Splitting Firewood with a Skid Steer – Is it Worth it?
Foreign Hey it's Brock here with Rock Hill Farms And I'm out here visiting my friend Paul Case today he's interested in getting One of these skid steer log splitters And I happen to have one so I've brought It over to get a second opinion Now I actually got this product from Wolf Ridge to test it out and Demonstrate on the channel and I was Surprised by all the negative comments I Got on it I think this thing's fantastic But Paul actually earns a good portion Of his living from firewood so I'm gonna Let him run it and see what he thinks of It thank you [Music] Now if I was here to help Paul split Wood I'd run around and line all these Up in a straight line so he could cut Them a lot quicker but that's not what I'm here for I'm here to see if he likes It and if he's running it by himself This is how it's going to be I want to go ahead and clarify what I Meant earlier when I said I was getting A lot of negative comments No one had anything negative to say Specifically about this Wolf Ridge Splitter What the conversation turned into was a Lot of negativity towards the very idea Of having a log splitter on the front of A skid loader because as you can see you
Have to move the skid loader over to Each firewood round and that seems as a Viewer I guess like a slow way to do it But personally I've never found a quick Way or an easy way to deal with large Firewood rounds So if you compare this to swinging a Splitting mole I'd choose this every day And it's obviously true that this is for A select group of people who already own A skid steer But if you already own the skid loader This is very cost effective compared to A lot of the other types of hydraulic Splitters on the market Feet Foreign Kind of wood you got around here Paul [Music] [Applause] Thank you Foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] Foreign I was watching you thinking man he's Pretty smooth on that thing imagine how Good he'd be with two thumbs Well they don't require any thumbs They're stupid work like this Uh there might be some skill involved Though yeah that's what I was thinking So I always like to get expert opinions
And I couldn't find one so you're the Closest I got Now there's two boys went way the other Way there on that one didn't you I'm the opposite of expert so when it Comes to giving an opinion on a piece of Equipment like this I have two separate Thoughts first in terms of an inverted Log splitter I think Wolf Ridge makes a Really high quality one it's well built I don't think you're gonna break it it's American made And that's what I started off thinking Just a lot of companies make inverted Log splitters people buy them it's an Established thing is Wolf Ridge a good One and seems pretty good to me but when I posted videos of it all the comments Were negative or 90 were negative that We were it was too slow So let's start just too slow Does that seem slow to you for that you Just dealt with no no not really Um you do set and wait for just a second For it to bust but uh I'm I'm not really A commercial operation I'm not on time Restraint and the things I do with that Are going to be things where they're Wanting bigger pieces than what I can Generally make the Halverson anyways so I don't think that operators are slow But usually the the speed of it has more To do with the machine you probably got A hook on too so uh
And there you can be like hypothetical But you had that here and you had to Split it what else were you going to do You like swinging them all or you're Going to throw it in a pan no everything That leaves here leaves here in that Dump truck and it was going to leave Here in that dump truck somehow I can find somebody that wanted it it It's kind of like the cut off ends of The Sawmill they're a byproduct and if You can sell them good but you don't Want to try to Market those to the People you're selling Lumber to So but I've got to the point I have a Couple videos splitting those big rounds With them all I've decided it's not Worth it get stuff that you can handle Unless you've got that I think it's Worth it have you ever thought about the Mechanics of splitting those big pieces With them all let's just say you got Ones three foot across and when you're Driving hitting it with a mall or Driving a wedge into it it has to lift Up in the middle And you're hitting down on it And so having something like this where The piece is turned on the side actually Make it easier to split but just about All those pieces that we busted were Stuff that I'd went out there and Knocked off the Halverson because I Couldn't break it
And especially the one that was so tight You could I had to hit it two or three Times and finally we rolled it over and Hit it a couple times before it ever Busted it that's just the nature of the Beast some of it's harder wood when he Says Halverson if some of you don't know He's got a Halverson firewood processor That saws it and splits it all off the Same unit but it can only handle smaller Stuff so the next complaint I got and This one tells me more about the person Complaining but tons and tons of people Said you're going to tear up your grass I was a firewood guy making money Selling fire would help concern to you About grass in your Wood Yard uh my wood Yard is the driveway at an old chicken Farm that has a couple hundred ton of Creek gravel underneath of the top of it Up to keep the grass off from it and I Don't have to worry about spraying it or Mowing it that way my first thought when I think I'm gonna split wood in that Area is there won't be any grass over There it's just now it's old tree bark And little pieces of wood Um here's what I have to say about Complainers they'll always surface And most people who want to complain are Not interested in helping you otherwise It would be called constructive Criticism and there's something about Constructive criticism I don't like it's
Still criticism I get a lot of uh I get A lot of that and I actually learn a lot From the comments so there's a lot more There's a lot of good in there too so What I'm going to say last thing about That type of splitter is it's not made For everybody because people are like oh Yeah if you have a skid loader well yeah That's who it's for yeah or a tractor With a called Quick Test skid steer that There are certain things that are for a Niche there are a certain customer for That and for that person I think it's a Good product you agree with that I do I Do I got a bunch more of it I'm gonna bust Up with that before I let it leave here You got any stories today so I'm putting Paul on the spot here I was asking for a Story he didn't have one prepared but so I'll tell you a story and then I gotta Go Did you hear about the one-armed guy That caught a fish No it's this long That's all I got It shorter the better I like that one so Hey I think you ought to go get one of Those wolfridge Splitters if you're Asking me but Paul I appreciate you Making a video with me appreciate you Guys watching and we'll see on the next One
