Help Me Choose Splitter

Here's one from today http://nwct.craigslist.org/grd/5043743656.html

Huskee 22T plus fire wood $800

As a general observation, it seems that most splitters have their hydraulic fluid tanks a structural part of the design. You can't just replace a rusty or leaking tank. I'm not crazy about that and personally see that as a weakness, although I'm sure there are design efficiencies when they are integral.

byQ said:

chazcarr,
I always here people on here saying a 22 ton log splitter will handle most anything. I have a new DHT 22 ton, and used it for the first time yesterday. The wood I had to split - some dry knotty ash, green red elm & honey locust.

The honey locust was no problem. The red elm slowed the splitter down to very slow several times but eventually powered its way through. The dry knotty ash stalled the splitter twice. Eventually I split all but one piece - the splitter couldn't split this ash piece (the grain was swirling every which way).

It occurred to me that 27-ton (and larger) splitters have their place.

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I rented an Iron & Oak 22-ton splitter on three occasions, and stalled it several times, particularly on some of the large ash crotches. So, based on that, I'd have agreed with you. This was the $2300'ish version with the 6-second cycle times and a Honda motor.

Then I bought a 22-ton Huskee, based on the insistence from several here that they've never come across a round theirs wouldn't split. Two years and more than 20 cords of very large rounds thru that machine now, and I find that's true, I have never stalled it. Not even once. I'm splitting entirely ash, oak, and hickory. The ash and oak is almost all over 40" diameter, and sometimes up to 50" diameter, some of it pretty gnarly.

Point being, not all 22-ton machines perform the same. There's numerous combinations of pump gpm / cycle time, engine HP, etc. They all get lumped together in a class. In my case, it came down to trading the faster cycle time of a 22-ton machine versus a little extra grunt rarely needed from a 28-ton machine, at the same price.

velvetfoot said:

As a general observation, it seems that most splitters have their hydraulic fluid tanks a structural part of the design. You can't just replace a rusty or leaking tank. I'm not crazy about that and personally see that as a weakness, although I'm sure there are design efficiencies when they are integral.

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There are certainly other components that should fail before that tank.

Also, these aren't $25,000 tractors... they generally cost $1000. By the time that tank rots out, you'll have likely seen a positive ROI.

The welds on my tank started leaking and I had to have them, eventually, redone.

Interesting. Do you think they were just marginal / never done right, to begin with?

Yes.

chazcarr said:

That is great, I have looked at the Ariens a few times. Just a few things I am unsure of. How the piston is attached seems like a weak point, where the DHT is attached directly to the beam. Also, the ones for sale at HD have all looked really beaten up.

Did you notice any issues where the wedge is attached? THe link above had me a little worried about that.

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I can't speak directly to the Ariens, but I know a while back some of the MTDs and their clones were having an issue with the connection . . . I suspect it may have been a bad batch though since no one was really bringing it up as an issue before and I haven't seen anything about this since . . .

For the record, I think I bought my splitter in 2009 with this design (MTD) and it has had zero issues with the piston design . . . and I can even mention that the Briggs engine is perhaps one of the easiest starting engines in my fleet of small engines -- every spring I just switch it to the choke position and one or two pulls later it is firing and able to switch over to its regular running setting.

chazcarr said:

Already emailed him, no reply yet, fingers crossed!

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I think that guy is padding his price, brand new with cradle was $1099. For $600 I would consider, I'd rather pay $300 more and know it's new, he has had that running through the woods and sorts, mine is in a garage, kept clean and dry and looks brand new... There's a lot to consider...... Jmo