Have you considered getting the 40 ton with the faster cycle time? It may be worth it in the long run. Its only.........
Being a handsplitter i try to split wood asap especially in warm/hot weather. If the ends check a little a PITA to split. Oak, maple and ash same dead or alive, although living ash is getting rare around here. 95% or more of the wood i scrounge is cut green or was recently cut green and i prefer it that way. The little walnut and mulberry ive scrounged split easy when green. No experience with box elder. Black locust easy green or dead, the latter a tad easier IME.
I definitely considered it. Because clearly, if 25 tons of force is good, 40 tons must be way gooder! LOL. Cycle time adds up exponentially too. I read a lot of reviews, did enough research and I'm confident that what I bought will suit my needs just fine. Most of what I try to scrounge isn't monster wood anyway. I'm not set up for that. I have a small truck, no trailer for it, no winch, small-medium size saws, not a lot of space to store a mountain of monster rounds... I mostly stick to grabbing stuff 24" or smaller. It makes for easy enough work. The 25 ton splits horizontally and tilts up vertically for the stuff too big to lift up there. It made sense for me.
I will not split elm but I will noodle the crap out of it. I have a bunch here right now and will wait for the bark to come off and when it is cold I will try the splitter to see if it makes a difference. I have split some when dry and I do think it is easier, maybe the cold will make it even better. Cottonwood is stringy as all get out. Make sure you have a hatchet handy.
I can tell you apple definitely splits better wet than dry. Oaks I like to let sit long enough so when I split them the bark falls off. Hickory, for me, doesn’t matter. TBH, 34t hydros makes it pretty easy. Then there’s elm and gum. Up, down, left, right, frozen, not.... it don’t matter. The crap doesn’t split fer she-it. You’ve all seen my pics. It’s best left to enrichen the soil. I’ve only ever processed mulberry wet and it wasn’t hard to split at all.
Pine splits better dry, and so does Douglas Fir. Because these two are my primary firewood, I often don't split wood the same year it was cut into rounds, I let it dry some first.
Yep a lot of the Lodge pole I cut down is already pretty dry. It just snaps apart when splitting. Easy stuff.
The one thing that is highly over rated is speed when it comes to splitting. Remember that when people want speed, that is either the number one or two rated for causing accidents. Ours is 20 ton and the speed is just about as ideal as possible. It is also faster than some 35 ton I've tried. So I say don't buy based on speed. Also don't but based on power unless you are working commercial.
My experience from this year hand splitting: red oak---the drier rounds are definitely easier to split, the bigger green rounds take a lot of work, smaller green rounds not so bad white oak---I didn't really see a difference between the green and drier. There may not have been a big difference in the h20 content between the different trees beech---green with straight grain a bit difficult, drier with straight grain comes apart easily, pieces wet or dry with even a bit of crooked grain are difficult sweet gum---see my previous post. I think I got lucky on that one. Goes against all I've heard.
Dont want to ruffle any feathers, and everyone should do what works for them, but... I hear a lot of people say how dangerous the Supersplits are with there 2.5-3 second cycle time. I know at least 4 other people besides myself in person who have them, two of which are large scale cord wood operations selling hundreds and hundreds of cords a year each. None of them have been injured with them. I do know at least 2 people who were hurt on slow hydraulic splitters though. I think careless people can find a way to get hurt no matter what they are doing or using. If we do the math between the 40 ton splitter with a 9.5 second cycle time and the 25 ton splitter with a 11.5 second cycle time I think the difference would surprise many people. That 2 seconds means 65 more cycles per hour, or 527 extra cycles in a 8 hour continuous day. That 527 cycles in real world splitting means well over an extra cord split at the end of the day. The average cord has somewhere around 600-700 pieces. Each cycle produces two pieces minimum, so 527x2=1054 pieces give or take. Really probably 1.25-1.4 cords additional split. I know people will say what good is extra speed if you can't keep up with it. I've never found that to be an issue with my Supersplit, which is much faster than these hydraulics. If you can't keep up with a 10 second cycle, then your method of splitting wood is probably not very efficient, you're really out of shape, or there is some other issue going on (health issue, elderly, etc) I think any healthy average age person should be able to have a piece ready by 10 seconds. The rounds should be a short distance from the splitter and easy to quickly grab. Often I'll stack them up in a row several feet high. For me personally I'd rather get the splitting done quicker and have time to do other things, as free time is at a minimum with a family, full time job, property to maintain, etc.
With all due respect, just using the math this way is very misleading. It sounds good, but... As with all tasks, some people take longer to do the same jobs as others. For example, I've had the honor of watching several people using a hydraulic splitter and can say without a doubt that even in my old age and wrecked body, I can split faster than many of them. For example, almost without fail, people will use the entire stroke when splitting. Yet most times there is no reason to do so and is extra motion which causes extra wear on the machine. Why? Probably they just have not given it any thought; just used the machine and that's it. Another example could be splitting ash or red maple or something similar. Unless there is a knot, most time the wedge doesn't have to go but an inch or so to split the wood. But then when retracting, there is also no need or sense in raising the wedge all the way. I don't remember for sure what the stroke is on our splitter but think it is around 22". Yet we cut our wood to 16". Would it not be better to raise the wedge an inch or two above that 16"? Or should I use the entire stroke? An extra 10-12" stroke each time can add up to a lot. So using a splitter is like using any tool. Find the best way and you will save that time.
Good point!!! I’ve also seen people double stack the halves, slip on 4 ways, and use some other tricks like you mentioned. I only mentioned the faster splitter originally to make sure Eric looked at all his options.
I was actually thinking 4-way for the rounds that were the right size for the application. I've never run a splitter before but I like what Backwoods had to say about getting the most out of the machine you have. That's a concept I'm used to, being a machinist. It all comes down to knowing your machine's limitations, your own limitations, and streamlining your process to work efficiently for you. I'll probably always get googly eyed watching a monster splitter in action, the same way I get excited seeing an early 2nd generation big block Camaro rolling down the road. But I'll be happy enough with my humble 25 ton splitter and daily driver. (At least until the kids grow up and move out) Sincerely, thanks for the input. It's nice to be part of a forum where we can bounce ideas off of fellow members and trade practical knowledge.
Don’t forget that post sometime last winter. Cited a study that a standing tree will have significantly less moisture content after a few days of sub freezing temperatures. I suspect the water evacuates to prevent splitting. Could be the same even with standing dead that has residual moisture.
I agree with Backwoods Savage on a couple points here 1.. I virtually never bring the splitter head out of the wood any more than is necessary to square up the next split. I don't know what the Cub Cadet 25T has for cycle time, it was never an important part of the decision. 2.. Dead elm with bark falling off is no problem to split at all. I've had some gnarly twisted beech that splintered to no end.. that was frustrating. When I was processing wood by hand (primarily ash), I personally found it easier after it dried some and checked on the ends. But I don't really miss hand splitting AT ALL
First 15 years out here in the country was taking down a large amount of barkless elm Sav and the normal size tree's werent that big of deal. The 3 massive dudes in my yard can deal with themselves. But then again once they open the borders up you are more than welcome to come on over and grab them. I'll help cut but the splitting will be up to you.
Do you ever dust off the maul for old time's sake and pop a couple pieces open? Maybe just often enough so the rust doesn't build up on the head? I look at all the wood in my backyard and think man.... all of that would've been so much easier with a splitter. I can't foresee myself miss using my maul, on a regular basis anyway.
I just went out and split some rounds. Cycle time of my X27 5 seconds cycle time in my ISOCORE 10 seconds!
