Question to the firewood gurus

[Gordon Gould]

I have a 22 ton Huskee which is a rebranded Speeco. When I first got it 12 years ago I put a pressure gauge on it out of curiosity. It has a 4" cylinder and the max pressure is indeed 3500 psi. That yields 22 ton as advertised. I interesting thing is that for probably 80% of the wood I split the pressure doesn't go above 1500 psi - so less than 10 ton.

gg

 

[WinterDeere]

I have a 22 ton Huskee which is a rebranded Speeco. When I first got it 12 years ago I put a pressure gauge on it out of curiosity. It has a 4" cylinder and the max pressure is indeed 3500 psi. That yields 22 ton as advertised. I interesting thing is that for probably 80% of the wood I split the pressure doesn't go above 1500 psi - so less than 10 ton.

View attachment 3216293


View attachment 3216294

gg

I have the same splitter. Or more accurately, "had"... it's been heavily modified.

I have my cycle time down around 7 seconds for a full 48" of stroke (24" down + 24" back). That means for the usual 6" to 8" of down-stroke required to split most rounds, I'm around 1 second on the down stroke. I hit the return detent, and try to stop it about a second later, to prevent an unnecessary full-return as I'm lifting the splits off the beam. Very fast operation, for plowing thru up to 14 cords per year, here.

I did add a fluide temperature gauge, as moving fluid at that rate causes some heat, but never got around to adding a pressure gauge. Your 1500 psi number is close to what I expected, though.

 

[ruffdog]

Very seldom do I need max push from my 25 ton Speeco. Maybe once a year?

 

[WranglerX]

Interesting... Never thought of putting gauge before relief valve, always thought it should be after..... New way of thinking every day..... And Yes I realize the pressure in system can not go above relief valve setting if its function properly....

And yes I split a lot of hard dry oak on a 30 year old DUERR splitter and very really does pump drop into high pressure low volume mode....

 

[Bavarian]

Today I took my caliper with me. Set it at 4.5". In my opinion, that's not a 4.5" cylinder

 

[WinterDeere]

Today I took my caliper with me. Set it at 4.5". In my opinion, that's not a 4.5" cylinder
View attachment 3216535

Tough to see what you're measuring there, but it should be casing ID, not casing OD.

 

[ruffdog]

I'm thinking that it is a 4.5" cylinder as it looks like the calipers match the ID of casing. It sure isn't a 4" cylinder. If the OP is having a problem building enough push, maybe there is a problem with the relief valve, cyl seals, valve body, etc??

 

[BackRoad]

Mr. Winterdeere, what changes were made to shorten the splitter cycle time?

 

[arrow]

Mr. Winterdeere, what changes were made to shorten the splitter cycle time?

He either reduced the size of his push cylinder or more than likely increased pump gallonage coupled with a larger engine.

 

[WinterDeere]

Larger pump, which necessitated larger lines, fittings, valve, and engine. I'm presently max'd out at roughly 19 GPM, driven by an 11 hp Intek. Any larger, and I'd have to cut and weld in a larger suction bung in the reservoir tank, and I'm already really pushing the temperature limit due to the small tank size on this chassis.

I'm still running a 4" cylinder for 22-ton force. I've tried 3.5" machines before (19 ton), but occasionally stall them in a gnarly round, whereas 22 tons has never failed me. As I said earlier, I think it's the sweet spot, if you're aiming for max speed.

I've toyed with the idea of starting over on a new platform, probably one of the 35-ton machines, to get a larger tank and tank fitting size. Some of them already come with pumps as large as 23 GPM, which when mated with a 4" cylinder, would reall rip. But then you run into availability issues with finding a 4" cylinder having 3/4" ports. You're not going to move 23+ GPM thru the 1/2" ports found on most 4" cylinders, without a lot of loss and heat, and unnecessary loading / fuel usage, etc.