What's your opinion on this?

I use the tractor with a carry all box I built for the three point hitch to move the rounds to a processing area.



I like to buck up the trees in the woods and leave the mess out there. I also may skid some logs to same area with tractor in the future just using the drawbar and chain. But I doubt it. I like this way. One benefit to skidding the logs to a processing area is getting to a nice flat working area.

 

What do you not like about the MTD 21ton? I'm thinking speed?

I have used three different splitters over the years. A home made job I borrowed. Strong, but slow. Still got the job done though. A friends that I borrowed for a small job and that was a little quicker. And an Iron and Oak that I use to rent. The Iron and Oak was so fast compared to the others, and that seemed to make such a difference. Even though I hardly ever had to go through the whole cycle with the reach of the cylinder. I usually only have to go through about 1/4 to 1/2 of the reach. The Ash and Pine splits right open and I just send the ram back.

But having that speed made it soooo much faster to split the wood it was amazing. Especially when I had my little buddies (kids) helping me load the splits into the wheel barrow or stacking them right after I split them!

So I am leaning toward getting a splitter with a cycle time under 15 seconds.

 

Explain to me again the advantages of horizontal only?

What do you guys do when you get to your larger/wet rounds? Some of these bastages get rather heavy and I don't want to be lifting them up onto the splitter that is horizontal only. ?

 

I just did what Stinny said to do. And a combination of what a few of you said. LOFL.

For large/wet/heavy roundgs. I imagined placing the bucket of the Bobcat down next to the ground. Roll the rounds into the bucket. So there are about 4-6 of them big ones in the bucket. Raise bucket with rounds to perfect height of splitter. Move round onto splitter and split. On other side of splitter have tractor with the carry all box I built raised up to a good height with hydraulics and split those heavy rounds and stack the splits right into the carry all box. Move splits to rows for stacking. LOFL

For all other rounds that are not too heavy, just lift them up quickly to horizontal splitter and split.

 

Im the guy that was taught that if a truck , tractor , skid...or anything else is running..it better be moving ! Seems silly to wear out a machine that costs 10's of thousands of dollars....over a machine that might cost about $2,000 . Even easy hours are hours....and they all add up . BUT............I also know that it takes different things to make a fella sleep at night . Whatever you chose...good luck..and have fun !!

BTW......I have never heard any complaints about the Husky splitter from TSC . ...thats including myself !

 

Blount (ticker symbol BLT, ( http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=BLT ),
makes 3 brands of splitters. All pretty much on the same frame, engines & other features are the difference (Oregon, Speeco, Huskee)
Probably the mid range splitters

Links:
Iron & Oak, & Timberwolf are the top of the line brands.
BIG ROUNDS ) : Some come with a log lift if you put up enough $$.

Vertical (IMO ) is the easiest way to split.
I do 95% of my splitting sitting down.
All said, having one that works vert/horiz is a good idea.

To me, it's 10 cords of firewood max per year. MId range Speeco working great for my needs.

 

A mechanical thumb isn't nearly as expensive as a hydraulic unit and is still pretty darn useful. Even if you didn't use it for splitting, it would forever change how you cut trunks.

Yes. I know this. My last tractor, the Kubota L3710, had a mechanical thumb. It was a nice option. Very useful for moving things around. One time my father rented a larger mini excavator for me to run while a did a job for him pulling stumps and it had the hydraulic thumb on it. Holly cat's azz Mastermechanic! Some day I would love to add one of those to the Bobcat!

 

The good thing is that splitters hold their value very well, and used splitters sell very quickly (around here anyway). If you buy one and decide its not for you, you should be able to unload it quickly and not loose a lot on it.

 

I used a Kubota with a hydraulic one to tear out quite a few large stumps and a lot of smaller ones where I took out a hedge. To never have to leave the controls to use it or not use was just awesome. That's it. I have to figure out a way to get one for my Bobcat. LOFL. Thanks MasterMech. Now I have to start saving for another expensive item! That means I will also have to find more work on the side!

 

Hydraulic thumb is nice, but these aren't bad either.

http://forddistributing.com/index.p...unt-3-dot-5-x-19-baseplate-thumb-backhoe.html

 

Interesting all the facts and optional ideas that have come out. I agree with the posts in the beginning that the tractor or bobcat should not be used as the power for the attachment splitter. Those machines should be available on site with the splitter to do other tasks.
The larger bore on the splitters piston the slower process speed, the larger the more power. I elected to go smaller (21 ton) and my machine works quickly and I haven't had any problems with gnarlys or yokes. Although it's not really heavy duty, something you are looking for and will pay for.
For 1k +/-, you can get a decent machine that will get you good years of work with little downtime. I've put 10 cords through mine just this winter and spring alone and I'm very happy with it.
Once you get all the pros and cons worked out you will know what to do, what will work for you.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/181254027011?lpid=82

 

T

That's a good deal. Weld a wedge to it and, viola, splitter!!

 

They're pretty cool rigs aren't they? I've always thought one of those would make a h*ll of a woods rig with a rotating claw instead of a bucket/thumb, and the blade too. Snow would be no issue as the blade could be made larger… it's got plenty of push on tracks, for snow. Add a winch and a pintle hook for a large log cradle trailer (could hook the trailer on and off with the pulp hook)… someone making money cutting wood on their own small lot would have a multi capable machine for sure. I wonder what my bride would think of… ugh… don't go there… …

 

Oh Cmon! Ask her! Tell her you won't buy a brand new one, you will buy a nice used one so you won't have to worry about constant maintenance. And it will only be about $40,000 for a nice used one.

 

See. Hydraulic Thumb and all!


http://www.ebay.com/itm/2012-Kubota...21298746920?pt=Excavators&hash=item33866ee628

 

Pffffff…

 

If I had it to do over again I'd build my own clone of the timberwolf with log lift.