July 30, 1991.
Joe W Brown Wood Yard – The Splitter that we grew up with.
I remember one morning getting out of bed from some commotion outside. I ran to the window to look outside to see this monstrosity coming down the road, towed by my dad by some vehicle of the time that he had. Reaching its destination it turned onto our property.
I’m not sure how old I was but, I was in the single digits… I believe. It looked as old then as what you see in this video. It was built on an old bus frame, the original engine deprecated long ago. I would guess it was built in the 40’s or 50’s. I’m now 70 as of this post. I essentially grew up with this contraption.
We could split about one-plus-cord per hour with two of us working. One splitting, one loading the table.
In a conversation with my brother, Donnie, we figured that we processed 3 to 400 cord a year. Just a guess.
By hooking a chain to the driveline, we were able to move the machine around. After unhooking the chain, we would continue the splitting operation.
I always thought the Keg, that sat high on the splitter, was a rather unique looking thing as if the total machine wasn’t unique. The Keg was the reservoir for the hydraulic oil.
Over the years, there were many modifications to the splitter one of which, as a teenager, I welded a mount and bolted a six-cylinder flathead hay bailer engine to the frame one weekend. Plenty of power now! (Notice the size of the pump and ram that was original to the machine when we acquired it.
Kody is on my shoulders in this video, Kristal is also watching. Brother Donnie is operating the machine. (While growing up, I put my time in on this monstrosity. Yep… I still have all of my digits… and limbs)
Oh! Look What I Found…
I found a modern day look alike in the video below. This is about the closest thing to what I grew up with I have ever seen. I wish we had all of the equipment shown in this clip when we were young.
Still… it beat the ol’ splitting mal.
I can’t resist…
The reference to “Now, that’s a…” comes from the Crocodile Dundee movie clip from below.
Enjoy!: