I’m seeing everything from 5 ton to 30 ton. What do yall have experience with? What’s too small and what’s overkill? I see some electric. Any count?

welllllll , a log splitter will make little logs out of big logs . lol

I've got a 27 ton Gravely. A split a lot of variety of oak and would not want anything smaller, especially handling knotty wood and forks.

oh i see , i dont know nothing about them but i wish i had a dime for ever time i swong a axe spliting them .

I use a fiskars x27 splitting axe but I’m not splitting large quantities of wood.

I’d be interested if n what folks are using hydraulic for occasional use

I have access to a hydraulic tracy

I have an old 25 ton. It’s a beast. I wouldn’t even consider an electric one

My buddy bought a small one from Harbor freight and has been happy with it for having wood split at the camp.

I have a 22 ton troy built with 6.5hp briggs..wood is my primary heat source an between me an my father in law we split a lot of wood…ours does the job..but ive run bigger ones..an i want a bigger one..this one does fine..but it struggles alot more than i like..we bought ours used and its been great

Not sure what size, but I rented a large one from Home Depot. Best $100 I ever spent.

Have a yellow CountyLine 25-ton from TSC, Kohler gas engine. Plenty strong enough for any hardwood I’ve split. It will wear you out after a few hours of non-stop splitting. So efficient compared to splitting manually. No comparison.
I’d buy the TSC one again—been a good one. $1500 new. I just can’t imagine the need for 30-40 ton splitters for weekend use.

They are mostly pretty similar. I bought this one ( Extreme Power) due to the shielded hoses and the work platform. Came in a box from Amazon.

I have used a 27 ton hydraulic hooked up to a small diesel JD tractor. I haven't seen anything stall it yet, even twisted oak.

FIL bought a 27t huskee (probably 20 old) got a small leak waiting on the seal kit to show up for repairs, we will stock pile cut wood at the camp and then one day we all get together and split and stack. Been in club 3 years and it was done old fashioned way before hand, we can fill up the wood shed in a few hours

Don't go less than 25 ton. I've got a 30 and it handles anything I've put under it.

Is this something that is better to rent one 3x too big for the job and do it over a weekend vs something you want to own?

I have a little 5 or 7 ton electric hydraulic I bought from Harbor Freight. It was able to handle most of my needs. However, there were some small pieces that it just couldn't handle. I borrowed my FIL's 12 ton and it chewed through the hard stuff pretty easily. Buy as big as you can afford. You're welcome to borrow my small one anytime you want. I'd rather it be used that just sit in the shed and only used 2 days every two years.

If one has a tractor, this is the best way to get a really stout splitter for least amount of $.

I ain’t finding them PTO driven ones except very used for around $650 to $800.

Look at cycle time. The few times I used one, that was the frustration, not the power. I could see moving from 15 seconds down to 12 (or whatever) really adding up over a job.

The really good ones I've seen work off the tractor's hydraulics . The tractor rear remotes provides the hydraulics. A fairly good fabricator / welder can build one easy , all you have to buy is the hydraulic cylinder and a couple of hoses. I've not seen one run off the loader hoses but I bet it would work great.