County line log splitter, log stop bent

[Cedartree4]

Am I splitting hairs on this one?
Bought a CountyLine 25 Ton splitter.
1 hour into use, the stop bent while it was stopping a log.

I ran my last splitter 15 years and never had a problem. Only bought a new one because the engine quit on the old one.

It is not bent but a 1/2 inch at the top of it.
It it wasn't brand new I would just live with it. But it is brand new and it frustrates me.
Would you live with it or file a warranty claim?

 

[andym]

I would probably just live with it as long as the rail underneath is still straight. It's a weak point on most brands. The rails underneath are more robust than some others. I like how they extend back past the log knock offs.

 

[peakbagger]

If its under warranty I would take them up on it and file a claim. Odds are they will send you a new part and you can swap it out. Its not going to effect the functionality unless you see a broken weld.

 

[Sawset]

One of mine is bent too. If a pc of something is between the wedge and stop when the wedge retracts, the stop gets pushed out of the way. Make sure to watch and stop the hydraulics before it happens. The stop is part of the frame weldment, so the only fix would be to somehow bend it back - so mine has stayed bent. I had an iron/oak unit that also kept bending, but it had a bolt on unit that could be replaced. Something to keep in mind.
I notice that the county line units are designed at about the stress limit for what they are intended - force parallel with the ram. Any other direction, fairly weak. So mounting any kind of lift, or putting much on a side table, or in this case bending the stops is not quite in sync with the 25ton rating, or whatever it is. If I were to home build one, a very stout I beam etc would be more in order. But not on a cheap welded unit where there was a lot of effort put into reducing costs.

 

[Jags]

I would file a claim. In the pic of the speed square showing the angle of the bent stop, it also appears the the slide rail is bent as well. The square is not sitting flat with the rail.
Personally I would be making a very heavy "C" to weld on to the tops of those stops that stays behind the wedge when retracted.

Edit: for clarification it is the first pic with the square that shows the bend in the rail on the right side of the pic

 

[DodgyNomad]

When tractor supply stopped selling USA made Speeco splitters under the Husky name a few years ago and went to these Chinese CountyLine pieces of crap to save money, this is what they came out with. Absolute junk.

 

[DodgyNomad]

Look at how light duty all that stuff is. My buddy bought the same splitter, and bent the foot on it in the first few days of use. It was the most vibrating, rattling piece of junk you've ever seen. He worked on getting some of the harmonics and noisy rattles under control, but quickly tired of it. He got rid of it on Craigslist, as he said using it was just no fun.

 

[andym]

Look at how light duty all that stuff is. My buddy bought the same splitter, and bent the foot on it in the first few days of use. It was the most vibrating, rattling piece of junk you've ever seen. He worked on getting some of the harmonics and noisy rattles under control, but quickly tired of it. He got rid of it on Craigslist, as he said using it was just no fun.

Is that supposed to be helpful? You are certainly not describing my own countyline 30 ton. I spent considerable time doing comparison shopping, and did not find a better log splitter in the same cost category. And all box store splitters are made in china.

 

[DodgyNomad]

Is that supposed to be helpful? You are certainly not describing my own countyline 30 ton. I spent considerable time doing comparison shopping, and did not find a better log splitter in the same cost category. And all box store splitters are made in china.

Probably not helpful, just venting. I've been disappointed that tractor supply swapped these little gas splitters out for Chinese, and you could immediately see the build quality drop off, but not the price. My friend had used my smaller Speeco, branded as a Husky at the time from TS and loved it. When he bought his own, a yellow CountyLine, he immediately had issues and was unhappy with it. It was frustrating.

I suppose it's just a shame, and simply "how it is" these days.

 

[old greybeard]

When tractor supply stopped selling USA made Speeco splitters under the Husky name a few years ago and went to these Chinese CountyLine pieces of crap to save money, this is what they came out with. Absolute junk.

These seem to be well made for the money. Please show us the stronger stop on your speeco.

 

[DodgyNomad]

These seem to be well made for the money. Please show us the stronger stop on your speeco.

I'd rather not get into this any further. Nothing special to see on my Speeco's, look like any other log splitter, except for a few mods that I have made over the years.

I'm sure the newer County Lines are generally functional splitters and do the job for many people without issue.

 

[peakbagger]

I have one of the newer countrylines and it does what it needs to and is holding up well. If I had a choice I would get rid of the tilt option and save some weight as I never use it but some do so its lower cost to build a lot more units with the capability then building and stocking two different models. If someone needs beefier there are plenty of larger units. Some folks use electric 5 ton units and are happy with them.

 

[old greybeard]

I'd rather not get into this any further. Nothing special to see on my Speeco's, look like any other log splitter, except for a few mods that I have made over the years.

I'm sure the newer County Lines are generally functional splitters and do the job for many people without issue.

No way dude. You called them “pieces of crap”. Back it up, I think those stops are pretty solid. You’d have to pay no attention and really lean on it while returning to bend it. Me and many have researched before buying, these are way past “functional “. Ive used many rentals over the years and think the Country Line is excellent. Didn’t think your splitter could be shown to be heftier.

 

[Jags]

Uuhhhmmm! This is a family show....let's keep it that way.

 

[DodgyNomad]

No way dude. You called them “pieces of crap”. Back it up, I think those stops are pretty solid. You’d have to pay no attention and really lean on it while returning to bend it. Me and many have researched before buying, these are way past “functional “. Ive used many rentals over the years and think the Country Line is excellent. Didn’t think your splitter could be shown to be heftier.

Glad you're happy with your splitter. My equipment is currently locked up in my shop, and I'm up north for the holiday. I'm confident that any pics that I take will not show or prove very much.

I've looked at many of the new splitters while in TS, and used a couple of the current County Line splitters, both powered by Kohler's. They were noisier, and had a lot of vibrations and rattles when compared to the previous Speecos. I stand by what I said.

The Speeco's are nothing special, but are better built than their replacements. Fact.

 

[DodgyNomad]

No way dude. You called them “pieces of crap”. Back it up, I think those stops are pretty solid. You’d have to pay no attention and really lean on it while returning to bend it. Me and many have researched before buying, these are way past “functional “. Ive used many rentals over the years and think the Country Line is excellent. Didn’t think your splitter could be shown to be heftier.

I should have chosen my words more carefully. I probably spend too much time on a couple of NSFW, no holds barred racecar sites, and that language/attitude carried over to here.

Because my friend had a serious issue arise almost immediately with the same splitter, and chased other issues with it, and because I've personally seen and observed other quality control and structural issues on these, I called them a bad name.

I have a real pet peeve with all this lesser quality, get it from China, new replacement stuff that I also run into while repairing vehicles and equipment.

My little Speeco has a 6.5 American made Briggs on it, and has split right around 150 cords of wood, and still runs and works as new. All of it hardwood, much of it huge, with about 80 cords of it being various varieties of Oak. Not a thing wrong with it.

I'm saddened and frustrated when I see this drop in quality, but didn't mean to disparage anyone's personal machinery. Hope they get it handled for him.

 

[baseroom]

Here is mine. Both sides are bent a little. It is a bit frustrating but this has handled a lot of three foot diameter dead twisted ash.

 

[Jags]

Serious question...how often do these splitters get stuck and require the use of the log stripper to get unstuck? Maybe this is a good argument for higher tonnage machines? This just doesn't happen with mine.

 

[peakbagger]

Never happened on mine

 

[salecker]

No stuck wood on mine in 10 years use.
All i have is spruce to split

 

[Sawset]

If it goes to low rate more than a few seconds I'll usually pull it back and switch the log around. It seems far easier to split knotty white oak using the grain to your advantage rather than plow through it. It's only a couple seconds, reverse, pop it loose, go at it from an easier direction.

 

[peakbagger]

I split a lot of beech and maple. Beech usually has lot of crotches and I end up cutting crossgrain on occasion when splitting. If kicks into low but usually makes it through.

 

[andym]

Serious question...how often do these splitters get stuck and require the use of the log stripper to get unstuck? Maybe this is a good argument for higher tonnage machines? This just doesn't happen with mine.

I've split about 8 cords with mine so far. Chunks that get stuck on the wedge rarely are in a position to bend the stops. A small split will ocasionally land beside the wedge and get drug backwards. These machines retract very quickly so you only have a second or two to determine if that smaller split is going to get wedged in or not. If a split does get wedged it would take a really stout design to not bend. The Northstar splitters have such a design.

 

[JRHAWK9]

I went from an (broken link removed to http://www.speeco.com/products.aspx?id=95&id2=511) to a (broken link removed) last winter (which I only paid $800 for brand new in crate ). Can't find any big box store splitter not made in China these days.

I will agree, the log stop on my CL does not appear to be as robust as the one on my Speeco. I also prefer the non-manufactured type beam of the Speeco, however, the steel plate on my CL is thicker pretty much everywhere compared to the one on my Speeco. I also did not like the steel to steel coupler the CL came with, so I installed a Lovejoy style of coupler with poly spiders. I had to replace the small pump mount with one which had a larger mounting diameter in order to be able to fit the large Lovejoy coupler through it. I've already tested the beam strength by taking an oak round and placing it crossways and trying to cut it in half. This is when the DCV relief was set to factory specs (somewhere over 3,500 psi as measured by a 3,000 psi gauge I installed)...which means the wood was seeing close to the 40 tons the splitter is rated at. It sheared the piece of wood and sent it flying. I think I did see the beam deflect a bit too. It all happened so fast. I'm never doing that again, as I was dumb to even do it in the first place! I have my DCV turned down to about 3,200 psi now and turned the crossover relief on the pump up. So I split all 11 cord this past spring with the pump never crossing over into the second stage. Even though I have a gauge on it, I have no idea at what psi the pump crosses over to the second stage at, as it powered through everything I threw at it while maintaining high flow.

I also much prefer the better Kohler Command Pro on the CL over the run of the mill Briggs Series 1450 on the Speeco. Not to mention the sub 9.5 second cycle time of the CL 40 ton.

 

[Highbeam]

I use the log stripper things on my huskee 22 about once per cord. I split almost 100% vertical. It doesn’t take much force to just push a log off the wedge so to bend it would require a screw up like a round somehow wedging between the ram and the log stripper.

The log strippers on my Huskee were never perfectly square from the factory.

The huskee was “assembled” in the us but I’m okay with foreign manufacture. Flathead Briggs just keeps on pounding away. I take good care of it. Love joy rubber