# Homelite Electric Splitter Demo



## MrWhoopee (Apr 21, 2013)

I was splitting up some large Doug Fir rounds the other day and thought it might be a good chance to video the Homelite 5-ton electric splitter in action.




Note that these rounds were about 20 in. in diameter and wet. They weighed close to 100 lbs, right at my maximum load limit. Thankfully, I finally figured out how to get them from the truck to the splitter without lifting them. Working on a way to get them from the ground into the truck with equal ease.


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## bboulier (Apr 21, 2013)

Nice.  How did you modify the splitter tor run only with your foot?​


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## bogydave (Apr 21, 2013)

All that lifting & handling makes me happy I split vertical 
The bending & lifting back up to the tail gate would kill my back .

Nice & quiet,
nice foot switch. 
Ever try  it on a bench level with the truck bed & tail gate? Maybe less lifting.

Good demo! Works great for you


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## MrWhoopee (Apr 22, 2013)

bboulier said:


> Nice. How did you modify the splitter tor run only with your foot?​


 




Another of my stupidly simple designs. 1 tee hinge, 2 blocks of wood, 2 pieces of nylon cord. 
They were just intended  as a test, but worked so well I haven't changed anything.


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## MrWhoopee (Apr 22, 2013)

bogydave said:


> All that lifting & handling makes me happy I split vertical
> Ever try it on a bench level with the truck bed & tail gate? Maybe less lifting.


 
I was considering exactly that, and may try it yet. This was much simpler, requiring no construction whatsoever. Fortunately, my old back doesn't object to this amount of bending, and I do need the exercise. Getting these rounds up off the ground and putting them in the truck was a bit much. Building a ramp to roll them up now.


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## bogydave (Apr 22, 2013)

MrWhoopee said:


> Getting these rounds up off the ground and putting them in the truck was a bit much. Building a ramp to roll them up now.


 
 Lifting is how I ruptured a couple discs.  Have paid for it ever since.

Using a ramp  Smart ,   Very   Smart !

I call anything over 14" rounds , rollers  
Especially the green &  wet ones.


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## DanCorcoran (Apr 22, 2013)

I have a similar horizontal electric splitter (PowR'Kraft). When I have a round that's too heavy, I use a hand truck. I put the base of the hand truck under the round (which is sitting upright), then lean the hand truck all the way back (horizontal). Because it is then the same height as the splitter, I roll the round from the hand truck to the splitter. If the round is so heavy or so big around that it tips forward as I'm trying to lean the hand truck backwards, I use a cargo strap to cinch the round to the hand truck, then lean it back.

I call the hand truck my "log lifter".


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## Nutmeg Warrior (Apr 22, 2013)

I just picked up the same homelite splitter. It has been splitting some big rounds of hard maple without any problems. Sure, I'd love a gas splitter, but for ~$300 this works pretty damn well.


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## MrWhoopee (Apr 22, 2013)

Nutmeg Warrior said:


> Sure, I'd love a gas splitter, but for ~$300 this works pretty damn well.


 You say that now, but spend a few hours with the motor in your ears and the exhaust in your lungs.....
I rarely have to split any serious hardwood, though I recently was given a 1/4 cord of 4 year seasoned oak. It was a groan, but by finding the weak spots I was able to split it all. Twisted, crotchy pieces are very challenging, but I don't have a pile of uglies I haven't been able to split.  I would much rather have one of these little electrics than any gas-powered beast.


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## lukem (Apr 22, 2013)

bogydave said:


> All that lifting & handling makes me happy I split vertical
> The bending & lifting back up to the tail gate would kill my back .
> 
> Nice & quiet,
> ...


 
I was thinking tailgate too.


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## Nutmeg Warrior (Apr 22, 2013)

MrWhoopee said:


> You say that now, but spend a few hours with the motor in your ears and the exhaust in your lungs.....
> I rarely have to split any serious hardwood, though I recently was given a 1/4 cord of 4 year seasoned oak. It was a groan, but by finding the weak spots I was able to split it all. Twisted, crotchy pieces are very challenging, but I don't have a pile of uglies I haven't been able to split. I would much rather have one of these little electrics than any gas-powered beast.


Good points. I'd only want a gas splitter for the efficiency. It's hard to find time for wood processing with small kids at home.


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## BillinTX (Apr 25, 2013)

Here is my solution to lifting heavy rounds. 

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...our-truck-save-your-back.106556/#post-1398087


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## MrWhoopee (May 14, 2013)

I decided to build a stand to bring the splitter up to bed level.





Now I can just roll the rounds onto the splitter and put the splits on the tailgate and table, no lifting involved.

I also consolidated the 2 foot pedals into one.




and incorporated a stroke limiter to eliminate unnecessary travel.




No wonder I'm getting soft, I keep eliminating the exercise.


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## Bigfoot (May 14, 2013)

love this idea


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## calixt0 (Jan 22, 2014)

looking forward to trying your stand set up


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## blazincajun (Jan 24, 2014)

Nice adaption. Just wondering if we get old because we use our noggin more are do we get old because we stop doing hard things or do we just get old?


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## sporthog (Feb 28, 2014)

Love these electric splitters! Any chance you could post some pictures of how you incorporated the 2 foot pedals into 1. I understand the safety issues!
It would be nice to see the pedal connections to the splitter.

Many Thanks, Ross


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## MrWhoopee (Mar 1, 2014)

sporthog said:


> Love these electric splitters! Any chance you could post some pictures of how you incorporated the 2 foot pedals into 1. I understand the safety issues!
> It would be nice to see the pedal connections to the splitter.
> 
> Many Thanks, Ross



 A single cord with small s-hooks on the ends runs thru the eye-screw on the pedal mounted to the stand (3rd picture in post #13). The s-hooks are attached to the hydraulic control lever and the tee-hinge that actuates the electric control button (shown in post #3). The cord slips thru the eye-screw,  as the electric actuator (tee hinge) bottoms, further motion transfers to the hydraulic control. This way the motor starts before the hydraulics actuate. It's all put away for the winter or I would try to get more pictures.


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## sporthog (Mar 1, 2014)

MrWhoopee said:


> A single cord with small s-hooks on the ends runs thru the eye-screw on the pedal mounted to the stand (3rd picture in post #13). The s-hooks are attached to the hydraulic control lever and the tee-hinge that actuates the electric control button (shown in post #3). The cord slips thru the eye-screw,  as the electric actuator (tee hinge) bottoms, further motion transfers to the hydraulic control. This way the motor starts before the hydraulics actuate. It's all put away for the winter or I would try to get more pictures.



Thanks for the additional info Craig!

I assume the routing of the cord is such that it doesn't interfere with the motor or control box?
It looks like the connection to the Hydraulic control is almost straight above the foot pedal
and there is an  appropriate hole for the s-hook to hook on to the hydraulic control.
My machine is actually a "Yardworks" machine but looks similar to yours. However, there is
no hole in the hydraulic control. This can be fixed with a small hose clamp.

Cheers, Ross


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## Grateful11 (Dec 23, 2014)

I've seen this video numerous time on Youtube. Now I finally get to see how MrWhoopee made this work. Even though we have a gas splitter now we still enjoy the little Homelite for certain stuff. My relatives laughed at the little Homelite until they saw it in action. My SIL likes to run the controls because she can talk and split at the same time ;-)
Thanks for the photos.


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## SKIN052 (Dec 23, 2014)

Excellent thread. Gotta try this.


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## WKUalum (Feb 12, 2015)

Used a homelite for the first time this year and can't believe the power it has.  Granted I'm splitting mostly ash and some oak.  It did have some trouble with a couple pieces of really knotty oak but I can live with that.  Better than swinging a maul for sure.


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## MrWhoopee (Feb 14, 2015)

Here it is in use on the stand.



The only thing I regret is making it the same height as the UNLOADED truck bed. This means that, when loaded, the tailgate is about 4-5 inches lower than the splitter, meaning I have to roll the rounds up onto it. I will probably shorten the stand to correct this.


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## Hogwildz (Feb 14, 2015)

Those first couple spits sounds like something I do in my shorts 
Excellent ingenuity!


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## MrWhoopee (Jul 25, 2017)

Finally made a video detailing the single foot pedal mod.


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## WoodyIsGoody (Jul 25, 2017)

MrWhoopee said:


> I was splitting up some large Doug Fir rounds the other day and thought it might be a good chance to video the Homelite 5-ton electric splitter in action.



I like hearing the chirping birds and inhaling the fresh air when I split wood. But the slow speed of splitting would drive me nuts!


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## MrWhoopee (Jul 25, 2017)

WoodyIsGoody said:


> I like hearing the chirping birds and inhaling the fresh air when I split wood. But the slow speed of splitting would drive me nuts!



Being 65, the splitter is still faster than I am. I was thinking about getting an electric kinetic, but then I forgot why.


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## bunfoolio (Jul 27, 2017)

The Homelite splitter is a little BAD ASS 

I have had it for over years and it will do 95% of what a gas one will do.  IT is slower but for the price can not be beat.  Just make sure you have a quality extension cord and it is level when you split.  If you do less that 2 cords of wood a year it is the way to go.  I have abused mine and it still works great.  I have literally  jammed  in 150lb oak rounds and it does them.


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## Grateful11 (Jul 28, 2017)

bunfoolio said:


> The Homelite splitter is a little BAD ASS
> 
> I have had it for over years and it will do 95% of what a gas one will do.  IT is slower but for the price can not be beat.  Just make sure you have a quality extension cord and it is level when you split.  If you do less that 2 cords of wood a year it is the way to go.  I have abused mine and it still works great.  I have literally  jammed  in 150lb oak rounds and it does them.



We have one and relied on it for several years. My brother and his wife were camping on here on my sons farm and they helped us split some wood with it and he blown away. He had heard me talking about and didn't believe how much power it had until he actually used it. My SIL said it was nice to actually be able to talk while splitting. I'd really like to set it up for easier operation like Mr. Whoopee for splitting smalls.


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## Easy Livin’ 3000 (Jul 29, 2017)

blazincajun said:


> Nice adaption. Just wondering if we get old because we use our noggin more are do we get old because we stop doing hard things or do we just get old?


Just get old.


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## Easy Livin’ 3000 (Jul 29, 2017)

MrWhoopee said:


> I was splitting up some large Doug Fir rounds the other day and thought it might be a good chance to video the Homelite 5-ton electric splitter in action.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



 Real nice, MrWhoopee. Your post is entertaining and educational. Nice job on all the mods, too.


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## MrWhoopee (Aug 7, 2019)

And now we tackle the problem of getting the rounds into the truck. First, I got one of the 1000 lb. HF truckbed cranes and a set of skidding tongs from Northern Tool.





It worked well after I reinforced the bed, but  it was slow and tedious to use. Then I came across the old Meyer T5 snowplow pump that came with the truck.

After a rebuild and slight modification......


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## WiscWoody (Aug 20, 2019)

Yeah well you should try splitting some big rounds with that little thing lol...  I imagine that you’ll wire that plow pump up nice then? Looks good. I often thought of doing something like that on one of my trucks but I never did.


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## SpaceBus (Aug 21, 2019)

Nice rig!


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## MrWhoopee (Aug 21, 2019)

WiscWoody said:


> Yeah well you should try splitting some big rounds with that little thing lol...  I imagine that you’ll wire that plow pump up nice then? Looks good. I often thought of doing something like that on one of my trucks but I never did.



It will split rounds as big as I'm willing to handle, up to ~28 in., though I might have to noodle a groove in the biggest ones. The lift is fully wired, solenoid under the hood feeding #4 wire through the frame. I have the power button mounted on the back corner of the bed, but it is removable with enough wire to allow me to control the load if necessary.


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