New baby just hours old (new SpeeCo splitter)

Well after 3 years of burning and splitting by hand I finally did it. Dad decided to take down his Cottonwood due to the mess it leaves everywhere. The perfect excuse to justify buying a new toy. I checked around for a month and after reading much info on many sites I decided on a SpeeCo 25 ton. 10.5hp Briggs and 12 sec cycle time. Resonably priced at Farm and Fleet for $1279 then if you apply for a Farm and Fleet card you get 10% off instantly so out the door for $1151 plus tax and fluid. Tried it out tonight and I am pleased. It is fast! I had borrowed a few others and they worked OK, but SpeeCo has this one matched perfectly. How did I ever get by this long without one. Just gearing up for fall and thought I would pass on what I think is a solid performer.

Carl said:

Very nice purchase. Now you will want a bigger stove just so you can split more wood.

When in vertical mode the plate that holds the wood isn't large enough. I tried my other brand with about the same size plate and it didn't work very well. The round would not sit straight on the little plate and was very difficult to control. For vertical mode you may need a flat hard surface to work from. Since I don't use vertical mode much I was only trying it out and that was my conclusion. In horizontal mode it is a wood splitter that can't be beat.

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I think that is characteristic of all splitters where the bottom plate is too small when used vertically. However, I ONLY split vertically and use a small piece of 2 X 10 on the outer edge of large rounds to hold them up level on the base. Right now I am working on the trunk which is 38" in diameter at it's largest and they are splitting just fine... other than the Cottonwood is a quite stringy.

I will post an action shot and update as to how happy or unhappy I am with it. I did a lot of research and looked at many makes and models. This one seemed to have the right balance/price combo. The Timberwolf's are nice but at $3700 I could not see spending that much. The other unit that I seriously considered (Other than the Huskey from Tractor Supply-which I consider the same thing as the SpeeCo and was priced the same) was the Troy Bilt 25 ton from Lowes. It was $1350 and the manager would give me $50 off and it has a Honda motor, but is only 6.5hp and the splitter has a 19 sec cycle time. I have always had good luck with Briggs motors so I went for more power and speed.