Used an old tire to split forewood for the first time

[FLHX Storm]

I had read on here and seen videos of people using an old tire to contain their firewood while splitting so I figured I might as well give it a try. I picked up an old used tire from a place that works on cars n truck a week or so ago specifically for that purpose. I had felled about a dozen medium sized saplings with the largest one being about 10 inches across the other day and got around to limbing and bucking them (January 3rd) I rolled the old tire into place and loaded it up. It was a much better experience. No having to chase splits, no standing the round back up for the next split. No axe in the dirt! It cut my splitting time down by at least half if not more. Not that speed is an issue but why take more time than is necessary?

Now if the ground would only dry out enough for me to get some trees off the side of the mountain so I can have some more fun! The area I want to cut next is at about a 30 degree pitch. I sure don't want to slip n fall while in the process!

If y'all haven't tried the tire thing for splitting wood with an axe, I would suggest you give it a try. My next time splitting I may even give the bungie cord thing a try. One needs to be versatile!

 

[Foxfire]

I too use a tire and its great. I started with the tire not long after I got my fiskars and I wasn't always hitting my mark so I cut both beads off after the 3rd nick. I also screwed it to the splitting stump to keep it from going anywhere. It's gotta be one of the best uses of trash out there.

 

[Mac88]

Be careful with those trees on the 30 degree pitch. That really limits your escape route if things turn ugly.

 

[FLHX Storm]

I like the idea of mounting the tire to something. I have a pallet I had picked up from a wood stove n supply place locally and it was built with 2x6's. It's not a full sized pallet (36x36) that should work. I don't want to raise the rounds too high so I have a better splitting angle. (plus then my splitting wood will echo throughout the area better) I may even remove the beads now that you mentioned it. Then I can stuff even more wood to be split into the tire!

 

[Foxfire]

I use a stump cause it makes me feel like I'm not aiming at my feet quite so much and it's safer for the soft fiskars. The pallet should work fine and will let dibris fall away nicely. The tire gets a little floppy once you remove the beads but nothing too bad and once it screwed in it doesn't matter.

I think it's in one of the videos of the LeverAxe, the guy has a tire mounted on a Lazy Susan which is over kill but kind of cool.

 

[FLHX Storm]

Be careful with those trees on the 30 degree pitch. That really limits your escape route if things turn ugly.

Believe me, I know! Every time I look at them I tend to get a bit nervous and adjust my plan for felling them a bit more. That's another reason why I want to do it when the ground is reasonably dry. It's hard to get traction when the dirt turns to mud when you step on it. Plus it's a high clay content.

When I did the 10" across sapling (about 30 feet tall), I did run for cover behind a big black birch because it was going to fall over a mound of dirt at that end of the property and once it did it would be too hard to predict where the trunk would swing to. I'm glad I did because that trunk swung up and then came back down and over right where I had been standing. It would have surely knocked me the other side of next month or worse.

For me, anything more than a few inches wide requires a plan. What direction I want it to fall, where to make the face cut, how far up to make the back or hinge cut, whether to do a plunge cut, whether to tie it off or not, which trees might it hang up in (possibly remove them before hand), and a way to escape as the tree is falling so if it happens to barber chair or fall unpredictably I'm safe. (using another tree for protection works well)

See, I might be blonde, but I still think things through.

 

[FLHX Storm]

I use a stump cause it makes me feel like I'm not aiming at my feet quite so much and it's safer for the soft fiskars. The pallet should work fine and will let dibris fall away nicely. The tire gets a little floppy once you remove the beads but nothing too bad and once it screwed in it doesn't matter.

I think it's in one of the videos of the LeverAxe, the guy has a tire mounted on a Lazy Susan which is over kill but kind of cool.

I use the Fiskars X27 and I love it. That's another reason I don't want to have the head in the dirt. Too many rocks can damage the head since the metal does chip easily. For a little while I thought I actually had a stress fracture in the metal itself, but under a microscope it turned out to be a deep scratch from a rock or some fencing that had been embedded in some of the rounds.

Thanks for the additional information in the characteristic change of the tire once the beads are removed. No worries though, if the car tire doesn't work very well, I'm sure they'll let me have a used truck tire to work with.

It's too bad they don't make the head out of some good stainless steel with the same cutting characteristics. But then I might be tempted to use it to split a large boulder in the back of the house that's sticking out of the mountain side. As it is, I think I'll use the True Temper 4# splitting axe for that. :msp_w00t: (see, I'm rough on the equipment)

I'll have to check out that video. It sounds intriguing

 

[darkbyrd]

Believe me, I know! Every time I look at them I tend to get a bit nervous and adjust my plan for felling them a bit more. That's another reason why I want to do it when the ground is reasonably dry. It's hard to get traction when the dirt turns to mud when you step on it. Plus it's a high clay content.

Welcome to mud season. All we can do is hope it freezes solid. That's when I skid

 

[woodchuck357]

Use TWO tires

Cut the beads off, plus half the sidewall, stack them up and punch holes in the sidewalls where they touch. Use bailling wire to sew them together. After the rounds are split and they are to tight to easily pull out tip the whole thing over and whack the center sticks with the blunt end and see how far you can shoot them out the other side.

 

[Whitespider]

I picked up an old used tire from a place that works on cars n truck a week or so ago specifically for that purpose.

I don't why that stuck me so funny... almost spit coffee all over the keyboard.
I mean, yeah... I know not everybody lives like I do, how I do, where I do... but...
I don't think I know anybody that doesn't have at least a half-dozen junk tires laying around somewhere. :msp_biggrin:
Heck, if ya' gave me 15 minutes, I bet I could come up with at least 10, give me an hour and I'd probably double the count... and I still wouldn't have left the property. I could likely come up with a half-dozen on rims and still hold air.

 

[Uncle John]

I don't why that stuck me so funny... almost spit coffee all over the keyboard.
I mean, yeah... I know not everybody lives like I do, how I do, where I do... but...
I don't think I know anybody that doesn't have at least a half-dozen junk tires laying around somewhere. :msp_biggrin:
Heck, if ya' gave me 15 minutes, I bet I could come up with at least 10, give me an hour and I'd probably double the count... and I still wouldn't have left the property. I could likely come up with a half-dozen on rims and still hold air.

You live in an apartment?................:msp_biggrin:

 

[AIM]

The ones with the rim in them don't work all that good for splitting.

 

[kd460]

I drilled some drain holes in my tire so there is no standing water to breed mosquitos in the summer. Also ran a bolt and some chain thru the holes so I can lash the tire down to a pallet or a stump and keep it from moving around/falling off. Speeds things up even more. KD

 

[Bushmans]

Ok I took your advice and pulled out my one and only tire :taped: from behind the shed and hauled it up to the wood pile.
I stuck a round in it and whacked it with my state of the art, lazer engraved, titanium coated, forged in the peaks of Tibet using yak dung for the fire while waving prayer flags to bless it and.....oh no wait a minute it was just my $9 six pound splitting maul from Menards.
It split and stayed put, I rotated slightly and whacked it again, it split and leaned slightly, not enough to stand it back up though and I split my way around the entire thing. 8 splits and only touched it once.

From there I just pull it out of the tire and stack it on the pallet that the tire is right next to. As I continue to split my way through the rounds pile I just keep sliding the tire closer to the pile.

What a concept. My wife says the dumbest things amaze me. I say it's not dumb it's ingenius.
I split a 1/3 cord in no time.

Thanks to all the wood splitting gurus out there that spread the idea around.

 

[stihly dan]

I got a 20 in truck tire, screwed it to my 24 in high 25 inch round. If my stacks are 2ft high already, I could split and stack 2 cords of wood with out bending over once. It's faster, safer, easier, and soooooo much better for the back. The fiskers and the tire= fountain of youth.

 

[Foxfire]

Couldn't have said it better...

 

[blacklocst]

Spilt a few rounds today by hand and decided to try the bungie cord method worked pretty well, haven't tried the tire yet is it as good?

 

[stihly dan]

Ps. the truck tire is high enough that nothing falls over or bounces out. Get it a bit of the ground for max swing power and less bending.

 

[Foxfire]

Spilt a few rounds today by hand and decided to try the bungie cord method worked pretty well, haven't tried the tire yet is it as good?

A bungee is better than nothing and a tire is better than everything, more or less.