Wood Wolf splitters??

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Haven't used one personally, but I hear very good things about them. My brother in law just spent $7000 on one and he's happy with the value. His has a factory 4 way wedge and a log lifter and he uses an OWB, so he goes through about 18-20 cords a year.
 
Wow, just watched the vid on that link, that thing is FAST! I'd like to see it in person. I gather from the set up that the only drawback is that it does not go vert?
 
I have a SuperSplit, that's near 20 years old. Still has the original 3HP briggs on it. It's seen synthetic oil for 15 of the 20 years. Only replaced one rack, because of a broken tooth, my fault. Tried to hammer thru an elm crotch. It's been a good machine. It's always waiting for you. If someone is handing you rounds, it'll keep right up. Downside is lifting big blocks of wood up, doesn't go vertical. Built a table to catch the wood as it comes off the end, saves picking splits up off the ground , if they need to be split again. I split 10 plus cords a winter with it. Think I paid about 1300 when I bought it, now they're double that.
 
The wolf is a copy of the smaller model SS when i looked at them last year they came with a 4.5 HP motor now they uped the power to 6.5 Its looks OK but i would get the larger SS for the extra money .
I have the SS and its a fast splitter , heavy duty .
The SS is 200 lbs heaver then the wolf .
We split a cord an hour easy. John
 
My friend has a Super-Split, a fairly old one, but my understanding is they haven't changed much... When working it is scary-fast, on the order of a 2-3 second cycle. You will spend more time handling the wood just getting it onto the table than you will splitting... It will handle nasty stuff pretty well, if it sticks just retract the ram, let the engine build the speed back up and hit it again... Downside is if the wood isn't square, or it has a real angle to the grain, it WILL kick out on you much more than a hydraulic will - the table is at crotch level, so wear your cup...

I would NOT recommend trying to work this splitter as a team, IMHO it would not be at all safe to do so, as the cycle time is faster than most reaction times - it's like pulling the trigger on a gun, you hit the trip and the ram goes out, and will shove anything in the way (like your partner's fingers) through the wedge faster than you could stop it....

Downside, as others have mentioned is that it's horizontal only. It is also more maintenance intensive and expensive to keep running. There is a bearing that rides on the main support beam just under the ram, which must be kept lubed and free spinning or it will rapidly develop flat spots, and cause the ram not to retract properly. Even with proper lubing, it still wears out fairly rapidly. In addition you get a layer of crud that builds up on the beam - I think it's a mixture of tree resins, dirt and grease, and that will cause the bearing to jam if not scrubbed off regularly. I find that when I'm running the machine I have to stop splitting and fiddle with scrubbing it at least once or twice an hour - whereas with the hydraulic I can sit and split all day w/o stopping other than for "bio-breaks"...

IMHO, I wouldn't want a Super-split as my only splitter, but if doing large volumes of wood it would be really good at splitting down chunks after breaking apart any big rounds with a hydraulic.

Gooserider
 
My Supersplit has been great to me. I'll split ten cords and just put some synthetic grease on the rack teeth at the start of the day. Never had any bearing problems. My unit is 15 years old and had about 100 cords thru it. I do spray the top of the ram and slide with Sea Foam, then wipe it down, only before I put it away. I never have to stop and clean anything while working. It works as long as I want. I replaced one rack, because of a broken tooth, my fault, forcing the machine into an elm crotch. Other than that, it's needed nothing. It's treated me well.
 
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