How big a log can a splitter split?

[rudysmallfry]

I was thinking of renting a splitter to finish off the really big rounds that I cannot split by hand. We're talking almost 24" for the base of the tree. Can a splitter handle logs that size? I'd hate to rent the thing, break it, and have to buy it.

 

[michaelthomas]

You will definately want to make sure that the splitter has a verticle splitting capability so you don't have to lug the round up onto it. Any splitter you will rent should have adequite splitting power to get through those rounds. You might have to get a crack in one side and spin the round around and split the other side or take a wedge out of the log a little bit at a time but it should go through, Rental places should carry a beefy splitter because we all know how we treat things that are rented and not owned.

 

[triptester]

When splitting large diameter blocks I have found that if the wood is tough to split rather than trying to split the blocks in half at first, I take 4 to 6 inch slices off the edges squaring the block. I have split blocks that were up to 40 inches round.
Having log stripper bars on each side of the wedge come in real handy when the wedge gets pinched in the big blocks.

 

[BigV]

I was thinking of renting a splitter to finish off the really big rounds that I cannot split by hand. We're talking almost 24" for the base of the tree. Can a splitter handle logs that size? I'd hate to rent the thing, break it, and have to buy it.

I have rent rented a log splitter from time to time, (I now have my own) and most will split either horizontal or vertical. You will not have any problems splitting even the largest logs. As suggested above, you will need to split smaller pieces from the large round until you can split the large one in half. Be careful and watch those pinch points!
Have fun!!

 

[adrpga498]

Maybe a bit off topic but what the heck. Rookie to my hydraulic horizontal and verticle splitter and I read the entire manul and my question is...... If my log splits "prior " to the full extention of the ram , does one need to let the "full cycle" complete anyway? Feel free to laugh if you want. Just wondering. PS I have hit the retun when this happend a few times and haven't seen or heard any ill effects. So, maybe I have answered my own question. thanks in advance.

 

[michaelthomas]

No you don't you will just have to manually reverse the detent as it will not automatically.

Maybe a bit off topic but what the heck. Rookie to my hydraulic horizontal and verticle splitter and I read the entire manul and my question is...... If my log splits "prior " to the full extention of the ram , does one need to let the "full cycle" complete anyway? Feel free to laugh if you want. Just wondering. PS I have hit the retun when this happend a few times and haven't seen or heard any ill effects. So, maybe I have answered my own question. thanks in advance.

 

[Roospike]

Maybe a bit off topic but what the heck. Rookie to my hydraulic horizontal and verticle splitter and I read the entire manul and my question is...... If my log splits "prior " to the full extention of the ram , does one need to let the "full cycle" complete anyway? Feel free to laugh if you want. Just wondering. PS I have hit the retun when this happend a few times and haven't seen or heard any ill effects. So, maybe I have answered my own question. thanks in advance.

No , you dont have to let it go all the way through. All wood is different and take "ELM" wood for example ........what i do is stop the wedge in the middle of the split so you can pull the two pieces apart . Some times i will open the ram back up just a hair larger than the log after a split and move the log a little and stick the wedge into the main part of the wood so the splitter holds the piece and you can pull off the other chunk that was split.

 

[adrpga498]

Thanks Roose & Mike

 

[ecfinn]

To give you an example I rented a vertical splitter this weekend. The first picture is the piece as I tried to split it. It didn't work and actually failed to split. This was the only piece all weekend that didn't split with this thing. The second pic is of the same piece after I flipped it over to split it from the other side. This time it worked so I didn't encounter anything that it wouldn't split if I used the correct technique.

 

[ecfinn]

And here is a picture of the biggest heaviest piece I split this weekend. It took about 5 minutes just to get it situated below the splitting ram it was so heavy.