# Homemade Upside Down Wood Splitter



## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

Here is an upside down wood splitter I made for my log loader.

It kind of has two parts. The first problem I thought i might encounter is the small powerpack engine and small hydraulic lines that would make the splitter really slooooooowwwww. So I built a "carrier" as I call it that attaches to the 3 point hitch. This lets me install a pto pump so I can use tractor rpm to have control over the speed of the splitter. On the carrier is where I mounted the hydraulic tank reservoir, a hitch and seat. This came out of a Ford Focus and has all functions, when you are splitting wood all day on your rump you must have lumbar support and adjustability to the controls you know. The seat really helps a person stay comfortable while splitting all day. No sense to stand! And yes I added a cup holder just to round off the amenities. The splitter control valve is on a arm rest to the left.

The picture is a little wrong because instead of bunks I would have my dump body put on that way I could pinch my splitter over the round, lift it over my dump body, then split the wood fully so I never have to lift the wood. I kind of hope you can see how it would work. Once Rock the Flock is over with, we are going to start our firewood and maybe I can take some more photos.

The whole process kind of works like this:

With a hitch welded to my winch, I take my tractor, winch and trailer into the woods. There I fell and limb a tree. Using the winch I drag the tree to my log trailer.

Grabbing the tree I lift it off the ground so I do not dull my saw by hitting the ground, or having to bend over, and buck the tree into firewood length over my dump body. using the grapple I then dump the firewood into a pile.

Then I put on my carrier onto the three point hitch, and split the wood over my dump body. Then taking the split wood haul it over to my woodshed.

Someday though I would like to build a homemade slasher so that I don't have to use my chainsaw to buck the tree into firewood rounds.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

Love mine for my skid steer, so does everybody else, seems it's being borrowed more than its here. I oughta talk to a few amish welding shops and farm the work out to build more&#8230;


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## bluefarmer (Oct 10, 2010)

I got one I been thinking about putting on the back of my backhoe like you did there, I just wouldn't have the rotator option.


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

BlueFarmer...my motto is "use what you got!"

Funny thing, I was at a christian kids camp that I volunteer at a lot, and doing some digging with my backhoe on my Wallenstein log trailer. It is admittedly slow, but I hate shoveling. So this guy there is making fun of it and how slow it is, but the funny thing was, he never grabbed a shovel either!

Use what you got!

(Here is a picture of it digging a water line just to show that it is awkward to use for digging, but does work. Still it dug a waterline that I would not have done by hand, nor would someone come over for such a small job for).


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

RuttedField said:


> Here is an upside down wood splitter I made for my log loader.
> 
> It kind of has two parts. The first problem I thought i might encounter is the small powerpack engine and small hydraulic lines that would make the splitter really slooooooowwwww. So I built a "carrier" as I call it that attaches to the 3 point hitch. This lets me install a pto pump so I can use tractor rpm to have control over the speed of the splitter. On the carrier is where I mounted the hydraulic tank reservoir, a hitch and seat. This came out of a Ford Focus and has all functions, when you are splitting wood all day on your rump you must have lumbar support and adjustability to the controls you know. The seat really helps a person stay comfortable while splitting all day. No sense to stand! And yes I added a cup holder just to round off the amenities. The splitter control valve is on a arm rest to the left.
> 
> ...


Rut, are you burning inside or out? Those seem like the cats meow if bigger chunks work. Maybe they work well for splitting smaller too to burn inside? If I ever get a skiddy I might find out.


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## RuttedField (Apr 24, 2016)

I burn with an inside stove. Honestly I would never have an outside wood boiler. They cost too much money for the efficiency they have in my opinion.

My father had one for awhile until it burned his house down and even before that he was a slave to the thing; he was either getting wood for it, cutting it up, or putting it in it. I think the darn thing consumed something like 20 cord a year.

I burn 5 cords maybe.


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## mlappin (Jun 25, 2009)

RuttedField said:


> I burn with an inside stove. Honestly I would never have an outside wood boiler. They cost too much money for the efficiency they have in my opinion.
> 
> My father had one for awhile until it burned his house down and even before that he was a slave to the thing; he was either getting wood for it, cutting it up, or putting it in it. I think the darn thing consumed something like 20 cord a year.
> 
> I burn 5 cords maybe.


Yah the old conventional's were freakin wood hogs and will turn the average person into a wood slave, I had one.

I checked mine with a pyrometer, average stack temperature was between 600-800 degrees. The reason you never seen actual numbers on efficiency is because they were horrible, Maybe they might get close to 40% but most were in the 30-35% range, so basically only a third of the wood you cut ever made it in the house, the rest went right up the stack.

However, after I put the first one in the wife would never allow another fire in the basement, endless domestic hot water, no smoke in the house ever, dusting went down to once a week instead of daily and the humidity stays higher in the house.

Replaced the old one with a new one from Heatmaster. The G series were tested by an independent laboratory and qualified for a tax rebate as they qualified as a high efficiency heating appliance, the rebate ran out last year and the feds didn't renew it. Stack temperatures are 300 degrees or less and average efficiency is 80%. I'm actually heating the shop with wood all winter, and have no concerns of having the fire go out if I leave the heated sidewalk on all night, couldn't stuff the old one full enough of wood to last all night with just the sidewalk let alone the shop. Heating more while using about half the wood the old used just to heat the house.


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