will say the same error.

 

Tried a screen shot. Thanks. Way better than nothing.

 

Next, hit the edit button to crop everything but the picture you want, out.