chrisp929
ArboristSite Lurker
Hello all,
I think this may be my first or second post. I frequently google things online and i always seem to find my answers HERE on this site. So THANK YOU.
I came here to tell you all a story.
I put in a Jotul c450 wood stove instert in my house a year ago. All this past winter i have been burning pure suger maple from my father urban property. I hired a family member who owns a tree service to cut the maples down, buck them to 18" lengths and clean up the rest. I split 13 pallets of sugar maple all by myself over 2 weeks with a friends splitter and burned maple all this past winter long. It was great to have a cozy home in the middle of the worst winter i can remember.
I loved the 'homesteader' aspect of firewood burning, and having an emergency source of heat in the winter. So a couple weeks ago i googled the Huskee 22 ton splitter and found reviews, many of which were from this site and Hearth. Most people only complained about the hard starting of the cruddy Briggs engine but loved the splitter. I heard that the newest version of this splitter just came out and was basically what i consider to be Gen 3. It has a Kohler engine, built in log cradle, and they moved the engine to the driver side away from your legs when splitting horizontally. I decided to spend my hard earned cash on one of these as i can not afford an Iron and Oak at $2,600+. SIGH.
I will preface this following part with the fact that short of building engines from scratch, I am VERY mechanically inclined.
On April 29th of this year ( 6 days ago) i purchased a Huskee 22 Ton Splitter with Kohler SH265 engine from a Tractor Supply in Troy, N.Y. After bringing it home and setting it up, i ran it and split wood for probably a couple hours. The Kohler engine was VERY hard to start. Once it started, it seemed to run fine and also seemed to be powerful enough to run this splitter. Initially i thought it was a great combination but was VERY weary of the hard start. I figured there may not have been gas in the float and i chalked it up to a new dry engine.
Today i go to strart the engine for the 2nd time and it won't start easily again. It takes many pulls, and much playing with the choke to finally get it to turn over. Once it did, it would constantly surge. Nothing i did made a difference. At one point i was playing with the choke while the engine was already warm and at one point i thought i had it figured out. I moved the choke about half way, and the the surging stopped. Then a couple seconds later it came back. I know this seems to be a carb problem but for the money i spent, it should work out of the box. I wasn't about to tear into a brand new carb on a brand new engine on a brand new $1,000 splitter.
It was 6 pm when i called Tractor Supply back. They said since i bought it within the last week to bring it back in exchange for a new one or have it serviced at a local engine shop they contract to. I chose to swap mine out with a completely new splitter. I was home with my new splitter by 7:15.
Having been completely disappointed at this point, i figured that it was a fluke and it couldn't possibly happen again. So i go to start this thing and i must have pulled 50 times and nothing. Choke in all the way, choke out all the way, half way, throttle down all the way, up all the way, half way. You name it i tried it. Nothing. Short small unburnt mists of gas were coating the mufflers exhaust tube but no fire. So i pull the plug. Plug is set at .025 when it should be .030. So i figured ahah, lets fix that. After setting the gap, i pulled another 15 or 20 times and finally it came to life. It started RIGHT OFF THE BAT with the surging. I added more of my own fresh gas to what was in their thinking bad gas. NOPE. Still surging.
YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME.
The reason i finally busted out the $1,000 was because i read a thread from here on a google search that the engines on the new 22 ton splitters were Chinese made Kohlers which are at least cast iron sleeved etc.
So i bust open the included manual which is a soft cover at 123 pages long. Great, i'll fix this. NOPE, its 5 pages long, in eleventeen different languages. So the manual directs me to kohlerengines.com where i read that the high idle speed is set at factory and only the low idle speed screw is adjustable. Now its 8:30pm by now so i can't go running an engine in the dark in my neighborhood without pissing off my good neighbors. Here it is 9:08pm and I'm writing this to you all to tell you WHAT A PIECE OF CRAP this engine is. And to top it off, it doesn't look like i can upgrade to a plug in starter like on some newer snow blower engines.
My next step is to attempt to adjust the low idle screw after work tomorrow and see if that helps. If not, i think I will be returning the splitter and finding something better when i can afford it. My other option is to allow Tractor Supply to send it off to a local engine shop to try to fix. I will determine if i will allow that on 2 conditions.
1. If i GAT DANG feel like it tomorrow.
2. If they refund my money IN FULL if it's not fixed once returned from the shop.
The onlline service manual has a section that claims hard starts, poor running and something else can be attributed to a poor low idle screw adjustment. Let's all hope this is an easy fix. If not, i urge everyone here NOT TO BUY the 22 ton splitter with Kohler engine. You will waste your time and aggravation.
Thank you all for taking the time to read this. Stand by tomorrow evening for an update to my saga.
I think this may be my first or second post. I frequently google things online and i always seem to find my answers HERE on this site. So THANK YOU.
I came here to tell you all a story.
I put in a Jotul c450 wood stove instert in my house a year ago. All this past winter i have been burning pure suger maple from my father urban property. I hired a family member who owns a tree service to cut the maples down, buck them to 18" lengths and clean up the rest. I split 13 pallets of sugar maple all by myself over 2 weeks with a friends splitter and burned maple all this past winter long. It was great to have a cozy home in the middle of the worst winter i can remember.
I loved the 'homesteader' aspect of firewood burning, and having an emergency source of heat in the winter. So a couple weeks ago i googled the Huskee 22 ton splitter and found reviews, many of which were from this site and Hearth. Most people only complained about the hard starting of the cruddy Briggs engine but loved the splitter. I heard that the newest version of this splitter just came out and was basically what i consider to be Gen 3. It has a Kohler engine, built in log cradle, and they moved the engine to the driver side away from your legs when splitting horizontally. I decided to spend my hard earned cash on one of these as i can not afford an Iron and Oak at $2,600+. SIGH.
I will preface this following part with the fact that short of building engines from scratch, I am VERY mechanically inclined.
On April 29th of this year ( 6 days ago) i purchased a Huskee 22 Ton Splitter with Kohler SH265 engine from a Tractor Supply in Troy, N.Y. After bringing it home and setting it up, i ran it and split wood for probably a couple hours. The Kohler engine was VERY hard to start. Once it started, it seemed to run fine and also seemed to be powerful enough to run this splitter. Initially i thought it was a great combination but was VERY weary of the hard start. I figured there may not have been gas in the float and i chalked it up to a new dry engine.
Today i go to strart the engine for the 2nd time and it won't start easily again. It takes many pulls, and much playing with the choke to finally get it to turn over. Once it did, it would constantly surge. Nothing i did made a difference. At one point i was playing with the choke while the engine was already warm and at one point i thought i had it figured out. I moved the choke about half way, and the the surging stopped. Then a couple seconds later it came back. I know this seems to be a carb problem but for the money i spent, it should work out of the box. I wasn't about to tear into a brand new carb on a brand new engine on a brand new $1,000 splitter.
It was 6 pm when i called Tractor Supply back. They said since i bought it within the last week to bring it back in exchange for a new one or have it serviced at a local engine shop they contract to. I chose to swap mine out with a completely new splitter. I was home with my new splitter by 7:15.
Having been completely disappointed at this point, i figured that it was a fluke and it couldn't possibly happen again. So i go to start this thing and i must have pulled 50 times and nothing. Choke in all the way, choke out all the way, half way, throttle down all the way, up all the way, half way. You name it i tried it. Nothing. Short small unburnt mists of gas were coating the mufflers exhaust tube but no fire. So i pull the plug. Plug is set at .025 when it should be .030. So i figured ahah, lets fix that. After setting the gap, i pulled another 15 or 20 times and finally it came to life. It started RIGHT OFF THE BAT with the surging. I added more of my own fresh gas to what was in their thinking bad gas. NOPE. Still surging.
YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME.
The reason i finally busted out the $1,000 was because i read a thread from here on a google search that the engines on the new 22 ton splitters were Chinese made Kohlers which are at least cast iron sleeved etc.
So i bust open the included manual which is a soft cover at 123 pages long. Great, i'll fix this. NOPE, its 5 pages long, in eleventeen different languages. So the manual directs me to kohlerengines.com where i read that the high idle speed is set at factory and only the low idle speed screw is adjustable. Now its 8:30pm by now so i can't go running an engine in the dark in my neighborhood without pissing off my good neighbors. Here it is 9:08pm and I'm writing this to you all to tell you WHAT A PIECE OF CRAP this engine is. And to top it off, it doesn't look like i can upgrade to a plug in starter like on some newer snow blower engines.
My next step is to attempt to adjust the low idle screw after work tomorrow and see if that helps. If not, i think I will be returning the splitter and finding something better when i can afford it. My other option is to allow Tractor Supply to send it off to a local engine shop to try to fix. I will determine if i will allow that on 2 conditions.
1. If i GAT DANG feel like it tomorrow.
2. If they refund my money IN FULL if it's not fixed once returned from the shop.
The onlline service manual has a section that claims hard starts, poor running and something else can be attributed to a poor low idle screw adjustment. Let's all hope this is an easy fix. If not, i urge everyone here NOT TO BUY the 22 ton splitter with Kohler engine. You will waste your time and aggravation.
Thank you all for taking the time to read this. Stand by tomorrow evening for an update to my saga.
