DR RapidFire Log Splitter Review

Model: Pro-XL with manual start, and production table
Price: $2399.98 (sale price) + $288.99 (shipped to the door) + $29 promotional fee applied to DR Credit Card for 36 month interest free financing. Total: $ 2717.97 (Monthly payments are $75 for 3 years)
Country of Manufacture: Uncertain. DR claims everything but certain woodsplitters are built in their factory in Vermont. Is this one of the splitters that are built in the USA or is it manufactured abroad? The engine on the Pro-XL model is a Subaru engine. Subaru is a Japanese company, but again, I’m not sure if this engine is manufactured in the USA, or in Japan? Clarification from DR Power would be nice. I like to know if the money I spend is being paid to American workers or not. I like to buy American if at all possible.
Competitors: Super Split is the main one. It’s my understanding that Super Split is American Made for sure. The price is also a tad higher, but not much. DR Power offers the 3 year interest free financing through GE Capital which gives it the edge in my book as $3000 is a lot of money to lay down at once. Interest free financing is a no brainer. I might have considered Super Split if they had the same financing offer even if they were a bit higher, just because it’s my understanding that they are American Made for sure. I also have read that Super Split has tremendous product support for their products which is also a huge plus for me.
Speeco made the SpeedPro mechanical splitter and sold them through Tractor Supply for about $1800. It’s my understanding that they had a terrible problem with busted teeth on the rack rail so they are no longer being sold and a ton of them have been returned.
Gripo Mechanical Splitter (sounds like it’s only available in Canada)
There are probably a few others that I’m missing.
Date ordered: September 30th, 2012
Date Shipped: October 12th, 2012 Via ABF Freight & Panama Transfer
Arrived: October 18th, 2012
The Lowdown: We have been looking for a log splitter for awhile. This is our second full year of cutting our own wood, and we just got too tired of swinging a maul, especially since a lot of our wood is stringy elm and hickory. We resorted to ripping our hard to split firewood with our 24” bar and a skip chain with the 372XP chainsaw. When we decided to get a splitter, we looked at mechanical vs. hydraulic, and went with mechanical because of the speed that it splits, and the claim that maintenance is much cheaper than with hydraulic. We looked at Super Split and DR Power. Both are the seeming leaders in the mechanical splitter department. It sounded like Speeco was making inroads with their SpeedPro splitter, but because of fragile rack teeth, Tractor Supply no longer wanted to sell them, and they currently no longer make or sell this splitter that I’m aware of (late October 2012). We settled on the DR because of the financing. Interest free financing through GE Capital on the DR Credit Card is really what tipped the balance in favor of the DR. They both look like very similar machines. Both had very good reviews. Actually, the reviews on the Super Split even sounded a bit better to me, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles.
Delivery: The machine came on a crate. It was packaged very well. We had it unloaded with a fork lift at a local business here in town. They offer four shipping options. First, pick it up at a local DR Store for free. None are near here, so that wasn’t an option for us. Second, pick it up at a participating shipping partner. Our closest one was Cedar Rapids, about 80 miles away. That was a tad over $200 for us. Third option was to have it shipped to the door and be able to unload it ourselves. That was the $288 option, and since we had someone with a forklift which could unload it, we went with that. The final option was to have it delivered with a liftgate truck. That was the most expensive. It was shipped via ABF Freight who to their credit, shipped it over the weekend, even on Sunday. UPS or FedEx generally don’t even do that. The splitter got into Cedar Rapids on the morning of the 15th and instead of ABF delivering it, they transferred it to Panama Transfer. Panama sat on the package for 2 full days. They called me on the 17th and arranged for delivery on the 18th. That part upset me.
Assembly: The splitter came in a crate. It was packaged nicely. The production table was in its own box inside the crate. Putting it together was slightly tricky, but quite doable with simple hand tools. A socket set with extensions are the best bet. First, you have to disassemble the packing crate. Removing the four bottom boards are the best bet. Then, you’ll need something to cut the plastic tie straps. Then, a nice lag bolt holds the front of the machine to the pallet. Putting the machine together all boils down to 8 bolts.  For the model that we have with the production table, all 8 bolts are required for the table. There are four bolts on each side. There are two front and two back bolts. The front bolts are used for the tongue of the machine. You need a sawhorse or something similar to help you line everything up to run the bolts through. I used anti seize on the bolts just because I’m that way. I don’t want to be fighting rusted bolts someday if I choose to take it apart for one reason or another.
The engine is shipped WITHOUT oil, so make sure you add it before trying to start your machine. The book says to start with 16 ounces of oil, but ours took about 20 ounces all together. Make sure you read the instructions on how to check the oil in this machine. It’s a little different than what I’m used to. You don’t thread the dipstick in to check the oil in the Subaru engine. The manual lists the oil weight specifications. This engine allows you to run multi viscosity oil in it. I put in 10W-30 since we’ll be running it in cooler weather.
NOTE: Two other items that you should do before using this machine - that the manual doesn’t specify should be done before you use it - are to grease the rack teeth with multipurpose grease & lube the top of the I beam. The manual mentions these things, but later on in the manual, so if you’re following step by step in the manual like we were, you might also skip these steps. Greasing the rack teeth made a big difference. It felt much smoother when you actuated the splitter. It was also much easier to pop it out of gear in instances when the ram got stuck.
Splitting: There is definitely a learning curve to using a rack and pinion log splitter. The speed is both good and bad. When the splitting is good, having that speed is wonderful. However, there are two instances where having a quick cycle time doesn’t bode well – knots and angled cuts. With a hydraulic splitter, if you hit a hard knot, the engine will bog down and you can actually stall the engine. Generally, you can back the ram up and try again, or manipulate the wood to split it in a different spot. With the rack and pinion splitter, it hits the knot at full force. It won’t stall your engine, but it will bog it down. Your belts will start slipping, so you need to be on the ball and retract the ram RIGHT NOW. I had one instance where even pushing the handle back didn’t work and I had to kill the engine quickly at the switch. It wasn’t quick enough and I actually threw a belt. Greasing your rack before use will help with releasing and returning the ram quickly in this situation. I believe there is a clutch on the end of the crankshaft on the engine. I can only imagine that when you hit the knot and it stops the ram, that it isn’t the greatest thing in the world for that clutch.
The other time that speed can be your enemy is when you are trying to split those pieces where the ends aren’t cut just perfectly square. With a hydraulic splitter, you can ease the ram up to the piece of wood slowly, and pinch it good, and attempt to split it. Sometimes it will pop out, and other times you get lucky and can get it split. If it pops out, it generally does so without much fanfare. With this rack and pinion splitter, the wood has a tendency to “fly” off the table. I’ve got a 16 year old stepson who sometimes gets careless in cutting and will cut at slight angles. While it wouldn’t matter if you were splitting with a maul or with a hydraulic unit, it does matter with this splitter. If you split with this rack and pinion setup, it is imperative to make sure that your ends are cut squarely. These are the two biggest changes that you need to adjust to and think about when using this splitter.
Other thoughts: I’ve already split several loads of wood with this splitter. One thing I can attest to is the speed. I have split far more wood, in less time, than I would have with a hydraulic splitter – or even by hand. I have split some very large wood with it. I have split some very difficult wood with it. Splitting elm, and knotty wood is a bitch with this machine. It can be done, but like I’ve just aforementioned, it’s hard on the machine, and can be hard on the operator, especially when a piece of wood comes flying at your head. I’ve already had some downtime with this machine when the belt came off.   
Fuel consumption is good. It is easy on the gasoline. They say you can run ethanol in it, but I am leery about running ethanol in these smaller engines. I was taught not to for many years, and I guess I haven’t gotten over that. Here’s the $3,000 question – would I recommend this splitter? Probably. I would like to run it for a year and then see how I feel about it. The more I run it, the better it seems to run. Wearing the paint off of the splitting blade (wedge) seems to help. I think the engine needs to break in to see it’s best power. I think the machine really needs a good old fashioned break in period.
Final thoughts: Cosmetic – the big DR logo on the side is overkill. It’s a giant sticker. I’m surprised they don’t throw a “As Seen on TV” sticker on it. For that kind of money, I think a classier emblem badge instead of a giant sticker would look much nicer. These new models also come with a hitch on the front of them. It’s pretty useless for us. We live in town. The tires aren’t road rated. The hitch is only good for an ATV or lawn tractor. The jack stand is difficult to use. Trying to hold the front end up and getting the pin to go through the holes almost requires three hands. A nice flip down, crank jack stand would work better. The older models of this splitter used wheelbarrow handles to help move it around, and bigger tires. I wish we had that option available to us. Since we live in town, and will never be taking this to the woods with us (mainly because it’s not designed to go down the highway), having those handles would be most helpful for us. I assume they went with the hitch option because I’ve read many places where people wish it had the hitch option. The problem is, they were wanting it to be highway capable, and this unit isn’t. Maybe DR should make a “Town” and a “Country” model? Allow the customer the option that works best for them. Making the unit highway capable would probably make everyone happy.
In closing, if you have any questions about this unit, leave your questions in the comments. I’ll try to answer them the best I can. I will check back here from time to time. I don’t work for DR, or have any affiliation with them. I’m not being paid to write this. This is my experience, and mine alone. Happy splitting!

Read my one year review by clicking here!

Read my three year review by clicking here!

Update November 2014

I had my first major failure with this splitter. The eldest son was running it when the ram would come part way out and start “stuttering”. We stopped the machine and cleaned the grease off of the teeth and noticed metal shavings from the rack gear. I got pretty upset.

I called DR Power and priced the rack gear. They quoted me a price of $350 at first, but then told me they would sell it to me for $250, shipped to the door. The guy did mention to me that they had a problem with the bearing assemblies of these splitters and because it was a known issue, they could send me a heavy duty handle kit if that was the problem. He took down all the particulars of our conversation and asked me to call back after we tore the machine apart and found out the culprit.

I had our local machine shop tear it down and he found some broken bolts where the wear plate attached. He found some other bolts internally had been stressed and bent. He said the quality of the bolts aren’t the greatest and said that they should be using grade 8 bolts in high stress areas. He also found out that the handle assembly was in fact bent and cracked and wasn’t doing it’s job properly anymore.

I called DR Power back and got a different lady this time. She was able to look up our account quickly and sure enough, all the particulars were there. I told her what the verdict was and she said she had to speak to her supervisor. I was on hold for a couple of minutes when she came back and said that they would send me a heavy duty handle kit on the house. I thanked her and that’s the end of the story. I have yet to receive it and have it put in, but I know the story will have a happy ending. My machine shop man said that he can make the parts in house for under $100 and it will then be very heavy duty. I’ll use theirs first.

Conclusion; Machines break – even American made ones. The difference is that with DR Power, you get someone sitting in Vermont who speaks perfect English who can help you. The customer service reps at DR have been trained properly and they know these machines. They have someone right there who can give you answers. Customer service is amazing considering this day and age. In my eyes, DR Power has made it right and I still stand behind their product.

Since this is a known issue, I assume newer models have a better handle assembly. The machines are a whole different design now anyhow. I hope DR starts using grade 8 bolts. It wouldn’t cost that much more and it would make the machine more reliable and desirable.