You have got some work to do there! Nice looking hoard. What's the story on the logs? Arborist connection, dragged em out of the back 40, just happened to follow Asplundh with a boom truck today?
My Hunnybunny and I cut it all ourselves. We had a tornado come thru GA last January over some of the company I work for recreational property. Blew over several oaks that I could get to. The white oak was in a friend's yard and he knew I could cut it. The fresh cut oak and poplar came off a property about 12 miles from our house. Hurricane Erma blew down probably 15-20 trees at least. Still working on cleaning that up.
Ours is an MTD, 20 ton, which are no longer made. It's been around for quite a while; over 25 years. Not sure when we bought it but bought it new for a bit under $800 so you can see the price of splitters have actually came down over the years. Thinking about how prices go up I wonder what ours would have been now with inflation? The maintenance on ours has been to replace the engine and plastic coupler. Not bad for over 300 cord of wood split. Engine would have been fine if those who borrowed would have taken care of it, but that's another story.
Yes, when we bought this the big Chinese imports had not happened much. It has lots of life left in it.
My father in law bought ours new in probably '99, split up one big oak and wanted to sell it for $500. I begged my dad to buy it, since I cut wood for us and his house and furniture shop. He did and I got it after he passed away in '01. Still running strong, has a 6 hp Briggs on it. I've only found a couple of pieces I couldn't split with it. 25 ton Yard Machine. Had to replace the handle bracket, the tires dry rotted and the tongue got bent, so I built a frame the fits on the tractor bucket or the counter weight. Doesn't get loaned out now. Lol
Was actually talking to a guy at a veneer mill. They will pay $58/ton for clear logs 12" and up. It's va good drive and I have to find some liability insurance to get on their yard. There is a guy close the has a sawmill, but I don't need the boards.
Well it’s probably an even father drive for ya but I’ll pay you twice that and you don’t need no extra insurance to drop em off here. That seems really low to me for what you have there. Veneer grade indeed. You might want to shop around a little more for a buyer if you are interested in selling. Dang I’d love to get my hands on a pile like that.
What's funny is that we got nearly 40 years from the old Briggs 5hp on our Didier splitter. I replaced that Briggs with a chonda last year. I've got a feeling that this chonda will outlast that 'merican Briggs. To be honest, that Briggs only lasted that long because my buddy's dad retired from Briggs and had parts laying around. I'm sure it would have been scrapped otherwise. You can throw free parts at something all day. We've also got an MTD that I'm pretty sure is identical to the one Backwoods Savage has. I have a feeling I'll probably throw a chonda on it when the Briggs on it goes south too. I would wager that Briggs motors are made no better than chonda motors. I actually would probably washer that the chondas are built better than Briggs. Even if the Chonda lasted 1/4 the hours that the briggs lasted, you'd still be money ahead at what the Briggs cost vs the $99 predator.
