Archive through April 20, 2009

[kide]

Kraig:
That Cub looks a little uncomfortable to ride on...
I've got one Honda in a fleet of about 20 small engines around here (on a 21" electric start Honda walk behind mower that was my Mother-in-law's last) It's never been a favorite of mine - after several go rounds with the carb, it still runs too rich and fouls plugs like one of our old Cushman scooters on fairground duty.. I took it back to the dealer when it was new and got the old "uhhhh, well, it's all fixed jets ya know" routine. Gets a new plug every spring.

I've got one of the old brown/bronze flathead five horse Briggs on my splitter - my father-in-law bought it for me in 1978. Despite the abuse (left outside for about 20 years) it always starts second pull. We've got a Sears pressure washer with one of the newer Briggs OHV engines on it - that's turning out the same way (except it lives indoors ALL the time..) Not to say I haven't had problems with Briggs - usually spider residue in the points (how the @#$%&%%$# do they get under that aluminum cover??) or the "Pulse-a-jet" carbs fouling the screen at the bottom of the pickup.. BTW - I'm building a Cushman scooter w/an 18 horse Briggs Vanguard, so ya can see I lean towards 'em..

 

[kmcconaughey]

Kendell, thanks for the additional fuel for my anti Honda fire. Kinda confirms what I've been hearing of late.

Regarding the uncomfortable to ride Cub; I had to remove the seat to get a better photo of the tiller!

Actually that's my #1 125 I had recently moved the seat to the AC 620 when I took the photo. The seat was the wrong seat for the 125, not to mention that it was in the early stages of being completely disassembled, waiting it's turn to be refurbished. BTW, seeing that I had the seat adapted to fit on a Cub and the Allis was missing it's correct seat support, and the jury rigged seat (a boat seat), was falling apart, I decided to just use a spare Cub Cadet seat support to mount that seat on the Allis.

 

[kmcconaughey]

I got a lot of mileage out of this one photo... Cropping is such a wonderful thing.

 

[bbrigham]

Kraig..My mothers bf bought the same splitter last year. We split enough wood for both of us for this past winter, it seems to work real well. We tried to split the gnarliest chunks we could find just to see how well it would do and never stopped it. He got a good buy on it to, was on clearance cause they couldn't sell it. Had to be people around Cortland are too cheap cause thats a nice splitter. As for the Honda deal most every contractor I know all use Honda engines on their compressors and generators. From my experience I've had working with my uncle and his generator and compressor I really like them. He had the same ones since '88 with no problems....till they got stolen...

 

[jclazar]

Kide- i have the vangaurd 14hp. twin B&S on my White tractor mower....runs great and has some power. fat fenderd f-100? 53' may be? i have a 82 f-100 out of nevada. never seen snow.

 

[kide]

Kraig:
Must be nice to get straight wood.. we used to be able to get 20 cord (federal cord) loads of red oak from about 150 miles north, but it got too $$$ for the truckers, so the last time I bought wood (about 4 years ago), I got it from a local who promised "10 cords" for about $600.00. It turned out to be a gnarly old oak from a building site - we got 3 grain trucks full.. I bet you can guess what my wife was thinking..

It took quite a while to get here..

That pile of wood is in the middle of where the barn is now..
John Charles:In the barn is the '54 F100...

Pontiac engine, torsion bar front end, glass rear fenders, one piece glass flip front end and glass running boards; custom box and tail gate (all by yours truly). I chopped it 4 inches ..project went off the rails in '93 - trying to get it going again.

 

[jclazar]

Kide- nice 54 f-100! my dad had a pontiac 400 in his 71 chevy 4x4.my 82 has a 300 inline 6 with a waren 4 speed. nothing fancy, short bed,2wd, white all over,blue interior with hurricane-style rims. dont drive the truck much but i,am now on my second trans. in my 88 ford crown vic. dont know what gives with those a.o.d's! summit racing is about 30 minuts away and they got a tci street fighter trans. for 800.00 v.s 1'500.00 for a new a.o.d. rebuild may be a grand....cant give up on the old car. runs and drives super. so is the bathtub merc a type of boat or a car or both,lol!i do agree......life is good,even when we have problems!

 

[dfrisk]

KENDELL - I don't have ANYTHNG against Pontiac engines, but shouldn't they be in old GMC pickups? Guy My DAD used to haul livestock for had a late 50's GMC single axle conventional semi-tractor with a 389 2 bbl & 5+2 transmission. It was a RACE TRUCK compared to the old 261 cid Chevy 6's in His other trucks. Then in the early 60's He started going to IH CO-190 with 450-6's & 5+2's. After several of those He got a couple used '64 & '65 Emeryvilles with little Cummins's 220 (twin screw) & 185 (single axle). He did get ONE more single axle GMC, I forget the model number but it was comparable to a C-65 or C-70 Chevy, Had that GREAT TORO-FLOW V-8 diesel that GM built for about two years that has to be the worst engine ever built!...Well, Maybe the GM 8.2L V-8 diesel was worse, but just barely.

Sorry to get Off Topic, Trucks are probably my second greatest passion behind farm tractors.
You may return to Your firewood discussion!

 

[kmcconaughey]

Just got back from Fleet Farm, the Honda powered SpeeCo 22 ton splitter was about $125 more then the B&S powered version...

 

[kide]

Kraig:
Andddddddd..........
Dennis:
The engine was in it when I bought it (when it was just a neat old hotrod..). Now, what I'd like to do is meet the guy that drove it from the Left Coast to Michigan, with Cherry Bombs dumping right behind the cab, a 350 Pontiac, a 350 turbo behind it and 4.11's..60 MPH is something like 3800 and the exhaust resonated....BTW- it was originally a Y blocked Ford-o-Matic, but has a completely stock pedal cross shaft, complete with torched off clutch pedal - suppose all of 'em on the line got both pedals and just lost one if they were an automatic??

Still waiting for your decision, Kraig.......

 

[kmcconaughey]

Kendell, I was just there to pick up some supplies and happened to wander past the splitter display. I'm hoping it'll go on sale, and soon. I'm still leaning towards the B&S. I should also mention that the B&S version is stocked, the Honda is special order.

 

[dfrisk]

KRAIG - For $125 I'd go with the B&S too! When they get down to only ONE left in stock offer them $750 and watch them Squirm!

KENDELL - Wife's first car was a 350 Pontiac W/ 350 turbo-hydromatic. 3800 RPM @ 60 MPH I bet He got about 8-9 MPG, LOTS of gas stops! And I really hate that resonance when it's right behind the back wall of the cab!

I think I've mentioned on here before that SON & I WILL BUILD a '69 Camaro or '70-something Monte Carlo with probably a 351 Cleveland in it. Be hard not to drop a 460 into the Monte but I bet that's already been done. I want something I have to "Fabricate EVERYTHING"!

 

[kide]

Kraig:
What Dennis said......

Dennis:
My dream car, when I'm a billionaire, is a 55 Chevy post, gasser style, with the biggest, baddest blown, injected, alky powered flathead that money could buy... just because it's about the most anti-bellybutton possible - and a blown flatty with a full head of steam has a sound all its own (I was in a '49 Merc behind Dick Lahaie's '48 F1 pickup a few years back when he dropped the hammer at about 70 mph....<grin>)

Uhh....back to logsplitters - my wife won't let me buy a new one 'till I wear out the old one (been trying to since '78). The somewhat novel layout was due to lackomoney - that's two pieces of I-beam butt welded together, the cylinder is hidden in the webbing.. I scounged all the pieces ; the cylinder is from the bucket tilt on a big self loading garbage truck. First pump was off a 283 Chevy, first motor was stolen from my kid's minibike (hey - I'd already bought him a Hodaka Wombat..), first axle and wheels were off a coaster wagon. It's "matured" over the years.. Biggest problem is the 21 inch throat was great for fireplace wood, not so good for a furnace that eats 4 foot logs..

 

[jbaker]

Kendell what kind of furnace do you have? I have central boiler classic. Do you split those large logs down to 4 pieces or 2? I just picked up a 5 horses splitter and have large logs like that.

 

[dfrisk]

KENDELL - Dad's first pickup was about a '48 F-1 or F-2, can't remember for sure since He got it in '54 when I was born. It was flat-head powered but no "Huffer". Next was a '54 F-250 or F-2, can't remember when the F-100/250/350 started, with an early Y-block that was already wore out. Then He had My "Dream Truck", '56 F-350 SRW Pickup. 292 V8 & 4-speed, step-side box NINE feet long, had four stake pockets per side. Almost ALL F-350's were cab/chassis duallies, I've only ever seen ONE other F-350 P/U.

Son & I discussed a bored/stroked 460 displacing about 600 CID, blown running on alcohol for the Monte Carlo. And just so everyone knows it's not a BBC We'd run without the hood.

Your log splitter has "Evolved" about the same way My lawn vac has. Except I actually had to "BUY" some things for it, tire & wheel, couple bearings, idler pulley, lots of steel.
I bet lots of people here don't even know what a "HODAKA" is. Guys I hung around with back in HS all had bikes, NONE of them were "Good Bikes" by today's standards, but then nothing from the late 60's & early 70's was worth a darn. Bikes like a Kawasaki 100, Yamaha 90-twin, couple little Honda's. I had an Amerachi-Harley-D RAPIDO 125 back from the AMF Dark Ages of H-D. Later We all seemed to either up-grade or get out of bikes entirely. Buddy had a PENTON 125, CR-250 & XL-250 Honda, I got My "Dream Bike",'73 OSSA 250 Six Day Replica.

 

[kide]

Jeff:
On Earth Day, I'll recycle....slide about 3/4 of the way down this page...

 

[jclazar]

When i lived in montanna, my friend had a dodge powerwagon 6x6. had a hyd. lift to empty the wood. we could eazely get about 3 cord of wood on it. about 3 miles to the gallon fer gas milage,though. increadable machine and what it could go through. i also bought a 73 gmc pu with a blown 454,which by then had a worn 350. took it back home to ohio,went into summit racing and bought the 383 short block,vortec allum.heads and intake manifold. of course on other expence was spared as far as inside components.....about 7 to 8 g with the help of a retired gm worker in assembely. with 14 bolt 456 dana rear end,a bran new th350 trans, i could make fools of these new mustangs and cameros tearing down i-76 to the summit power fest! imagine that, getting your lunch handed to ya by a 1 ton truck! now i also had a honda 175 twin street bike. it was a 1973 with single points. that made out ok. my dream truck would be a 1970 gmc 1 ton 4x4.to me those are the best looking trucks ever made.....next to a 1967 f-350!

 

[fcurrier]

This has to be as inefficient a way to deal with firewood as I've seen. Loading the trailer is the only fun part.

The wood was free - we just had to pay for the trucking, but when it was time to get it the truck couldn't get up our driveway so I had it dropped at my uncle's, 1.5 miles away.

 

[kmcconaughey]

Finally bought a log splitter. I kept waiting for Fleet Farm to put it on sale, decided I needed to get it so I could get my firewood split before it got too warm. Figured I'd get a FF credit card and save 10% on my first purchase. Soooo, last night my wife and I headed to FF and what do ya know, the splitter was on sale for $999 that's $100 off. It wasn't listed as on sale in the latest sales flier, what a nice surprise. Had to buy 6 gallons of hydraulic fluid and some 30wt oil too. The total for the splitter, hydraulic fluid and oil after the 10% off and taxes added was about $992. Not too shabby!

I spent some time this morning putting it together, filling all the fluids, gassed it up then had to head to the farm to build a little fence around my mom's asparagus patch to keep the horses from getting to it. When I got home I had to fire it up and give it a try. The B&S started on the second pull and I didn't even use the primer bulb.

Got a nice little bit of wood split in a short time. This splitter cycles at a fairly good clip. I've used at least 3 home made splitters and probably 3 or 4 rented units, this one beats them all by a long shot.

Lot more to split though.

 

[rpalmer]

Kraig, When I find a deal like that I tell myself it's nature's way of saying get off your butt and get it. I like the look. Looks like a surface to air missile launcher