I bought this about a month ago when I realized I have about 25 good sized oaks to come down. My old splitter is a 20 ton and slow. This one is a 27 ton and has a 11 second cycle.
First thing I would say is it's not a heavy duty machine but I believe it will be fine for the 50 cords or so I have to do.
I have run about 5 cords so far and there are thing's I like and dislike. One thing I didn't like was it leaked hydraulic oil from the first time I started it. Called the factory and they had me take in in for service. Waited about a week and got the call all set come and get it. When I showed up to pick it up there is a puddle under it, the guy swears it wasn't leaking and tightened the hose clamp on the feed to the pump runs it for about a minute and it's out of gas. He did put a new hydraulic pump on it. Put it to work the next day and it leaks bad, its coming from the feed line from the tank to the pump. It seems to be plenty tight but I noticed no vent hole in the cap on hydro tank like my old one. Look in the manual and it should have one, now it dose and no more leak's.
Some of the thing's I like are that it starts on the first or second pull. I didn't time it but it runs a long time on a tank of fuel.(0.9 gal.) I really like the wedge design the flare on the wedge opens up the splits nice. The top of the wedge grabs first and pulls the wood down to the beam. One of the things I don't like is the beam, the wedge rides in a Channel and makes it difficult to roll split pieces on it. My old one had a I beam and the wedge clamped on and could be adjusted as it wore. The channel also holds a lot of debris that you have to clean out often. At first I didn't think the log cradles would be big enough but they seem to be fine so far. Have not had much time in the horizontal position, all big stuff so far. https://photos.app.goo.gl/wguyUGE9f7kF9PYD8 One other thing I didn't like was the motor had no protection so I made this out of some re-bar. May still put some expanded metal on top, but will have to lift it to horizontal to fuel it. All in all I'm happy with it for the $999.00 I paid for it. Some of what it's done so far.
First thing I would say is it's not a heavy duty machine but I believe it will be fine for the 50 cords or so I have to do.
I have run about 5 cords so far and there are thing's I like and dislike. One thing I didn't like was it leaked hydraulic oil from the first time I started it. Called the factory and they had me take in in for service. Waited about a week and got the call all set come and get it. When I showed up to pick it up there is a puddle under it, the guy swears it wasn't leaking and tightened the hose clamp on the feed to the pump runs it for about a minute and it's out of gas. He did put a new hydraulic pump on it. Put it to work the next day and it leaks bad, its coming from the feed line from the tank to the pump. It seems to be plenty tight but I noticed no vent hole in the cap on hydro tank like my old one. Look in the manual and it should have one, now it dose and no more leak's.
Some of the thing's I like are that it starts on the first or second pull. I didn't time it but it runs a long time on a tank of fuel.(0.9 gal.) I really like the wedge design the flare on the wedge opens up the splits nice. The top of the wedge grabs first and pulls the wood down to the beam. One of the things I don't like is the beam, the wedge rides in a Channel and makes it difficult to roll split pieces on it. My old one had a I beam and the wedge clamped on and could be adjusted as it wore. The channel also holds a lot of debris that you have to clean out often. At first I didn't think the log cradles would be big enough but they seem to be fine so far. Have not had much time in the horizontal position, all big stuff so far. https://photos.app.goo.gl/wguyUGE9f7kF9PYD8 One other thing I didn't like was the motor had no protection so I made this out of some re-bar. May still put some expanded metal on top, but will have to lift it to horizontal to fuel it. All in all I'm happy with it for the $999.00 I paid for it. Some of what it's done so far.