a splitter forged in the bowels of hell ! see pics

[woodbutcher80]

hey guys. just posted this beast on the hearth site... figured youde wanna comment on it too .

found it on craigslist for sale for 500$ . 2 cylinder 22 horsepower wisconsin motor . homemade jobbie .

some of the guys on there said the hydro tank is small and would need replaced.

it looks like the stroke is short.
im about to call the owner.

any suggestions as to what to inquire about ?
its over an hour away so i want to be confident before i travel .

click pics to enlarge em !

 

[Moss Man]

The best thing to do would be to take a tape measure with you and ride over there to have the guy demonstrate it. Looks like a beast, I would love to have it. There are more than 500 bucks worth of parts on that bad boy, make your move.

 

[TreePointer]

Maybe take a few rounds of wood with you just in case he doesn't happen to have any around (purposely?). A bit of elm or some crotch wood might reveal some things.

 

[HuskyMike]

When I went to look at my splitter, I brought Elm and some big maple.

Never thought to bring a crotch piece.

That MTD 25 ton I got used sure does split! I Split a crap load of fire wood while my driveway was being resurfaced today!

 

[husky455rancher]

looks real mean. oinly thing i have a problem with is the stroke looks really small. maybe its the picture id get him to measure it before you go look at it.

 

[woodbutcher80]

k, i just got off the phone with him .
bad news is he has someone thats been bugging him to come out and buy it since a few days ago.

he said if he doesnt buy it, hell call me. i was on the phone with him for about 30 minutes.
heres what he told me .

he worked at a construction company , and on the rainy days, would take pieces from old equipment, and part them together to make this monstrosity.
there were 2 of the best welders around that worked for the company, and a hydraulic expert that worked as a trencher, and he did the hydros on it.

its a 22" stroke and could fit a 24" log.
he said the hydro tank and gas tank were the same size? about 8-10 gallons. he remembers filling the gas tank with 5 gallons and it wouldnt fill it up all the way. maybe he was just talking about the gas tank. ..

the cylinder is from a front end loader, and he assumed it was 2-3" in diameter .

the pump came from a ford backho .

the motor was from an old trencher. he said another company had that same motor on their trencher and when it broke it cost 1000$ for them to have one shipped.

its a manual return handle.

he said theres a starter on it and theres no way of charging the battery , so he would take heavy duty jumper cables ( he said they HAD to be beefy cables to work) and would hook em to his truck and it would fire up right away.
hed hook up the positive the starter terminal and ground the negative.

he said the plug was fouling out at one time, and couldnt figure it out. he then found out it had one of those air filters with the steel mesh that you fill with oil to keep it moist, and when he would fill it to the oil fill line , it would suck oil into the air intake and foul out the plugs. so he said he would fill it half way and it worked perfect then . he suggested some type of paper filter that would work great.

the heavy rear gate that the reflectors attach to was used to counterbalance the 150-200lb tongue weight it has
thats about it

he said im next in line and said the guy is coming out friday afternoon and either way hes gonna call me.
i told him i could be out tomorrow, but he wants to stay loyal .
so well see . . .
now... tell me what ya think of this nonsense. . .

 

[wkpoor]

One thing I see is the pump is above the tank......a design no no. maybe it works just fine and has for years but it would bug me.

 

[Wife'nHubby]

I can't comment of the build of it (because I'm a mechanical dummy ) but you mentioned you are an hour away.... assuming you would be towing this baby home did you notice there is one 'summer' tire and one 'winter' tire?

Shari

 

[woodbutcher80]

i have a trailer to put it in . also, hes replacing one of the tires... ones dry rotted

 

[Steve NW WI]

How comfortable are you with cuss words? Them old Wisconsin engines will have a tendency to increase your vocabulary quite a bit from time to time.

Biggest rule is never shut one down hot if you hope to restart it before it cools off, they are the WORST hot starting engine ever built.

That said, there are still a gazillion of them still running around the country, they are fairly long lasting and easy to wrench on, and parts are readily available.

Overall, it looks like a pretty well-made piece, and I'd probably give 5 bills for it if I were in the market for one.

 

[mga]

if it works, for 500 bucks you can't go wrong. don't critique it on the cosmetics.

you can always change the little things to your liking later.

if someone else is looking at it, i'd consider it gone.

 

[woodbutcher80]

if someone else is looking at it, i'd consider it gone.

ya... what im thinkin too .

oh well, got all summer to find another one, and my backs only 29 years old so ill be ok with or without it.

 

[chugbug]

Just wondering if parts would be avail. for that old of a Wisconcin engine ??

 

[woodbutcher80]

STEVE up there in wisci said theres a million still being used... so i dont think itll be too bad.

 

[woodbutcher80]

good news! they backed out because they had no way of picking it up an hour away. no trailer to pick it up since it has a pin-style coupler (not tow worthy for 85 miles on the freeway) . although, then again it might be fine. the owner said he would tow it on the freeway and just take off his ball on his receiver hitch and put a hge beefy bolt through it. . .

well guess whos got a trailer to put this on!!! heheheh

going to check it out tomorrow morning. with cash in hand.
i hope you all realize im motivated to go out there cus of your guys’ excitement!
so… what to bring ...
i have some splintery american elm, crotch pieces from sugar maple, and knotted hickory.

what cycle time should i be looking for ?
as in from when the blade starts to split an 18” long log to when its done traveling 18 inches.
i have no idea. i read somewhere cycle time to go from when the arm starts to go forward to when its locked back ready for another one is usually 12 seconds?

any leaking lines… etc.

i dont want to pay 500 , 450$ tops.
and thats if nothing leaks, it starts right up, and rips through some angry maple i got layin around.
then if/when i get her home, ill take a ton of pics for your guys to point me in the right direction as to what the heck i need to change and what i need to improve ( like not needing a car to start it ! ) .

wish me luck!

 

[Baldman]

Good luck! Hope it goes well for you... take pics!!

 

[woodbutcher80]

so if he starts it with jumper cables and touches the starter and grounds it, is it only missing a battery? and im assuming a stator of some sort to charge it eh?

 

[Zodiac45]

It's not going too be all that powerful if it's only got a 2-3" inch cylinder. (My little 20ton 5hp has a 4" cyl.) I don't know what size pump it's twirling but could have a fast cycle with that size cyl. Motor seems a bit overkill for that cyl.? Can't hurt too check it out.

 

[woodbutcher80]

i picked her up! 400 smackers! not too bad. it ripped through the sugar maple crotch log, the nasty elm split , and a piece of maple stump. it struggled a little on the maple stump, but i just repositioned and it plowed through.

the cylinder arm is 2" , so ill look into getting a new arm sometime. it simply bolts right on to the I-beam . ill load more pics .

i think the first thing ill do is put a new detent on it so i can have an automatic return. i guess i can get any one that has the mounting bolts lined up and hydro pump lin on the right side? i have no idea.

thanks guys ! opcorn:

 

[woodbutcher80]

just foolin around today.........