I'm gearing up to begin cleaning up my woods and have the flexibility to buy once and cry once.

The woods are 100+ acres of black walnut, various oaks, maples and some conifers.  They have not been maintained for years.

I have electricity readily available, so that is an energy option.

Operating efficiency and ease of maintenance are priorities.

Assume I know nothing and you'll assume correctly.

Your thoughts and experiences are most welcome.

Thanks

I paid for a semester of college splitting seasoned oak with a 14 ton hydraulic splitter with a gas engine.
Gas was great because I was moving it around.
Today I would keep an electric next to the barn and drag the trees up.

I wouldn’t even try oak with a kinetic splitter. I have no experience with electric splitters but I can fix pretty much anything that goes wrong with a small engine within 30 minutes if I have the parts so I lean toward gas.

Hydraulic.

If you have a tractor, a 2 way splitter, PTO or Aux Hydraulics is very fast, mobile.

Otherwise, stick with gas.   If you're worried about speed, get a smaller tonnage.



This little JI Case one was $400 at an auction, $210 for the aux hydraulic kit (Power Beyond kit) for my 2305.  Even with the dismal 5GPM my tractor puts out, it will out run me.

Hydraulic splitter running off the pto of a tractor is the best, hydraulic powered by a gas engine is next to best, electric will do the job, but 24" wet rounds will put a strain on most electric splitters.

Not splitter related comment.

Don't burn black walnut if you have it. It's too valuable. Sell it.  You can contract with a wood cutter to cut and haul it BUT.....many wood cutters are shady or downright crooked and will rip you off if you aren't there to check them. Either agree on a price in advance or be there when he cuts and go with him to the mill when he sells so you get paid for what he cuts.

For a splitter, I'd do gas and convert it to propane. That way you'll never worry about bad gas. Splitters sit a long time between uses for most people. All gas, given enough time (ethanol or not) goes bad.

It's equal to about a 10tn splitter.

Don't expect it to be able to over come some super hard stringy wood.  But around me, 90% of what we're dropping is ash.  Some oak, some beech... But 90% of it is ash. And it does great.

I hooked it up to my dad's 60hp new Holland once, and it flew.

This

Only downside is very large pieces. It doesn't have a vertical option. But you can set it right on the ground and roll big pieces on

Might have to do some cutting and welding to make a cat 1 hitch be a cat 2/3 but yeah lol

Git R' Dun

066 is good for turning big pieces into smaller pieces

I have a Kubota B3200 but this would require me to find a 3PH splitter and then install an aux hyudraulic kit.  By the end of the day it'd be cheaper to just buy a splitter and it and the tractor could be doing separate tasks at the same time.

Am I missing something?

Another engine to feed / take care of.   You still have to haul any log splitter around whether ball or 3pt.   You can do most tasks (like move wood) with the bucket / forks, as the log splitter is counter weight.

But it's all up to the end user.  I like mine, it was cheap.  My original plan for my Aux hydraulics was a backhoe kit, didn't end up doing that.

Each to their own.

I have both types, stand alone gas and 3pt hydraulic.  They each serve their purpose.

Here's my stand alone.



The 3pt is at my house, small, stored under my work bench and was cheap.  If I'm splitting wood at someone else's house, they typically don't have a tractor, so it's nice to bring it with me when I need to move logs around.

Both serve their purposes well.  Not recommending one or the other. The kinetic / electric ones I can't see being all that great especially off of simple 110v power.

I hang out on a couple chainsaw and arborist forums, and this video gets circulated everytime black walnut value gets brought up:

How much are you going to pay me?

I know plenty of people who have made a substantial amount of money selling black walnut. None of them become millionaires from it. That's not the point. Black walnut has much more value sold to a sawmill than burnt as firewood. I know a person who bought land with nice trees. Had the land logged and the logging paid off the land. It's nice to get free land.

No.  Let's count the ways:

- $200 gas engine vs. +$4k tractor engine (typical price, Foxtrot's $400 tractor notwithstanding).  I'd rather wear out the $200 gas engine.

- Using the PTO/tractor as a splitter means you can't use the tractor for something else - like holding the rounds in the FEL so you don't have to lift them to split.  Remember splitting logs is only small piece of the firewood processing process.  Every time you handle the wood means more labor.  If you have to pick each and every round off the ground to split it, that's lots of extra work that can be totally eliminated.  And it gets worse as they get heavy i.e. +24" rounds of Oak or Hickory.  Most of that can be avoided by rolling heavy rounds into the FEL, carry the rounds to splitter and then position the FEL bucket so that the rounds are at the most comfortable height for transferring to the splitter.  Eliminates virtually all the lifting to split.

- FT mentions the hydraulic flow - pretty dismal at 5 gpm.  Doesn't affect ton rating *directly* but it does affect cycle time.  Most 22 ton and up log splitters will put out +11 gpm with pretty short 13 second cycle times.  You can get bigger tractors with more gpm flow, but then you're using an even more expensive tractor instead of a $200 gas engine.  When you're not lifting rounds off the ground, you can split a lot of wood pretty quick; cycle time gets more important.

- Foxtrot mentions the aux hydraulic kit (Power Beyond), that's known as a remote rear; this will have to be added to the tractor if it doesn't have it and you want to use a hydraulic splitter.  This can be pretty expensive depending on how you do it; $210 is on the low end of the cost scale.  Most low end tractors don't come with RRs, given the number of RR threads over on TBN.

Something to think about.

ETA:  Please don't interpret the above remarks about a RR as a negative.  Having RRs on a tractor is about one of the most useful feature you can add if it doesn't have them.  Never add just one; a minimum of two (read: Top N Tilt) and preferably three (TNT plus one more, for example, a grader blade angle cylinder.

The tool for raising large rounds is on the other end of your tractor.

Of course, you're a terrible example:  you probably got 6 different tractors and fourteen different skid steers.  You could go around and pick your tractor up with one of your tractors if you wanted to.  But I digress.

I've had these 8 BW slabs in my shop since March 2014.  My sawyer told me at the time that they were worth $150-$200 each.  I have no independent confirmation of that, however, since I haven't tried to sell them.





@SaltwaterCowboy made some 1911 grips out of this wood a couple years ago.  He would have to come into the thread to show them, I didn't keep copies the one time he posted them here.    and  

And speaking of BW, virtually every tree on the side of my hill and up my driveway is a BW:





Lastly, I have these two BW logs, I'm getting ready to take to the sawyer.  I got these from a friend clearing his land for a house during the summer:

I've pretty much landed on getting a stand alone splitter but still haven't gotten any closer to deciding which energy source or which power source [kinetic or hydraulic].

I just need a splitting tool that will allow me to keep the property cleaned up, provide firewood [primarily recreational but will have a stove for back up heat] and to give some away.  Not going into the firewood business or anything.

As an aside, I'm suppose to have a guy come in the next month or so and assess the stand for both potential harvest and improvement for wildlife, this is done in conjunction with MO Dept. of Conservation.

You know me well.

But actually at my house, the only thing I have is my 2305 and my pick up.

But the farm is only 2 miles away.  At least until I start building my house over there.

As usual everything I do is against the grain.

I have a kinetic splitter, and its electric.

Here is my .02

1) I drop a tree, cut to lengths, haul to splitter/storage area, split and stack/store. No need to take the splitter out in the woods. Splitter is used in the same area all the time.
2) Kinetic is multiples faster than a hydraulic but less powerful, I avoid multiple crotchy stuff. I can split single crotch stuff easily. Crotch stuff makes for odd shaped firewood anyways.
I don't mess with large rounds. Too heavy to move around. Much quicker to cut smaller stuff under 18" or so. I split the vast majority green, mostly Shagbark Hickory and Sugar maple.
I have had no issues splitting other hardwoods, Red and white oak are easy to split contrary to what others have said. I have no need for the power of hydraulic and I spend less time splitting cause the kinetic is so fast, 1-2 seconds cycle time.
3) Electric is quieter, no more engines to gas, oil to change. easier and simpler.

I find that for me making firewood is best if I drop a tree, cut to lengths, load into small (20 cu ft ) cart and haul to storage area to split and stack.
Then I repeat. This way I break up the work so I don't get sore doing the same thing for long periods.

If your going to have a Forester come in and look at harvest for lumber thats fine. If you have other intents for your woodlot be advised that the vast majority of foresters are all about boards and cords.
Wildlife management is another whole expertise, Most foresters don't see thru this prism.
Maximizing woodlots for wildlife is usually opposed to good forestry practices.

Sounds like you've found a successful way for you.

How long have you been doing it this way?

What brand, model, power level of splitter do you have?

Thanks

been doing it this way for awhile, refined it in the last year or so.

I have a super split, the heavy duty one with larger flywheels.

before I got my current splitter I used a buddys.
heavy duty hydraulic.
it had so much grunt power I swear it could split a log across the grain.
I used to split larger dia logs too, 30" or so.
even with being able to tilt the splitter vertically its a lot of work to he-man those chunks of wood around.

I'm looking to not get a hernia in the process thus I don't mess with big stuff anymore.

The firewood process I've been using the last couple years since I got my Grapple:

- Tree gets cut down (or more likely a storm blowover).  Delimb on the spot and cut trunk into grapple-ready lengths; no more than 12' if I have to drive it down my one mile gravel road.
- Transport to my firewood processing area near my pole barn and stack up.
- During the Firewood Wars season (typically Oct-March), buck the logs up into firewood lengths using the grapple.
- Load the rounds into my FEL bucket and move to my logsplitter.  The logsplitter is always right near where I plan to stack the firewood.  The FEL holding the rounds is at waist height so I don't have to bend over and lift the rounds again.
- Stack the firewood.

Basically, I use the old James Bond adage*:  Never use a man where you can use a tractor.

Some basic pics below.

Example of bucking using the grapple:



Example of pile of rounds now ready for lifting with the FEL and taken to the logsplitter for splitting and stacking.  I have no idea what I'm gong to do with the large Red Oak logs in the background; I'll probably send most of it to my sawyer for milling.



Example of stack of logs; most of that is Red Oak; the log on the grapple is a blown-down Ash tree.



The original adage:  "Never send a man where you can send a bullet".  I *believe* it came from the Live and Let Die short story (vs. the movie).

AS I am researching power, on the electrical side I'm running into 1 hp electric motors that have the option of either 110 or 220.  What would be the benefit of 220 if the hp is the same?

Thanks

I use a 30 ton gas hydraulic splitter and split 10 cords a year.  Have a buddy who uses an electric and it works fine on anything smaller then 18 in.  I get a lot of my wood from a friend that’s a logger. I love using black walnut splits nice and burns hot.

If your going to use it a lot I’d buy a gas splitter.  We do have one that runs off a pto but never seem to use it.

For the same size motor 220 will run at half of the amperage that 110 will.

That^

Watts=Volts * Amps
Watts/Volts=Amps
Watts/Amps=Volts

First, beautiful place!

Around here, those slabs would easily sell for that.

Kinetic - Human powered - Hickory handle

I love splitting wood by hand.  Keeps you in serious shape if you do it enough.

I always enjoyed it too actually.

Theres that pesky power factor in there somewhere too

If i have both amply [see what I did there ... ] availability of both it would seem to be a wash as to which to use, or am I missing something?

220 will also have less voltage drop over a given distance than 110.  If you're not running a very long cord, flip a coin, doesn't really matter.  If it's going to be a long run I would go 220.

Not if you do the maths before you actually plug anything in