Wet Hard Maple? Heavily loaded Ranger.

Nice 45° day for splitting.
Yea, tell me about short daylight days, under 6 hours here
Good to get it split when green if it's twisted, It won't get easier as it dries

It's "Split it" , "Stack it", "Dry it", "Burn it"

 

I bookmarked it and put it on my todo list. Big game is about to start!

 

Google "firewood fingernail test".
You push a fingernail into wood and drag it sideways (parallel to the nail). Thumbnail works best in end grain. In softwood your nail leaves a track sunk in the nail's path. In dense wood, no groove. Say I see some rounds laying along a road and don't recognize the species so don't know if it's worth picking up. A house key or similar works too.

 

I cut loads of maple and it looks just like that, split it green if not its much harder without a splitter.

 

Looks lik hard maple, but hard to tell. you will know,once it dries though

 

I had a ranger like that. I know what you mean by downshifting. I figured mine was putting about 70HP to the ground. Great trucks though.