Champion 34 ton splitter?

[Tahoe]

Hello,

We took down 2 large tamarack pines and I need to split it. We’ve got some others that will be coming down in the next few years, so I figure I might as well invest in a splitter. This one seems like one of the least expensive out there. Many of the rounds are 2-3’ diameter.

Do you guys think this is a reasonable tool for the job?

Thanks,
Adam

 

[brenndatomu]

Hello,

We took down 2 large tamarack pines and I need to split it. We’ve got some others that will be coming down in the next few years, so I figure I might as well invest in a splitter. This one seems like one of the least expensive out there. Many of the rounds are 2-3’ diameter.

Do you guys think this is a reasonable tool for the job?

Thanks,
Adam

It's reasonable, but overkill...anything over 20 tons will split anything you want to mess with...unless maybe you want to go commercial/sell firewood and you end up using a 4 or 6 way wedge all the time. I have a 23 ton Champion and it spends most of its time in low pressure/high speed mode, rarely shifting to high pressure/low speed mode, and only briefly when it does.
And the thinking that it takes a lot more power to split large rounds is faulty...unless maybe its some sort of huge mega gnarly crotch chunk or something...many people just chuck those over the hill...

 

[Tahoe]

Thanks for letting me know about that! I’ll check out the lower tonnage ones as well. If there’s a huge difference in price, I might go cheaper. I’m not selling wood or anything, so it’ll just be a few cords/year.

 

[ericm979]

I find it difficult to get big rounds into position with the splitter vertical. It takes a lot of upper body strength and I don't have a lot. Working close to the ground means you have less leverage. My legs and back are strong though so lifting stuff onto the splitter in horizontal position is no problem. When the rounds are too big I cut them lengthwise with the saw 90% and use a splitting maul to finish (so the saw does not go into dirt). Sometimes into 5-6 chunks if the round is big. Informally I think roughly 75% of people use their H/V splitters in horizontal mode and 25% use vertical some of the time.

A lot of people have had good results lately with the Tractor Supply splitters. I prefer taller ones so I don't have to stoop over (I'm 6' tall), but larger wheels and tires intrude some on the area the operator stands in.

 

[brenndatomu]

I find it difficult to get big rounds into position with the splitter vertical.

Get a few pieces of 1" metal pipe to lay in front of/around the splitter foot, the rounds slide a lot easier on the steel, and then there is no lip (splitter foot) to get the round up onto either...

 

[mpaul]

I’ve got the 27 ton champion and split about 5 cords per year. Had it for 2 years now and I haven’t found anything it can’t split yet. Logs delivered by tree service so all different mix of hard woods. Hickory was probably the hardest / stringiest wood I put through it.

I agree 34 ton is overkill

 

[ericm979]

The ton rating is sometimes inflated. My "28 ton" Oregon calculates out to pretty close to 28 tons, with a 4.5" cylinder at the specified relief pressure. The larger the cylinder the slower the ram moves unless you have a larger pump and engine running it. I got it to split stringy hardwoods like Eucalyptus and bay.

Softwoods split pretty easily so if you're working on locally grown wood a 34 ton is probably overkill.

 

[brenndatomu]

People that run pressure gauges on their splitters will tell you that the gauge doesn't go much over 1000 PSI very often (usually more like 8-900) and over 1500 is very rare...on a 4" cylinder that is only ~6 tons force at 1k PSI, and ~9 tons at 1.5k PSI.
A fellah on another site recently said he was splitting elm and sheared (basically cut, not split) a gnarly crotch piece with his 25T splitter and the pressure never exceeded 1600...and "cross cutting" a nasty piece like that is about as tough as it gets!

 

[Tahoe]

Get a few pieces of 1" metal pipe to lay in front of/around the splitter foot, the rounds slide a lot easier on the steel, and then there is no lip (splitter foot) to get the round up onto either...

That’s a great suggestion. I just got the 34 ton and split a few rounds with it. Those 2-3’ rounds are a pain to slide into position. I was using a split as a wedge to hold them level with the platform, but the metal bar idea is brilliant! They’ll roll easier AND be level with the platform. Thanks!

 

[Tahoe]

Re: 34 ton… yes, it seems like it was overkill. Only hesitated twice so far, each time on the first cut on a huge round.

 

[blades]

Becareful with huge rounds as you are way over the top of the wedge and foot plate. easy to bend the beam or foot plate or both when doing those ( got the T shirt). my unit apx 30 ton, foot plate was 2" thick, bent it and the beam

 

[Tahoe]

That’s a good call. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[bikedennis]

27 ton Champion here and splits massive rounds. It has been great for 2 years.

 

[Eman85]

I don't have a Champion splitter, but I have a generator and a winch from them. Customer service has been excellent over the years. Even simple maintenance items or things that have broken way out of warranty they have been very accommodating with. Excellent company to deal with.

 

[brenndatomu]

Yeah Champion sent me free warranty parts for a generator that I bought used, private sale. There's said the serial number told them it was less than a year old, so as long as I was able to install the item myself, they'd send me a new one. That didn't fix it so I called back and they sent me the part that did fix it then. I was impressed!

 

[Highbeam]

Becareful with huge rounds as you are way over the top of the wedge and foot plate. easy to bend the beam or foot plate or both when doing those ( got the T shirt). my unit apx 30 ton, foot plate was 2" thick, bent it and the beam

This doesn’t make sense to me. The entirety of the wedge’s bite is supported by the height of the foot. How can anything bend more easily than with smaller rounds?

I regularly muscle huge knotted fir rounds onto the vertical splitter. Like 40”+ It only gets used horizontal for making kindling. You’ve got to get those big rounds onto the foot but they don’t need to be level.

 

[Ashful]

The first and only thing I'd do with any 34 ton splitter is downgrade the cylinder to 4", to make it a fast-cycle 22-ton machine. I split only hardwoods, mostly oak with plenty of hickory and elm, and I've not come across anything yet that 22 tons won't split. But I get so bored waiting on any splitter with 12-second cycle times that I start checking my email and hearth.com postings while the ram is slowly working it's way down the beam.

My little "7-second" hot-rodded Huskee has plowed thru roughly 100 cords of hardwoods, and countless hundreds or thousands of hardwood rounds over 40" diameter, in nearly half the time any off-the-shelf 34 ton machine could do the same. High-tonnage splitters just don't make much sense to me, when you're sacrificing speed for unneeded excess splitting force.

 

[blades]

at the time it was a standard hor/vert splitter , so wedge on ram, apx 8" tall. and about 4" wide at the back. HF unit apx 2001 vintage. Using horz. mode. on narly rounds you could see the flex ( deflection). about a 30" round don't remember what kind. at any rate the forces at the the top of the wedge& foot plate exceeded its design . the footplate -2" thick was bent close to 1" and the beam was bent about 3/16" ( standard type H beam) ( foot plate welded to end of beam, one of the few welds that did not let go) there likely was a knot in there somewhere - don't remember. ( yes I had tried slipping big rounds on it in the vertical mode- just didn't work for me, not that it would have made any difference as the forces are still contained with in the assembly.
The unit has been rebuilt about10 years ago- the beam is 2, 4x8"x schedule 40 tubes welded together with a 3/8" thick by 8" wide top wear plate welded to the tubes , converted to fixed wedge/ knife 10" tall x1" wide by 8" deep backed up by a 2"x2" schedule 80 sq tube acting as a wedge. Push plate is 8" w x 10" tall 1" thick welded to a 1" base 8'W x 8" long, there are 1/2" plates re-enforcing the push plate to the base plate on each side. even with all this, at times I can still see deflection in the beam . I have, to date, not sprung it. The knife is welded to the tubes through the wear plate and to the wear plate itself this being a thin wedge design which slices more than blunt force as is more common. the cylinder is at least 5" maybe 6" od with a 2" ram. I have stalled it a few times. 8hp, 11 gpm pump. ( if the pump ever goes south I will up grade it) Guess we have tough wood in WI.

 

[Ashful]

the cylinder is at least 5" maybe 6" od with a 2" ram. I have stalled it a few times. 8hp, 11 gpm pump. ( if the pump ever goes south I will up grade it) Guess we have tough wood in WI.

We should debug this, blades. No way should you ever be stalling an 8 hp motor with an 11 gpm pump. Also, an 11 gpm pump on a 6" cylinder would move slower than molasses in January. So between these two factors, I'm wondering if you actually have a larger pump than you remember.

Full-cycle time on a 6" cylinder with a 2" rod would be 36.4 seconds (oof!) on an 11 gpm pump, at rated speed (3000 RPM). If you over-spun that pump to 3600 RPM, as most do, it'd get you down to a 30.3 second snooze-fest. Surely you're not running that slow???

I find 8 seconds full cycle time barely tolerable. I'd blow my brains out from boredom, after a full day at the usual 11-12 seconds rate. If my splitter ran 30+ second full-cycle times, I'd not bother starting it, you'd be quicker with a sledge and wedge.

 

[blades]

well it ain't no licky split unit , not being where i can get a tape measure on it at present, Maybe 4" od for cylinder - seems larger though. 30-36 sec. full cycle sounds about right 24" stroke - in truth I have never timed it. Cylinder has 1/2" ports, output of pump is 1/2", everything else is plumbed with 3/4" and hi flow fittings, Briggs 8hp, pump and cylinder all original. Really dosen't bother me time wise working by myself 98% of the time. Did the sledge and wedge thing - body parts not up that anymore. This spring was the first time it would not start. So I pulled it up to garage and thought I give one more try, fired up - float stuck, the jiggling around moving solved the problem with out tearing anything apart. still need to replace the valve- this will be # 3 as the detent won't kick out on the return. already flipped the piston in the valve a couple years ago- nothing broken inside just wear. no markings on valve to go by as far as replacing parts. This valve came from Northern tool ( chi-com unit), but they do not carry this particular one any more. I have a replacement just haven't taken the time to install. takes a little more effort as the mounting is different.

 

[sirlight]

I have a Champion 27 and agree that anything bigger is overkill. When I first bought it, I had a bunch of 30" white oak rounds to split. I tried to use the splitter in vertical mode, but it really did not work well. Don't waste your time trying to make it work. Rip your rounds into reasonable size chunks and lift them onto your horizontal splitter. Get yourself a pickaroon. A pickaroon has been one of the best tools ever for lifting big rounds onto the splitter. Plant the pickaroon firmly into the round and grab the handle close to the round. You can then swing the round onto the splitter with assistance from your knee if needed.

 

[brenndatomu]

I tried to use the splitter in vertical mode, but it really did not work well. Don't waste your time trying to make it work.

You were doing it wrong then...vertical mode works just fine for bustin up the bigguns, if you do it right. Noodling them into 1/4's with the saw works too, but is slower, extra wear n tear on the saw, and costs extra premix and bar oil.
Some people like to use vertical all the time, but my back just won't take that position for long.

 

[sirlight]

You were doing it wrong then...vertical mode works just fine for bustin up the bigguns, if you do it right.

I tried, but vertical was nothing but trouble for me. I had a difficult time moving the big rounds since they could not be rolled. The other problem was the the "foot" on the bottom of the splitter. Unless you have everything lined up precisely the foot slips out from under the round while splitting. For me it was easier just to rip the logs and do them horizontally. Of course, do what works best for your situation.

 

[brenndatomu]

I had a difficult time moving the big rounds since they could not be rolled. The other problem was the the "foot" on the bottom of the splitter. Unless you have everything lined up precisely the foot slips out from under the round while splitting.

Why could they not be rolled? Odd shaped tree?
If the log was coming off the foot it sounds like things weren't level...putting some 2x4s down in front of the foot can help make things line up better...and some 1" pipe works even better as either the pipe will roll, or the wood will at least slide into place easier on it...some people have welded up a pipe "platform" to go in front of the foot, that works really well I'm told.
Rounds that are oddly shaped very well may be easier to rip with the saw though...

 

[sirlight]

Why could they not be rolled? Odd shaped tree?

Logs roll just fine until you tip them over onto the splitter. If you can't get the log right on the "foot" of the splitter, they are a beast to maneuver onto while laying flat.

If the log was coming off the foot it sounds like things weren't level...putting some 2x4s down in front of the foot can help make things line up better...and some 1" pipe works even better as either the pipe will roll, or the wood will at least slide into place easier on it...some people have welded up a pipe "platform" to go in front of the foot, that works really well I'm told.
Rounds that are oddly shaped very well may be easier to rip with the saw though...

I am sure I could make vertical work if I really wanted to. For me it just turned out easier to rip and split horizontal. Vertical would be easier on the back though..