burrowed 27 ton ariens

[yooperdave]

had the opportunity to use a 27 ton ariens last night. (helped someone out)
easy starting robin engine...didn't require much force when pull starting-a lot less than i thought.
cycle time seemed to be fine...i know there are splitters with quicker times.
the chunks we were splitting were way too large (outdoor boiler); with that in mind, my own personal opinion is that the tonnage should have been greater...although the unit did get through everything. there were a few chunks that had to be re-positioned.
some splitters have an auto idle control that allows the engine to idle down when there is no demand on it....that sure would have been nice.
as far as a recommendation goes, this splitter would be way more than you need for an indoor burning stove-like my nc-and you could get by with a smaller splitter.
the wood that was being split was "cull wood" from a logging yard that was just too twisted for the mill, it is offered locally for $45 a full cord-delivered. (4x4x8). but this stuff is really twisted, gnarly, knotted, forked...you name it! (used to be $35 a cord but was increased last year-still a good buy.)

one thing i did notice on the splitter, (and this was posted here also) on the return stroke-about the last 3-4 inches-the slide would "chatter and vibrate" leaded you to think that there was a buildup of debri affecting the ram/slide. didn't happen every time, but some times was a bit more than others. wonder if the other poster ever figured out what was causing that???

a very nice splitter with great results

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Dave, that is good you were able to have some experience with this splitter. I agree that the twisted gnarly stuff can be tough and because this was for the OWB I suspect it was also cut longer then most folks would cut their firewood and that alone would make it split harder. It ; does surprise me though that some had to be repositioned. I rarely have to do that; maybe once per year but had none this year. Our 20 ton unit split really nice and is plenty fast enough on both the split and the return.

On the idle. I hate engines set up to run only at high speed. Every time one is started and goes to high speed I cringe. I would rather let the engine run slowly for a few minutes before opening up the throttle. I also want to be able to idle it manually whenever I want to stop for a few minutes.