I've posted these pictures before but what the heck, I'll do it again. I use a tire and it works great for me.
Just one more reason I never used a block to split on. I always felt the split was easier if the bit did not hit horizontally but rather at an angle.
Maybe with an axe or normal maul I could see your point, but with the monster maul it needs to come down on the round pretty straight. But hydraulics is just so much sweeter.
Just another idea to consider. I set my splitting block on a old 4x8 sheet of plywood. Soooo easy to cleanup the leftovers. Good kindling. Not that I need it any longer. Ply has been on the ground for 2 years. Still in decent shape. I store my tire under my utility trailer to keep it dry.
Growing up we always just used anther round and the last round we just split on the ground. Now that I'm setting up a splitting area at the new house I've been thinking I'll use a 6" tall trunk round that I picked up from a Craigslist maple score. Low but something to keep the maul from hitting the dirt and eventually an unavoidable New England rock. Now that's if that trunk piece doesn't get pulled into the wood shop for a end table or something haha
