Honestly, it has good and bad points, The good, the lifting system, for an average person, it'll be a good back bone saver, which should save someone from a hernia. The next is the dual purpose of the hydraulic ram where it can split wood in both directions. The next is the ease of working standing up compared to squatting which means less stress on the body. Now for the bad, the unit as a whole is built decently, but, there are major changes that need to be made to be more user friendly, such as, the lifting system needs something better to push against, the present setup is okay for beginners but not for consistent heavy use, ideally, it should have a secondary strengthening bar that stiffens the unit as a whole, especially for traveling, the high rise setup is a major downfall and will severely limit the end user from years of service because the unit will twist and bend to the point of breaking welds or stress cracking, This is just my personal opinion of what I observed, there may be other potential frailties or positives that I didn't mention or see
I think you figured it out after the fact but you should always run the motor wide open. You always have max power and the hydraulics should work better.
Crotches always split best at a right angle to the splay. That goes for hand splitting or machine. Ive also learned to split from the base end of a log up if you know which way that is.
I had this Fall 11 oak trees to split that had to be felled due to oak wilt. My brand new working gloves were worked into shreds by the time I was done. Running an Iron & Oak 30 ton splitter on my end. You have the perfect size splitter for what you are doing. Nice looking!!
The only splitter I've ever used was about 100 years older than me and burned almost as much oil as it did gas. That thing is a Cadillac. I've seen a lot of videos on kinetic splitters but those things look kinda scary and seem like you could lose an appendage pretty quick.
Split Fire makes a high quality time proven splitter, hands down. Question - why would you be splitting 24" firewood where you live - I thought 16" would be pretty standard. Or were you splitting it just to test out the power / performance of the splitter for the video today? Thanks!
That machine had to be feature-tested for a while to be so well designed. Hard to imagine 85% of people would need more for their fireplace. Seems to me this is the perfect way to spend your time while the wife is waxing and polishing the VenTrac!
Hey mate...I have been considering a 2265 for a while now...I am concerned about access for the splitter...could you tell me please what is the overall max width of the 2265 at its widest point....probably the wheels i should think...I need to be able to get it down the side entrance of my property to my workspace at the rear...I can't find this info anywhere even on the split fire web site....Great video..thanks for posting...
Had one since last spring--easiest I've ever used. Couldn't find a single wood round it couldn't lift and split, without breakin' a sweat. Never once used my back. I use a pickaroon and a LogOx to load the lift table, and a 28" bar to buck. Never. Used. My. Back. Love this thing. Shut down is critical: let 'er idle for a few minutes while I blow out any debris, then leave it runnin' while ya' shut of the fuel supply in order to completely drain the carb (no varnish). Also, use SeaFoam in the gas so it never varnishes at all. Keep the tank full to avoid condensation and water in the gas. Wheel 'er in the shop and that's it.
I don't remember the brand but my Dad had a splitter he bought in the 80s that would split both directions. He ran that thing until he wore the engine out. Bought another Briggs and kept using it. It never had any synthetic piece for the ram to ride on, just bare metal. We used that thing for 30 years. Only major breakdown was when we broke the cylinder on a very knotty piece of wood.
I have found that large gnarly pieces can be "conquered" by taking slices from the edge of the log till you get to the hard part. If the wood is too tough, splitting a block down the middle can get a blade stuck to the point that it will take stern measures to extract it.
It’s funny that you have this cute tiny little splitter for your deeply cold Florida winters… Just a week or so ago, Nathan on Out of the Woods channel got a great big old wood mizer splitter with a three way splitter box. Of course he runs a sawmill with massive logs to split.
