Bobcat/skidstter splitter build

[Sawdust inspector]

Anybody have pictures of what they built? Im getting most of the parts together to build my own and am looking for ideas of what to do and not to do. I split lots of large 30" wood. Is a narrow verse wide wedge better is my biggest wonder. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks

 

[deutzman]

Anybody have pictures of what they built? Im getting most of the parts together to build my own and am looking for ideas of what to do and not to do. I split lots of large 30" wood. Is a narrow verse wide wedge better is my biggest wonder. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks

I had a homemade splitter on 3 point for many years. It had a plate pusher and wedge was welded on the beam. Wedge was about 12" tall and from cutting edge to rear was about 12" and back of wedge was about 7" wide. I took the 3 point hitch off and put the splitter on the tractor loader upside down. Worked good till I bent the beam. Again the splitter was old and beam was worn from 25 years of hard use.

I then sold that splitter for parts (cylinder and valve). Went to tractor supply and bought the 3 point hitch splitter they sell. Speeco/ county line brand. This one has the wedge on the rod end of the cylinder and is narrow and about half the size of the old one. I also split large wood. Some up to 45 in. across. This little county line splitter has worked great. Haven't had on piece I couldn't get split. Keep in mind I use this wood in a CB outside stove so the pieces are larger than heater wood for regular inside stove. Also all the wood I split is dry. I get wood any place I can find it that's free. Some of these logs are 5 years old. Never tried it on green wood. When I cut live trees I store the logs about 12 months before blocking and splitting.

Biggest difference I've seen using a splitter upside down is you can hold that wood with a little down pressure and some pieces that would try and ride up on the regular way of splitting are held in place by the down pressure and the smaller wedge goes through cutting or wedging the split. If you want to look at the speeco wedge go to their site and look at that little 3 point splitter they make.