Those of you with hydraulic splitters.......what is your relief pressure set at?

Have any of you threw a pressure gauge on your hose between the pump and control valve to see what pressure the relief valve is set at? I've read in numerous forums that most relief valves are set around the 2,500psi area. Assuming this is correct then most splitters are grossly over-rated in tonnage. I have a CountyLine 40 ton and it has a 5 1/8" cylinder. This means I would have to see 3,880psi in order for it to apply 40 tons of force. Manual states max PSI is 3,800 psi which would make 39.2 tons. I thought they were out of their minds.........

Anyway, I am assuming, based on everything I have read, I wouldn't be seeing anywhere near those pressures. It has both an adjustable relief and detent. I already adjusted the detent and I installed a 3,000 psi gauge. I was completely surprised as to what I saw when I went to test what the relief was set to. I still don't know because it maxed out the 3,000 psi gauge before I left off. I remember the ram slowing down as the pump hit the second stage and the engine digging in and next thing I know the pressure went pretty rapidly to burying the 3,000psi gauge before I lifted. It was probably around 3,200psi when I said that's enough.

Anyway, just curious what other's are seeing? I know I don't need it to be set that high and will probably adjust it down to the 2,500 - 2,800psi area. I don't think I will ever even encounter anything I need to split which will even require 2,000 psi (little over 20 ton actual force) seeing I split mostly oak.

 

It's appearing like nobody runs a pressure gauge on their splitter.

 

Mines set at 2800 . The pump will do more , the cylinders will handle it fine . The lines won’t . Besides , it’s rare I see more than 1200-1500 before the round splits . It’s rare that I’ve hit pop off pressure . Generally it hits the low volume ,high pressure point (600) ,then will just go between 800 and 1000 . Basically the tonnage ratings on splitters is BS .
American CLS doesn’t give a rating . Probably one of the few to do that .

 

According to what's printed on my lines, the high pressure line is rated for 4,640 psi and the low side is rated for 1,850 psi.

agreed, I'm expecting the same. I don't need a 40 ton, but I wanted the sub 9.5sec cycle time, so I can live with the larger ram/cylinder....seeing it was mated to a 25GPM pump. As a bonus I ended up getting it for $800 new in a crate.

This is what I've always been hearing/reading, and is the reason why I posted this thread to share what I discovered. I fully expected mine to relieve around that 2,500psi area, even though the manual states the max psi is 3,800. What I discovered after I put the gauge on, mine is actually closer to that 3,800 psi area than it is to the assumed 2,500 psi. Making it closer to a 40ton splitter than I would have thought.

 

To be honest, I never thought about it but I do like to play. Do you have a link to the gauge you're running? Maybe they make one that goes a bit higher and I could pop on in and see. Post up a pic on how you mounted it up if you have a minute.....

 

I just have a Wika 3,000 psi gauge. Here's the 4,000 psi version I have.

WIKA 50787497 2.5" SS PRESSURE GAUGE 0-4,000 PSI 1/4" THREAD *UNUSED SURPLUS* | eBay

Some informative videos:




I currently have my DCV (directional control valve) unloader set to around 3,300psi. I just interpolated a bit past the 3,000 mark on my gauge. Comes out to be around 34 tons actual force.

I also adjusted my pump's unloader valve. It adjusts the crossover pressure relief from the low pressure/high volume to the high pressure/low volume. Basically adjusts what pressure the pump goes to the second stage. Longer it stays in high volume/low pressure the faster you will be able to power through the splits. All depends on if your motor has the balls or not to remain in the high volume stage of the pump. You could always try to turn the unloader on the pump fully CW till it stops and see if the motor can handle it. If not, back off till it can. Make sure you are at high idle on your motor though (throttle level set to max).

 

Watching and gauge shopping now...

 

Go to McMaster-Carr for the fittings. Make sure they are high pressure!

 

LOL, roger that. I was thinking that might be important... That gauge is expensive but US made usually is. I have one on the shelf from a hydraulic scale. I wonder if it would hold up?

 

My 22 ton speeco has split every piece of wood that I have put on it. Never really thought much about the actual pressure.

 

I picked up one of those Tractor Supply 40 ton splitters a while back. It is sitting in the garage unused at the moment. Is there anything I need to know or do before firing it up for the first time? This is my first machine with hydrolic oil so I am not sure of any precautions I need to take.

 

Same here with my Didier, except this splitter is well under 15 tons, probably 12-14 actual tons. No issues splitting pretty much everything, including a lot of elm.

At my old place if employment, they had tons of barely used wika gauges. I had to keep buying new ones from wika despite there being the same exact one on hand in the test bin.

 

That was a great video. Thanks for posting. I have been looking for something like that.

 

My PTO pump is rated for 2500 psi. I put a gage on it and the pressure relief was set to 2200 psi. I cranked it up a little bit. Its a 17 ton splitter at 2500 psi.

 

Just make sure the fluids are full. If you hear an annoying rattle at idle this is why. As soon as I got it, when I would idle down the motor, I would hear this loud crazy rattling like something was really loose. Figured out they didn't use a setscrew for the engine side half coupler. Instead they just slid a piece of thin metal tube over the crankshaft the correct length to keep the engine side coupler from walking back towards the engine. Well, when at idle that piece of tubing would rattle on the crank like crazy. I ended up installing a few set screws to keep it in place..........until..........

Now I am in the process of converting the current metal to metal style coupler it has (has no rubber spider like most Lovejoy style of couplers do) to a more traditional Lovejoy style found on most splitters. Ordered a 5/8" dia L095 half for the pump and a 1" dia L095 half for the engine. Then ordered a L095 Hytrel spider. It's rated to take up to 9,000 rpm's and up to 34ft-lbs of TQ. I just do not like the idea of a metal on metal coupler. Maybe it's just me. Problem is, the stock pump mount bracket's hole is too small for the larger diameter coupler to fit, so I also had to order a different pump mount bracket.

 

Mine is set to 3400 psi, but I am going to turn it down because helpers have a hard time letting go of the lever when returning the cylinder and my return line is copper, which maxes out at 2800-3000 psi max.

 

Return line is low pressure though...? My return line on my old Speeco was regular rubber heater hose with hose clamps. You'd be blowing filters if it was high pressure.

 

I meant the return stroke line, not the tank line.

 

Wanted to update this. I actually have an L100 coupler for the engine side and a L099 coupler for the pump side. Also have a L099/100 Hytrel spider coming. I drew up in CADD, to scale, to make sure it would work with the spacing I have between the end of the crank and the end of the pump shaft. Using both L100's would not work. If it would have it would have been VERY tight, too tight for my liking. This is what the coupler setup will look like when assembled and it should work out great. The L100 Hytrel spider is good for 65HP, 7,000 rpm's and 70ft-lbs of TQ.

Here is what it will look like when put together.