Log Splitter | Wood Splitter

It is still on the books, in Colorado, that you can hang a man for stealing your firewood.

There was good reason for this law a century or more ago. People in the San Juan mountains were living and heating their cabins only with iron stoves. I have friends here who were born in two room cabins in the 1940s by oil lamp and iron stove – no electricity – no running water – and, the only source of heat was the iron stove.

I’ve been using this machine for a couple of days. It took me only about three and a half hours to split up two 50 foot cottonwood trees (after first bucking them up with a chainsaw into about 20″ sections).

Cottonwoods (especially dead and fallen cottonwoods) are an almost infinitely renewable energy resource in the San Juan Mountains. After over 40 years of splitting cottonwoods for fuel, by hand (sledge and wedge) I can honestly say that this is one of the best machines I’ve encountered for wilderness living. (Too bad Thoreau didn’t have one. He might have written more, for us to share, about his epiphanies on Walden Pond).

Cottonwood is, perhaps, the toughest wood in the world to split. It isn’t that dense, but, it is moist, tough, sinewy and gnarled. This machine handled even 30-36″ sections of cottonwood with ease.

Ocasionally, with some of the bigger sections, the ram will pause for a second or two while hydraulic pressure builds up. However, the ram has an abundance of power to split even large trunk sections.

Whoever designed this machine really knew what they were doing. I understand it is built by MTD. White Outdoors put its name on it. That was enough for me. White Outdoors puts out really quality equipment packages. When they put their name on something, it works as you expect it to work.

I became convinced of this a few years ago when I bought one of their 10 hp snow throwers. If I can’t keep my road clean out to the highway in the winter (with some weekend snows being over 4 feet) I don’t get mail, delivery, or, anything else until June when the snow melts. The White snow thrower has steadily, and consistently, with little maintenance, kept my road clear through some mighty tough winters.

SOME DO’S: Do wear safety glasses. DO wear gloves with rubber palms and fingertips. DO wear a safety helmet (I use an aluminum forester’s helmet (which you have to buy used ’cause they don’t make ‘em anymore)) – you tend to bang your head when leaning over to place logs on the stand during the vertical ram operations. DO lubricate the beam each use. I use a pressure sprayer to clean it after use. When it dries, I spray the slide beam with WD-40. It can also help to lubricate the point and sides of the wedge if it gets stuck in the wood (although the wood remover on the wedge works well also)). DO buy a cover for storing it outdoors. I bought a deluxe lawn tractor cover and it fits it, functionally, almost perfectly.

SOME DON’Ts: Don’t buy a special hitch for it. When I got mine it had a 2″ hitch instead of the 1 7/8ths in. hitch the specs relate. I use a “Rapid Hitch” on my Range Rover and it towed home just fine about 25 miles, and, it tows nicely around the woods.

This is a high quality machine. It is made in China, but, whomever manufactured it had excellent supervision. The welds are nice and tight and clean (VERY STRONG), and, the manufacturer used high quality shear pins and aviation bolts throughout its construction.

There are few improvements I could suggest for this machine. One would be a larger gas tank. The one that’s on it (about 1.5 litres) is great for puttering around the yard, but, it’s an annoyance when I am out in the woods and have to drag around a ten gallon gas can so as not to interrupt the therapy of my work outdoors.

The wedge is mounted with a shear pin, and, the pin is loosely mounted. This provides necessary flexibility for the wedge for stress releif when the ram applies maximum hydraulic pressure. However, it makes a rattling sound that is louder than the (well-mufflered) engine. Perhaps spring loading the shear pin on the wedge might reduce the rattling, and, still provide the necessary flexibility.

Another improvement would be a larger lock and pin hole on the hitch. You can only fit a small lock through the pin hole (there is enough material to drill it out for a larger hole (1/2″ or 5/8″)) – a larger lock would be more appropriate in the uncivilized region where I live – locks, like fences, make good neighbors, and, like the Old Man and the Sea, there is no point in providing needless temptation for others.