3 pt splitter

[caplinga]

I have a 30 horse Kubota tractor and I'm considering getting a wood splitter. Any advice on weather I should use the 3 pt hitch or get a unit with it's own engine.

My sensibilities tell me to use the engine I already have (on the tractor) rather than buy a new engine... but as I look into it the cycle time of the Kubota may be a limiting factor. The manual gives the values for hydraulic flow as follows...Implement Pump-8.3GPM...Power Steering Pump-4.9GPM... Total Flow- 13.2GPM.

 

[Swamp Yankee]

Do you have the Hydraulic Taps?

If you have the hydraulic taps and plan on using those you are limited to about 8 gpm and your splitter will be slow. You can mount a Prince PTO pump and get the speed up. Having worked with 3 pt hitch splitters there are a few things I can warn you about.

First, they are low, so you're stooped over all the time, but the good side is you can get a big round on the beam without lifting it 2 feet.

Second, they weigh a lot and you may need to add ballast to the bucket in order to safely drive around with the splitter mounted.

Third, forget about maneuvering in the woods. Between the bucket in the front and the splitter hanging off the back I found I had to be very careful about getting hung up and how I approached turns.

Fourth, if the splitter is mounted on the tractor, you can't use it to bring wood to the splitter. I use my bucket almost like a log lift and feed table. Load it with wood to be split drive up to the splitter on the side opposite where I'm working, get the bucket even with the I-Beam and just pull the rounds on with a pulp hook or pickeroon. Makes for a slick system.

Anyway I find it much faster to use a separate powered splitter but there are the added maintenance costs and higher up front cost when purchasing.

It all depends I guess like everything else associated with wood, how much do you want to spend, how much will you use it, and will you regret what you bought and spend more money buying what you really need / want. Can't help you with that one.

Are there any particular models you're looking at? Several members here do use PTO splitters and may be able to give you first hand feedback on the particular unit you're thinking about.

Take Care

 

[Old Goat]

Get a stand-alone splitter, one that will split both vertical and horizontal. Save the wear and tear on your Kubota. As was mentioned I would think that the tractor would come in handy for moving the wood around and lifting the larger rounds on to the splitter.

 

[wampum]

I used a # point splitter for several years. I am really happy with my stand alone. Now I use my front loader to pick up big rounds and stack the split wood in the bucket to take where I want.(using the bucket as a splitter table)

Probably the biggest problem with a three point besides speed that Swamp Yankee mentioned is you are running up hours on your tractor.It also takes more fuel to run a tractor then a small engine. But it was all I had for years and was pretty cheap to buy. I got it used for $350.00 and never had any trouble with it. I still have it,I have considered selling it,but thought I might keep it if my splitter breaks down. It does not eat anything sitting there.

 

[TreePointer]

Swamp Yankee and the others pretty much covered it for me.

Another issue is that if you ever move "off the farm" or get rid of your tractor(s), you can still use your towable splitter. I've transported my Huskee 35-ton by hand, lawn tractor, utility tractor, and by trailer hitch behind a midsized sedan and full sized pickup.

 

[bowtechmadman]

I've got a stand alone, as well as a 3pt mounted cone type splitter that spins w/ the PTO. Stand alone much easier and probably safer than the cone style. The cone style is nice and is handy for big stuff that i can split right where it lays...plus it was only 50 bucks.

 

[oneoldbanjo]

I have a 33HP New Holland and I tried my neighbor 3Pt splitter.....and I didn't like it. Using my hydraulics the splitter was very slow, the splitter beam was too low to allow you to stand up, and it stuck straight out the back and it made the tractor very bulky. It also tied up the tractor so you could not haul with the trailer or use the loader to aid the splitting. The final thing that convinced me not to get a 3 point was the extra hours it would put on the tractor engine.....which will be very costly to rebuild someday. The cost of an engine rebuild on the tractor will be more than the cost of a stand alone splitter!

I bought an Iron and Oak 26 ton splitter that can split vertically and horizontally, and it is so much better than the tractor splitter. If you decide you want a tractor splitter, get one that has it's own hydrualic pump that drives off the PTO and has a quick cycle time, and one that can split both vertically and horizontal.....and one that has the splitting level up where it allows you to stand while operating the splitter......and some sort of table would be nice!

 

[mooseracing]

The final thing that convinced me not to get a 3 point was the extra hours it would put on the tractor engine.....which will be very costly to rebuild someday.

I think the hours would be minimal for the normal homeowner heating a house with wood. How many hours are people putting on their log splitters a year?

Maybe 20 at most for 10 cords? Most diesels can hit 8-10k hours before a rebuild if they are in a homeowner service.

Even gas engines can go quite a long time when maintained.

I don't have a bucket, so i'm not worried about that aspect, not to mention I noodle the logs and put them on the splitter. Also for me the 3 pt splitter was alot easier to maneuver in tight woods compared to having another 10ft pivoting how it wanted hanging off the drawbar.

You are also now only maintaining only one engine which is a plus. Less fluid changes save cash quickly. When you have less to maintain you usually maintain them to a better standard or more often.

The height wasn't a big deal for me, the splitter I used could move up and down with the 3 point, it actually went higher than most standalone models.

The only drawback I can see if the fuel debate. I have Gas tractor and gas splitter to compare, compared to most people with newer tractors with diesel, and the right size pump you could be sipping fuel with the tractor.

 

[Highbeam]

Before getting all jazzed up about a pto powered hydraulic pump realize that they are very very expensive and then you would still need to put a hydro fluid reservoir on the splitter. Yes, it would be a great splitter but no, it wouldn't be cheap.

I use a bark buster tractor powered cone splitter. Terrribly unsafe. I vote stand alone gas. Fluid changes are not costly, they use about a quart of oil vs. 2 gallons for my 30 HP tractor. Then the every 400 hour change of 7 gallons of trans oil, plus about 100$ for filters, etc. make the tractor hours much costlier than the small gas engine hours.

Oh, and you need the tractor screaming at PTO rpm to get the flow numbers from the tractors hyudraulics or from the PTO pump. Not a gentle idle, screaming.

 

[cantoo]

I have a Kubota L35 the TLB model so it has a decent pump. I have 2 splitters that are 3 point hitch and a few months ago bought a Speeco 28 ton with gas engine. The 3 point hitch ones were a pain to use just because it tied up the tractor for other uses. Putting the spitter on meant I had to split enough to make it worthwhile. And of course a few neighbours wanted to borrow my splitter so down the road goes my tractor. And while they have the tractor they might as well do a few other things with it, boom 2 weeks gone by and me with no tractor. The gas engine one is handier, even renting it out a few times. I'm keeping the 3 pth ones just because I'm a hoarder and like using them once in awhile. If I were you I would buy the stand alone and use the tractor for saving you back breaking work.

 

[rancher2]

I have a 30 horse Kubota tractor and I'm considering getting a wood splitter. Any advice on weather I should use the 3 pt hitch or get a unit with it's own engine.

My sensibilities tell me to use the engine I already have (on the tractor) rather than buy a new engine... but as I look into it the cycle time of the Kubota may be a limiting factor. The manual gives the values for hydraulic flow as follows...Implement Pump-8.3GPM...Power Steering Pump-4.9GPM... Total Flow- 13.2GPM.

I ran a three point splitter for years that I had build. I used it on a 3010 JD that had enough hyd to run it fast ,it worked great. Then we bought another farm 12 miles away so I made it into a stand alone model and it has been 20 years ago and it is still running. Since your tractor is going to need a pto pump to get you some speed I would go with a stand alone model from the start

 

[mooseracing]

Not a gentle idle, screaming.

All depends on the pump you run. I work on older tractors generally that don't have remotes, so I get to design it how I need it. You can get a pump that will allow you to work with less than 540 or 1000 pto rpm.

I'm not sure why that is considered screaming, the tractors are designed to work there all day every day. By the other logic you should call the log splitter stand alone setup screaming, alot of them spin at 2000-3800 rpm. Compared to most tractor 540 PTO is less than 2k rpm.

The OP needs to find a tractor setup that is sized properly and try it, then try a stand alone and see what you hate/like between the 2.

If you have other toys you want that are hydraulically powered, this can help open that door.

 

[coog]

I have a tractor mounted splitter behind my Kubota M7040. It has its' own pump and reservoir. It operates at idle speed, goes vertical and can be raised or lowered by the three-point to a comfortable working level.Unlike some I have seen, the splitter operates at a 90˚ angle to the tractor (between the rear tires), which allows me to pull a trailer mounted to the back of the splitter.It is very fast and economical.

 

[Agrarian]

I recently faced the same question and went with a 3PT hitch splitter and have no regrets. Yes, if you buy one that uses the tractor hydraulics it will be painfully slow. Fortunately the easy fix is to buy one that has an outboard PTO hydraulic pump. I bought a Timberwolf TW3 which has a 21 GPM single stage pump rated at ~2200 PSI. I run my Kubota L4400 at 1600 RPM (540 PTO RPM = 2400 engine RPM) so it is about half throttle and it gives a full cycle (24") time of about 12 secs. However I seldom need to have it move much more than 12" to split most of my wood so the majority can be split in a 6 sec cycle or less. Yes you will use more fuel than a self-powered splitter and you will be putting hours on an expensive tractor. My reasoning is that is what I bought a tractor for so if I put 10 hours on it to split my 5 cords of wood, I will have put 200 hours on it in 20 years - hardly a concern. On the plus side, the Prince pump is a single stage pump which means it will not slow to a crawl when it meets resistance like 99% of the self powered units so nasty crotch pieces split at the same fast rate as a straight grained piece of red oak. Another plus is that you can adjust the beam height to any level that is comfortable. The self powered units have a beam height from 20" to 30", averaging 24" on the ones I considered. This is too low for me to be comfortable long term. You can also drop the beam to ground level to roll the really big rounds on it. I have a picture on this site of a 27" chunk of red oak I easily rolled onto mine - no need jockeying the round under a vertical splitter which can be a ball buster.

Sorry for the long post but I am really sold on this splitter.

 

[coog]

This is wkpoor's set up. I saw the picture and found one just like it.

 

[Agrarian]

This is wkpoor's set up. I saw the picture and found one just like it.

This is a nice unit and was on my list of potential splitters when I was in the market this year. On the plus side it will travel through the woods better than my TW3 which sticks straight out the back.

However, since the wedge is on the ram, the wood will tend to pile up right where you are standing and between the tractor and splitter. A splitter whose ram pushes the wood through a fixed wedge allows the use of a table to catch the wood past the wedge which is a real time saver when you have to process a large chunk multiple times and saves the ole back when tossing the just-split wood into a trailer/truck.

Again, because the wedge is on the ram, you have to fully retract the ram in order to dislodge a chunk from the wedge. On a fixed wedge design, you just put another chunk on and it will push the stuck chunk through - no wasted time. For me this is a minor convenience since I seldom experience stuck chunks.

Also, given the ability of the 3PT to drop the splitter to the ground, I would not find the vertical feature all that useful.

 

[coog]

My splitter has the wedge on the ram, but it also has square tubing mounted on either side.These tubes can be adjusted for length and serve as "wedge clearers", so when the piece of wood returns stuck on the wedge it runs into these and clears itself. I honestly didn't know what they were for when I bought the thing, but it became obvious in short order. I'll get some pictures.

Oh, and ditto on the vertical function. I never use it.

 

[oneoldbanjo]

There sure are lots of opinions.....and as each person does their firewood differently the type of splitter will vary.

The stand alone splitter works best for me....it does not tie up my tractor. Once I have parked the splitter outside my woodshed I need the tractor to haul my trailer around in the woods to gather up the cut rounds. When the rounds are really big I might even be unhooking the tractor from the trailer to use the front end loader to lift the rounds up into the trailer. With the splitter parked at the woodshed and the trailer parked beside it, and I then unload the trailer and split while I am unloading the trailer. I can pick a round up at the trailer and drop it on the splitter, split the round, then carry the pieces over to the woodshed and stack them. The trailer, splitter and woodshed are within 15 feet of each other. I never have to bend over and pick anything up once the trailer is loaded. My Iron and Oak has the wedge on the ram and I have the table attachements and I can split the round without moving away from the splitter. I have an OWB so I only split small enough to make it reasonable to lift and handle - I don't split anything that weighs less than 30 - 40 pounds. If I was splitting into very small pieces for an indoor Wood stove I can see how the wedge on the beam, a 4 way wedge and a log table on the end of the beam could be better.

 

[coog]

This splitter is my first. I've been using a Monster Maul for over 30 years and have been quite happy with it, but I will be 50 in November and I figure I'll give technology a try.Like chainsaws, I'll probably end up with more than one.:greenchainsaw:

 

[Agrarian]

This splitter is my first. I've been using a Monster Maul for over 30 years and have been quite happy with it, but I will be 50 in November and I figure I'll give technology a try.Like chainsaws, I'll probably end up with more than one.:greenchainsaw:

This is my first too. Like you I'm in my 50's and starting to feel the almost 40 years of splitting with a 6 lb maul and wedges. At times I do miss the precision of splitting by hand though. There is something about being able to hit the same spot on a chunk when swinging a maul or being able to split a particularly nasty looking piece because you understand the splitting characteristics of that wood specie.

But then I also get a charge out of throwing the most miserable piece I can find on the splitter, pulling the lever and listening to it scream as it is being torn apart. Power is a wonderful thing!