DR Log Splitter

[dylskee]

I just wanted to share my experience so other people don't make the same mistake I did. I'm not one of those people who only post their bad experiences online, most people only post when their mad or dis-satisfied. I actually post when I'm satisfied as well but this time I'm not.

I bought a DR 28 Ton Log Splitter online from their website based on a few things, I have a couple DR products and liked the quality and the Log Splitter had a no interest and free shipping promotion. So I figured, hell that's a good deal for me. I always like supporting an American made product even if it costs a little more in the long run. Well, the free shipping doesn't apply to in home shipping so it costs an additional $120.00 to ship to your house. Okay I understand so no big deal, but wait..... The no interest and free shipping also includes a promotional fee of $125.00 so not only can you kiss the free shipping goodbye but they tack on a fee just for financing even though it says no interest for 3 years! But what ever, DR is a great product and I don't mind spending a few extra hard earned bucks for a superior product right?

Well, they shipped me an absolute piece of chit! I apologize for my language but it's required here. I got it and it was in a hundred pieces in my driveway, no problem I said, I'm mechanical so I'll slap it together and all is well. Nope, 4 hours later and I couldn't get it running! I finally realized it wasn't getting any spark and it didn't have any oil in the motor and the manual said it was shipped WITH oil so DO NOT ADD! Nope, no oil! No problem, I'll add oil and get this this thing running. After 10 minutes of running I noticed all the fittings installed from the factory were leaking, so I cranked them in tighter and all is good. Then while I'm splitting wood, BANG!! A hose popped off that was installed from DR splashing hot oil in my eyes and draining $75.00 worth of Hydraulic oil from the splitter. Now I'm fricking pissed I send them an email and I get an automated piece of chit response and they could care less! I paid $1699.99 for this and it's worth about $1000.00 so do yourself a favor and just buy a Husky locally and stand clear of DR because their quality is worse than China! I'm a Machinist for more than 25 years and I'm disgusted by their quality!
And I have about 8 nuts and bolts that were stripped and had to re-tap them!
So I ended up spending almost $2000. for this piece of chit!

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

I'm sorry to hear of your issues, but thank you for your honesty, I always try to push the huskee 22 when I hear of these fellows thinking of saving a hundred dollars on these cheap and flimsy units that are out there.....best of luck to getting it going.....no way to get your money back?

 

[TreePointer]

And I'll add that SpeeCo/Huskee customer service is very good.

 

[gzecc]

I just wanted to share my experience so other people don't make the same mistake I did. I'm not one of those people who only post their bad experiences online, most people only post when their mad or dis-satisfied. I actually post when I'm satisfied as well but this time I'm not.

I bought a DR 28 Ton Log Splitter online from their website based on a few things, I have a couple DR products and liked the quality and the Log Splitter had a no interest and free shipping promotion. So I figured, hell that's a good deal for me. I always like supporting an American made product even if it costs a little more in the long run. Well, the free shipping doesn't apply to in home shipping so it costs an additional $120.00 to ship to your house. Okay I understand so no big deal, but wait..... The no interest and free shipping also includes a promotional fee of $125.00 so not only can you kiss the free shipping goodbye but they tack on a fee just for financing even though it says no interest for 3 years! But what ever, DR is a great product and I don't mind spending a few extra hard earned bucks for a superior product right?

Well, they shipped me an absolute piece of chit! I apologize for my language but it's required here. I got it and it was in a hundred pieces in my driveway, no problem I said, I'm mechanical so I'll slap it together and all is well. Nope, 4 hours later and I couldn't get it running! I finally realized it wasn't getting any spark and it didn't have any oil in the motor and the manual said it was shipped WITH oil so DO NOT ADD! Nope, no oil! No problem, I'll add oil and get this this thing running. After 10 minutes of running I noticed all the fittings installed from the factory were leaking, so I cranked them in tighter and all is good. Then while I'm splitting wood, BANG!! A hose popped off that was installed from DR splashing hot oil in my eyes and draining $75.00 worth of Hydraulic oil from the splitter. Now I'm fricking pissed I send them an email and I get an automated piece of chit response and they could care less! I paid $1699.99 for this and it's worth about $1000.00 so do yourself a favor and just buy a Husky locally and stand clear of DR because their quality is worse than China! I'm a Machinist for more than 25 years and I'm disgusted by their quality!
And I have about 8 nuts and bolts that were stripped and had to re-tap them!
So I ended up spending almost $2000. for this piece of chit!

Now a days unfortunately there is always a scam, in advertising. Free shipping and no interest. They have to be creatively evil to get around that.

 

[Lakeside]

Sorry to hear of your Chitty experience with DR.

FYI: SuperSpiltter is in Mass and a majority of its parts are made in USA , it think the fly wheels are from Canada.

Paul can help you out if your still looking for a kinetic splitter. http://www.supersplit.com/

A little pricey put it should last you a long long time.

 

[CenterTree]

Interesting. I have read a lot about DR over the years. Mainly because I always had an urge to buy one or another of their products , but was always reluctant to invest in (basically) a mail order purchase. Kind of sad to hear that they fell short on your splitter.

I was looking at their leaf collection system most recently,,,maybe I will pass.

• THANKS for an honest review.

 

[DanCorcoran]

I had the DR grader in Colorado. Came with a 6-month no-questions-asked moneyback guarantee. It arrived in perfect shape and worked great! That was 8 years ago, so who knows?

 

[YankeeFarmer]

... I send them an email and I get an automated piece of chit response and they could care less!

I see you posted in the wee hours of Sunday morning- not sure when your story happened.

Now that it's a new workweek, why don't you give the nice folks at DR a phone call and see how they can help you out? They guarantee satisfaction, and they sell refurbished equipment that they have taken back from unhappy owners, so i can't imagine why they wouldn't do the same for you. I have purchased two pieces of equipment from them this year, with no problems whatsoever. When i had a question about one of them, the technician was very helpful, and changed my order before it shipped so i got exactly what i needed.

...And i am very happy with my new leaf vacuum. It swallows all the leaves spit out by my 60" mower deck- something the machine i had used for the previous 10 years couldn't quite do.

 

[dylskee]

Believe me, I understand it doesn't always go as smoothly as you hope but this was just blatant poor quality and even worse customer service. I wasn't rude or even aggravated in the email so to get a brush-off email and absolutely no follow up just screams horrible company to me! This thing wasn't cheap either, I could see if I bought a China knock-off for half the money but this thing was $600. more than the competitors. I'm not going to dwell on this and I have already split a bunch of hickory so I'm just moving on and marking it up as a lost customer for DR Power and I hope when someone does a google search of the DR Log Splitters that this thread will be at the top of the list so someone can learn from my experience. I also post positive feedback about companies so I'm not one to just post when I have a bad experience. They lost a customer for life and they could probably care less and that's what burns my a$$. This is the reason people by imports and avoid American made products when it comes to shabby product and zero customer service.

Okay, going out to split some more wood on my over priced poorly made mess of a DR wood splitter......

 

[Pennsyltucky Chris]

I have a DR 9hp stump grinder. I've taken out about 2 dozen stumps with it, and all I needed to do was change the oil and change a belt.

 

[Grateful11]

I know this has been a while but I hope you rinsed your eyes well and went to the Dr. I had a fill plug blow out of a hydraulic floor jack just by pushing the lifting pad down with my foot about a year ago and sprayed my face and upper body with nasty 17 year old hydraulic fluid, yes I actually got 17 years out of a Harbor Freight jack without so much as a hiccup until a year ago. Walked to the house couldn't hardly see a thing, blurred vision from hell, I walked in the door and my wife like what the .... We started rinsing eyes out and my son called the eye Dr. and he said get me there ASAP. They rinsed my eyes out and gave me eye drops and had to go back the next day, that $60 jack suddenly became a $300 jack ;-) Everything cleared up over night with no lasting effects. I got lucky.

BTW: Why not send it back, I thought they had a super terrific return policy? I wouldn't keep it unless they sent someone out to fix everything.

Returns / Exchanges
We strive to ensure your total satisfaction with your new DR®. When you receive your order, we recommend you keep the box or pallet your DR was shipped in as well any packing material.

How to Return Merchandise
Under the conditions of our Hands-On Trial, select DR Branded Equipment purchased directly from DR Power Equipment may be returned within 1 Year (30 days for commercial use) of its ship date. If you are not fully satisfied, simply send it back for an exchange or a full refund of the product's original price, less the standard shipping charges to and from your delivery address. Please give us a call or visit our website for full details of our Hands-On Trial.

 

[lindnova]

I don't have any DR equipment but always thought they had a good reputation. I didn't know they had a hydraulic splitter.

One question I do have; is the DR splitter actually built in the USA? I would guess not. DHT and Speeco are US companies, with parts built in China.

On their website specs the 22 ton has a 16 second cycle and the 28 has a 17 second cycle. That is slower than most of the cheaper ones. Looks like an ok built unit otherwise, but hard to spend $600 more for a slower machine. I am not sure how the stand is, but it doesn't look great (Huskee stand sucks, but DTH is better). Seems the problems you had will show up on most of the brands. Loose fittings, hoses etc.

My Huskee was put together at TSC and the oil filter was loose and one lower fittings was missing the pipe dope. Both problems from the factory, not TSC. I turned the filter 1/2 turn and had to drain oil and put dope on fitting and refill. I could have taken it back, but I am handy and it took me less time and grief to just do it myself. No problems since.

Hopefully your problems are over. I would assume as you did that DR would do a better job with assembly than the cheaper foreign units. Apparently it doesn't matter what brand you get, some will have leaks and problems during startup. Reminder to all: check all fittings and hoses on new splitters.

Edit: on the DR website they boast the heavy duty "Cast Iron Beam". Funny typo.

 

[Grateful11]

It's going to be hard to find one with everything made in the USA. There's John Deere 5065M cab tractor here on the farm with a Mexican made 5 cyl. turbocharged diesel engine, a Chinese tranny, an Indian front axle and Brazilian Hydraulics. The cab was made here. JD likes to make a big deal about their tractors being built in Georgia but they are only assembled/built there nothing is made there, a friend of mine took their Gold Key tour when he bought his and confirmed that they only assemble. It's a couple years old and has over 400 hours on it, no problems yet.

Even Honda's top of the line GX engines are coming from Thailand now.

 

[dylskee]

The company is based in VT so I assumed it was an American built product but that's impossible considering what I got! Plus all the hardware was metric. I did get everything in working condition and I'm splitting away on it so I'm just going to keep it. Plus, when I asked why I was paying $120.00 for something that was advertised free shipping I was told the free shipping was to a depot and the $120.00 was a discounted price from $375.00. So you can bet you azz that's what they would charge me to come get the thing! I never heard anything back from the company, that shows how much they really care about the customers. I have moved on and I simply will never buy anything from them again and I will discourage anyone else from doing so as well. This is how I will pay it forward, I've already changed the mind of a friend and a coworker so as far as I'm concerned I win!

 

[Pennsyltucky Chris]

The company is based in VT so I assumed it was an American built product but that's impossible considering what I got! Plus all the hardware was metric. I did get everything in working condition and I'm splitting away on it so I'm just going to keep it. Plus, when I asked why I was paying $120.00 for something that was advertised free shipping I was told the free shipping was to a depot and the $120.00 was a discounted price from $375.00. So you can bet you azz that's what they would charge me to come get the thing! I never heard anything back from the company, that shows how much they really care about the customers. I have moved on and I simply will never buy anything from them again and I will discourage anyone else from doing so as well. This is how I will pay it forward, I've already changed the mind of a friend and a coworker so as far as I'm concerned I win!

That's a shame. I've had great customer service from them. I used their chat feature for live help, and they always returned my e mails within a business day.

I'll probably never buy from them again, but it's only because I really don't need anything else they make. I split by hand and I don't need a brush hog, so.... yeah. Anyway, I had a decent experience with them. I guess everybody turns out a lemon now and then.