ok so I burn 8-10 chords a year (my home is not efficient). I have burned wood as a primary source of heat for many years. I enjoy felling trees, using my truck and trailer, but I hate splitting firewood.
I have an old 26/28ton (I can't remember exactly) MTD/Yard Machines splitter. It's cycle time has gotten bad, second stage kicks in when it wants, is way too low to the ground, and has no side catchers or table.
I will admit it's been a good machine for the most part but at 40 I'm a fan of working smarter not harder and it's killing my back.
I have 3 small children that are always cold but they are too small to help. I have little to no time to split firewood so speed is important.
I'm a Professional Firefighter so I don't have a ton of cash but I do believe you get what you pay for and if you buy it right the first time you don't have to do it twice.
I'm in Virginia, most wood I cut is around 16-18" diameter oak, can get a few larger. I also cut most of it at 24" lengths.
1-For these reasons I am leaning towards a Kinetic, mainly a SuperSplit.
Expensive but I'm sure it will cut my time down on splitting.
2- I looked at the dual action or dual split
Seem to be quicker than a standard, limited to 20 ton and not sure what it would do on knotty oak. Not sure how much time you can actually save?
3- Fast cycle units
Again limited to 20 ton it seems, not sure how fast they are when the second stage kicks in. Fast is all relative to how fast it goes thru real wood not poplar.
Let me hear your thoughts, positive, negative, whatever ya got. I can only do this one time or the wife will kill me.
Budget, well again less is better but I believe sometimes you have to pay for a good product. That said $3500 absolute max.
Thanks all, Rye.
I have an old 26/28ton (I can't remember exactly) MTD/Yard Machines splitter. It's cycle time has gotten bad, second stage kicks in when it wants, is way too low to the ground, and has no side catchers or table.
I will admit it's been a good machine for the most part but at 40 I'm a fan of working smarter not harder and it's killing my back.
I have 3 small children that are always cold but they are too small to help. I have little to no time to split firewood so speed is important.
I'm a Professional Firefighter so I don't have a ton of cash but I do believe you get what you pay for and if you buy it right the first time you don't have to do it twice.
I'm in Virginia, most wood I cut is around 16-18" diameter oak, can get a few larger. I also cut most of it at 24" lengths.
1-For these reasons I am leaning towards a Kinetic, mainly a SuperSplit.
Expensive but I'm sure it will cut my time down on splitting.
2- I looked at the dual action or dual split
Seem to be quicker than a standard, limited to 20 ton and not sure what it would do on knotty oak. Not sure how much time you can actually save?
3- Fast cycle units
Again limited to 20 ton it seems, not sure how fast they are when the second stage kicks in. Fast is all relative to how fast it goes thru real wood not poplar.
Let me hear your thoughts, positive, negative, whatever ya got. I can only do this one time or the wife will kill me.
Budget, well again less is better but I believe sometimes you have to pay for a good product. That said $3500 absolute max.
Thanks all, Rye.