This thing did great! Very happy with it and should have purchased one years ago. Most of the wood yesterday was Birch and Poplar that have been sitting in round form since last June. Yesterday was sunny and windy, so a lot of the birch had some good checking and the bark fell off most of the Poplar when split. No issues with the Poplar. Some of the Birch slowed the splitter down, but they all popped. It’s a 25 ton unit, so not the most powerful, but perfect for what I need it to do. Made it through a lot of rounds and have some splits to stack. May get some more splitting today as my wife enjoys stacking. Oh, all the splitting was done in Dennis Mode®️ whilst siting on a Poplar round. A few pics:
You should try horizontal to see which method works best for you. Each has their pros and cons. That said, I've found I'm far more efficient with horizontal splitting and I only use the vertical method on my H/V splitter when the rounds are too heavy for me to lift. Then I just half or quarter them and I do the rest horizontally.
Glad your happy with the new splitter I split mostly vertical too as my Huskee 35 ton is not tall enough in horizontal for me at 6’2” and with bad back it about kills me. I find that vertical works because I stage my rounds within easy reaching distance and don’t have to lift them. (If they’re large I can just roll them over to the splitter) I position my tractor bucket to my left and pitch the splits in the bucket and that makes it much easier to drive the tractor to the racks and stack. YMMV
My preference is vertical. I don’t know if me being 6’2 has anything to do with it. I split and stack directly into a carryall. I prefer splitting big trunk wood for the quality and quantity of wood. IMO there is more movements and lifting involved in horizontal. Not a fan of lifting, carrying and repositioning chunks to be split again and again. My set up is basically a ground level tabletop splitter where I’m just spinning/sliding rounds to split, or slabbing out and splitting slabs. For my system vertical is physically efficient. If I ever got an EM Axis I’d want to find a way to put a stool on it. Sitting/standing, Stihl/Husky, Chevy/Ford it all boils down to personal preference. I do think about the advantages of a horizontal 6way with log lift to conveyor to tote if I had consistent diameter logs that never needed to be brought back for re split. A system like that might change my opinion.
That looks great, well done, my friend. As stated above, everyone has their splitting preferences. We started out years ago, sitting and splitting vertical, back and hip aches lead to horizontal splitting, with ramps to avoid lifting. Enjoy the new toy...err...tool, and make more splits
I would not be concerned with the power. My splitter is only a 20 ton and you should see some of the stuff I've split! The need for all that extra power is only imagined. But a lot of guys get their kicks from power and speed. JD Guy you have the right idea. When I bring in a load of wood to be split I loosely stack it in rows. This way there is no need of standing up to get the next round. Stand up only when you can't reach the next round and move the splitter ahead then do it all over again. I also usually stack the rounds next to where I will stack so I don't have to move the wood before I start stacking. Chud I too hate lifting. I did too much of that in my youth. It is much easier to simply roll the round to the splitter than to lift it. Of course there can always be those super big rounds and that does require some technique and to me those big ones actually slow down the splitting. Up to 30" I have no problem but bigger can be a nasty job. T.Jeff Veal it is because of my hips and back why I do not split while standing! Guess we are opposites.
Our methods are almost identical. I am fortunate in that one of my sons has a front mounted splitter for his bobcat or excavator for the larger rounds. He can whittle them down for me then on to the hydraulic splitter to size them. I know, it’s almost like cheating At 75 and a lot of prior youthful exuberance (stupidity) I want to be able to do those things I enjoy without ending up in a body castIn your picture I would position the tractor loading bucket on the side away from the splitter and pitch them in to my right never have to stand up unless I need to stretch the back a bit. When bucket is full I can take a stacking break or if sweet wife wants to stack I take a coffee or beer break!
Everyone has their own preference when it comes to splitting, having said that I have always split vertically. Much like Dennis I stage the rounds within reach and have a seat. It just seems like the easiest way to split, for me anyway.
A splitter is a huge game changer. A 25 ton will be plenty powerful. I have a 27 and have only had to back a few pieces of huge nasty double crotch oak etc off of it. I like to split horizontal fwiw just seems quicker and easier to me.
Or old Didier push plate splitter from 50 years ago is only like 13-14 tons when you do the math. It's really never had any issues splitting any kind of wood. It is a knife type blade and fairly thin, so that does help.
