Cutting is getting tough, started splitting

The snow is gotten to difficult to get around in. It's very icy, lots of drifts and very dense corn snow that can get me stuck. I started cutting 11/14 and am now shifting gears to splitting. I don't have quite as much as I want, but getting close.

The last pic is an improvised glove dryer, works great.

 

Am I recalling correctly that most of your production is for sales?
Love the glove trick, going to have to borrow that.

 

What's the silver insulation about? Cold, or noise?

 

Pizza oven?
Boot dryer
I see, trouble with cold hydraulic oil I guess? Looks like a pretty big tank.

 

Drink holder!

 

Sweet splitter. Quite the accumulation of rounds. How many cord there? What is the production rate of the machine? Great improvise with the glove dryer. Ive draped them over the hydro cylinder before.

 

That splitter is the bee’s knee’s! Never get tired of your pics bandit.

 

WESF To answer both your questions. My garage is heated at 45 degrees but the hydraulics are so well laid out with a dump valve, very little heat is generated that isn't over come by the 35 gallon capacity of the reservoir. The insulation is to retain some heat.

The other day it was in the 20s and temps was only up to 54 after 3 hours of running, I'd like to see higher temps than that. The real problem is when I start the return pressure in front of the filter/diffuser is higher than I'd like.

The tank has 3 chambers to slow the flow and release more heat too and it does a very good job. The highest the oil ever got was 130 degrees after 2 hours of running, it was almost 100 outside. The asphalt in the driveway was 135 and the dark blue siding on the house in the sun was 160.

 

Guessing about 22 right now, should get a few more loads but as I said above, getting myself stuck is not in the equation. My logger friends are working close, might get more tomorrow.

The production with me being a one man band is far from impressive. The machine is running doing nothing 2/3rds of the time. I throw rounds on the machine, split and restack immediately nothing hits the ground. To be efficient at least 2 more bodies would be needed, could use 3 more. I hate picking splits off the ground.

I also some times bias the shape of the splits to be boards rather than pie shaped due to drying faster.

 

Your operation looks pretty efficient for a one man show. Glad your loggers can still get in the woods, mud and warm is killing production here. Getting a truck or machine stuck is a massive and miserable time suck that I try to avoid at all costs.

 

Looks like it would work better with a 15-20 gal tank with a cooler on it.

dang that’s nice though.

 

The builder advised me to just drain 5 or 10 gallon out.

Being stubborn I just don't want to.

The funny thing is during the build I was pestering him to put an oil cooler on it. He said, "You won't need it". Man was I wrong on the idea.

I seldom run it in the Summer, but it could be run all day long in extremely hot weather without issue.

I don't understand everything everything going on in the hydraulic system, but it obviously is pretty well thought out.

 

If he’s telling you to drain up to 10 gallons, it’s way over capacity.

may be doing more harm than you realize but not getting that oil to a real operating temp. Moisture builds up that causes acids to form etc.

to boil that moisture out you need to get it up to 180*F. Think moonshine here. The temp needed for water to evaporate but not boil. Engine oil operate at 230-240*F.

 

Seems like we have discussed this before. My friends due to the very steep terrain around here run a cable skidder which has fallen out of favor in the industry. The machine is like an industrial goat on the hills. The problem is cable skidded logs by definition are very dirty or even worse depending on conditions. (Frozen mud is a nightmare on chains)

Dirty wood is the price of admission, technique, plunge cuts, 404 chipper chain and hard nosed bars with big saws are the answer.

This video explains it but I wish he was cutting some real logs rather than pecker poles to demonstrate.

 

Sweet setup!!!! Even with the dump valve, the oil should be seeing some heat added right? What is the ideal temp ?

 

Hydraulic systems can't run that hot...depending on the system, and what oil type, pump type, type of seals in the system, 140-160* F is widely considered best practice max temps on mobile equipment (140-150* for most, closer to 160* for hydrostatic drives)
Pretty much everybody considers 180* too hot for hydraulic oil.
As far as too cold...a quick trick is to pull the dipstick...if the oil won't drip off the end, it's "too cold" and needs to be warmed a bit before SOP begins...I was trained as an alternate mobile crane operator once upon a time, and we ran Grove RT cranes...one of the classes the Grove rep was there and cold operation temps were addressed...his recommendation was to let the engine warm up for a bit (hopefully the block heater was plugged in) and then give the engine a little throttle while the main boom hydraulic lever in the down position, with the cylinder in its fully collapsed position this forces the oil through the pressure relief valve at max pressure, and creates a ton of heat...he said a few minutes of that should get the tank to a temp that should be ok to run.
Never thought about it at the time, but I'm not sure what they'd recommend if you were operating in a really cold environment where you were not making many moves, mainly waiting for the guys to give the next signal to move (mostly idling)
Control Hydraulic Fluid Temperature to Prevent Overheating
Effects of Temperature on Hydraulic Systems

 

Can you move that splitter around by hand on concrete?

 

Interesting. I've never seen one used in the midwest, but it makes sense in your area since there's no way a feller buncher or other skidder is going down lots of the hillsides in your area. Well, maybe down, just not back up.

 

Yeah it is easy on pavement. However when there is much snow the JD X758 struggles and it is AWD, the splitter weighs about 2200#s, it is heavy. Often I use the much bigger loader tractor to move it around.