I found some more trees down probably from this summers storm. I'm hoping to get started cutting this weekend. There's a small cherry, post oak, black oak, and a hedge. With all these trees down I'm starting to think about getting a good hydraulic splitter.
Nice variety. Looking between two hydraulic rams is getting near cheating. Some of us do it this way LOL
When you are dealing with TONS of firewood, a hydraulic splitter makes life much, much easier for sure. I still like to split with the maul sometimes, for exercise and also to remind me how hard some have to work at processing firewood, but when you get load after load after load and you have only a little time here and there to process it, the hydraulics are the way to go.....
You must be a stout guy if you're carrying the whole tree back to the truck! And like you said it's almost cheating.
How big of an increase in output will I see with a good hydro splitter? I have one that runs off the tractor and it's a waist of time unless the rounds are knotty.
I use my splitter vertically.....get a nice round to sit on (or a milk crate), and if you have the rounds to be split in a pile beside you, you can really crank out the splits..... It's still a workout too, if you bust azz and do it fast. I've done a BIG heap of wood in an hour or so by myself, if you have someone helping you can REALLY put out the wood...
I recall before we bought our splitter. All I'd ever seen work were ones that ran off tractors. You could almost take a nap while splitting a log with those. I'll see if I can find that last video I posted. Found it. Keep in mind that the motor was running at maybe 2/3 throttle. I rarely run at full throttle. This was white and red oak.
Although I understand Denis's method I have a lot of trouble splitting while sitting down. My legs really start to lock up as does my back. Splitting standing up has always been far easier for me but then my right leg is a mess already that's probably why.
After all those years of hand splitting and now heading into the 3rd year of hydr. what was I thinking.
That's a great video Dennis. I'll get one someday soon hopefully but there's a big payment that has to be paid first.
I finally made it out to the woods yesterday afternoon. Started with bucking the small limbs on the path. Then I cut all of the top that wasn't holding up the oak. Then I cheated and picked up the log and set it down and bucked it. And on to the little cherry. Then I cut the oak that was on the right of the path until I ran out of gas. But it was past time to quit anyway.
There was more down here than I thought here's pics of what's left. Two nice sized cherrys. One split out in the trunk and knocked the top out of the other. And the hedge witch is laying on another oak.
