Experiences with small hydraulic splitters?

clemsonfor · Sep 6, 2014

Yea and that what further confused me!! Thought they maybe went out in the 90s. I havent seen one around here most of my life and I'm 32. Saw them when younger but those were probably 80s models

MasterMech · Sep 6, 2014

Jon1270 said: ↑

I'm not sure I pay that sort of attention to cut quality when it comes to mowers. I've cut the lawn 2 or 3 times since I got it, and I really like the fact that it will go up the hills in the back yard, and can be backed up the stairs fairly easily. This is my first mulching mower, and not having to repeatedly empty the bag is also a big plus. It doesn't run quite as smoothly as the 4-stroke, but I haven't gotten ambitious enough to dig into why that might be.

A few days ago someone not far from me listed a brand-new-in-the-box 2006 2-cycle Lawn Boy on CL. The ad doesn't mention a price; he's taking offers. I wonder what that's worth.
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It's a gem for sure. I don't know the value of a Duraforce vs a classic F-series powered model but I'm sure he will get good $$ for it.

Pallet Pete · Sep 6, 2014

Jon1270 said: ↑

Half because I've sold some machinery and the money is burning a hole in my pocket, and half because my elbow got tweaked a couple of months ago and hand-splitting is looking less fun than it used to, I am flirting with the idea of getting a small hydraulic splitter. I only burn a couple of cords a year, and I have little storage space, so a full-size unit would make no sense for me. Has anyone here had much experience with smaller, lower-powered splitters?

Yesterday I was browsing CL, and happened on this old Didier splitter, probably from the 70's:

And this Flowtron splitter, probably from the 80's:

In new splitters, there's the Brave EZ split:

And of course there are the electric options, which mostly seem pretty similar to each other.

For the ones I've been able to find specs on, these seem to range from 5-8 tons. I realize that's not exactly unstoppable, but I cut my wood pretty short (14") for N-S loading in a smallish stove, and anyhow I have saws big enough to noodle with.

I have virtually no experience with hydraulics. Would something like this be worth having for small-scale suburban use? Would the older ones require more maintenance than they're worth? Would the slow cycle times drive me nuts? I just don't know what it would be like living and working with one of these, so any insights would be appreciated.
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I used an electric 4 ton ryobi for about 5 years. It did 90% of our splitting. They are suprisingly powerful and the shorter stroke is a good thing because you almost never need to go all the way through the split. That said the electric is a pain because you need electricity but as we discovered on small property thats a non issue...

The other option I have been impressed with is the smaller 12 ton unit my friend has. It an ardisam earthquake quicksplit. It does everything without issue and is very small in size. They can be found at farm stores mostly. Some menards. The other version is called a sportsman log splitter. Same thing different name.

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Experiences with small hydraulic splitters?

clemsonfor

MasterMech The Mechanical Moderator

Pallet Pete Moderator