DIY PTO Log Splitter thoughts

So I've wondered about electric splitters before, and after a lot of conversation on this board and thinking about it more and more, I've decided it's not worth it.

My wife and I are looking at getting a homesteam/small farm, and will be growing our own food, and maybe some more, in at least 1 acre of fields. That means a tractor will be available, and not some lawn tractor. Being on a budget, I'm thinking something along the very vague lines of an older Ford 3000 (or something equivalent).

Now, this tractor will have between 35 and 40 HP at the PTO. I'm looking at all the available things which it's going to be used for. Bushhog and finishing mowers, of course. Pulling a plow/disk/rototiller, obviously. But also to serve as a generator, and as a log splitter.

A splitter with a pump such as this - http://www.surpluscenter.com/Brands...RINCE-HC-PTO-1A-PTO-PUMP-540-RPM-9-1047-1.axd - 21gpm @ 2000 PSI (32hp to make that happen!)

That means a 6" diameter, 24" long piston with a capacity of 2.94 gallons would be fully extended in 8.4s with the force of 28 tons. If I can find a pump with a higher pressure that would be even better.

That's impressive enough, yes? Something like that would be able to handle a 6 way wedge don't you think? This, for now, is all a thought experiment.

I would be sourcing from scrap, I guess - an I or H beam for the frame. I would be looking at building a hydraulic lift also for the big stuff. I would be ideally handling anything between 10" and 30". The splitting post would be removable so that a simple blade/wedge could be used in place of the 6-way.

The tractor itself is more likely going to be on a budget of $5k, hence the older Ford 3000 (or comparable). But I've also read that the tractor's own hydraulics, unless you go with something really large, is going to be much smaller than the 21gpm the PTO will be driving.

Jags said:

Gonna be on the edge with that unless you are working up easy stuff. Now - if you said 3000 PSI it would be a whole 'nuther animal.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I certainly hope I can find another pump capable of handling that. Would bring the tonnage up to ~42. The numbers for the cycle though - with a 24" stroke and this being a single stage, I would think is quite fast. Most splitters with 2 stage pumps, they use the fast-stage for their cycle time numbers, right?

I looked at the 40gpm, but at 2k PSI it wants ~59hp, and I am NOT going to be getting tractor that over-sized, unless for some ungodly reason someone put a motor that large into some mid-size chassis like what I'm looking for.

Settling for a 5" or 4" of course would speed things up a lot, but then I can kiss the 6 way, and maybe even a 4 way good bye.

Curiosity still not sated, look at this...

Fun starts about 1 min in. I want to know what kind of style you call that kind of cutter. Compared to wrestling again and again large 1/2's or 1/4's, this seems ideal. Even for something only 12-16" in diameter.

I would call that machine fast. And I would think that the way it's splitting with that number of blades, is all the speed and power I would need. And he's running off a PTO pump.

But hey, nothing is decided. I like the idea of the tractor as a shuttle too and from the splitter. I think if I go with a standalone, I would still like to have a setup similar in blade configuration to what's shown here- unless someone's got experiences which might help me otherwise.

Well, I was looking for diesel model tractors, not the gassers. Also, something in the range in terms of wheelebase, which for only 7" than a basic 3000 more opens up some of the larger 4XXX and 3XXX size tractors from Ford. So finding something with a 60hp diesel isn't a stretch of the imagination if the budget is there. BUT, I found this:



Claimed to be an 85 Ton splitter and powered by his 100 HP tractor. And if it's belching smoke on a serious workload, he's either revving well under his PTO speed, or he's got a pump setup which actually takes advantage of all or most of his true PTO speed power - which I don't even want to try to emulate.

But I would settle for a 28gpm 2-stage stand-alone if I can get it set up as effectively as his in terms of the way it handles the wood for him.

It looks like the kind of tractors I'm considering will in no way shape or form come with the 1000 RPM PTO needed to get the 40 GPM @ 2000 PSI pump. The best that can be managed is 21 GPM @ 2000 RPM which is quite disappointing. I put together a chart to do the math for me in terms of dimensions and volumes, speed of stroke, and tonnage.



If that makes sense, great. If not, the blue 4-8 is diameter of the piston. Connect them to varied pumps to get 40 GPM (nope!), 28 GPM (largest 2-stage I can find) and 7 GPM (the 2nd stage!). Tons shown in green are the results of the cylinders of various sizes when connected to the pumps of various PSI's.

One thing I've noticed is that I think I'll try and find a 7" piston for a 2 stage pump. If you look, it's got, at the LOW PRESSURE of 900 PSI, almost as much force as the 4" @ 3000psi. So a good many things it'll split without even slowing down, and do it with a 8.5s (1 way) push. If it does hit something really solid, bam 57 tons (albeit quite slow), but I'm planning on running a box wedge anyways for cutting 5 pieces at a time. I think I can live with slow if I save my back from having to pick things up and re-split them all the time.

This thought process has been really helpful, and I can stop looking at tractors which really would be too big for my needs, and now focus on attachments, price, economy, parts, etc and stop trying to find something with a min of 60 PTO HP.

Yup, that's known.

The best 540 RPM pump I could find is only capable of only providing 21 GPM @ 2000 PSI. Unacceptable by the numbers when comparing to the other options.

If 1000 RPM PTO were available in the tractors I'm looking at, sure - but anything 540 isn't going to cut it.

I can hear you on keeping it fed, the more I think about it. I'll settle for slow and steady if I can also get up to 6 pieces out of a single pass with a box wedge.