Took three more loads out this morning. Bucked the first two loads. Left the last one for tomorrow. Sunday Funday Lunch in a glass, didn’t want to be late.
Cold came back. Driving on top of the mud Finished dragging out the tops this morning. PIA, I like logs!! But it’s hickory. I’ll take it.
Phone said it got to 53 today. But yesterday morning it was 21 when I got up. Tried splitting after dark today for the first time. One of the perks of having a removable 12v deep cycle battery wired in for the winch. I found out it’ll power the lights too. ATV wiring is strange but it worked out well in this instance. Tail lights are fully powered whenever I connect the second battery. I just pulled the bulbs. Who needs taillights?
Could you point me to how you setup the log lift on your splitter? It looks exactly like what I am looking to do, but I haven’t run across your setup in my searches yet. Looks great!
My ATV came with a front trailer mount which helps. When I had the winch installed I had them add extra wiring for a detachable 12v battery supply. That way you can use the winch without the engine running. ATV batteries are notoriously weak for any continued use without charging,,,,or even with charging To use the winch I built an offset trailer hitch mount. Added two boat runner wheels to elevate the synthetic line above the hitch and splitter. Started with the hard rubber wheels. No good. Line will cut through them in short order. Found some acrylic plastic ones on Amazon. Work beautifully. I was worried there wouldn’t be enough friction from the rope to turn them. I was wrong. Biggest flaw to my design was the 1 1/4” black pipe I used. I went that route because my old masonry wheel arm uses that size. Either black pipe is a lot softer than it used to be or there are other forces at work. One such force which does the most damage is when a large round splits and the top goes over the foot of the beam. It’ll crush that pipe fast I’ve mended mine as you can see. Have bought steel to redo it but it’s not welding season yet. My other advice is winch control. I have the Polaris wireless remote. Thought I would love it. Nope. Biggest piece of junk going. I would rather have a wired handheld and some day I will. My specific wireless uses a 12v 21/23 battery. That may work ok in a garage door opener where one click does the work. In a winch it’s constant power during the operation and power is drawn down fast. You could figure one battery per day. Not easy to replace either. Add to that if you lose or break a Polaris wireless remote they do not offer a replacement. $135 to buy the complete unit again for what I consider a five dollar remote. Probably better off buying a cheap Chinese wireless remote on Amazon. I prefer wired. Do away with all those issues entirely. Beyond those flaws it works good. Not as fast as having two teenage boys but it allows us old beat up people to keep cracking wood. Couple pics to show the front setup and more of the pipe. I welded the pipe extension at a happy medium angle. Hold the split away from the splitter with a few pounds of force for lifting. Push it in with a few pounds to center and drop.
