What wood splitter for budget of $1200

[Babaganoosh]

My buddy had an iron and oak 20 ton horizontal only with wedge on the beam. It ran very smoothly and very quiet. He had a hydraulic leak at the valve but that's not iron and oaks fault. It lacked a work table or out feed table and it hurt my back within 2 rounds . I ended up staging all the wood for him to grab as we went. I'm 6 foot 6 by the way.

Overall I liked the splitter. It seemed well made. Wedge on beam just isn't for me though.

 

[TJ1]

Doesn't sound like much of a deal to me. I bought my DHT 27 ton model from Lowes for $1,199 (I think) last November. They go on sale pretty often. Plus Lowes offers a 10% discount to active or retired military.

 

[woodhog73]

Wedge on beam just isn't for me though.

Curious why you feel this way. Keep In mind I've never purchased a splitter it will be my 1st.

My thoughts with this specific iron and oak is it's compact and light well under 300 lbs so I can easily move it in and out of the woods by hand. The beam looks solid steal and not a formed box so I'm thinking longer lasting ? And it's equipped with a Honda engine which is a premium. And at 8 second cycle time that's a very fast splitter.

I have no idea if it's a good deal though. Seems there's lots of other splitter for around $1000 that offer 22 tons but they don't have solid beams and have engines with lower reliability ratings than the Honda. Except for perhaps the aeriens that are fitted with Subaru engines but I guess all my other Honda equipped stuff has been rock solid reliable

 

[Sean McGillicuddy]

Go with your gut feelings!

 

[blades]

I believe Iron and Oak was brought up or sold a while back as such from what I see of the product line not any different than the rest. Shopping by price is fine , Service after the sale is more of paramount importance in my book- both speeco and dht have been pretty good along those lines. Note Box stores seldom do any service work- farmed out to xyz somewhere- which has been a qlich for more than a few people over the years. Pump Valve and cylinder look to see if they are sourced from a stateside mfg. if something fails it so much simpler to get repaired /replaced.

 

[Babaganoosh]

My buddy had an iron and oak 20 ton horizontal only with wedge on the beam. It ran very smoothly and very quiet. He had a hydraulic leak at the valve but that's not iron and oaks fault. It lacked a work table or out feed table and it hurt my back within 2 rounds . I ended up staging all the wood for him to grab as we went. I'm 6 foot 6 by the way.

Overall I liked the splitter. It seemed well made. Wedge on beam just isn't for me though.

Curious why you feel this way. Keep In mind I've never purchased a splitter it will be my 1st.

My thoughts with this specific iron and oak is it's compact and light well under 300 lbs so I can easily move it in and out of the woods by hand. The beam looks solid steal and not a formed box so I'm thinking longer lasting ? And it's equipped with a Honda engine which is a premium. And at 8 second cycle time that's a very fast splitter.

I have no idea if it's a good deal though. Seems there's lots of other splitter for around $1000 that offer 22 tons but they don't have solid beams and have engines with lower reliability ratings than the Honda. Except for perhaps the aeriens that are fitted with Subaru engines but I guess all my other Honda equipped stuff has been rock solid reliable

I'm not talking about the engine at all. My opinion is based on wedge on beam and my body type as well as how you handle the wood as you split.

First off I'm tall..6'6". I've found the wedge on beam to generally be shorter machines. If you are 5'6" that's probably not an issue.

What I found is that when you split on a wedge on beam is that you are constantly chasing the wood. You put it on the splitter and the ram pushes it away from you. If you let go it falls on the ground. If it's a final split I guess that's fine but if not you have to drag the wood back and reposition it. Then do it again. The wood is constantly being pushed away from you where you keep having to pull it back. If you just did your first split thru a round you are trying to keep control of the half that is on your side by keeping your body or leg against it and then picking it up and putting it on the beam again. Where's the other half of the round? It falls on the ground. That means you have to pick it up again.

When the wedge is on the ram you plop the wood down and the ram runs thru it. When the ram retracts the wood is still right there in front of you ready to be tossed into a pile or ready to be split smaller. The beam isn't perfectly flat but it works out in that it helps to keep the round from rolling off.


With the right setup you can definitely split a lot of wood with the wedge on the beam. But you really need an out feed table to do so.

Just the opinion of a guy who has run both types of splitters.

 

[Sean McGillicuddy]

Good points!

 

[Jazzberry]

County Line 22 ton. Not the 28 or the 35 ton. The 22 ton at Tractor Supply. Do your research and its an easy choice.

 

[woodhog73]

Thanks for some really great info. I see what your saying now about the wedge on beam. This is really great info and makes sense to me. I can see why you don't like it.

I'm going to take a drive to Tractor Supply tomorrow and check out what they have. 22 ton is the biggest I'd get since I want something relatively easy to move around.

Thanks again great info

 

[blades]

I prefer wedge on beam vs the traveling wedge- wait until you get one stuck on the wedge and folds up those less than adequate strippers, then you will know first hand. Secondly All the force in a traveling wedge is captivated in the machine-if you over stress it you will bend or break foot plate and possibly torque the beam as well, been there done that. Vertical operation for big rounds - well fine if you have some mechanical means of moving those . Being on hands and knees or jagging around trying to get some huge diameter chunk in the machine business area is a pita. Then rotating it or re-positioning it more of same. Just saying - me I tend to regularly have to deal with stuff 20" dia. on up with 30-48" dia being common yep I use mechanical assistance all the time of one type or another.
With Wedge on beam end- conveyors or sliding right into truck or trailer is simple- fact is if set up correctly you can have the splitter self feed the trailer.
That's my $.000001 mills worth ( millionths of a 1 cent piece) I know one of the others is big on a milk crate ( sittin stool) and vertical mode.
Course the best plan is someone else doing it.

 

[Jazzberry]

My County Line has the traveling wedge and I wouldn't change a thing. When it retracts it slides between two braces that ejects it from the wedge hydraulically. It does get stuck every once in while (very rarely) but all you do is reverse it and it pops it off. No issue at all. Maybe different on other brands. On the other hand if it gets stuck on one with the stationary wedge get out a big hammer. It would seem to me that stationary wedge splitters would have a lot of trouble trying to balance a log on the wedge if you need to split big stuff vertical. Big stuff is easy vertically on a County Line. Never been on my hands and knees yet splitting wood lol. But I do use a round for a chair most of the time. I prefer sitting to do hard work lol. I never really thought about it till blades brought up the difference but I wouldn't even consider a stationary wedge machine. I really disagree with blades take on splitters.

 

[JSeery]

I was looking at the same splitters you were about a year ago (DHT 22, County Line 22), and was also considering the TW-P1 or a kinetic splitter.

After much research, I had to agree that the County Line or DHT 22 ton models are the best deal if you want a new one.

I wound up buying a 26 ton Iron & Oak off of Craigslist (lightly used) because I got a good deal on it and the guy delivered it to my house (I don't have a truck). I paid more than I would have for a new DHT/County Line, but I was willing to do that to have it delivered and already assembled (and I didn't have to buy oil or hydraulic fluid, pay tax or delivery). I've been very happy with it and it is extremely heavy duty. The Honda engine is great, but the engines on the DHT and Count Line models are good too. I also got a load of 3ft+ maple rounds and was VERY happy my splitter could go vertical. If it didn't, I would have had to buy a bigger saw so I could noodle them (the vertical option saved me that expense), and probably saved my back anyway.

Basically, before you buy, see if anyone in your area is selling a used Husky, DHT, or other good model. If not, I'd go for the new 22 ton model from either County Line or DHT. Just my 2cents.

 

[volunbeer]

Have not seen this tip here for splitters (sure someone has mentioned it), but buy the cheap utility trailer tire kit that folds up to the beam (4 hole mount around the beam) near the hitch and you can mount in on opposite side of the third fold-down leg. That way you can roll it around easily without picking it up. I am about to do this on my DHT 27 ton. It should push around easily because I am tired of lifting it with one hand and securing the leg with the other.

Just looked online - they are called trailer swivel mount jacks -

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000CQOIVO/?tag=hearthamazon-20

23 bucks

 

[johneh]

Be careful with running half throttle on many these newer engines. They rely on full throttle operation for proper lubrication and cooling.

x2 That goes for all small engines

 

[Babaganoosh]

Have not seen this tip here for splitters (sure someone has mentioned it), but buy the cheap utility trailer tire kit that folds up to the beam (4 hole mount around the beam) near the hitch and you can mount in on opposite side of the third fold-down leg. That way you can roll it around easily without picking it up. I am about to do this on my DHT 27 ton. It should push around easily because I am tired of lifting it with one hand and securing the leg with the other.

Just looked online - they are called trailer swivel mount jacks -

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000CQOIVO/?tag=hearthamazon-20

23 bucks

I've got the same splitter as you. I picked up a trailer dolly and life is good. I got it at harbor freight. If I had more stuff to move I would have gotten a nicer one but this really makes moving it a breeze.

 

[volunbeer]

I had thought about getting one of those. I usually pull the splitter to the woodpile with Gator though. One of these days I will have a wood processing shed and use it for the wood I will burn that winter if I can ever get ahead. Love the Gator - it is the most used vehicle we have outside of the family truckster.