You aint going to get a good review from reading anything at lowes, that aint exactly the home of folks who bust serious wood, use their machine often, and expect 27 tons of force when they buy a 27 ton machine. Lowes primarly caters to folks who want to bust up a cord or two, saw it all up with their little Poulan wild things, cart it to their wood pile with their little garden tractors, and sit in front of their little barbecues and look at their half a cord with some pride while they lie to their neighbors about how the did it all in less than an hour thanks to their trusty wild thing and Troy Bilt splitter. Folks generally buy something at lowes, come back to their website within a month or so, and tell how good or not good it worked. Seriously doubt that anybody puts the thing to the test of the real world, and shows up three years later to let everyone know that the thing lasted three years, four months, six days, two hours, and sixteen seconds before it went bang and scared their eyebrows six laps around their forehead.
Like I said, this is the real world here at AS. We push our machines to the maximum that they were intended to deliver on, and we report back with success or failures. I have split wood with that Troy Bilt for 16 hours straight in a blinding snow storm through some of the worst wood this part of the country had to offer (okay, slight exaggeration, but it sounds good doesnt it?). It delivered right up to the point that it gave up, but boy when it gave up it rendered the machine useless. Not what I expect from a machine that is marketed as a 27 ton machine and runs around in the arena of more promising machine. Like I said before, I have been scoffed at many times around here for running the thing, putting up with the "you aint a serious wood cutter with a machine like that, get you an Iron and Oak or a Speeco and quite fooling around."
I tried to put myself in your shoes, and figured you wanted the gods own truth. for the amount of coin you are figuring to lay out, you can buy a better built machine brand new.Will you have problems with another machine?Of coarse, they are machines after all and they break. But I seriously doubt you are going to experience a breakage with a speeco that will render the machine useless, and if you do you have speeco to stand behind their product.
If you have this problem with a Troy Bilt, its going to cost you $400 for the cylinder.I know, I priced em. Its going to cost you to get that mount cut off, straightened, and re welded back on or a new one will have to be constructed. Then you will have five gallons of hydralic fluid to replace at $12 a gallon.Then you will be right back from where you started. All told, you can plan on a $600 repair bill.
Me, I would start out with something that has proven its place in the real world.
