Update on the 346XP

     Well, here it is – the dead of winter – and I’m finally getting around to updating about my experience this past year with the 346XP E-Tech that we bought last spring. I wonder if it even matters at this point as they are replacing the saw altogether with the 550XP. The 550XP is auto-tuned. This is probably the way Husqvarna will go with all of their saws eventually, well, at least the smaller ones.     
     When we first got this saw, I cussed it. I was to the point of taking it back. I never had a problem with the saw starting. It always started easily and always ran. I did have a problem with it having any power and with it running very hot. I’ve never adjusted anything, but I suppose through just being “broke in,” it has been running much better and its power has gotten much better. I also had a terrible problem with oiling the bar. I smoked the bar on this thing even though it was at its highest setting. This saw only has three oil settings on it. I took the oiler completely apart and blew everything out. I drained the oil compartment and cleaned it completely out. After I put it back together, it started oiling sufficiently. I don’t know if a piece of sawdust got in there right off the bat, or if there was a piece of dirt, or whatnot in there? Whatever the case may be, it’s oiling well now. I will say this though. I have noticed with this saw that sawdust likes to collect around the oil cap more so than other saws I have. I carry a brush and brush the cap clean every time now before opening it up to add more bar oil. I haven’t had a problem since. I’ve never had a problem with my 372. The cap stays clean on that saw.  

     I run a 20” stock bar on this 346. I run Stihl RS .325 chain on this saw. This is the first saw I’ve run with .325 chain. I love Stihl saw chain. It takes tremendous abuse and keeps cutting. It stays sharp longer than any other chain I’ve run. This is absolutely amazing chain to run on this saw. It cuts very well. This little 346XP with the Stihl RS chain cuts hickory, oak, and elm like nobody’s business. The 20” bar seems just about right. We never “bury” the bar in hardwood with this saw. We don’t cut anything much larger than ¾ of the bar length. In other words, ¼ of the bar is always sticking out of the cut. If we need to “bury” a bar, we use the 372XP with the 24” bar. This 346XP is just the handiest saw for smaller stuff. We use it in the tree tops a lot and for smaller diameter trees. It complements the 372XP wonderfully. With those two saws, cutting wood is quite enjoyable. Now I could use a 395XP for the REALLY big stuff! That day will come!     
     I’m sold on these Husqvarna XP saws. I run the Husqvarna XP 2-cycle oil in them. I take good care of them and so far, they haven’t let me down. With their Stihl chains, they are some pretty amazing cutting machines. I grew up with old Homelite saws, and while I like those old Homelites, the difference is night and day. Cutting wood with those old Homelites was work. These Huskies make it fun! I’m glad this 346XP finally woke up. I’m glad I got it to where it works for me and isn’t making me want to use it as a boat anchor. My original complaints about this saw still stand. However, it is a very good saw, one that I’m glad that I own now.

Dealing with tragedy

 

Lately, we’ve dealt with a few terrible tragedies. First, we’ve had this terrible incident with the missing girls out of Evansdale. Then, we have this shooting out of Connecticut. It’s hard for people to understand why this stuff happens on earth. As a historian, I’m no stranger to old books. I found the following passage in an old song book from the late 1800’s. The prose is a little different than that which we use today, so it may be a little more difficult to follow along than a more modern passage, but the message is quite clear. I have found comfort in it several times as I’ve come to grips with some of the terrible things that just happen to happen in everyday life.

Let the reader note, in the following passage, the author mentions “Thalbergs”. This is in reference to a piano virtuoso who was very famous at that time of this writing. To use his name as a noun like this is like calling an automobile a “Ford” for Henry Ford, but in this case, Mr. Thalberg was considered to be the best of the best. The author of this piece is just listed as “Beecher”.

A grand mistake of the old reasoners in their arguing for the goodness of God, was that they tried to prove that in the world there is more evidence of design for happiness than there is of design for pain. Now that position cannot be maintained. There is just as much evidence of a design to produce pain as to produce pleasure. For every adaptation of pleasure that you will show me I will undertake to show you one for pain. This life is clearly rudimentary. Men are here to be hammered into something of worth in the next state of existence. Pleasure is to be desired or expected, but as incidental. Earth is not the place for pleasure. It is the place where men are fashioned for eternity. A piano factory is not the place to go in order to hear music.

Suppose a man were to start for some great piano manufactory with the expectation of being enchanted when there by innumerable Thalbergs. He goes along dreaming of the divine harmonies which will greet him when he approaches the place where these sweet-toned instruments are made. He anticipates as much more of delight than Thalberg had given him, as there are more instruments in the factory than were on the boards of the concert hall.

“I am going to the place where all those pianos are made," he says as he hastens on. "They turn out hundreds of them in a day. Oh! How will all sweet, bewildering sounds entrance my senses when I draw near. Hymns and songs of never-wearying melody will sing out to me from every door and window."

He comes in sight of the building, and instead of hymns and choral melodies, he hears harsh noises. There are heavy poundings, gratings, sawings, and raspings. There are legs, uncouth and clumsy to be worked into proper size and gracefulness. There are strings to be tried, and separate parts to be fitted and knocked together; there are great, heavy packing-boxes to be made, and various other awkward and noisy work to be done. Tools are thumping about; cords and tackling rattling; plenty of confounding noises, but no music. The man stands and sees the workmen ply the hammer, and saw, and file, and punch, and chisel and auger; he sees dust, boards, and shavings flying in all directions. Clatter and clatter surround him. From the windows come broken bits of board, wire and iron; also all the different notes of racket and din; but he hears no sweet melody.

Then the man says in astonishment, “Do they call this a piano manufactory-this confused place, full of all jangling noises? No, no; this is no piano producing establishment. This is only a dusty and noisy workshop."

Yes, it is a workshop, where are being fashioned the instruments which, when touched by skillful fingers, have power to enchant the world. But it is not the platform on which they are to be played. Not there are they to give forth their sweet harmonies. We are in the workshop of humanity. We see evidences of this, turn which way we will. We must feel the mallet and the saw; the punch and the bore. We must be split and ground and worked smooth. The pumice and the sandpaper are for us, also, as well as for the things we fashion; and at last, when we are all set together, polished, and attuned, we shall be played upon by the music-waking influences of Heaven - Beecher

My letter to the Valley Board regarding Whole Grade Sharing–Written 12/11/2012

 

The following letter was written to Board president Mark Howard, and CC’d to the remaining 4 school board members. To date, only Mr. Orr has contacted me and he is in favor of preserving our school as is.

Mr. Howard,

    My name is Eric Durnan and I live in Wadena. I have three children who attend Valley Schools, currently in grades 5, 3, and K. I am very disappointed with the way this whole grade sharing situation has played out. It is very rushed. I have read the responses from the other districts and two of them have said as much as well. In fact, this whole situation of us being in “dire need” seems funny to me. I don’t remember any of this being on the radar screen last year, and then all of a sudden, here we find ourselves needing to do something NOW! Any time that happens, whether in personal life, government life, or in situations like this – it raises my suspicion level. Either someone was asleep at the switch or the situation isn’t really as bad as is being said. Regarding the latter, it’s funny how you all yell “fire” right now with a solution in hand. It’s as if some up there at the school wanted this outcome long before you sounded the alarm. You’re the head of the board so you know the answer to this and ultimately it’s your baby.

    My wife and I have called both Starmont Schools and Central Schools in Elkader. We are taking out open enrollment forms for our children. We are going to tour the two schools here in the coming weeks and fill out papers to one of the schools. We are doing this as a hedge against what you do. I already have two older daughters who go to North Fayette, and I do not want any more children tied up with that school district. North Fayette is the district of busing. I have never seen a district so bus happy. My daughters live in West Union, and the #2 daughter starts her day off with a ride to Fayette, and after a couple of classes, she hops on a bus and travels up to West Union for the rest of the day. For awhile, they bused her out to Hawkeye. They bus kids all over God’s creation! While our kids here would only be bused further for high school, I want no part of it. I bought a house in this community for the express purpose of having my kids in the Valley District, where they could go to school in one place. We bought our home here so our kids could enjoy the smaller class sizes. My daughter Jenna’s class (5th grade) is a very small class of about 20 kids. They are very close and tight knit. It’s what we like. I understand that there are financial ramifications of smaller classes. However, that’s your job as a board member – to figure these things out. I understand that you all have determined that whole grade sharing is the option that you want, but it wasn’t the only option on the table. You didn’t even properly investigate any other solutions. You could have made due with less. Whole grade sharing is the nuclear option, and the one you seem to have your mind set on. I have been told by a few parents that sports seems to have a lot to do with your decision. In fact, sports seems to be a major part of these considerations. I send my kids to that school to be educated – not to play sports. Maybe other parents have different ideas about school. With the internet, there are other options for students wanting to take classes that Valley cannot offer. When I attended the North Linn Schools down at Troy Mills in the late 80’s and very early 90’s, we shared teachers and textbooks with Center Point-Urbana, Alburnett, and Central City schools. Guess what? They no longer do that as they got their acts together and made adjustments. It was a short term solution. Sharing those things bought them the time they needed to figure out a long term solution and it preserved their districts. In fact, North Linn is currently in the process of building a new building for their elementary. They will now be like Valley and have all of their children on one campus. I spoke to a good friend of mine down there and while they too have declining enrollment and revenue coming in, they’re making due. There’s no talk there or in any of the surrounding schools that he is aware of about whole grade sharing at this point.

    My grandfather was Leo Durnan Sr. and my father is Bernard Luke Durnan. My father’s photo is there in the entrance to the Valley School, having graduated there in 1966. I remember very well my grandfather talking about the merging of the Wadena, Elgin, and Clermont schools. He said that one of the arguments then was that there was declining enrollment. Grandpa, having fathered 19 children himself, was not at all sympathetic to that argument and told the school board that he had done all he could do to help the situation. He said others were going to have to step up to the plate to help out. He also said that the invention of the school bus was one of the greatest threats to local education. In that great debate, that was one of the chief concerns – local control of education, versus what we have now – a handful of members representing a much larger area. Now we’re being given the exact same arguments, and the proposed solution is the same. Merging and busing. You may call it whole grade sharing, but it is essentially a merger. What shall we have then? Will there then be 5 school board members representing nearly 1/2 of Fayette County? When will this stop? In 50 years, will we all be told again that enrollment is dropping and that we must go to a county wide system? I suppose the limits of these mergers is dependent upon that school bus. As long as you can throw a kid on a bus, it’s easier for you to ship kids around rather than find solutions at home. My wife and I want to be a part of a school system that first off, doesn’t put us in these positions in the first place, and secondly, can be creative enough to handle these situations when they arise without taking the “nuclear” route. We want local control of our schools where we have a stronger voice. We want our children to be educated as close to home as possible. We want the smallest class sizes possible. We like the school that we have today.

    The fix that you are all proposing to us today mainly benefits those living in West Union, Elgin, and Clermont. It seems that the other towns be damned. I have spoken to two ladies who sit on these ad-hoc committees and have expressed my concerns. I was told that North Fayette and Valley expect that they will lose some students over this, and that Wadena, Hawkeye, and Fayette were the three towns that they expected to lose the most students from. I can see why. Hawkeye and Fayette will have to send their students over 20 miles to school at the Elgin campus for 2-3 years. That adds up.  Fayette is 9 miles from West Central in Maynard and Hawkeye kids, especially those west of town, are much closer to the Sumner-F’Burg school system. In Wadena, we will have to send our kids about 16 miles to school for 4 years. We will for the first time have kids going to two different school buildings. No longer will we have the convenience of “one stop shopping”. That was a plus for us when choosing to buy a home in this school district, and has always been a thorn for us when dealing with North Fayette. Both Starmont and Central offer “one stop shopping” for us. The Starmont school building is only one mile farther away for us than the Elgin facility, and the Central campus is only about 1 mile farther away than what the West Union campus will be. If we could turn back the hands of time and give us back our three respected community school boards again, I’m not sure that the people of Wadena would vote to go into a merger with Valley knowing their kids would be sent to West Union. I would be willing to bet that Starmont would probably be the school of choice for us.

    Who draws up school district boundaries? Is it not the school boards? I don’t know – that is why I am asking. What are the rules for it? What is the possibility of allowing the communities the chance to vote for which school they wish to belong to? Since tax money is involved, I assume you there at the board want to maintain as much real estate as you possibly can, but we are the tax payers, and I want our money to go to the district which serves us best. I do not believe the citizens of Wadena would believe this new school would serve them better than say, Starmont. However, if we were allowed a vote, and if the vote was to stay with Valley, I would honor it and would feel better about this whole situation.

    I have spoken to the superintendent at Starmont and he told me that he has two other families from town here who have taken out open enrollment forms and that amounts to three children. We would be the third family and we have 3 children, one being a special education student. That’s 6 kids from Wadena who are probably leaving Valley just from Wadena if you choose to merge. I spoke to the principal at Central who says that we are the first family to inquire of them to his knowledge, but that normally the superintendent there handles this and the superintendent was not there when I called. Both schools said they would love to have the children from Wadena. Both have said that if enough children would be involved, they would attempt to hammer out an agreement with you to send a bus here for these kids. Why not just let us vote if we want to stay or go? That’s what I would like. In fact, I think it would be a swell idea to let every community involved in this mess the opportunity to vote for what they’d like to do. I have no doubt that West Union, Clermont, and Elgin would vote to merge. That’s fine. It’s what works best for you. It’s not what works best for those of us in the outlying areas.

    In closing, these are the questions that I have:

1. Is this permanent? Will there ever be a chance that Valley will be Valley again or will this be “forever” (i.e. merger)?

2. What will be the school board representation? Will it be two separate school boards or one (again, i.e. merger)?

3. Who determines the school boundaries and what are the rules on how they can be changed?

4. Would it be possible to allow the communities involved the right to vote on their future and switch school districts as may be better suited for each individual community?

5. Would the boards be open to allowing redrawing the lines based upon community vote?

6. Will Valley, or whatever school that is formed, allow outside district buses into these outlying towns to pick up the kids who would be better served by these other schools in the event you won’t consider redrawing school boundaries?

7. How will this affect our property taxes?

    I am sure you are getting a lot of positive and negative attention over this whole matter. I’m plain disgusted that it has even come to this point, and wish that some other solution which preserves our district would receive as much attention as this whole grade sharing. You all seem to have put us on a path that guarantees that my children will not be graduates of Valley C-E-W no matter what. Thank you for addressing my concerns and questions. –Eric E. Durnan   Wadena, Iowa

Repaired my KitchenAid Mixer

     I own a KitchenAid KP26M16 stand mixer which I bought in the early spring of 2009. About a week and a half ago, it gave up its ghost. I bought my mixer mainly for bread dough. I use high gluten flour and I wouldn’t recommend anything over 6 cups maximum, but generally, I make it one loaf at a time, and use between 3 and four cups of flour. I use it several times per week. This mixer has always been pretty noisy. I was mixing dough with it that final day and it just stopped and made a grinding sort of noise while the dough hook sort of flinched. I was livid! I paid really good money for this thing, mainly because it’s American made and here it broke down no different than a Chinese machine which costs far less. I was going to be God damned if I was going to buy another one after that! I thought, $400 for 3-1/2 years just isn’t worth it. Well, I did a little investigating online and found out why KitchenAid is still worth the money and why “Made in America” still means something. These mixers have moving parts and those parts eventually wear out. Unlike the Chinese machines, the parts for these KitchenAids are readily available, and these mixers can be fixed relatively cheap and be back in service. The worst part is waiting for the parts. On my mixer, the worm follower gear chewed up. I found the website www.mendingshed.com and ordered parts from them. I ordered every gear that they had with the exception of the top gear for the accessories (mainly because I don’t use any accessories with mine) and made sure to order an extra worm follower gear (I’ll be ready next time). I got the can of grease which can be used many times. It contains enough grease that I should never have to buy more grease again, even if I replace the gears every 4 years or so. I tore mine apart, cleaned it up really good, and put it back together with the new worm follower gear and fresh grease. I even greased the planetary gears lightly. Once it was put back together, I ran it for a spell to work the grease in better. It runs much quieter and hopefully will give me many more years of service.

      In short, expecting your mixer to never die is a lot like expecting your car to run forever without ever needing repairs. I know there are a ton of stories out there about older mixers never needing repair. My dad owned a tractor built in the 1940’s that hardly, if ever, needed any repair. I’m not sure why that is, but the fact is, most of these modern pieces of machinery need occasional repair. I’m just glad that these mixers can be repaired, cheaply, and fairly easy.

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.

DR Power is pretty S L O W . . . . . . . .

I ordered a DR Power RapidFire log splitter on September 30th. Right now, they have what seems to be a pretty good deal on them. They’re several hundred dollars off, and they’re offering 36 month interest free financing on their credit card. I already take advantage of interest free financing from Husqvarna on my chainsaws, so for me, it’s a no brainer. However, DR Power is testing my patience. It took them until October 12th to get the machine built and on a truck. They sent it via ABF Freight, which, to be honest, actually moved the splitter over the weekend as opposed to FedEx and UPS who let shipments set on Sundays. However, the splitter came into Cedar Rapids this morning (October 16th) and now the status says that they’ve turned it over to their marketing partner, Pana. Who the hell is Pana? I’ve heard of Panama Transfer, is it them? Why do they call them a marketing partner? To me, a marketing partner is someone who advertises on you behalf. So, it’s been in Cedar Rapids all day now, and no splitter here. Maybe I’m being impatient? However, I drove truck for over ten years. I don’t feel any more impatient than any other company who expected their delivery on time. It sure would be nice to finally have the splitter here. I’ll write a full review once we have it here and operational.

Tiring of Treadwright Update

 

I did get my replacement tire from Treadwright. It came on September 14th, 2012. It arrived by Spee – Dee delivery. I got to looking at their rates and realized I could have saved some money myself if I had used Spee – Dee delivery in the first place. If I buy tires from them again, I will definitely know to check my shipping options. I think their checkout automatically figures up shipping rates for FedEx. Spee – Dee delivery doesn’t deliver everywhere and FedEx does, so that’s probably the reason, and I have no hard feelings about that. I’ll just know better next time. Anyhow, the tire I received from them was a Goodyear Wrangler, but not the same style that was sent to me before. I agreed to that in order to get a tire quicker from them. This is Treadwright’s one big flaw – matching tires. I have a big heavy 4X4 pickup truck. I like to have matching casings so that all four tires behave the same. Some sidewalls aren’t as stiff as others, and running different casings can lead to the same effect as running different shocks. What’s done is done, and for the next 30,000 miles or so, I’m going to have to deal with an odd ball casing. 3 of the 4 tires are Pro-Grades, with Kevlar belting in them. The 4th is standard belted. I’m not sure if this will make much difference or not. I’ll post updates.