"Overhauled" Log Splitter

"Overhauled" Log Splitter WOODLOT EQUIPMENT Wood Splitters 26-3-15 "A number of years ago I bought a big log splitter from Northern Hydraulics. However, it didn't take long before I started having problems with it. So I overhauled the machine and made improvements to it. Now I have a splitter that works better than anything on the market," says Elmer Pinkerton, Elmwood, Neb. One problem with the splitter was that the oil tank was glued on and often came loose due to road vibrations. Pinkerton reattached the tank and extended the oil filler neck to keep oil from spilling out whenever he towed the splitter on rough roads. Also, whenever he wanted to use the splitter, he had to unhook it from the pickup in order to keep the split logs from ramming into the bumper. To solve the problem he replaced the original tongue with a home-built telescoping one. "The tongue has stops on it so I can adjust it for length by simply inserting a pin through a hole," says Pinkerton. But the biggest change was to add another hydraulic control and to weld a homemade boom onto the back part of the splitter. The boom is designed to automatically lift the log up onto the splitter table. It completely eliminates manual lifting. "The boom is made from 4-in. dia. pipe and is raised or lowered by a hydraulic cylinder that operates off the splitter's original motor," says Pinkerton. "I added a hand-operated winch (not shown) on back of the boom. The winch is used to take up any slack in the cable before the boom pulls the log up to the splitter table. By tieing a snatch block to the table, I can pull in big logs from quite a distance without having to do any lifting. I haven't found a log yet that was too big for me to handle." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Elmer M. Pinkerton, 305 West D Street, Elmwood, Neb. 68349 (ph 402 994-5885).

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