Is the Tractor Supply brand splitter (county line) the best small splitter?

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johndeereg

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Looking to buy a splitter, never had one. Tractor Supply has a 25 ton, but also some bigger models. I split mostly oak, burn maybe 4 cords a year. What do you guys recommend?
 
I have had the splitter in my sig for about 8 years. I bought it at TSC. I don't know who makes the County Line splitters, but Speeco made the TSC splitters at that time.

It's been fine for me, and, like you, I use it for about 5 full cords a year, and my neighbor has used it for a few more cords/yr. There has only been a few really, really tough pieces of crotch silver maple that it was not able to pop, and that's because I was probably not trying in the right spot. I split a lot of scrouged stuff(all sorts of species, including elm), and rarely see oak... For your oak, this splitter would be fine. It's not the fastest splitter on the market, but it's not the slowest either. You don't need the fastest one with the amount that you are splitting. Watch the sales at TSC, as they do get marked down from time to time.

BTW, plan on buying the log cradle for it. The higher tonnage splitters seem to have it, but not the 25 ton. It really makes splitting easier... https://speeco.ordertree.com/log-catcher-3.html

Edit: It looks like Speeco still make the splitters for TSC. The ones on their site are the same as TSC.
 
Have ran about 75 cord through mine since 2017. No serious problems. Cheapo hose clamps I replaced and a drip now and then from the cylinder hoses/lines. Kohler motor starts on the first pull most of the time unless it's really cold.
 
Well, i do not have a boat and do without a lot of other stuff-Have had over the years about 7 splitters-now i am using a Brute Force, kinda like it..
 
I just got the 25t yardmax full beam. 900 before tax already assembled. Been great so far, 10 second cycle time. Seems well built from my small amount of experience with splitters.
 
I've had the splitter in my sig for 20 years now I guess. The only thing I've had to replace is the engine and a few Lovejoy coupler spiders. If you check FB Marketplace, there's usually a few splitters for sale on there, you might save a few $$$'s over buying brand new. A well made splitter just doesn't wear out. Paint may wear off, but the machine really is a lifetime machine if it is built well and taken care of and maintained for most users. Components are easy to replace, like engines, pumps, valves should the need ever arise.

My advice is just stick with a 5hp 20 ton class splitter. They will split 99.99389472% of anything any human can lift up on it, and be cheaper to buy and burn less fuel doing it. I've split everything that grows around here in my area with mine, and I've literally only come upon 2 pieces of wood that my splitter couldn't split... two big gnarly pieces of Sycamore. So, they got left behind in the woods. No biggie.
 
I looked at a 25 ton countyline at tractor supply yesterday and was told they are made by tarterUSA. It had a Kohler engine and the guy that assembles them told me they had zero complaints and zero returns on that particular model- looked very well-made- the welds looked very good I’m no expert but for $999 it seems like a pretty good deal.
 
I recently purchased the tractor supply 25 ton when it went on sale about 2 weeks ago. So far it works great! the gas tank holds approx half of a gallon and runs the machine around 5 hours. Its not terribly difficult to unhook from the truck and drag to the work area, the welds all look solid, the lines all seem very well made. So far I have run about 3 tanks of gas through it and I am about to do its break in maintenance. Im going to do a engine oil change and change the hydraulic oil to a high quality full synthetic and use a Baldor hydraulic oil filter. It hot here year round and freezes only a handful of times during winter so its getting hd 30 in the engine and iso 46 in the hydraulics.
My only complaints are simple..you can not see this thing behind your truck when towing it so its impossible to back it and the other complaint is you can not tell how much gas is in the tank at a glance while operating it. Other than those two issues it has split about 3 cords of huge rounds of knotty red oak approx 28 inches diameter by 20 inches in length, simply put i can not move around anything larger LOL. The wedge head is pretty sharp so it cuts through the knots slowly, if it gets blunted I could see it not handling them.
 
I recently purchased the tractor supply 25 ton when it went on sale about 2 weeks ago. So far it works great! the gas tank holds approx half of a gallon and runs the machine around 5 hours. Its not terribly difficult to unhook from the truck and drag to the work area, the welds all look solid, the lines all seem very well made. So far I have run about 3 tanks of gas through it and I am about to do its break in maintenance. Im going to do a engine oil change and change the hydraulic oil to a high quality full synthetic and use a Baldor hydraulic oil filter. It hot here year round and freezes only a handful of times during winter so its getting hd 30 in the engine and iso 46 in the hydraulics.
My only complaints are simple..you can not see this thing behind your truck when towing it so its impossible to back it and the other complaint is you can not tell how much gas is in the tank at a glance while operating it. Other than those two issues it has split about 3 cords of huge rounds of knotty red oak approx 28 inches diameter by 20 inches in length, simply put i can not move around anything larger LOL. The wedge head is pretty sharp so it cuts through the knots slowly, if it gets blunted I could see it not handling them.
Put a marker stick on it for backing up.
 
What brand do you recommend? I'm willing to pay more of a better splitter, but not over 2000.00.

Get a SuperSplit. It’ll split your splitting time considerably.
It takes 12-14 seconds for a hydraulic splitter ram to go forward and back.

With a Supersplit: 2 seconds.
It’s a bit more than $2k, though, but you’ll never regret it.
-unclemoustache is spot on. But if you need to tow it it's not for you.

-Cookies: Be sure to turn the fuel off when towing, and ditto on Lone Wolf's suggestion.
 
I have had a 25 ton Countyline for about 5 years now, no problems so far. Starts 2nd pull everytime. I just move it around the yard with the Cub Cadet, put it on the trailer if I have to go off my property. Like most splitters its not really towable on the road at speed. If you are gonna leave it out in the weather change the hydraulic fill cap to a breather type to prevent water contamination.
 
I have a 22t County line 6 or so years old. Never have had any issues with it.
And it is made by speeco

Had this one 22T TSC (Speeco) for 9Y and use it hard. I was on a budget and ANYTHING was a step up for me.
Could replace it with something more efficient now, but it still works fine for my purposes. Gone through some pretty nasty stuff with some slight hesitation, but never tapped out.

One minor note (at least to me) is the Kohler that came on mine was always loud, rough and a bit hard to start. It gave up a few years ago and I went with the predator (honda clone) from HF.
Runs like a dream and, if anything, a bit faster although it has theoretically less HP
 
I looked at a 25 ton countyline at tractor supply yesterday and was told they are made by tarterUSA. It had a Kohler engine and the guy that assembles them told me they had zero complaints and zero returns on that particular model- looked very well-made- the welds looked very good I’m no expert but for $999 it seems like a pretty good deal.
Hmmm.. I just looked at the tarterUSA site, and they don't list a log splitter. https://tarterusa.com/ I had always thought that the County Line splitters were made by Speeco, but was not positive, until I looked at the Speeco web page. They sure look like the same splitters as County Line.

The one in my sig has a B&S engine that has worked flawlessly. I had to tighten up the clamps when I 1st got it, and had a bunch of other problems that were due to a lousy job of assembling it at the local TSC store(like double filled engine oil - went back and found the other one they had did not have any oil in it!). Once I got those things taken care of, it's been a good splitter.
 
Hmmm.. I just looked at the tarterUSA site, and they don't list a log splitter. https://tarterusa.com/ I had always thought that the County Line splitters were made by Speeco, but was not positive, until I looked at the Speeco web page. They sure look like the same splitters as County Line.

The one in my sig has a B&S engine that has worked flawlessly. I had to tighten up the clamps when I 1st got it, and had a bunch of other problems that were due to a lousy job of assembling it at the local TSC store(like double filled engine oil - went back and found the other one they had did not have any oil in it!). Once I got those things taken care of, it's been a good splitter.
I noticed that same thing about the tarterusa website. The guy seemed to know what he was talking about - even mentioned that tarterusa is typically known for metal gates and fencing and other products that tsc carries ( and not splitters) , which makes sense, but i’m more inclined to go with the real world physical speeco comparison - i plan going to buy one this week if they will give a military discount - otherwise might wait until memorial day - i will report back if i find any manufacturer marks on it.
 
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