Which hydraulic pump to buy

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gzecc

Minister of Fire
Sep 24, 2008
5,123
NNJ
I currently have a 5" cylinder, 2" ram, 24" stroke and a 11hp motor. The cycle time has decrease to 20+ seconds (complete cycle, out and back). I am leaning towards a 16gpm pump. What are the things to consider. I would imagine the original is 11gpm? Can't tell the tag is destroyed. Picture below.
 

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Anything less than a 16 GPM pump on that 5" is gonna be slow. You could actually go up to a 22 gpm with the 11hp you are running. There is a fair price diff though.

Edit: I also run a 5" cylinder and am using a 16 gpm pump. If anything ever goes wrong with motor or pump, it will be getting a 28 gpm pump.
 
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That just makes me love my 3.5" cylinder even more, but of course I'm splitting pretty straight grained stuff.

You might check Amazon on pumps, sometimes they have better prices than other places.
 
That just makes me love my 3.5" cylinder even more, but of course I'm splitting pretty straight grained stuff.
My small splitter has a 3.5" cylinder (on a 16 gpm pump) - it is fast, no doubt, but it does require more thought in placement, etc. If I had to pick one or the other, I would keep the big boy. I just simply deal with too much tough stuff along with some really big stuff (log lifter).
 
5x24 cylinder is right at 2 gallons of volume (a little less on the rod side). So extending cylinder, the time is:

11gpm pump, about 11 seconds
16gpm pump, 7.5seconds
22gpm pump, 5.5 seconds
28gpm pump, 4.3 seconds

A complete cycle would be slightly less than double that time...cylinder will retract a bit faster due some volume taken up by the rod.

As far as engine, here is a chart of hp:
hydraulic_pump_horsepower_graph.png


Notice that above about 1500psi, you need engine hp equal or greater than pump gpm. So a true 11gpm pump will need 11hp engine, 16gmp=16hp, etc. For log splitters, you'll usually find a 2 stage pump which has a high flow under low pressure to move the cylinder fast, but will shift to a low flow at high pressure to power through tough wood.
 
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