Sure. You can do it if the splitter is laying on the ground. You can roll the rounds right up on the beam with that Dittier.
Yes it can be done... If you got Chvymn99 leoht walt jtstromsburg and a TurboDiesel ... Them bigguns were a work out!
I've got the 34 ton Swisher H/V... Love it. But would love to get a log lift added at some point. May convert it to a walt design at some point...Thats just because I do run into big rounds and some times the vertical is just a pain to find that flat spot in the driveway... Just not sure on how to get the hydraulics figured out.
JeffInNH , I do 4 to 5 cord a year. I have 2 machines, a purchased 35ton and a home made one. I use the 35 ton for moving around and really BIG $#!T, the smaller one stays put and small rounds I do in the yard. Here's my 2-cents. Buy what you can afford and catch sales on some of the big box stores, TSC, Lowes etc... (I) don't see the need for any thing bigger than 25 ton BUT, If you catch a bigger one on sale, get it!!! For the home owner, 25 ton is plenty! Go here...Log splitting guide.
As someone that had a Dirty Hand Tools 27 ton and now has a Wolfe Ridge, let me give my quick opinion. For 3 cord a year I’m sure the Champion will work fine for you. I split alone, and avoid the really big stuff. The log lift is amazing, as both a lift and a table. I can load six or so rounds on it, lift it up some and split away. It acts as a table as I split, making things go faster. But, the auto cycle option is the best part. Splitting alone, I can hit that and tend to other chores like stacking while the cylinder cycles. If I had helpers or kids around, I wouldn’t use it. The auto cycle would be unforgiving to a poorly placed hand. The auto cycle sped things up so much though. I couldn’t go back. Add in a Honda engine and I’m sold. Oh, and I’m 6’6” with bad shoulders. Vertical splitting hurt bad, even with the milk crate. I need to stand up.
I concur! Very good point, I'm only 6'1" my back and knees is shot as well. I have to be standing also.
Exactly...even 20 ton will do 99.9% of the wood most people come across...heck, I have a lil 5 ton electric that does most anything you throw at it...I guess my point is this, nobody actually needs 35 ton
Log lifts are great but I have no need for one. As others have said, I vertically split all the really big stuff in halves or quarters, do all of them at once, then flip the splitter horizontal and finish off. It isn't the fastest possible way to split, but short of using a processor, I can keep up with a lot of the commercial machines. Oh, and if you happen to have a model that accepts a 4 way wedge, get it! That was a game changer for me. TSC had them on sale for $50. I couldn't pay them fast enough.
I find cycle time to be more important than overall tonnage. I have a 9 second cycle time splitter which just happens to be 40 ton. It's the fast cycle time which sold me, the tonnage was just incidental.
Nobody "NEED"S a tank either, but wouldn't it be FUN to have... *Edit* note; I only purchased my 35 ton because it was on sale and was the same price as the 25 ton. So I went BIG!
The cycle time of the Champion 34-ton is fine by me (16 seconds). I don't need it any faster. I like having the reverse stay in gear and I like having a neutral as well. By the time I take the split off and throw it in the garden cart the machine is waiting for me already. 95% of the time I retract it only partially so that 16 seconds is kind of misleading.
Whatever works for ya! I went from a 13 sec cycle time splitter to a 9 sec one and my splitting production increased damm near the same percentage. I do all my splitting of the winter's haul in early spring and I keep track of splitter run time as well as cords split, so it's easy to compute cord/hr. I split till the trailer is full and then I shut it off to stack...repeat. Here I am last spring using the new 9sec one splitting ~0.25 cord. From cold startup, warm-up and splitting. 13 second cycle time splitter: New 9 second splitter:
I don't care about cycle time either, it's split when it's split! But then again, the faster I get a log split, the faster I can drink a Beer!
TurboDiesel I see how that slowed him down BUT IMO that crotches should have never been put through 4 way! Single wedge so it doesn’t get wedged, Then a straight pice to finish split.
It's still not easy though. Those halves suck to move even at half the weight. It's a lot of mind over matter, and use your legs to push the rounds into place. I use splits as steps or a ramp to get the wood into the beam. On a taller horizontal splitter, you better have a real ramp.
My Didier is low and slow. Height wise, cycle time wise, tonnage wise too. It's under a 15 ton rating, but it splits basically everything. A faster cycle time is a big deal, the mtd I'm inheriting is much faster cycle time than the old Didier. Plus it has auto return. Once I get it made into a "Walt style" splitter, I'll have it made. Stand up working height, log lift, auto return, faster cycle time, table...
