Log spitter ..Still looking Harbour Freight ones any good of E-bay ones??

  • Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.

    We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.

    We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil.
Status
Not open for further replies.
bodgydave,

I am not sure if this is useful info for you, but I bought a "16 ton", electric from Ramsplitter, took it up to Canada, north central Quebec, for my wife's relatives. Moved it at 70 mph because if fit right in the back of my 1/4 ton Toyota pickup. Works well on 220 volts, thirty amp circuit (think, electric drier). The only glitch was that we needed to turn it on and off with a knife switch inside the garage, instead of the onboard switch, which was very stiff, and felt like it could break in the bitter, -20F, cold. We got the horizontal/vertical model which my taller than me relatives blocked up for a more comfortable height.

We used ATF fluid, so no cold/ viscosity issues. It does not heat the hydraulic fluid, so you cannot use it for a handwarmer, a common practice with the gas engined splitter. They use this mainly for softwoods, pine, spruce and birch, the wood of that area. It is on a 100 foot 10 gauge extension cord, which is plenty for their purposes. The electicity ("hydro" up there) is much cheaper than the $6 (imperial) gallon of gas. We used it hard to get in a winter supply. We paid the customary price for grapple trucks of logs that otherwise would have gone to a paper plant.

It cost about $1100 with a tray, and a four way wedge, which is OK , but we usually resplit just by stacking wood together. Unsure about shipping to Alaska. It was very well crated, and needed only ATF fluid and to slip the tires on the axes to go. Ohh, ....we did replace the tires with solid rubber tires because one kept losing air.

Seems to still be working fine, it is used twice a day in a garage, to split rounds, and kindling, to stay out of the cold.
 
Sorry if I hijacked your thread "chipster 314". Did you get the TSC 22 Ton? Like it?

I emailed Ramsplitter, to get more Info on the 16 ton elec. I have a 5K gen. I can use if out & about.
16 ton would do fine. found out it has 2HP elec motor now.

pdhowell: I got the same wood here birch & spruce. Nothing over 20".
Will find out if they ship to AK, & if cheaper than $1600 when all said & done. (Speeco 22 ton, honda 5.5 for that $)
Which I learned here is also the Huskee, witht briggs 190 not honda, if that maters , i don't know) .

Timber wolf don't accept 800 phone calls form AK. TS don't ship to AK. MTD through ACE but AK not on shipping to store list.
Troybuilt think theirs are made of gold & only make huge models. Iron & Oak not any dealers in AK + high $.
Narrowing down options.

Sold 2 older outboards I no longer use, getting closer $$ ;) .
 
Bogydave,

Again for what it is worth, I run my electric 1.5 horse, 3.5 inch cylinder, nominally "16 ton", Ramsplitter in the woods off my low end Coleman generator (5000 running watts) without any issues. You cannot hear the generator change rpm when using this splitter, yet my half inch Milwaukee drill exercises the governor when I use it. Go figure. To be fair, I have not used it when it was real cold, maybe lowest, in the teens.

I won't run a chainsaw at night, but I will split wood in the dark. I like the generator because I can put a couple of quartz lights on top of my cab, and the generator runs everything. I just throw the wood in my pickup, put covers and cables the generator and splitter and leave the woods. I do not know how much daylight you have in the winter, but with the folks in north central Quebec, a lot of work happens during the long, high latitude winter nights.
 
Just one more comment, regarding cold weather use of splitters. From my old welding days, I remember being taught that cold iron or still is more brittle and the quality of the welds more important the colder it gets. I am not sure where you are located, but you might look at the quality of the welds as a factor in your selection. One of the brands mentioned seem to have pretty sloppy welding whenever I see them at a store, but down here it seems to work OK. In really cold weather, the worst case is that you might have to have it rewelded, usually not a big job.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.