I have one very similar to this one and used it heavily since purchased in '85 on a 13.5 hp Yanmar 4wd till I sold the tractor in'97. No major issues except that the one I have has a bar insead of a deck plate and the bar determins the shortest length that can be split. Using the ground as a stop bar is not satisfactory OR safe! These things do not have to spin fast to work well and the 540 pto speed works much better than the higher speed if so equiped. Mine has a short length of auger that needs to be sharpened only very occsionally. With the 13.5 hp diesel I can only remember three times when a truly knotty piece of gum stalled the engine and I had to back the piece off by reversing the shaft by hand with a large pipe wrench...no fun. I intend to hook mine to a 20 hp gas engine with reduction gearing. I no longer sell firewood so I have been using the wood maul method for my own needs and on real knotty stuff I cut about halfway through with a chainsaw and viola! easy splitting. Like a chainsaw,tractor,or anything else with lots of power and exposed moving parts (THINK BEFORE YOU ACT) they are about as dangerous as the OPERATOR. Please be safe!
