I’ve been eyeing splitters for awhile now and this one popped up on Marketplace in our town. The guy had two splitters listed and I messaged him about a Champion 27 ton first. Never heard back until it was marked sold. Messaged him about this one Monday, we agreed to meet up Tuesday evening. Ironically, he was just a few miles from the house and not far from Brad’s orchard applewood score. He had a lot of interest in the first splitter and two or three people behind me on this one. Keeping in contact with him paid off. Story goes he bought this off his buddy 3-4 years ago, used it to split wood, stored under the deck and was selling it because they switched to pellets. The other splitter he was selling for another buddy. He said I could bring a few rounds to split. The engine fired up in about 3-4 pulls from cold. Went through the Ash and Maple no problem. He was firm at $650 and I took it. The fact that it has a Honda engine was a big selling point for me. A few pics from when I got it home: So I got to work over the last few days giving it a good once over. Straightened out the fender mounts and was able to straighten out the log catcher on the operator side. I pulled that off the splitter and some time with a dead blow hammer got it about 90% of the way there: Then, I loaded up the parts cannon! (Not pictured, the quart of synthetic 10-w30 I also bought…yes the garage is a mess! Slightly cleaner this evening) I ended up pulling the wheels to inspect the bearings. Non Operator side was fine, but I still cleaned and repacked the outer bearing. Operator side needed a litte persuasion to remove. Once out, the bearing was pretty seized up. I’m guessing they were never serviced as it still had white grease in it. I was able to get it freed up, but opted to grab a new one from one of the local auto parts stores that dot our town. Packed that and reinstalled. I don’t foresee me doing a lot of towing this (it’ll be trailered back and forth), but better safe than sorry. It was a bit low on hydro fluid, so I added some more and cycled the cylinder a few times before each refill. I put in a new air filter, spark plug and changed the oil to synthetic. The Fluid Film is for the beam. I’ll clean the up then coat it. Now, my question….I used AI a lot for part numbers, info and whatnot. It’s been pretty accurate…except for the hydraulic filter. I was typing away at the parts store as the first filter it recommended was clearly automotive. It then gave me a part number to cross reference and the guy at the counter came up with the Wix 51259. I got home, pulled the filter and compared it to the new one. AI then told me it’ll work, but it’s not ideal. LOL! Anyone have any guidance here? From some research, this is a pretty common splitter that was made by Troy Built and rebranded as a Cub. Looking forward to testing it out in VT as I have a bunch of rounds to split.
Congrats on the new tool for your arsenal! That looks like it's pretty stout, construction wise. The steel coils around the hydraulic lines are great insurance. Can't go wrong with a Honda engine either
We've talked about them before, but it's been a while...some models it's tough to cross the filter exactly. The bigger the better, and as long as it doesn't have much finer filter media, it should be fine....if it has finer filtration it will bypass a lot more, or in cold weather you can even blow the filter up too. I looked the 51551 up...10 micron, too fine IMO...20-30 would be much better.
Wix 51552 is 20 micron, 51553 is 33 micron...those would probably be better choices. Any of the 3 are all good hydraulic filters that are commonly used on much more complex/expensive hydraulic systems than what a log splitter is.
Thank you guys! I really appreciate the support and enablement here! brenndatomu, I think that 51552 will be the Goldilocks filter for this unit. Thanks! I’m going to pick one up next week. And because everyone likes pics….. Test fitting of the cover. Yeah, wrong brand, but the wildlife in VT won’t care. ; ) Made it up to VT no problem! Trailer Swift was a big help. Cover is on it now as we’re supposed to get rain overnight. Hoping to get out tomorrow and run some rounds through the splitter.
See Skier76 what you will figure out about me is I am not that smart; BUT I remember which guys are smart in what areas.. FHC has a lot of them Tomorrow looks like only nice day in 10 day forecast
Congrats on coming over to the hydro side. You're going to love it. Funny as I had messaged the guy about the Champion splitter too. Someone got a sweet deal. Ive heard good things about them here on FHC. For a deal that good you have to literally drop everything to get it.
Splitter looks well taken care off. You did a good job fixing up the dings. Have fun making splits now.
Very well said! It’s not what you know, but who you know. This forum has been beyond helpful to me over the years and I really appreciate the knowledge here. Thanks again everyone! I ran some rounds through it yesterday and it did great! I’ll start another thread in the woodpile forum. I used some fluid film on the beam and a little overspray got on the fenders. Ended up coating those too and they came out nice. Then I realized that will probably attract dust and every bit of wood chips. LOL! Live and learn. A pic of it up back by the stacks:
