Bought my first splitter

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FaithfulWoodsman

FaithfulWoodsman

Minister of Fire
Nov 17, 2015
662
Geographic Center of Ohio
Ive rented quite a few splitters and for the past several years have had a deal with my neighbor. I give him wood and get to use his splitter. But since my dad moved back and needs splitting i could see that being a strain since we need it a good bit more. Was gonna try and wait till summer but Rural King has a 12% off rebate sale making this right at $700. To good to pass up as i have a lot of splitting to do and we split the cost (no pun intended). DHT, county line and huskee are the most familiar to me. This looks very similar and seems well built. Reviews are good so hope to get a lot of years out of it. Anyone elese have time on one of these?
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certainly looks cool, but you know they are not about looks. looks like a briggs and its got a angled thing to keep the wood. only other thing I might add would be a table for the stuff when you are waiting for re split. looks like it will do some work as is though
 
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I have looked them over and they appeared to be well built...well worth the $700! You were long over due for one! Congrats on the purchase! Now we need to see a big old pile of split wood and a comprehensive review!
 
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Thx fellas. Im super stoked to get it cranking out the splits. It is vertical/horizontal. Plan on getting the side table and a cover as it will mostly stay by the stacks. Glad to hear someone else is having a good experience with it. Right now i have 1 cord of ash, 3 cords red oak and 2 cords black locust to split. So it'll be getting the paces soon and I'll post up some pics. Here are the specs and comparison to the county line counterpart.
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Quite amazingly low sale price IMO.
 
A friend of mine has the 30 ton model like that. It's an animal. I tried to stop it with a big knotted up piece, it walked right through it. I only ran his in horizontal mode. He said the vertical mode pulls on the frame sort of weird. So if you run it vertical alot watch the locking pin and frame welds.

Great deal at $700.
 
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I'm getting ready to buy the same splitter. How do you like it so far? I'm between this one and the county line. They both look the same, I do like the bigger c.c engine on the black diamond.
 
I was looking at both those models and chose the black diamond because of the larger engine, faster cycle time, and proximity of Rural King to Tractor Supply for me.
 
My neighbor has the county line splitter. Ive used it a number of times as well as renting the same model. Although im not really a fan of the name "black diamond", after using it today its hands down better imo. It is noticeably faster and appeared to have bit more power through the knots. They both get through them but the BD seemed to have more consistent power through the knot and a slight more speed. Neighbors also has a kohler. Kohler makes some good engines, but in the low grade category id rather have a briggs. The kohler on his has surged a bit from day one. Mine never did at all today. All in all you cant go wrong with either, but with the price diff i feel i made the best choice. Good luck.
 
FaithfulWoodsman said:
Rural King has a 12% off rebate sale making this right at $700. To good to pass up
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Can't beat that price since RKO assembles and fills with oil too...at least they did when I bought my Champion 23 ton there a few years back (was $700 on black Friday)
 
He said the vertical mode pulls on the frame sort of weird. So if you run it vertical alot watch the locking pin and frame welds. Great deal at $700.[/QUOTE said:
I think what you can have happen when splitting vertically is, the round is lifted and sitting on the ground and not on the end shoe. When you run the ram in, it lifts the splitter until the round is pushed against the end shoe. On uneven ground I will dig out the ground around the shoe.

On a flat garage floor, swing the splitter up into vertical. If the hinge is at the correct height, the end of the beam will land on the floor.
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FaithfulWoodsman said:
My neighbor has the county line splitter. Ive used it a number of times as well as renting the same model. Although im not really a fan of the name "black diamond", after using it today its hands down better imo. It is noticeably faster and appeared to have bit more power through the knots. They both get through them but the BD seemed to have more consistent power through the knot and a slight more speed. Neighbors also has a kohler. Kohler makes some good engines, but in the low grade category id rather have a briggs. The kohler on his has surged a bit from day one. Mine never did at all today. All in all you cant go wrong with either, but with the price diff i feel i made the best choice. Good luck.
Click to expand...

I had surging out of the box on my Forest King 37T, with the 306cc LCT engine. If you google surging on LCT's, many people in the past few years have seen surging new out of the box. The trick is to get a #61-80 drill bit set, and by-hand drill out the main jet going one size larger than what will fit in the main jet.
 
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Do either of these come with teen-aged operators? Our crew of two is one 72 and another 50 yr old......cycle time doesn't really matter
 
Medic21 said:
A great unit. I would suggest an accessory though
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Yes indeed. I can fit this in my garage but not with the table. Im thinking of fabing one to fit that could fold out of the way.
 
FaithfulWoodsman said:
Yes indeed. I can fit this in my garage but not with the table. Im thinking of fabing one to fit that could fold out of the way.
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I was going to fab one too but, I couldn't buy the steel for the price RK had it in sale for. It's pretty sturdy, if I can pick it up it will hold it so far. It is only 2 bolts that hold it on and would probably be easy enough to take on and off with a cordless impact. See what I did there? Gave you an excuse to buy another tool lol.
 
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I have a black diamond 25 ton going on 3 years. I have yet to find a piece that it has not cut or split through. I would recommend getting the the table it does not stick out any further than the motor. So not sure why you wouldn't be able to get into your garage?
 
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