Anyone tried to split this wood? Think it broke my Countyline splitter

[drf256]

I agree that regardless of the type of wood, your splitter shouldn’t break.

 

[Junk Meister]

I am thinking it is some kind of ELM. The work side of your cylinder for a splitter is the extend ,, your leak is coming from the retract end.. I would think the packing is bypassing and not letting the pump kick down to the high pressure. Regardless you got a lemon in color and performance.
If you have flex in the beam now think about 5 years from now when the warranty is expired.
Good Luck.

 

[Bill G]

As noted by a couple the wood species is irrelevant. Do not back down one bit on getting a full refund. Be firm but cordial and center your complaint around both build quality and engineering design. If they question you regarding what species you were splitting have a picture or two ready. Let them drive that portion of the conversation. Then request where it is in their warranty that there are restrictions on wood species.

 

[Cantdog]

I am thinking it is some kind of ELM. The work side of your cylinder for a splitter is the extend ,, your leak is coming from the retract end.. I would think the packing is bypassing and not letting the pump kick down to the high pressure. Regardless you got a lemon in color and performance.
If you have flex in the beam now think about 5 years from now when the warranty is expired.
Good Luck.

It looks like elm to me as well......miserable stuff to split...very confusing grain and once split burns like popular....quickly with no heat.
Regardless the splitter is pretty wimpy if the structure fails before the motor stalls.

 

[Sloughfoot]

It looks like elm to me as well......miserable stuff to split...very confusing grain and once split burns like popular....quickly with no heat.
Regardless the splitter is pretty wimpy if the structure fails before the motor stalls.

Definitely one of the interlocked grain species ( gum, sycamore, elm.....). Only 5 times harder to split if slabbed first. I've got a face cord of Gum stacked that took 2 hours to split the old fashioned way.

 

[Mastermind]

My 22 ton Huskee splitter is on its second engine, and still busting anything I put on it. Get your money back, and rebuild your Huskee.

 

[sawfun]

I've had Elm give my 75 hp single stage splitter a workout that I am sure would have broken or bent weaker splitters.elm is hard and stringy. I would noodle it in the future.

 

[J.Noss]

I am thinking it is some kind of ELM. The work side of your cylinder for a splitter is the extend ,, your leak is coming from the retract end.. I would think the packing is bypassing and not letting the pump kick down to the high pressure. Regardless you got a lemon in color and performance.
If you have flex in the beam now think about 5 years from now when the warranty is expired.
Good Luck.

Ah that's very possible! Elm! I'm pretty good at identifying Maples, Locust, Ash, Sycamore, Oak, Shagbark Hickory, Tulip Poplar, Mulberry and even tend to do it as I'm going down the road at times but I don't have much experience with Elm besides the yearly splitting of this here wood from my wife's parent's property.. thanks for you (and all the others!) For your help I'm getting ready to leave to drive to Tractor Supply with the splitter and it's now raining. hoping for the best and will update later

 

[Woodwackr]

It looks like elm to me as well......miserable stuff to split...very confusing grain and once split burns like popular....quickly with no heat.
Regardless the splitter is pretty wimpy if the structure fails before the motor stalls.

A normal splitter will cut through that...sideways...

 

[davidwyby]

I split big euc with a 25 ton dirty hands splitter. almost stalls it but doesn't.

 

[Cantdog]

A normal splitter will cut through that...sideways...

Probably cut through it sideways just as easy as lengthwise!! There was a fair amount of old elm around here but in the 70's the beetles brought Dutch Elm Desease in......some were saved but way over half surcumbed or were removed to stop the spread. They had all been planted along streets and yards. I found pretty quick that if the stick wouldn't fit through the stove door as it came from the tree best to let it rot......not worth the effort for minimal heat. I sawed quite a bit of it into 2 1/2' thick planks for the floors in pulp trucks back in the 80's. Was a good way for me to save $$$ trading with truckers for hauling saw logs to my mill.....cut decent with a 48" blade and 120 horse diesel....only milled second logs and up...never the butts as they were generally full of iron from living along streets and backyards.

 

[J.Noss]

Alright update on the situation: I took the splitter to the Tractor Supply, learned a few things: 1- the splitters that were being sold during the $300/off "spring black Friday deal" were reconditioned.. that is: sold, used, broken, and fixed again to be sold as new.. a super nice guy working in the back yard area who does all of this stuff for that particular Tractor Supply and I spoke for a good hour and he confessed that little detail.. (super great dude) but anyway the problem was the 2-stage pump was frozen in the 1st high speed/low pressure stage and was over-stressing the engine and pump by trying to split without going into low gear.. the main cylinder leak and that problem combined with a honest worker got me a brand new (this time) splitter of the same model and 2 free bottles of bar/chain oil.
I am happy with this outcome provided that this truly new splitter works and functions into the future as it should.

 

[davidwyby]

I saw your post that said how fast it was and I thought something along those lines. More speed is less force.

 

[J.Noss]

I saw your post that said how fast it was and I thought something along those lines. More speed is less force.

The truly new one I now got is going through that same wood without a problem, sounds like a entirely different machine. I think it's awfully shady to be selling previously broken/returned splitters as new, but I think I made a good friend out of the whole situation.

 

[beaglebriar]

My 22 ton Huskee splitter is on its second engine, and still busting anything I put on it. Get your money back, and rebuild your Huskee.

I’ll see your engine and raise you a pump… still splittin wood.

 

[J.Noss]

I’ll see your engine and raise you a pump… still splittin wood.

I'm still gonna be putting the new Harbor Freight engine on the Huskee, was interested in knowing what a quality 13gpm pump brand would be? I wanna get a really good one not a $85 Amazon one that'll break most likely. The 11gpm pump that's on it original still works just fine it's just tiresome-ly slow.. I just came in from putting the new splitter through the rest of that truckload of ?Elm? and I got to thinking I wanna fix-up that old one (like I'd originally planned to/began to before that "sale" was on last week. Having a splitter out at my Step-dad's house and one in here at mine or one to haul to jobs and one to stay put here sounds like a good idea.. just want quality that'll last. If you or anyone else has a tried and true brand I'll greatly appreciate any recommendations

 

[Junk Meister]

Surplus Center in Lincoln Nebraska has the market cornered for pumps and Hyd hoses around here. No special orders only what they list in the catalog. I haven't heard any bad things and I normally swing by and do the will call thing. They do a lot of internet sales. Have the catalog to wish book from. Good Luck.
P.S. I still believe your packing in the cylinder was the issue Will never know now but I am only commenting for members in the future trying to fix their splitter. If the Cylinder is bypassing internally it will not build up enough pressure to get the pump into the high pressure/low volume stage.
Glad you ended up HAPPY .

 

[J.Noss]

I've had Elm give my 75 hp single stage splitter a workout that I am sure would have broken or bent weaker splitters.elm is hard and stringy. I would noodle it in the future.

75hp single stage! That sounds really cool! What GPM and cylinder size/tonnage are we talking here? Sounds like it'd have to be pretty fast/powerful to require that much HP. I've been dreaming of doing a custom splitter build one day

 

[J.Noss]

Surplus Center in Lincoln Nebraska has the market cornered for pumps and Hyd hoses around here. No special orders only what they list in the catalog. I haven't heard any bad things and I normally swing by and do the will call thing. They do a lot of internet sales. Have the catalog to wish book from. Good Luck.
P.S. I still believe your packing in the cylinder was the issue Will never know now but I am only commenting for members in the future trying to fix their splitter. If the Cylinder is bypassing internally it will not build up enough pressure to get the pump into the high pressure/low volume stage.
Glad you ended up HAPPY .

I'll be happier if 10yrs from now it's still working as good as it is today, and you could be right, I'm not a splitter expert nor have I much experience with hydraulics that was just our take on what we saw at the store today when testing and doing a quick look-over of it. I'm always wanting to learn more about any subject and this one is especially interesting and intriguing to me

 

[Junk Meister]

I'll be happier if 10yrs from now it's still working as good as it is today, and you could be right, I'm not a splitter expert nor have I much experience with hydraulics that was just our take on what we saw at the store today when testing and doing a quick look-over of it. I'm always wanting to learn more about any subject and this one is especially interesting and intriguing to me

If you call the Surplus Center they will give you a few pointers on which pump to go with what size motor. You don't want to big of a pump for the motor. Upsizing the motor and pump if you are buying new will still be the same tonnage but proportionately faster cycle time. Is the HF motor bigger than the original husky motor? Or new and you may be able to return it and get a bigger motor. Be aware of mounting/clearance issues and pump to motor mount variables. I put a smaller cyl on one splitter for doing small stuff like smoking hickory wood. really wakes you /it up.