Skid Steer splitters – the good, the bad and the ulgy

[S.Nurseries]

Hello,
I would like to find out what actual experience people have with skid steer splitters.
I have a nursery and am zoned for Ag / retail. After hearing a story of a friend getting only two face cords when he order a full cord for $250 (N.E., PA), I figured maybe it is time to get into the business, so people like him can get a full cord at a decent price and I can make a buck.

So here is my question: We are purchasing a full size skid steer (Takeuchi TL140) as well as a mini skid steer (boxer 500 series) this spring for our nursery. I am looking into a log splitter to utilize the auxiliary hydraulics. There is plenty of pressure and flow rate on both machines to operate a log splitter. I may even add some type of adapter to mount this on the Boxer if I need to take it off site, since the mini is much easier to move and can get into tighter yards to split wood, but I will be using it mainly on the full sized machine.

I looking for some one who has experience using an inverted splitter as well as horizontal / vertical splitter attachments on a skid steer. I’m concerned about the following and wondering if a standalone splitter may be better. I will be splitting 16” logs up to 5’ wide and maybe fifty plus cords year.
So far this is what I came up with:

Skid Steer Splitter Pros:
uses diesel gas
save on cost of pump since both machines have more than adequate flow rate vs. standalone splitter
inverted unit can split the larger rounds on the ground without being moved and I can stay in the cab on very cold days (even though cold doesn't bother me)
inverted unit is able to pick up and hold logs so you can cut them with the saw
inverted unit can split over a truc, trailer or in a separate pile
horizontal / vertical unit seems quicker (both standalone and skid steer versions)

Skid Steer Spliter Cons:
while using the nnverted unit the loader will dig a big mud pit maneuvering the skid steer for each split (not horizontal / vertical stationary attachment) where logs are sitting
inverted may not be albe to split pieces as small quickly (not vertical / horizontal attachment)
adding more hours (I guess you would call this light use hours) than necessary on the machines

Please don’t respond with coments like the following: Go to the big box stores and buy a cheap splitter; it was good enough for my neighbor’s wife’s brother’s neighbor.
OR: You should splitting by hand is more that adequate and healthier; these types of answers will not help me.
(F.Y.I. - I am having some heart problems)

I would like someone who has experience with the skid steer log splitters to comment.

Thank you in advance.

 

[reaperman]

Nothing runs cheaper than a small gas engine. These days, if you have a traditional log splitter and the motor dies, its only going to cost you $99 for a replacement at HF. The skid loader your looking at pushes out about 80 hp. Plenty of ponies to drink 2 to 3 gallons of diesel fuel/hour. If/when you go to trade in your skidloader down the road, a dealer wont care if the hours are heavy or light duty. You will pay for each hour of machine use. You must figure out how long it will take to split a cord of wood and compare that to the cost of operating the skidloader.

The pros are you wont have to handle the heavy rounds vs a traditional splitter. A inverted unit may seem a bit clumsy at first, but after a while you would get the hang of it like anything else. But you will still have to manually pick up each split to stack or load. I couldnt imagine not driving over a bunch of splits trying to maneuver around the splitting area chasing rounds laying all over the place.

If it were me, I wouldnt put the hours on my bobcat running a splitter. However, I do consider my bobcat just as important as my chainsaw for making firewood.

 

[flyboy553]

A couple problems come to mind right away. First, you need to be in an area where it is okay to make a mess, because the skidsteer is going to tear the ground up big time, when moving from split to split. Unless it is winter. This was my biggest complaint. Once the ground is all buggered up it is a really rough ride in the machine. Remember, the bucket isn't on so you can't just smooth everything out again. Which also makes it harder to get lined up nicely on the next piece to split.
Another issue is you are taking a very usefull tool out of the tool box when you put the splitter on the skidsteer. Now it can only split wood until you remove the splitter. It can't be getting loaded with splits or bringing other wood to be split or hauling logs out to be cut, it can't do anything but split wood. Seems a waste of equipment to me.

I'm sure there will be others who disagree with me. Mostly because they already have one, I think.

Ted

 

[blackdogon57]

Good advice reaper. I use an 80 hp CTL to load my processor. With a grapple I can load my deck with 3/4 cord of logs in 5 minutes, then sit on my butt on the processor and work up the logs. Putting a splitter on $50,000 plus machine makes no sense. Way too inefficient and you will be in an out of the cab way more than you think. Doing it with the stand on might work ok but will be more physical labour. I personally don't mess with logs over 20" in diameter. Not worth the headaches.

 

[Gavman]

I have a new tl230, just over a year old, wouldn't dream of putting a splitter on it for anything other than my own use...
Like mentioned too much fuel and the hours will cost you down the line....
Getting in and out will get old quick too plus the mess you will make unless you run on concrete....

great great CTL though, but for serious splitting get a dedicated splitter is MHO

 

[labdad]

I guy I cut with has a splitter on his skidsteer and it is slow. Better to use it to move the wood to the splitter. JMHO but I think a separate machine would be a lot better investment.

 

[blades]

For the price most of the skidloader splitters go for better off with a stand alone unit, Get a 4-in -1 bucket for the ss or a small grapple unit. Time is money and you will spend more time trying to position the ss over some big round than it takes to noodle in to managable sizes in the first place. Why tie up a 100k or 50k unit for something a 2k unit can do more efficiently. Firewood sales - unless the raw material is free or a by-product of some other positive cash flow endevor is a at best a breakeven or very marginal profit center. One break down on on the SS and all profits are out the window. Break down of stand alone unit, cheap fix mostly if just a splitter, processors different story but generally still less than a 100k unit sitting in shop some where for repair, or if you do your own, back to time is money. If you really like the idea of the ss splitter cheaper alternative is an older farm tractor with a 3 point, add splitter to that. Might even be able to do it on the bucket side if so equipped if set up with quick attach. just my thoughts, Fancy machines don't always mean better or faster production.

 

[Cheesecutter]

I agree unless you are splitting 20 plus inch rounds regularly you would be better off with a stand alone. Skidsteer moynted are great for chunking big stuff down to something a guy can handle, but would be dreadfully slow for making small splits.

 

[zogger]

Good advice reaper. I use an 80 hp CTL to load my processor. With a grapple I can load my deck with 3/4 cord of logs in 5 minutes, then sit on my butt on the processor and work up the logs. Putting a splitter on $50,000 plus machine makes no sense. Way too inefficient and you will be in an out of the cab way more than you think. Doing it with the stand on might work ok but will be more physical labour. I personally don't mess with logs over 20" in diameter. Not worth the headaches.

Lot of good wood in the big stuff.

Well, there's a lot in the small stuff too, just sayin'

 

[Guswhit]

In the welding shop I work in we have repaired 2 splitters that are ss attachments and both guys said they would never purchase one again. Biggest complaint they had was not being able to use the skidder for anything else with out switching front units. Next in line is speed, they both complained it wasn't as fast in real world situations.

 

[jasult]

i have only good things to say about my highly modded bottom splitter. I added a second spliter on top of it and have best of boyh worlds

 

[1grnlwn]

Well lots of comments from people who don't use skidsteer splitters. Some hearsay. Well my situation is a little different. I have a large wood boiler and cut my rounds 24"-30" long. Got any idea how much a fresh 40"-50" dia oak round weighs? My splitter is home made and lays across the front or perpendicular to the centerline of the machine. Pros I have split logs as large as 5 feet in dia weighing around 1800 lbs. 10 min. I can flip logs. I can move logs around were I want them. Speed is in the efficiency of the operator. Hint you are not a skidsteer operator if you have less than 100 hours in the seat. I find the free wood is the big wood that others can't handle. Light duty for machine, medium speed is all that is needed. Switching implements? Really? 2 min. I have 5 attachments for my skid steer and manual bobtach. Silly argument. You do need a dedicated area but if you use a lot of wood and you have a skid steer? Cons. Best to have a helper on outside to pos smaller pieces. Hard to split rounds smaller than about 14" dia. Sometimes it is hard to judge if the split is small or big from the cab. With oak sometimes the piece is too big and one whack with the maul halves it and ready to stack. Our finish size weighs about 30-40 lbs. Would I buy a 50K machine to split firewood? No . But who pays that much to have it sit on a trailer? Full disclosure mine was 16K . Bought it to improve my compound not for business. I have developed a cool technique where I split the round 3/4 back out roll forward rolling (indexing) the log partial split back and repeat. I use my splitter out front with the knife parallel to the ground. Good luck with your choice.

 

[sam-tip]

I only have good thing to say about my skid splitter. Love it. If big rounds is what you have a SS is cheating. Only time I touch or lift 4 ft diameter rounds is to stack the splitt wood on mobile pallet and toss it into the boiler. All the moving is done by machine. At 1350 rpm my 90 horse loader uses about a gallon an hour of fuel. Cheaper and fast than neighbor kid. No lifting of giant rounds. I get the big stuff because no one else wants them. The bulk of wood is in the trunk. I can do 1.5 to 2 cord an hour. Get one with a 4 inch cylinder splitter for speed. 5 inch is to slow but powerful. 36 gallons per minute on a 4 inch cylinder is fast.

Notice how I can see through the splitter to see the knife to align it to the wood. They call it the viewing window. Love it!

I have both 4 and 5 inch tm pro splitters. The round can be laying flat and I just tilt it up and split. Or just split it from the side laying down.

A smooth concrete pad is a must if doing a lot of wood. I used to dig a hole in the ground before the pad. Or wait till frozen ground.

I can say I like splitting when its raining and snowing. Or 100 degrees. I am sitting in the heated cab or turn on the air conditioning when hot outside. Plus listening to the radio.

I made easy work of this pile of rounds.

Shop around. I have broken three other types of splitters for skid steer so far. You get what you pay for. Cheap is cheap.

Sent from my SCH-R950 using Tapatalk

 

[blackdogon57]

No argument that this type of splitter would work well on big rounds that will end up " 30 0r 40 pounds" for OWB. The OP stated that he was looking to produce stove wood for resale. Not gonna happen with that set up. Not sure what climate some of you guys work in but changing hydraulic attachments on a skid steer in cold weather can be a real pain in the butt. For the record I just checked the hour meters on my loader/tractor/ processor. Total on these three machines alone just over 5000 hours. I think that qualifiers me as a fairly seasoned operator.

 

[Butch(OH)]

I have owned one for two years now. Bought it for a specific purpose, big ugly stuff that would bust my butt to get to a log lift and for that it excels. For any other duty they suck, mine is a real expensive toy. Were I confined to one splitting tool a skidsteer mounted splitter would be next to last, right above a sledge and wedge. They are far from the universal slitting tool. The minuses have been pretty well stated, spend your money elsewhere if its going to be the one and only. Mine came from an outfit in Cleveland called Neon Equipment. They sell one that has a two "sided?" attachment plate and you flip the splitter over to split on top,

Dont get me wrong, I really like it for what I bought it for, it just isnt much good for anything else.

 

[sam-tip]

I have owned one for two years now. Bought it for a specific purpose, big ugly stuff that would bust my butt to get to a log lift and for that it excels. For any other duty they suck, mine is a real expensive toy. Were I confined to one splitting tool a skidsteer mounted splitter would be next to last, right above a sledge and wedge. They are far from the universal slitting tool. The minuses have been pretty well stated, spend your money elsewhere if its going to be the one and only. Mine came from an outfit in Cleveland called Neon Equipment. They sell one that has a two "sided?" attachment plate and you flip the splitter over to split on top,

Dont get me wrong, I really like it for what I bought it for, it just isnt much good for anything else.

They are great for getting wood split down to 4 to 6 inch pieces. But if you need 2 to 3 inch splitts you should finish with a smaller splitter.

I season my wood in 4 to 6 inch size. Then if someone wants small fireplace stuff I run a load through the super splitt as needed.



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[Oliver1655]

If you want to use a skid steer for splitting, having a concrete surface to split on is a must. Selling dirty - mud caked wood will not bring back repeat customers. With a concrete pad you can slid the rounds to where you can get a bite on them without having to do major movement with the skid loader to line up on the rounds or fill the rounds up with dirt. The concrete also makes it easy to scoop up the splits with the bucket to load.

For the size of the rounds your will be working with a skid loader splitter will be a great asset to break them up into manageable sizes but I would have another stand alone dedicated horizontal splitter setup with a staging table a helper can keep loaded which will allow the splitter operator to split non-stop, out-feed tables, & an elevator to move the wood away from the splitter/load truck/trailer. 3 people can process a lot of wood this way. (1 running the skid steer, 1 loading the staging table & one operating the stand alone splitter. This also saves a lot on wear/tear of skid steer & will be alot faster in the long run. With basic fabrications skills you can build you stand alone for less than $2,000 easy. You wouldn't even have to have an axle, hitch, or jack. A definite theft deterrent!



I will use my splitter for illustrations purposes. The log lift when in a half raised position works like a staging table. The operator stands on the other side & simply pulls the wood to split towards them. Very little twisting. Knife blade like wedges work well & is the style used on commercial processors. This splitter uses a 2 stage 16 gpm hydraulic pump, standard log splitter valve with pressure relief set at 2,500, & a 4" x 24" stroke cylinder. cycle time is < 9 sec. If you were to upgrade the pump to a 22 gpm cycle time would be 7 sec & a 28 gpm would be 5 sec. I can split 95% of my wood without removing the 4-way option.


This splitter was built mostly with recycled steel so it is not real pretty but works well.


Operator's station. For ergonomics sake, the valve uses a forward-backward actions instead of a left-right. Note the vertical edge spits first then the horizontal edges. This decreased stress on components due to the decreased force needed to split the wood. This splitter does not have an adjustable height 4 way wedge. An adjustable wedge would be handy but if your largest piece will be 5 or 6", just have the horizontal wing at that height & a fixed wedge will work. It does take time to adjust the height of the wedge.

A "Super Splitter" would be another option instead of a hydraulic splitter for the stand alone.

 

[S.Nurseries]

Thank you everyone for your input; it is greatly and truly appreciated and brought much light to the subject.



My decision is to start looking into a small gas engine splitter. The larger rounds could be moved into position with the boxer 532DX with forks that will already on the machine and not make much of a mess. During the firewood season, I will hook up a grappler bucket (if I have one by that time).

Some other major points that were brought up:

-The big mess that a track machine will make in the splitting areas.

- Concrete pad woul help. Since the property is a nursery, more concrete correlates into less plantable area (besides the concrete will really wear rubber tracks).

- Total cost of machine hours compared to stand alone splitter hours.



Everyone brought up some important points. One point that firewood seller in the two counties over just pointed out today is that a great deal of the wood that he would split would happen in two particular times. These times were the months of March through May (and allowed to season over the summer) and again in pre-firewood season into the beginning of the season (end of September- early December), to make smaller pieces of seasoned wood. These times he stated were peak, not the only times that his stand alone splitter was in use. These two times of year are prime nursery times, when the both the full sized skid steer as well as the mini (boxer) would be used the most. Once the tree spade is on the skid steer, I will most likely need it on to pull large nursery stock, and the mini will be busy carting out trees from within the confined areas of the nursery. During this time, I can’t afford to lose a laborer to help with the wood splitting. I want to keep the firewood business a one person operation to maximize the return and keep the cost down for customers.



So, now I’ll start looking reading posts on what stand alone splitter to buy. Maybe, someday I’ll weld together a splitter for the skid steer (as a toy?), but in reality it is not likely, unless the really big rounds make life miserable or I have extra time.
Thanks Again!

 

[lapeer20m]

If i wanted to produce 50 cords of wood per year and i had a skidsteer, i would buy a set of forks and use it to load logs onto my firewood processor. I think a stand alone processor would produce perfect sized pieces of firewood way more efficiently than just about any other method if you are dealing with logs 18" in diameter or smaller. For a couple or few thousand bucks you could build your own processor. You would use less fuel and put fewer hours on your body and your machine per cord.

Somewhere is a video of a processor attached to a skidsteer....

 

[blackdogon57]

Thank you everyone for your input; it is greatly and truly appreciated and brought much light to the subject.



My decision is to start looking into a small gas engine splitter. The larger rounds could be moved into position with the boxer 532DX with forks that will already on the machine and not make much of a mess. During the firewood season, I will hook up a grappler bucket (if I have one by that time).

Some other major points that were brought up:

-The big mess that a track machine will make in the splitting areas.

- Concrete pad woul help. Since the property is a nursery, more concrete correlates into less plantable area (besides the concrete will really wear rubber tracks).

- Total cost of machine hours compared to stand alone splitter hours.



Everyone brought up some important points. One point that firewood seller in the two counties over just pointed out today is that a great deal of the wood that he would split would happen in two particular times. These times were the months of March through May (and allowed to season over the summer) and again in pre-firewood season into the beginning of the season (end of September- early December), to make smaller pieces of seasoned wood. These times he stated were peak, not the only times that his stand alone splitter was in use. These two times of year are prime nursery times, when the both the full sized skid steer as well as the mini (boxer) would be used the most. Once the tree spade is on the skid steer, I will most likely need it on to pull large nursery stock, and the mini will be busy carting out trees from within the confined areas of the nursery. During this time, I can’t afford to lose a laborer to help with the wood splitting. I want to keep the firewood business a one person operation to maximize the return and keep the cost down for customers.



So, now I’ll start looking reading posts on what stand alone splitter to buy. Maybe, someday I’ll weld together a splitter for the skid steer (as a toy?), but in reality it is not likely, unless the really big rounds make life miserable or I have extra time.
Thanks Again!

I think your making a wise decision. Best of luck.