Brought home a Champion 27 Ton Splitter - Here's Why

I’ve been hand splitting for several years. I have an 8# Council Tool Maul, a 6# Husqvarna Maul, and a Fiskars X27 splitting axe. This year my forearms have hurt like never before. Looks to be a case of “golfers elbow” that started immediately after splitting some rounds. It seems that this is more common with bad technique and a light tool such as the X27.

Tennis Elbow... from splitting wood.

I use a splitting tire that may also need to be lowered.

The injury had me thinking seriously about a hydraulic splitter. In years past, would set aside the “uglies” and borrow a splitter a couple times each season from a neighbor to finish them off.

The advice on these and many other forums is a splitter in the 25 ton range is plenty. I agree, I’ve never had any trouble with the 25 ton unit I’ve borrowed. So I did what you might be doing, hit the internet and obsessed for weeks over which one to purchase. I thought I’d summarize my findings in case you find yourself in the same position.

I generally use two guiding principles for purchasing tools: “If it’s never too small, its probably too big” and “buy once, cry once”. For this purchase I abandoned the latter principle as a quality American made splitter costs 3 times what a PRC import costs and it’s unlikely my life will ever depend on the splitter. I might split 6 cords in a season so I don’t need a commercial machine (after all I’ve been doing it by hand this long…)

I’m fortunate to have many retailers in the area:

• Family Farm & Home - Yardmax Full Beam (Briggs & Stratton engine)
• Tractor Supply Company - Countyline (made by YTL with Kohler engine)
• Rural King - Black Diamond (made by YTL with Briggs & Stratton engine)
• Home Depot - Champion (in house engine, Honda clone)

Lowe’s is close too. At one point a year or two ago I had my eyes on a Dirty Hand Tools model. Seems like those are gone. Lowe’s doesn’t have them and neither do any of the online retailers… They now have a Craftsman model that looked way overpriced compared to the others above.

The Yardmax 25 ton full beam was the first I looked at. It’s a substantial machine but the tongue weight really put me off. I’m 5’9” and ~200 # and I wouldn’t have wanted to move that splitter more than 10 feet on a level smooth surface.

Researching the Yardmax led me to their half beam model. It looks to be a well designed splitter but I couldn’t see one locally and the online retailers make you pay return freight if you get it home and change your mind. Once it’s fueled, it’s yours forever. The final strike against the Yardmax was the wimpy stripper. Many reviews mentioned bending them.

I wrote off the Black Diamond because I’d prefer a Kohler over a Briggs all other things being the same which in this case they basically are. The Countyline model has a lot more reviews and information available as well.

So it was down to two models, the Champion 27 ton at Home Depot and the Countyline 25 ton at TSC. I stopped to see each of them several times, last night within 20 minutes of each other to have a better “feel” of how they compared. Ultimately I think either machine is plenty capable. If I didn’t have a veteran discount at Home Depot (10% off of the $1099 price) I would likely have gone with the Countyline. To me they’re that close. In fact, I was waiting at the service desk at TSC to buy the Countyline when I changed my mind. The operator area is really what did it. To me that is one of those things I can never change. The Champion “felt right” and the rest of the details are so close in comparison and price they didn’t really matter.

I would really like to better understand how some of these numbers are calculated. One specification that is altogether missing on every splitter I looked at is the pump rates for each stage of the two stage pump. The good folks on tractorbynet explained that in a two stage pump both “sides” are pumping under low pressure and when a certain threshold is reached the high pressure/low volume side of the pump does all of the work. That makes me think that a very low cycle time might have a very slow second stage… I’d appreciate any education some of you engineer types are willing to share.

Countyline Pros:

• Kohler engine. First person accounts on FHC of easy cold starts (I usually split below freezing)
• Excellent kickstand & stable platform

Countyline Cons:

• Online complaints about part availability for YTL
• Slightly less room for operator
  • Beam to inner wheel 14.5”, edge of cradle to wheel 12”
  • 4” of splitting area impeded by hydraulic tank/axle
• Slightly harder to move by hand

Champion Pros:

• More “room” for operator:
  • Beam to inner wheel 18”, edge of log catcher to wheel 12”
  • 4” of splitting area impeded by hydraulic tank/axle
• Marginally better specs (engine displacement, tonnage, cycle time)
• Easy to move by hand (wheeled it out of the store myself)
• Shorter stroke (less time spent in transit, I cut at 21-22”)

Champion Cons:

• Engine has less track record
• Manual states need to use ATF III for below freezing temps. (Seems like this is not a real world issue, time will tell…)
• Pins for kickstand and horizontal/vertical position are straight pins with cotter pins to retain them. Already purchased square lock pins to replace them

I’m planning to take the Champion on her maiden voyage this weekend. Will post back after.

 

Wow! Thats a lot of leg work in that spreadsheet!!
Thank you for taking the time to figure all that out.

Welcome to the club, FreedomFamilyFarms !

Hopefully this can be sticky'd by Moderating
And again, thank you

 

Great info. Hope your tennis elbow gets better soon. Have you tried a velcro compression band / brace below your elbow to help it heal? The band / brace worked wonders for me. But I also have a splitter now too...

 

Great post! I’m sure a lot of people will appreciate you sharing your research. I have a 28 ton full beam Yardmax and the only real beef I have is the tongue weight. It needs to be put into the vertical position to make the tongue light enough to lift. Not difficult to do but a PITA. My back won’t allow me to lift it otherwise but fortunately I don’t move it a lot. I definitely prefer the full open beam design though as opposed to the units with a cradle that you have to clean chips out of.

 

I have the CL 25-ton, like it. I had a weird it-won't-start period this past year in the off season when I tried to crank it during the summer just because, and I have no idea why it wouldn't crank but it finally did one day. Weird! Anyway, since then (and before then), it cranks first pull every time. I split mostly oak and haven't stumped it yet, scuze the pun.

 

Lots of good information in your post.


Welcome aboard FreedomFamilyFarms

 

Thanks and yes, been wearing them as often as I can. A buddy who had the same problem said it took the better part of a year to resolve His was from picking up logs one-handed on the ends.

 

I love the detailed reasoning on why you chose what you did, with the pros and cons and SS of the features. You remind me of myself, and I'm a Buyer as my profession.

 

Welcome to FHC. Congratulation on your new toy, er tool. Gonna like it here. We like dogs , beer and lots of pics. A lot of great people here with bunch of knowledge to share so go put them to work.

 

Anyone add an hour meter to their splitter? Would love a link if you have one.

 

Welcome to the FHC. One thing you missed is that you got the log cradle with the Champion; you have to buy that separate with the County Line splitter.

 

Yes, have seen that on here. They are cheap on fleabay; around 10 $, and they simply have a wire you wound around the spark plug wire.

 

Yeah I should’ve mentioned that it was budgeted in the cost comparison. Basically the difference between the county line with the log cradle and the champion with my discount was about $50.

 

Welcome FreedomFamilyFarms nice to meet you! Looks like a good unit. I would remove the static jack stand and replace with a roller stand like on a boat trailer. Makes life a bit easier. Also pay attention to the manufacturers schedule for changing engine oil and hydraulic system filter. I changed the oil twice early on and then the third time with a good synthetic oil. Was not going to change the Hydraulic oil and filter after a seasons use but did and was glad of it. Filter had a lot of crud in it. If at all possible, store the unit inside in the dry. A tarp or cover is no substitute. Too much water vapor catches underneath. Use of zero ethanol fuel will do wonders in keeping your engine/carb happy. I know you will have lots of fun with the new unit. Happy splitting!

 

Those inexpensive one wire hook up ones on eBay or Amazon work well. Here's one at West Marine, which are all over the place.
HARDLINE PRODUCTS Hourmeter | West Marine

 

Great advice ^^^ appreciate it.

 

I just bought a cheap one through Amazon and put it on my new splitter before it even had gas in the tank. Very good for timing the first oil change and later changes. Also great just for curiosity just how long it took to split that log truck load of logs.
Good article FFF and welcome aboard.

 

Off to a rough start. Wheel felt wobbly so I pulled off the dust cap to tighten the castle nut. My friends at Home Depot forgot to install one of the sets of bearings.



Back on the trailer it goes...

EDIT: Correction, the company Home Depot hires to assemble their equipment forgot to install one of the sets of bearings. The store associates don’t put these together.

 

They must have all went on break and left the trainee to finish up; who puts a wheel on without the bearing? You would know straight away that something was wrong.

 

Splitter #2 was mostly right. I tightened a few nuts and realized that all of the splitter sat both Home Depot’s had the operator side log table upside down. I gave the hydraulic hoses a little twist too.

A+ for customer service at Home Depot. They exchanged it no questions asked at a different (closer) store than where I bought it. Sent two associates out to help me load and unload.

Upside down


Right side up, lubed, and fueled


Started on the 4th pull. Ran a few dozen cycles then topped off the hydraulic fluid. Split a few rounds of Basswood I had cut (no making fun, it fell at the road). Ran as expected. Only heard the second stage kick in once (also expected with Basswood).



No big surprises. It’s quick and handled nicely. The log “table” isn’t huge. Nod to the Countyline for having a larger albeit not included log table.