Cords per hour through splitter

Been catching up on splitting after gathering 15-20 cords of EAB killed White Ash plus assorted other species from neighbors, and realized that we do about 0.25 cords per hour with myself and my wife working. I had hoped for much more than that once setup properly. “40” ton County Line horizontal/vert splitter with no log lift. The splitter runs and splits nearly 100% of the time, split small for quick seasoning, try to debark when possible. Maybe 2.5”x3” average split size. Have lots of shorts, but when I cut it’s all 20” long rounds. Losing some Ash to punk, so I need to get it split pretty quickly.

@T. Jeff Veal would you mind sharing your cords/hr splitting with the same machine? What size do you usually split?

amateur cutter any idea what volume you do with your RM and large splits?

I am splitting from 3” limbs to 32” white ash. I’d like to get up above 1 cord/hr. Certainly a push through would help and I thought I found the solution in the Ruggedmade 37/28t, but I’m wondering if that won’t get me up above 1 cord/hr. Any other suggestions? If I could get it reasonably quickly, I think I’d end up with the Easton made and box wedge, but I’m really interested in y’all’s thoughts!

 

I've come to accept the fact that with my system, and working by myself usually, the splitter is not the "weakest link", and I am happy with the .25 to .50 CPH I generally get.
Splitting small and removing the bark certainly slows things down too! I generally don't do either...I do need to split a little smaller though...the bark will often fall off on its own (or is easily removed) once the wood has spent 2-3-4 years in the stacks and is bone dry...that would be the time I tend to get rid of it...if it stays on, I burn it.

 

I never really timed myself but I'm definitely no speed demon. Are any processors available to rent ?

 

Find!

Process!

Split and load in 1 1/2 to 2 hours. About a half a cord!

 

I never 'just' split. I won't handle wood twice. So, when i split, everything goes into the little trailer then straight to the stack (when I'm working in the log yard).
If I'm cutting in the woods, then the rounds go in the trailer and the splitter is next to the stack (then the processed splits go right into the stack.)
Either way, i only pick the wood off the ground one time. So ... I'm slow...
1/4 cord an hour would be fast for me.

 

My breakdown of splitting.
15 minutes to split about a 1/8 cord bucket full.
1 minute to take to pile and dump said bucket.
5-10 minutes to go in shop and get a drink,throw a log or 2 in stove and warm up. (If cold temps)
5-10 minutes spent looking at various forums and such.
5 minutes (at least) answering phone. Do you have wood? How is your car warranty? Can we lower you credit card rate? Mrs FS. What do you want for supper?

 

That pretty well covers it!!

If I had to guess I'd be .5-1 per. But like Tim, my splits go right to a trailer and off to the stacks.

 

There is one locally, but it won’t process many of my rounds. Thanks for the help!

 

I forgot to get my sequence into the post. My just over 0.25 cords/hr is with the splitter being loaded by myself and my wife to keep it going almost 100% of the time, and her stacking in real time into IBC totes, which is why I am debarking a bit if I can. The totes are expensive but convenient to use and move around.

It sounds like we are right in the same ballpark if I split larger and did no debarking. Much of the ash has the bark coming off, so I am just trying to save room in the totes for good wood.

Thanks for the help as usual!

 

Ok, that’s a good bit faster than me. I keep the splitter running the whole hour, and get only just above double your 15 minutes of output. What sort of splitter do you have?

 

Splitter is a county line (TSC) 25 ton. I split and throw into my bucket and the dumped on a pile. If I'm doing dry wood for selling I take it right to the bins and stack. Takes another 10 -15 minutes to stack in bin.

 

I load an ATV trailer with the splits while I am splitting and when it's full I shut the splitter off to unload/stack what's in the trailer. Then I re-start the splitter and fill the ATV trailer back up. Rinse and repeat.

I looked at my spreadsheets of splitter maintenance and the wood I split that corresponding spring. I dump the oil every year after splitting and note the engine runtime hours from the hour meter for my maintenance records. So I have records of splitter run time vs cords split for every spring when I do my splitting of my winter hauls. I compared the hours to the cords I split that corresponding spring, I'm currently at 0.9 cords/hour, average the last 4 years. This is including the idling of the splitter I do before I shut it down after every time the ATV trailer is full. I use the idle time of the splitter to clean off the surface and such....ya know, to tidy up the work area a bit from all the bark and crap that falls off during splitting. I also don't like to start the engine full throttle or shut it down full throttle, so I have it do some idling when I first start it and before I shut it down. So I'm probably real close to a cord an hour, if I remove all the idle time. This was all done with my older 28 ton Speeco with a 12.5 - 13.0 sec cycle time. My new 40 ton CL is much faster (hair over 9 sec cycle time) so we'll see if that speeds me up any. LOL Will be starting here pretty soon....maybe as soon as this weekend.

 

Rush Battle . Here is a bucket full. Took a bit longer because of some junky wood in the pile. That is just tossed in a bin for one of my fire pit customers.

 

This is what is slowing you down. All my big rounds I half/quarter in the woods right after I buck them so I can lift them into my trailer. I don't split rounds smaller than 4-5" and my splits are generally around that size and some bit bigger than that. Small enough to where I can palm the ends to lift them, but not too small. I don't de-bark. Like mentioned above, father time will do that for me. Sometimes, if the tree has been dead long enough, the bark will come off when I am splitting though.

 

Its refreshing to see honest amounts of splits being shared. I truly love the guys who claim an hour per cord on a single wedge box store splitter. Wood would have to be 24” long and huge splits to come close to that.
For me, it depends on what splitter I’m using and the wood itself. With a helper and the right wood, I can do more than than a cord in an hour on the tw6. When the wood is giant and or knotty that number is cut in half. Those are 16” lengths and fairly small splits. If I’m splitting boiler wood - close to 24” lengths and big splits, I can do 2 cords an hour easily

 

I got a good laugh reading your poll!

 

Pretty much what he said. 16" wood stove size splits running thru the 4 way & up the conveyor into the trailer, best time with 2 men was about 1.25 cph. Boiler wood 24" large splits with three guys we made 3 cord in 1.5 hrs. That included me bucking the logs to keep the splitter fed. Stacked in loader bucket & dumped where they were gonna get stacked. Small splits equals more time.

 

I am hopefully going to get estimate tomorrow, two of my nieces are coming out to help with my hoard from the local State Park.
I know that even with the rounds stacked up, splitting & throwing them in the old straight truck, pickup up or trailer it seemed painfully slow to me.

 

Boy, do I ever feel the love. I didn't think doing 0.75-1.0 cord an hour was that big of deal.

My splits are ~21" and do split fairly big. Mostly all oak, so it's super easy to split. I also only split horizontal and I already have the larger rounds halved or quartered from earlier in the winter when I split them by hand in order to load them into the trailer. So I don't have to deal with large too big to pick up rounds. My numbers are what they are though. I'll see what I do this year. It's easy for me to figure out with the hour meter on my splitter's engine. Look what it is before I start, look what it is when I'm done. Take the difference and that's the time it took. Then measure up what I split to compute the volume in CF....then divide by 128.