Giant Self-Propelled Splitter Inspires Neighbor

Giant Self-Propelled Splitter Inspires Neighbor WOODLOT EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous When Mark Froehlich fires up his log splitter no tree in the area is safe His 3-wheel splitter can handle about anything he can lift onto it
Froehlich s boom can handle up to 1 000 lbs I ve split pieces 4 ft across says Froehlich The ram has a 48-in stroke and is built to the specifications of a 42-ton splitter
Froehlich built the splitter from an old 3-wheeled pruning rig with a cherry picker basket on a telescoping boom The engine was good as were the hydraulic valves and cylinders He modified the cherry picker basket arm to serve as a pickup boom for handling large logs
All the controls were in the basket so I moved them to an operator s station that I built over the engine says Froehlich I replaced all the hoses but everything else including the hydraulic motors on the three wheels were fine
He braced the boom and doubled the thickness of the 4 by 4-in upright I figured if the cherry picker basket could support a 200-lb man this thing should be able to handle a 1 000-lb chunk of wood
The original arm that held the basket is hinged to the vertical post A 24-in cylinder raises and lowers the arm
I mounted a 22 1/2-ft long 18-in high tempered structural beam across the top of the chassis says Froehlich The ram mounts on it and the 12-in wedge is welded to it
Froehlich says he was warned the structural beam wouldn t hold up so he reinforced it lining the top where the ram travels with used grader blades A second plate reinforces the wedge
I used the original valves on the cherry picker to control all the hydraulics says Froehlich
Froelich s neighbor Richard Freid liked the splitter but decided he didn t need one quite as big He built a down-sized version with a 9-ft long 8 by 8-in H-beam that serves as both the splitter base and the main frame of the splitter At the rear the H-beam extends past the axle to support a Kohler 8 hp engine and 3 000-lb hydraulic pump
The pump supplies power to the hydraulic motor connected to the rear axle pinion gear and the three boom cylinders
I can disconnect the pinion on the rear and remove the entire front wheel assembly to pull it like a trailer explains Freed
To steer the splitter when under its own power Freed uses the 4-in splitter ram itself He installed a linkage between the ram and a bell crank used for changing direction on a pivot point on the front wheel assembly
When I extend the ram it steers to the right and then to the left when I retract the ram says Freed When it s at the halfway point it steers straight
He installed a safety chain on the ram as he s learned he can overpower the linkage if he isn t careful When the ram is needed for splitting Freed simply removes the linkage and stores it inside the webbing of the H-beam
Freed hung an operator s seat on the side opposite the boom mounting a bank of control valves in front He laid it out like the controls on a backhoe The one exception is the valve for the hydraulic motor that runs the rear drive It s mounted under the seat and moves the drive into reverse or forward
He spent a total of about $2 000 A new splitter with a log lift is advertised at $6 099 he notes
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Mark Froehlich 5119 N M 140 Watervliet Mich 49098 ph 269 463-3742; mrmff58@sbc global net ; or Richard Freid 5153 N M 140 Watervliet Mich 49098 ph 269 463-6261

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