So, this summer it's been too hot and too buggy to do much in the way of firewood gathering. My friend bought a house near me and moved up from St. Paul, MN. When he bought the house, the old owner offered to sell him a few things. He ended up buying a couple of small Stihl saws, a lawn tractor and a log splitter. The house has a nice wood stove and a small supply of seasoned wood. My friend is new to wood burning and I offered to "go halfs" on the splitter. Well, it's been at my place no for a month or so and today I got to test it out. Earlier this summer we had a good wind storm and I lost a red oak in the backyard. It broke in the wind and luckily fell away from the house. I see why the woodpeckers wouldn't leave it alone... This afternoon, I started cutting it up. I've only cut 12' off of it so far, and there's still 25' to go before the top branches out. From the top down.. I used my tractor to drag out the rounds and lift them up. They're 15" in diameter and heavy... All I can say is WOW, why did I wait so long to try a splitter? I'd always split everything by hand. This is going to make the job a lot more enjoyable! I'm not sure what brand it is, there's no label, just warning stickers. It says "20 tons" on the cylinder and is powered by a Honda engine. It's horizontal only but it runs great! I can see why people like the horizontal/vertical splitters.
Nice splitter, makes my little 5 ton electric look like a toy. Bucket loaders are nice; wish I had one on my 8N.
With that tractor, tongs and bucket, horizontal is all you need, and Honda makes it perfect! Nice job
Looks like an older Northern Tool. I had one that was similar and that is what mine was. Worked great for many years. But, you are correct it is only horizontal..... wedges and a maul.
I think it was American made. The components might be imported but assembled in the Midwest somewhere.
Nice setup. I see you have a pretty good stack of wood in the back ground already. The splitter is a great way to go. I have one of the husky splitters that will go vertical but I prefer to use it horizontal all the time. If the round is to big to lift I will noodle that sucker in half. Just my preference.
Yep, nothing like hydraulics. It's even easy to split kindlin in it. Looks great, and should give you years of good service.
I dont know if hydraulics make splitting more enjoyable or not IMO. It makes it faster for sure and you can get a lot more work done in a lot less time. But I actually find splitting with a maul and wedge very enjoyable. It's about the best exercise I get aside from post hole digging for our horse fence, but I do use my tractor to help me with that ! I know it comes down to how much you burn and if you go through more than a couple of cords a year, then I would definately have a splitter. But here in NC, I'm blessed (cursed?) with not-so-cold winters and I can split my years worth in a couple of weekends. Splitting by hand is more therapeutic for me I guess. Plus, it's a good way to pass the time when the wife is away!
It might be an older Northern Tool, maybe with an updated engine? ... Back in the day they used to be called Northern Hydraulics. I think they started out in Burnsville, MN as a small engine and hydraulic supply place. I still get the work out lifting the splits off the ground, but nowhere near the exercise of swinging the maul or the Fiskers.. I'm happy!
I bought a northern tool a few years back (5?) and have been happy with it. Honda engine 37 ton. Started it this past weekend for the first time in over a year. It is the first time that it took more than two pulls to start. I should have choked it a bit more than I did-took 5 pulls this time. When I first got it, it was used at just about any weakest excuse but as you can see, I think the novelty has turned into the necessity now!
It's been raining most of the day, so it's too wet to drag more of that oak out of the woods. I spent part of the day yesterday making another wood rack. I used a 42" x 110" shipping pallet. It will hold 2 rows with a space for ugly pieces in between. I reinforced the bottom with 2 more 110" 2x4's running the length on edge. I added scrap 2x4's to the floor and used the last of my scavenged roof tin. I split all the rounds I had last night and started stacking. When it dries out I'll get back to cutting. Here's the backyard... If all that wood was in a single row it would be 47' long and stacked about 3 1/2 ' tall. Pallets are so handy!!
Nice; that is a project I need to do, some nice storage areas with a roof of some time instead of the stacks draping plastic over the top; the plastic blows off etc.
Thanks, it seems to work pretty good. I haven't had any problems doing this way. My buddy tries to staple a tarp to the top rows of his piles, but he's always fixing it.
You have the best of every world there, tractor, hydraulics, tongs and no back breaking if you work it out right. awesome setup using some nice tools
I like the mini sheds. I have had the edges blow up and get the ends a little wet but have never had the tarps blow off, some have ropes tied to the pallets some have splits on top with no ropes,
