Seems like something's wrong. I burn about 80% knotty Pine and I've got over 6 cords into my Stihl splitting axe and a file has yet to touch it. While it's probably time to touch it up it splits with ease. I noticed in your other post that you have a very similar setup as I do (platform/tire). Do you have any exposed bolts on the platform? Maybe the steel radial in the tire is exposed?
I devised an upside down woodsplitter to be attached to my log loader. A homemade "carrier" mounts to my 3 point hitch so I can have a seat to run my controls as well as run the splitter ram without getting up. The splitter is powered by a pump off my tractors PTO so I can adjust flow rate and get more out of it then my smallish log loader hydraulic pump. I also added a 4 way blade to make splitting a lot faster, In operation I swing over my round, pick it up by pinching it, but not fully splitting it, then swing it over my dump body and finish splitting it. After my dump body is full, I hitch a chain to the splitter and my dump body, then back up to my cellar way and dump it in. If I get thirsty, I have some cupholders also built in to hold my coffee!
In an effort to maintain my logging roads, in particular my heavy haul roads for logging trucks, I devised mounting a former 3 point hitch grader blade to my log trailer to take advantage of its longer length, and walking beam suspension. It leaves an incredibly flat road surface.
In an effort to get into 100% mechanical firewood (firewood chunks) I devised a homemade feller buncher to mount on my log trailer to make collecting the saplings a lot easier to do.
Why buy something when you can build it yourself? I built a chainsaw sawmill from Procut plans, and while I love the carriage, the chainsaw head proved too slow at sawing lumber. So I converted an old 18 inch bandsaw into a homemade, wooden sawmill...
This old system is outdated, but in an effort years ago to reduce the amount of firewood steps involved, I mounted a homemade woodsplitter on back of an old manure spreader. I then removed the spreading tines, but kept the live bed. I disconnected it from the drive axle, and instead installed a lever. In this manner, all we had to do was lift the rounds and split them, then toss the splits into the bed of the manure spreader. When we got a load, we would drive down and back into the woodshed. There was no need to walk ahead to grab the splits. As the wood was unloaded and stacked, we would just crank the entire load back to us saving a lot of walking. Note: if the woman in the photo does not look like Katie, it is not! That is my first wife Tina working with my Brother Toby. This worked well, but was replaced when I mounted the splitter upside down on my log trailer.
Needing to sow down some fairly large acreages...I devised this simple, but effective system using a portable generator, drop cord, electric drill u-bolted to a trailer, spinning a bucket lid with angle iron bolted to it as slingers. It worked on 10 acres of ground.
Leveling ground does not need to be expensive. A log and length of cable will get you there, and be a "blade" some 24 feet long making for a very smooth field!
But atlas, not all of my ideas have worked well. An attempt to make a mechanical action woodsplitting axe did not fair so well. It does split wood, but how much easier, I am not sure. In the interest of humility I present it so that people do not think everything I do always works so well (like 2/3 of my marriages)
LOL, on a much smaller scale, I do something similar... I use an old metal bed spring, a chain, and a large chunk of old oak...
This was a simple 3 point hitch receiver that I welded a skidding rig onto. I usually use it with a set of log tongs or sometimes chains / chokers. Today I just had a small trailer in tow.
This is just a saw box that I made from recycled 5/4 decking boards. It is very simple, almost free, and can be used in lots of situations. It will sit in the bed of the pickup. I've strapped it to the tounge of my small woods trailer. Thrown it on that trailer. It will fit in my 3 point carry-all. Sit in the loader bucket. Or, I've even had it strapped down on the folding back seat of our lifted golf cart. It is just a nice way to keep things together.