25 ton Brute splitter?

[andym]

I've been watching craigslist for a decent log splitter, but soon realized that buying new is not much more $$. Menards has a 25 ton Brute marked down to 849.99. After 11% that's like 756 or something. Are these splitters any good?

Is 25 tons enough for splitting elm? I currently use my dad's homeade 3pt splitter. It's a 4 inch cylinder and the tractor is like 2,000 psi. I'm thinking this 25 ton would be considerably more powerful?

 

[WoodBurnerInWI]

The short answer is yes, a 25t splitter will be fine for splitting elm, oak, hickory, etc. I currently use a 22t splitter that cuts all the hardwoods just fine, and before that I had access to a 20t splitter that was almost 40 yrs old and even that one cut through the worst knots and twisted grained wood!

I don't really know that much about the Brute brand, it sounds like an in house brand for Menards and is likely a clone of Champion or something like that. That being said I've seen videos of these brand in action on YouTube and it looks like they work fine. Plus the sale price combined with the 11% rebates is a great deal (and more so if you have the Menards card).

 

[blades]

At the price point you can't hardly buy the parts needed to build a similar unit. It is an import unit from chi-com area. The good news is there is nothing there that can't be readily replaced, perhaps with a bit of tweaking, off the shelf from suppliers either local or off the net. I have Harbor Freight unit from early 2000's I am still running the same motor, pump, and ram. I did replace the control valve some 8 years ago as I plain wore it out. Over the course of time I pretty well mangled the beam ( bent it) and the foot plate (bent it and that piece was 2" thick and 8" wide )- I made new beam and changed the unit to strictly horz. use with the wedge on end of beam. So a tip : if you have large diameter rounds say over 10" (The Brute has an 8" wedge) cut them down by noodling so that you are not much more than 2" or so above the top edge of foot plate and wedge. More than that will stress out the design and cause bending or breaking of various parts in the beam wedge slide assembly or foot plate. ( if you read the manual they say not exceed what ever height the machine has for a wedge- course they do not say why- see tip above. ) Most of the units use a pretty fast( read wide flare ) wedge. large knots and crotches are hard on the unit with that style wedge. When I rebuilt mine I went with thin wedge apx 1.5 " thick 10" tall and apx 8" deep there is a spreader located behind the wedge, this allows mine to slice through things rather than brute force to render the round asunder ( mine is a 30 ton system).

 

[GadDummit]

I have to agree. If it's 25 tons you'll be fine. And you can replace things you don't like pretty easy. I built my own and if I had to do it again, I wouldn't. It's cheaper to buy one and weld onto it as you like. I did enjoy the experience though and learned a lot about welding, but I spent way more than what they're selling your brute for.

 

[blades]

Menards has two 25 ton Brute models- one must be old stock ( $756 afer rebates) as it is not available in the store but can be ordered. But that incurrs a $190 shipping charge- in my area, yours might be different. I am sure there are different sku# between the 2 although the picture looks the same. Just a heads up

 

[thisoldgoat]

I bought one 1½ years ago when Menards offered a Black Friday discount plus 11% rebate.

It has split anything I've offered it, including white elm.

Warranty service is great: It developed a filter housing porosity issue which was quickly and cheerfully resolved by them sending me a replacement housing plus an extra (free) filter.

After about 30 hours of use the control valve is oozing oil under load. I don't know what it will take to fix that but it's beyond warranty so that one will be on me.

I find it a bit hard to maneuver on uneven ground... it's kind of heavy for an old guy to move around. I'm considering downsizing to their 22 ton model as it is substantially smaller and I imagine, lighter in weight but still powerful enough for my needs.

 

[ColdNorCal]

Bought a 25 ton to split oak. Use the vertical position to split larger rounds and start at the outer edge, not middle. $750 is a great price for a new 25 ton!!

 

[Corey]

I picked up a Brute 30 at a Menards close out a few years ago. Ended up with a loosely assembled floor model. I say 'loosely' as I was leaving the parking lot with the splitter in tow and heard a 'clickety-clickety-clickety'...turns out one of the wheels was only bolted on hand tight. So after a quick tighten there and check of all other key bolts - got on the road with no issues.

If you don't mind your clone having a black paint job and yellow stickers - compared to the red, green, orange, etc other colors out there, then it should fine. I took a file to the wedge to get it reasonably sharp and it just shears through any cross branches or gnarly wood.

 

[JimBear]

I've been watching craigslist for a decent log splitter, but soon realized that buying new is not much more $$. Menards has a 25 ton Brute marked down to 849.99. After 11% that's like 756 or something. Are these splitters any good?

Is 25 tons enough for splitting elm? I currently use my dad's homeade 3pt splitter. It's a 4 inch cylinder and the tractor is like 2,000 psi. I'm thinking this 25 ton would be considerably more powerful?

I bought a Brute 25ton from Menards & haven’t had any mechanical problems with it. It does dribble chips & debris down onto the engine if you are not diligent about wiping debris off the beam while splitting, I have already knocked the reflectors off the fenders & bent both fenders but that seems to be common on most splitters. I have ran well over 100 cord thru mine & it’s still functioning as it should & not tweaked or twisted. I have had no issues with any type of wood. It has an 11.5 sec cycle time which doesn’t sound slow but it seems like an eternity when you are running it all day other than that I can’t complain about my splitter as far as cost or function.

 

[andym]

At this point I think I'm just going to wait. It's a good price, but not really any cheaper than the 22 ton. I'd rather buy one in the fall anyway. I'll keeping watching craigslist and looking for any sales on them. I appreciate the responses of everyone. Very helpful. From what I gather the Brute splitters are pretty much the same as all the other cheaper log splitters? Champion, countyline, yardworks, etc....

 

[VirginiaIron]

I like the type with the wedge on the slide. This way I'm not chasing the larger halves and or re-lifting them. Plus, the sliding wedge allows for vertical splitting. My wing is low to the ground and has a wedge on the end of the beam so the large halves are close to or already on the ground and they just fall.