Firewood Length

[Amber Gold]

What size wood should I cut for my 2.5x8 Grimm. It has 30" grates.

After realizing how much would I'd be burning between my house and evaporator I'm giving a wood splitter some serious thought. I've found they are surprisingly expensive even when used and that 24" splitters are pretty common. Would 24" logs be long enough for the firebox or would 30" be better? Does a 25 ton splitter have enough power to split most anything?

Thanks

[Fred Henderson]

Usually the width of the frie box it the lenght of the wood to be burn. Also 2.5 is the dia of wood to be burned. 24 " wood may work a litle better being it will be some what easier to put in. You will always have the opition of pushing some of it forward when firing.

[hardermaple]

Josh, i just read in "The Maple Sugar Book" by Helen and Scott Nearing that it's better to go with a length of wood that is smaller than your fire box. They were burning 4 foot length and then burned 1/2 4ft length and 1/2 3ft length. I would go with 24inch in yours for the same reasons as The Nearings went to 3 foot lengths "1)the shorter wood can be crossed more easily in the firebox, keeping the mass of burning fuel more open to the draft, 2) once in the firebox, the 24inch wood can be poked and shifted about more easily, 3) the bulk of the flames are kept nearer the firing door and thus travel farther under the evaporator before reaching the stack, and 4) the mass of charcoal that piles up at the back of the firebox on a long boiling day, clogging the draft and raising the new wood up to the bottom of the front pan is far less with 24inch wood than with the longer wood." That was all from the book, and makes sense to me. have fun.

[Jim Brown]

The saying from the "OLD GUYS" is never cut your wood longer than you fire box is wide.

Our two cents
Jim

[Amber Gold]

HM, I read that book last month...great read. I do remember it saying that.

Thanks

Trying to talk my wife into letting me get a tractor, then I can just get a 3pt hitch mounted splitter. The tractor probably won't happen till the fall at the earliest.

[PerryW]

I burn 22" wood in my 3x10 because it also fits in my woodstove.

[DS Maple]

Anywhere between 2' and 2.5' should work fine. Both of our splitters are 36" and the evaporator is 36" wide, so I guess we obey the "no wider than the evaporator" rule. It seems to work well. Not a bad idea to split some stuff smaller than normal though, just to have something available to fill the nooks and crannies when the firebox is full of larger pieces.

[KenWP]

Neighbour has one of those cheap 25 ton splitters that sell here for around 1500 bucks and he splits maple all day with it.I have seen guys split wood with those really cheap 3 ton splitters. They split straight grain wood semi okay but what idiot invented a wood splitter thats a foot off the ground must have been short or had a iron back.

[maplecrest]

measure your grates and cut the same as the grates in the arch

[3rdgen.maple]

Ambergold I went with the 3 point splitter on the tractor. Quick disconnect right to the hydraulics on the tractor. Paid 600 bucks brand new from TSC. You can set them at the working height that is comfortable for you. Mine also tilts so you can run it verticle or horizontal. I can mount the splitter and wood wagon on the tractor at the same time, I kinda jacknife the wagon and split the wood and throw it right in the wagon where the tree falls. Gotta check but I'm pretty sure it is a 25 ton splitter and after five years of splitting blocks I have yet to have anything stop it. Some Knarly hardwood blocks that takes 2 people to pick up has not even stopped it, you hear the tractor grunt sometimes but that is it. Also I gotta imagine HP of the tractor is a factor also. My advice for what it is worth is save the money your gonna spend on a regular wood splitter and use it for the tractor and get a 3 point for alot less.

[WESTVIRGINIAMAPLER]

3rdgen,

What size tractor are you running the splitter with and what kind of flow rates does the hydraulics have??

[Dill]

The hydro flow rate is much more important than the straight HP of the tractor. I run my 3pth splitter behind my 606 which has a 22gpm pump. But I tried it on my buddys 504 with a 8 gpm pump I think I could have done it faster by hand. I perfer a horizontal 3pth splitter I can run it at waist height for most stuff and then drop it down to the ground and roll on the big stuff. My father only uses a vertical 3pth setup. He sits on a buckets and works at ground level, if the piece is really huge he'll back the tractor under it.

[Amber Gold]

Those are some good points.

I'd like to get a splitter now so I can split all of next years wood with it. Can't swing a tractor w/ splitter now, but figure I should be able to sell the splitter for what I paid for it when I do get a tractor.

For now I split by hand until I find something.

[Russell Lampron]

Dill my father tried to run a splitter with the hydraulics on his 504. Not very much power and very slow.

[DS Maple]

You can buy or build a tractor mounted splitter to run off the PTO. That way you don't even have to worry about the tractor's hyraulic pump abilities.

[3rdgen.maple]

Brandon, Book says 33hp at 2400rpm at the pto Hydraulic pump flow rate is
16gpm if I am reading it right. I think hp is just as important as the flow rate. I have gotten that splitter to make the tractor grunt and If it had less hp It would probably stall it out. I have never seen just stop the piston. It is a shaft driven pump versus a belt driven pump so it will stall a motor instead of slipping a belt. And of course the higher you run the rpm's the faster it will split.

[3rdgen.maple]

Ambergold, I got a buddy who just bought a brand new New Holland. He says he got a great deal on it and after they talked turkey said if they want the sale He wanted a splitter, brush hog and back blade thrown in. Long story short they got the sale. Alot of great deals out there with the economy in the dumps. Go check some tractor dealers out before you just get a splitter you might just come home with a smoking deal.