Yeah we had a small sloped corn crib on the farm when I was a kid. Never saw it used for anything but wood. Probably where I got the idea. I thought about sloping the walls to keep the rain off the sides. I guestimate just too much added pressure to the crossties. Went plumb instead. Like masonry is self supporting at a 40 degree angle tossed firewood also self supports to an extent. Sloping the walls would decrease that support or increase the unsupported. Whichever way you look at it. There’s a bit of pressure on those pallet walls. You can see them bow. A few of the earliest connections popped loose. One moved 4” and stopped which I was very thankful for I began using more screws after witnessing that.
It is a 14.5 foot - 3inch 160PSI PVC pipe. So 3 inch, not 4 inch. I spanned three 48 inch pallets. AT the time, I had used greenhouse rigid plastic for a few other cords on pallets. I was trying to cover 5 cords for three houses of dry firewood for the Winter. I tried a tarp draped over a rope and it didn't take long at all for the rope to saw thru the tarp with the wind here. The PVC pipe actually worked fairly well.
Looking forward to it. Use good screws. All the pressure is on those screws FWIW you may notice I’ve cut down the horizontal pallets to equal 6’ high. Personally decided that’s as high as I want to go. At 8’ wide that goes you 11-12 feet to the peak of wood. Not sure I’d want to begin removing wood if it were much higher. The crossties do stop avalanche but still. That’s my limit for now. YMMV
I used one of the American CSL Super's several years back. It was a 6 second cycle time and a slip on 4 way. Big Honda engine. I think 11 or 13hp. Kept three of use pretty busy. One guy levering, one getting rounds stacked close by, and one bringing wood away which was being thrown into a full size loader bucket. I have to say it was a good machine. The only complaint I have is the wedge was not height adjustable, so you ended up with a lot of splinter pieces.
Should have included that in my review. If you didn’t like the four way forget the six way. Flawed design that’s dangerous to use. Much like the rugged made. I see videos of the rugged made being used and the same problem exists though I notice they edit out the remedy. Which is pull the wedge up by hand every time and release the stuck split from underneath. That’s very tiring. The rugged made at least has some of the beam cut out of the way to help. I did a thread on it. Here ya go, found it This changes everything!!
What issues did you have with the DHT jo191145? Mine has been good to go but it probably hasn’t seen the hours that yours did.
Yeah. The only multi way wedge I'd be interested in is a hydraulically adjustable one. The Super I used didn't have a log lift either. As you said earlier, add those features and most fast cycle time hydraulic splitters are now in the 12-15k range. For the longest time a dealer in Brooklyn CT had new Super's for sale for 5k. I went to his website and he has American CSL listed, but no prices.
Everything but the engine. Only issue with the engine is a piece of metal (essential, irreplaceable) in the gas line reacts to oxygen by corroding clogging the gas line completely. Solution is never store it dry and never turn the fuel off. Do tHat and it runs just fine. Hadn’t run it in two years, Gas still in the tank, fuel left on. One pull of the rope and it fired up. Ram began leaking within a week. Warranty guy was great, sent me a new ram. He couldn’t find a shop that would work on it but I didn’t mind doing it myself. Wasn’t long before he knew me by name on the phone. High pressure line exploded nearly decapitating poor old mom who came to watch/help. Didn’t hit her and it flew by her head so fast she never saw it. Sprayed oil for fifty yards across the field tho. Poor connection between fitting and hose. Oil got in between the two and crushed the internal male fitting inward until it blew apart. I was pushing it very hard when it happened. Next I discovered the flaw in their four way wedge design. With the height pin in its top position and a split jammed underneath it will not clear the log strippers on return. Crunch. Tore the wedge and strippers apart. Wedge is designed to take force from the front, not the rear. Strippers and bolts were tore up but both were fixable at home. Then the love joy exploded. My guess is it wasn’t tightened at the factory well and eventually slid apart until poof. It’s like the only part of the splitter preassembled and I never checked it. Second ram began leaking, still does, never replaced it. Bent the footplate of the wedge up. With a little finagling and propping things just right I was able to use the ram as a press and straighten it back out. There would be a yellow sticker and flyinG body parts associated with that procedure if ya know what I mean. The side rail on the beam the wedge slides in popped the weld. Poor weld. Most of the length had never bonded at all. Was only holding on the last inch or so. Think that’s about it.
