coolhandbrad
ArboristSite Lurker
Built-Rite 24 hpws splitter INFO for anyone interested
This is going to be a long post for those interested in reading it. I would recommend hitting the bathroom first and then get you favorite beverage before starting.
I started a thread some time ago asking about a commercial grade splitter for a firewood business I was considering starting. After hearing what people had to say and talking with several manufactures my dad (decided he needed something to do in retirement) and I ordered a built-rite 24 hpws and 16 foot conveyor. We ordered it roughly a week or so before Christmas, talking with John Smith he told us that with the orders in front of us it would be ready to ship middle of February and could expect delivery around 1st of March. Around the 3rd week of January we had changed some business idea and decided we didn’t need the conveyor, called John he said not a problem I’ve got someone who will take it. So on the 31st John calls saying orders ready to ship, anyhow had some money tied up until the 15th so had to call John and say hey we need you to hold it until the 15th. John wasn’t really happy about it but agreed on the 15th. My lesson was learned next time I won’t get our money tied up thinking I have a certain amount of time. Any how the 15th turned out to be a Saturday so we called the following Monday gave him our credit card info for the balance. John said ok will ship it out on Friday so I think great I’m excited going to finally get the splitter. So a week to 10 days later no word about the splitter, so I guess I better call and see what’s going on.
I get on the phone and John says “I was just getting ready to call you” at this point I wish I would have ran. So I say how’s it going? Calling about freight tracking, you guys get the idea. John tells me well I haven’t shipped your splitter, but I have one in Illinois sitting at a truck terminal customers financing fell through he never took delivery of it and I would just like to have the terminal forward it to you. It’s got an upgraded Kohler engine on it and I’ll kick that it in at no extra charge. I verify with him several times that it is brand new and the original customer never took delivery, John tells me that’s correct its just been sitting at the truck terminal in Rockford Illinois. So thinking it sounds like a good deal I agree, then John tells me it has an 8 way and 10 way wedge with it, and that he’ll send me some ups tags to ship them back to him. So 4 days later FedEx freight in Flagstaff calls your splitter is in great its here. So I call my dad and say hey let’s take a cruise and go pick it up
We get to the freight terminal it has a ramp to get the splitter to ground level, only problem is the ramps to narrow to back a truck up to get it on the road. The terminals only has two scrawny guys working there so we had lots of fun rolling it down a slippery steep ramp. So we get it out in the light and the first problem is the splitter is just caked in road salt, funny seeing as how its supposedly been sitting at a truck terminal in Illinois. Then one of the guys chimes in saying it shipped from Wisconsin not Illinois well that was real WTF moment, not knowing any better we hook it up and hit the road. 2nd lesson learned if it’s not right refuse delivery.
We get it back to my place btw it towed ok we only ran about 60 coming home on the interstate. Now comes the up close and personal inspection and nightmare. Half the paint on the main is all gone, push plate paint is worn, the trailer tongue is jacked up from someone backing into it, you’ll get a better idea looking at the pictures. Next funny thing is this brand new splitter has about 6 inches of gas in the tank another red flag, checked the engine oil and its almost completely empty on the dipstick and the little bit that was left wasn’t new clean oil. All the wedges showed signs of use except the 10 way, one had been used so much someone had touched it up with a grinder.
At this point angry doesn’t even begin to describe how I was feeling. So I don’t want to call because a phone call at this point would be really ugly. So I type out a nice email and include a bunch of pictures and tell John don’t call me call my old man, he’s a little more collected than I am. The next day John calls my dad and leaves a super long voice mail, first words out of his mouth is sorry about the road salt the guy(my take on the guy is he was the original customer) had to tow it a 100 miles to the freight terminal. And excuse continued to go on and on, So my dad calls him back, John doesn’t want the splitter back keep the extra wedges I’ll send you some paint, and we’ll call it even. So I have a used splitter that I’m $13,000.00 into including freight.
So I washed the splitter down to get all the salt off the machine, however the rust is already setting in on most of the hose clamps machine and any other bare metal that’s come into contact with salt. This things has a ton of hose clamps on it and the must have run out of the correct sizes because they all large enough for pipe of a larger diameter. I guess no could be bothered with trimming them down to an appropriate length, no worries I can take care of that its not like I paid a small fortune for the machine. No gas shut off valve on a 15 gallon gas tank gee why would anyone want that? Then we’ve got a gate valve on the hydraulic tank great if we need to turn it off we can crank on it for a while guess a ball valve would have cost too much. The tool box is an absolute joke looks nothing like the pictures on the website if it cost more than 10 bucks they over paid for it. The list goes on but I think everyone gets the point.
Does it split wood? The answer is yes and it has an 11.5-12 second cycle time. The log lift is a really nice feature I see where that can really save a man’s back, it does have a metering valve to control how fast it goes up and down. I also like the wedge that goes up and down, no metering valve on it though so its super touchy I guess I will add my own. You have to run the Kohler engine almost full throttle to get full splitting power so it does try and bog down and die. My old 40+ year old splitter doesn’t run much above an idle and seems to have just much splitting power all be it a 25 second cycle time. I find the nicest feature to be the auto cycle valve those are slick. It’s to bad every time I look at it make my blood boil and makes me have some not so nice thoughts.
Anyhow that’s been my Built-Rite experience. Its really sad I had wanted to order a blockmaster to go with the splitter so I could have a 2 part processor, but that is not going to happen now. Couldn’t even get a new invoice for the splitter, I had received one for the original order but all that was was a quote type invoice. I would recommend not purchasing anything from Built-Rite, however if you do make sure you get it in writing in a contract. Anyway enjoy the pictures of my NEW splitter, all pictures were taken before I ever split one piece of wood.
Sorry I couldn't figure out how to embed the photos.
Brad
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums...ewood/2014-03-10_14-27-53_332_zps542cb200.jpg
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums...ewood/2014-03-10_14-28-12_224_zps14c2d57d.jpg
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums...ewood/2014-03-10_14-29-24_421_zps216ff2b6.jpg
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums...ewood/2014-03-10_16-29-54_717_zps5dcb81d4.jpg
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums...ewood/2014-03-10_16-31-57_362_zpsac8c39ad.jpg
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums/r638/woodchuckersfirewood/2014-03-10_16-34-06_22_zps766b75bc.jpg
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums...ewood/2014-03-10_16-30-52_433_zpsb30a72ab.jpg
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums...ewood/2014-03-10_16-30-25_205_zpsa9575f8d.jpg
This is going to be a long post for those interested in reading it. I would recommend hitting the bathroom first and then get you favorite beverage before starting.
I started a thread some time ago asking about a commercial grade splitter for a firewood business I was considering starting. After hearing what people had to say and talking with several manufactures my dad (decided he needed something to do in retirement) and I ordered a built-rite 24 hpws and 16 foot conveyor. We ordered it roughly a week or so before Christmas, talking with John Smith he told us that with the orders in front of us it would be ready to ship middle of February and could expect delivery around 1st of March. Around the 3rd week of January we had changed some business idea and decided we didn’t need the conveyor, called John he said not a problem I’ve got someone who will take it. So on the 31st John calls saying orders ready to ship, anyhow had some money tied up until the 15th so had to call John and say hey we need you to hold it until the 15th. John wasn’t really happy about it but agreed on the 15th. My lesson was learned next time I won’t get our money tied up thinking I have a certain amount of time. Any how the 15th turned out to be a Saturday so we called the following Monday gave him our credit card info for the balance. John said ok will ship it out on Friday so I think great I’m excited going to finally get the splitter. So a week to 10 days later no word about the splitter, so I guess I better call and see what’s going on.
I get on the phone and John says “I was just getting ready to call you” at this point I wish I would have ran. So I say how’s it going? Calling about freight tracking, you guys get the idea. John tells me well I haven’t shipped your splitter, but I have one in Illinois sitting at a truck terminal customers financing fell through he never took delivery of it and I would just like to have the terminal forward it to you. It’s got an upgraded Kohler engine on it and I’ll kick that it in at no extra charge. I verify with him several times that it is brand new and the original customer never took delivery, John tells me that’s correct its just been sitting at the truck terminal in Rockford Illinois. So thinking it sounds like a good deal I agree, then John tells me it has an 8 way and 10 way wedge with it, and that he’ll send me some ups tags to ship them back to him. So 4 days later FedEx freight in Flagstaff calls your splitter is in great its here. So I call my dad and say hey let’s take a cruise and go pick it up
We get to the freight terminal it has a ramp to get the splitter to ground level, only problem is the ramps to narrow to back a truck up to get it on the road. The terminals only has two scrawny guys working there so we had lots of fun rolling it down a slippery steep ramp. So we get it out in the light and the first problem is the splitter is just caked in road salt, funny seeing as how its supposedly been sitting at a truck terminal in Illinois. Then one of the guys chimes in saying it shipped from Wisconsin not Illinois well that was real WTF moment, not knowing any better we hook it up and hit the road. 2nd lesson learned if it’s not right refuse delivery.
We get it back to my place btw it towed ok we only ran about 60 coming home on the interstate. Now comes the up close and personal inspection and nightmare. Half the paint on the main is all gone, push plate paint is worn, the trailer tongue is jacked up from someone backing into it, you’ll get a better idea looking at the pictures. Next funny thing is this brand new splitter has about 6 inches of gas in the tank another red flag, checked the engine oil and its almost completely empty on the dipstick and the little bit that was left wasn’t new clean oil. All the wedges showed signs of use except the 10 way, one had been used so much someone had touched it up with a grinder.
At this point angry doesn’t even begin to describe how I was feeling. So I don’t want to call because a phone call at this point would be really ugly. So I type out a nice email and include a bunch of pictures and tell John don’t call me call my old man, he’s a little more collected than I am. The next day John calls my dad and leaves a super long voice mail, first words out of his mouth is sorry about the road salt the guy(my take on the guy is he was the original customer) had to tow it a 100 miles to the freight terminal. And excuse continued to go on and on, So my dad calls him back, John doesn’t want the splitter back keep the extra wedges I’ll send you some paint, and we’ll call it even. So I have a used splitter that I’m $13,000.00 into including freight.
So I washed the splitter down to get all the salt off the machine, however the rust is already setting in on most of the hose clamps machine and any other bare metal that’s come into contact with salt. This things has a ton of hose clamps on it and the must have run out of the correct sizes because they all large enough for pipe of a larger diameter. I guess no could be bothered with trimming them down to an appropriate length, no worries I can take care of that its not like I paid a small fortune for the machine. No gas shut off valve on a 15 gallon gas tank gee why would anyone want that? Then we’ve got a gate valve on the hydraulic tank great if we need to turn it off we can crank on it for a while guess a ball valve would have cost too much. The tool box is an absolute joke looks nothing like the pictures on the website if it cost more than 10 bucks they over paid for it. The list goes on but I think everyone gets the point.
Does it split wood? The answer is yes and it has an 11.5-12 second cycle time. The log lift is a really nice feature I see where that can really save a man’s back, it does have a metering valve to control how fast it goes up and down. I also like the wedge that goes up and down, no metering valve on it though so its super touchy I guess I will add my own. You have to run the Kohler engine almost full throttle to get full splitting power so it does try and bog down and die. My old 40+ year old splitter doesn’t run much above an idle and seems to have just much splitting power all be it a 25 second cycle time. I find the nicest feature to be the auto cycle valve those are slick. It’s to bad every time I look at it make my blood boil and makes me have some not so nice thoughts.
Anyhow that’s been my Built-Rite experience. Its really sad I had wanted to order a blockmaster to go with the splitter so I could have a 2 part processor, but that is not going to happen now. Couldn’t even get a new invoice for the splitter, I had received one for the original order but all that was was a quote type invoice. I would recommend not purchasing anything from Built-Rite, however if you do make sure you get it in writing in a contract. Anyway enjoy the pictures of my NEW splitter, all pictures were taken before I ever split one piece of wood.
Sorry I couldn't figure out how to embed the photos.
Brad
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums...ewood/2014-03-10_14-27-53_332_zps542cb200.jpg
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums...ewood/2014-03-10_14-28-12_224_zps14c2d57d.jpg
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums...ewood/2014-03-10_14-29-24_421_zps216ff2b6.jpg
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums...ewood/2014-03-10_16-29-54_717_zps5dcb81d4.jpg
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums...ewood/2014-03-10_16-31-57_362_zpsac8c39ad.jpg
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums/r638/woodchuckersfirewood/2014-03-10_16-34-06_22_zps766b75bc.jpg
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums...ewood/2014-03-10_16-30-52_433_zpsb30a72ab.jpg
http://i1175.photobucket.com/albums...ewood/2014-03-10_16-30-25_205_zpsa9575f8d.jpg
