Poll: How do you use your Hydraulic Log Splitter (H or V)?

Just finished building a new wedge , i will get some pics tonight , horizontal only for me.

 

that's a slick looking splitter. Any more "detailed" pics of it?

 

Vertical only here. Saves me from having to pic up the heavier ones. I am going to try setting some on horizontally from the back of the truck sometime when I have my helper with me to hand them to me. It seems if you had a trailer that was about the same height you could take them from the trailer to the horizontal wood splitter pretty easy. Anyone park their trailer or truck full of round right next to their horizontal wood splitter?

 

I have the same splitter as Machria , nice machine for the money. Mine is a almost 2 years old and I've probably put about 12 cords through it so far. No problems (knock on wood)

As far as the poll is concerned, years prior to this splitter being here I was a vertical splitter only. The rounds I was getting in my grapple loads were fairly big so thats how I split. After awhile of Backwoods Savage giving his side of the story about how he splits I had to give horizontal a try (no offense Dennis)
I will never look back now, once I split horizontal and saw how well my body felt after a long day at the splitter, how could I sit at the milk crate again...The big rounds will get split into manageable pieces vertically, but then they are finished horizontally.

 

If I had a H/V splitter I think I'd build a two level splitting area with a retaining wall. Have the splitter in vertical mode on top of the wall and stand at a comfortable height at the bottom of the wall.

 

... now, there's an idea...

 

All you horizontal guys are more man than me. After I wrestle 18-20" rounds once to pick them up I am not doing it again to put on the splitter. And those of you lifting 40" rounds onto a horizontal splitter...I have to see that!

 

Splitting horizontal kills my back as I have to bend slightly over to hold and work the control on the splitter I use. When I split vertical I make a stack close to the splitter and sit on a round till I split that like up. Then make another pile and keep going. I dont bend over splitting the things!

 

Wood sits on the beam at 39 inches, Top of hydraulic lever is 54 inches. Very easy to reach from either side.



With the cordless electric winch you don't have to even bend over to pick up OR try to roll the big ones on their end so you can split Vertically. Every system has to fit your operation. I like the way I do it now as back strain is all but gone.

 

If I had that id split horizontal too!

 

I always try to do it that way now. If I can buck everything on site,drive home and back the truck up to close to where it will be stacked, then drag the splitter over to truck, I can split right off truck, and place splits on stack. Least amount of moving. But of course it doesn't always work out that way.

 

We don't! If you look at the poll results, as suspected it shows the majority of people split horizon, but turn it vert for the big ones so we don't have to lift them. Quarter them, then turn back to horizon and finish.

 

Cutforfun and KevinfromOhio,
Your both just downright KILLING me!

 

And/or they have log lifts. Lifting those big rounds with sumthin other than our backs... is a very gooder thing.

 

The thing I've noticed over the years that it is not the bending over to pick something up that gets me, it's the bending over and staying that way for an extended period of time that does. When we were using a 3 point splitter on the ground the lever was about 14 inches off the ground. It also had no detents which meant holding the lever for all stroke motion. Felt horrible at the end of the day. We'd split the bigs and raise once we could lift them as others say they do, just to get away from the bending over. I'd actually cramp up after a while. Dad's homemade also was a complete manual valve as well but not as bad since it was higher. It's pretty unbelievable the difference in how you feel when the lever is at a non bending level.

 

"It's pretty unbelievable the difference in how you feel when the lever is at a non bending level." .. horiz, vert or upside down... that's a fact...