Self-Propelled Wood Splitter Doubles As A Log Skidder

Self-Propelled Wood Splitter Doubles As A Log Skidder WOODLOT EQUIPMENT Wood Splitters 28-3-43 "My home-built self-propelled wood splitter is equipped with a boom for skidding trees and lifting them so they can be sawed and split," says Ken Pohjola, Cloquet, Minn. The rig is equipped with a 4-way splitter on back and a winch and lift boom on front. A removeable, belt-driven saw rig (not shown in photo) also mounts on front of the machine. "With just one machine I can drag trees that I cut down to an area where I can saw them and split them for stacking on a 2-wheeled trailer that I pull behind the rig." The wood splitter has a frame made from a pair of schedule 40 steel pipes which angle inward 20 in. toward the front. As a result, the rig is only 20 in. wide in front but 44 in. wide at the back. Power is provided by a twin-cylinder, air-cooled, 18 hp Wisconsin gas engine. The engine connects to a 2-ton truck transmission and the narrowed-up rear end off a Pontiac station wagon. A 12-in. long driveshaft, driven by a hydraulic motor, connects the transmission to the rear end. The engine belt-drives the machine's power steering pump as well as the saw rig. A 3/8-in. dia. cable runs from a hydraulic-operated winch up the boom. A flat belt drive is used to power the saw rig. The splitter is chain-driven by a hydraulic pump and is equipped with two cylinders - a 6 by 12-in. cylinder and a 3 by 24-in. one. "When the smaller cylinder can't do the job, I engage the big one to get through the tough spots," says Pohjola. The rig's front axle is made from a 3-in. dia. steel pipe, with short lengths of 1 1/4-in. dia. pipes welded at a 90-degree angle to each end. A pair of 1 1/8-in. dia. shafts go through the 1 1/4-in. dia. pipes, with trailer spindles welded to their ends. The machine has a go-kart steering wheel. The seat is an old stamped steel tractor seat mounted on a floor jack arm, with a snow plow spring and a shock absorber off a car providing suspension. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Kenneth Pohjola, 6662 W. Arrowhead Road, Cloquet, Minn. 55720 (ph 218 729-6063; email: pohjola@aol.com).

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