firewood processors
Have been looking at the Woodbine Pro. Anyone have one ? Opinions? Maybe opinions, good or bad, on other processors? Thanks
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The least troublesome processor with the fewest parts that require it to work
is the chomper. The folks at Rainer Hydraulics have been building and selling them for years and used ones come up for sale occasionally when a larger chomper is purchased
Red Prospector owns one with a gas engine unit using it in a high altitude situation and is very happy with it.
the least costly unit they offer is the chomper tractor powered processor that depends on the tractor PTO to power the hydraulic system keeping it very simple using manual controls and a wire rope winch to pull the logs to the splitting and shearing head on the unit.
The chomper shears the wood at the predetermined length and splits it at the same time. The shearing action compresses the wood fiber rings and helps to wick out the moisture by crushing the wood fibers.
The wood shearing blade is unaffected by mud and debris as it is made from a very high strength steel.
The wire rope winch eliminates the need for a tractor with a front end loader and that expense.
They also have a conveyor whuch can be paired with the chomper splitter processors.
Buying one of these would allow you to process a lot of wood
and you would separate the logs larger than the throat of the chomper and
either sell the them for lumber or cut them up and split them using a log splitter. I will recommend the Timberwolf brand with very happy personal experience.
The Raineir Hydraulics folks have a video of the chomper in use and it proves its worth. they will answer your questions with no problems and will take the time to talk to you if you have questions.
The smaller tractor powered unit would be alower cost market entry unit
but you need a tractor to mount it on a three point hitch for the PTO
unless you own a Crisafulli PTO power unit
Look at thier video on the chomper home page and go from there, the tractor powered unit will have a much smaller up front cost for you to enter the business.
The bigger chompers have no issues with the larger diameter fireood logs either but you cannot winch a very crooked log in it unless you cut it resemble a straight log to process it or simply set it aside to cut it up, which will avoid problems with jamming a log that cannot be pulled in with the shearing splitting head.
You can split the fire wood into blocks, halves, quarters, eigths, etc. depending on the options for splitting heads that you order.
it all depends on the quality of the logs and frozen wood splits better with with any splittting head because the water in the log freezes and expands.
leon