</font><font color="blue" class="small">( John,
I decided to pull the trigger on the 5HP splitter from Sportsman's Guide that I linked to in the post above. Living in Texas, we don't heat with wood, so I'm hoping it gives us years of service. The DR splitters (rated at 4&6HP) are supposed to split a cord of wood in two hours, and that's plenty fast for us.
I'll report back on my experience with it, but it will likely be after Thanksgiving. I'm having it delivered to my f-i-l down in Central Texas to test it out. )</font>
I have been wanting to get a little log splitter for a while now. I don't heat with wood, but I do like a have a lot of campfires with my daughter. My campfire wood is either from trees that have fallen on their own or small trees that I have taken down to clear property lines, etc.
MY local Tractor Supply store (TSC) does not seem to stock the 3-point hitch model. I know that Northern Tool sells a couple of different 3-point hitch models, but they don't have any stores in Michigan and the shipping charges would be too high. So that kind of ruled out any kind of real log splitter for the present time. I definately can't justify one of the big engine powered splitters, but I probably would have spent around $500 on a 3-point hitch model if I could have found one locally.
I noticed that Harbor Freight had their little electric splitter on sale last week and that peaked my interest. It was on sale for $199 on their website so I called one of their retail stores that is about 45 minutes away to see if they had any in stock. They had two left, but the price in the store was like $239 or something. I mentioned the online price of $199 and the manager said bring in a printout showing that price and they would honor it. I had a coupon for 20% off any one item purchased at their retail stores which might bring the price down to $160. The only thing that kept me from running down there last week and buying it for $160 was the fact that the splitter only had a capacity for a log that was less than 14.5" long.
So I got on TBN and did some searching and found this thread. I see that Beenthere also found the 14.5" capacity to be good enough reason not to buy the HF model. Then I looked at the link that BillG in TX provided to the splitter that the Sportsman Guide sells. I remember seeing a little yellow splitter like that for sale at Menards so I went over there to check it out. They didn't have anymore in stock, but I did find out that it is the same exact splitter because they had one out back that was prepaid by a customer. They normally sell them for $288 which seemed to be a pretty good deal considering that The Sportsman's Guide is selling it for $329. I even had a store credit from Menards for $30 which I really wanted to put towards the splitter, but I didn't want to waste the gas running 45 minutes each way to the next closest Menards just to buy one. So I figured I would wait until they came back in stock or I was near a different Menards.
Then yesterday when I went back into Menards to get some salt for my water softener I noticed the splitter on sale in their flyer for $249. Even though their computer said they should have two in stock they were nowhere to be found. So I asked for a rain check and after the guy filled it out he said don't hold your breath on these being in stock any time soon. He said that they were only on sale to clear out the remaining stock because they don't normally sell them in the summertime and because the computer showed two in stock they weren't already on order. So I called around to the other Menards in the area and found one location that still had one new in the box, the other location only had a display model left without the owners manual. I had them put my name on the new on in the box and told them I would be down shortly to pick it up. They told me to go directly to the outdoor garden center when I got to the store because that is where they keep them. So as I am walking out to the garden center a man and his son go rushing past me in a hurry. The father said to the son to go look that way and yell out to him if he found the splitter. It turns out they were also on the hunt for one of these new in the box. Luckily mine was sitting right there with my name on it so I picked it up and went on my way.
I'm glad I decided to drive further to get the new one in the box with the manual. If I would have bought the display model without the manual I would not have known to loosen the bleed screw during operation which would eventually ruin the seals. I set the splitter up on the work platform on the back of my golf cart and drove over to out campfire site. There is plenty of wood there ready to be split up and a 75 foot 12 gauge extension cord is all I needed to reach the nearest outlet. The first thing my daughter asked is if it was going to be loud. She knows that most of my tools are loud and I always make here wear hearing protection. She was thrilled at the low noise level and so was I. I cranked up the stereo on the golf cart and started splitting. I started out with smaller logs in the 6" to 8" range, but was soon throwing the biggest stuff I had around at this little splitter (14" to 16"). It only groaned and stopped on me once. I turned the log 90 degress and tried it again with success. I have never split wood before on any kind of splitter, just an axe and a maul. I certainly wasn't expecting much out of the splitter, but I was pleasantly surprised. This wood had been sawed up about 8 or 9 months ago so I am sure that made it easier to split that green wood. It was also about 37 degrees out and I don't know if wood is easier or harder to split when its cold.
I only spent about an hour on the splitter, but so far I would recommend it. The Sortsmans Guide states that the hydraulic ram has approximately 20" of travel and that is not true. The ram travels approximately 12" and I think around 16" would be perfect. I will keep a short block of wood nearby to use when splitting up short logs.
Beenthere if you haven't bought another splitter yet I think you would be happy with this in your garage to re-split your wood. After using my $30 store credit I know I am happy with mine for around $235.
I didn't take any pictures yesterday, but here is a good image of the splitter that I found on the Internet.
![847299-LS5T52_logsplit_1000[1].jpg](/forums/data/attachments/47/47713-191fba706242815f86630686caa09837.jpg)
