3 pt. wood splitter vs. standalone

I use a tractor mounted and love it run it off tractor HYD's . Tractor uses about 1/2 GPH a 5 HP gas engine uses a lot more than that .

If you're doing a fair amount of wood for yourself, or even on a very small commercial basis, then a small engine powered splitter with a 2 stage pump is probably the best way to go. It will use less gas in the long run and gives decent performance with the 2 stage pump....

IF you're into this in a serious way, moving commercial quantities, then don't waste your time on either. You want at minimum a 4" ram and a 20+ gpm pump, PTO driven, with it's own resevoir and controls. That's going to be a bunch more money, but it will buy you capacity.

Right now I'm using a small trailed splitter that I built, and it's powered off the tractors hydraulics, or my skid steer.... but these rigs are all pumping 14-18 gpm, so they're relatively fast without running the engine fast, so the fuel use isn't too bad.

I'm in the process of obtaining the parts to build a large commercial splitter though, and that will be PTO powered.....

Rod

With a splitter you still have to put the unsplit sections onto the splitter, pick up the pieces, and stack the firewood. The only thing you save is swinging the axe. A person in reasonable shape can split a lot of wood in an afternoon with just a good maul and a couple of wedges.

Rod

3pt means one less motor. Cheaper initially without that engine. Small engine running wide open will burn a lot of gas. Tractor needs only to run 1/3 to 1/2 throttle. (on mine anyway)

stand alone won't be putting hours on the tractor. The tractor will be free to do other things if it's not tied to the splitter.

3pt means less people will be able to "borrow" it. (More trouble to load/haul and they have to have a tractor) That can be a GOOD thing or a BAD thing!

The log splitters with the 5 hp engines will use a lot of gas since they have the throttle set at wide open. A co-worker of mine and I built one
and we used a 10hp Tecumseh engine from an old Sears tractor. We used a hydraulic cylinder that had a 4 inch bore. We bought a 2-stage pump and a control valve. We just ran the engine at a fast idle and it didn't use much gas. Here's a picture of it. Hal

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