I split wood by hand till I was 49 Log load after log load. Then my back said no more. I'll still split a little by hand but I can't do production. As far as your electric vs. hydro question; To my knowledge all the electric splitters are also hydraulic, the only difference is an electric vs. gas/diesel motor to power the pump.
Very true. Poor wording on my part. Should read gas or electric splitters. Wasn't really part of the question, just including whatever you may use. Thanks for the clarification, PB.
Only 24 units were made and by today's standards it is not very powerful only delivering 5 tons of splitting force , but knowing how to split by hand makes the difference.
Started splitting manually at 17,that was over 33 years ago.In that time have seen & used pretty much everything out there.Some things work great,others not as well,others are just gimmicks & hype. Owned a Speeco 20 ton hydro (which I used vertical ) from April 96 to Dec 2005,when it was sold cause of needing quick cash due to pre Christmas layoff. Went back to manual after that,hope to continue another 10 years.I do things differently now - no more using that Sotz 20lb monster maul like when I was younger (maybe 4-5 times per year now,tops).Have the X25 & X27 (27 is the chit lemme tell ya...) for about 80% of what I do.If the log wont budge within 7-8 swings its onto a different method - Tougher/huge stuff gets the 20lb sledge/5lb twisted steel wedge combo.And lots of the time lately I just say Hell with it & break out one of the 3 big saws...that's even faster,much easier & a helluva lot more fun!!!! Bottom line is....IMO there is no ''one size fits all'' when it comes to wood splitting tools,some don't get used much or as often now,but they still have a place in my arsenal.
When I decided to set up to burn wood for heat, the maul worked fine. Later with back issues, the only way it was going to continue was with a mechanical splitter. Should have done it sooner, may have less back issues if I had.
I hand split for 30 + years, first because I was poor and couldn't afford a mechanical splitter, then just out of habit. But now the old body can't do that anymore so I moved to a hydraulic splitter.
SuperSplit, fast ,no hydraulics, can be moved around by hand,, sips gas. Can be run with an electric motor as well. Split by hand 25 years ago with a monster mall... Once The SS came along , it was so fast that I didn't ever look back...Makes you feel good seeing how much wood you can split in a short period of time...
I started splitting wood probably when I was about age 6 or 7. Always liked doing it too and at one time was fairly good at it and could hit a log in the same place more than once. However, sometimes life deals you a nasty blow and that happened to me in 1947 when I got polio and again in 1984 with an accident and again in 2012 and 2013 with more accidents. By reading the above, you might get the idea I am not a young man and you are correct. But after that accident in 1984, try as I would, I just could not swing the axe or maul as is needed. I did however split one whole year's worth of wood sitting down. No, it was not on a milk crate. We had a large batch of white ash and a lot of them were in the 36" diameter range. My back could not take the jar of swinging nor of hitting the log so I had to try something different. I sat on a log with a couple of wedges and a sledge hammer. I simply tapped the wedges lightly. Being ash, it split pretty easy. It took me a long time to get much done but at least I was doing it. However, I knew something had to change. I had never seen a decent log splitter at that time. I had seen a few hooked to tractors and running of the tractor hydraulic but had to admit that even in my condition I could still split faster than those half-arsed splitters. So we started looking. One evening we stopped at Tractor Supply. The only people in the store was my wife and I, a cashier and the manager. The sold only MTD at that time and had several of them set up right; vertically. As we looked at them and talked, the manager came up to us and began talking. In short, I told him my fear was that I would buy one and then after getting it home it would be about as useless as the ones I had seen already. I also was concerned because we cut a bunch of elm. He suggested we get the 20 ton unit even though he had plenty of others that were larger. He also stated that if I bought one and it did not perform as I wanted, I was to return it for a full refund. Hum... Makes one think. They were all on sale at the time and although I don't remember the cost for certain at this time, I think it was on sale for $850. I told him if he'd take $800 for it, I would buy one right then. That made him think for a while and I just waited. He finally agreed if I would take one in the box which meant I'd have to put it together and fill the oils, etc. Deal done. So, although I still can not split much by hand, I do occasionally swing an axe or maul but not much. The hydraulics are fantastic! We have never been sorry for buying that splitter and it is still going strong and we have spent exactly $0.00 on repairs. The only cost has been gas and oil. For sure I can split wood a lot faster than by hand and for sure it is a whole lot easier. Even in my 70's, I can still do lots of splitting and very little sweating while doing it. Hopefully this will answer the question of how and why we split wood like we do. And also, we split 100% of the wood with the splitter in vertical mode, the way wood was meant to be split. In addition, I sit and split; takes a lot less effort and doesn't hurt my body.
Not many roads, a few long ones N/S road Fairbanks to Homer or the Alcan to & from . Can you hitch a ride to Haines, Seward, Valdez, Whittier somewhere there's a road then drive up.? Got ferry traffic thru there that goes north? Some weather info & real time road cameras Road web site: http://www.dot.state.ak.us/iways/roadweather/forms/AreaSelectForm.html
Use to be a "Sledge and Wedge " fella when I was younger . Now ....its a Huskee 30 ton splitter all the way !!
