Tom Callas

For anyone interested, we went to demo a titan 43/20j and although I would’ve liked to purchase it, it was unfortunately way out of our budget. Even as a used machine. (Around £27k). I have talked with a chap from NDM distribution Ltd, who sell the lumag products. Asked many questions about quality weight limits on the log deck etc etc. It comes under £15000 including the deck. although I would’ve liked something with a better name trusted with quality and servicing, I think their SSA500ZHPRO is the one we will ultimately go with. We will be going for a demo when they have some more units in the country in a month or two but hopefully with how little it will be used it should last a while! thanks for everyone’s help here. It is greatly appreciated! Tom

Hi there, this sounds like it could be a good day out! Thank you for the offer I may have to take you up on this. It would be great to get a first hand look at something. I hadn't seen these before. I did go out and check our remaining timber cords, and the average sizes seem to be about 350mm (some much bigger though and some around the 250mm mark), but they are also not arrow straight which i know can be an issue. So going for something that has a larger throat seems to be the way to go. I tried to see if Piko do something larger than a 300 but unfortunately they don't (or at least not that i can see on their website). I do like the thought of a road towable processor, just in case i want to rent it out and don't want to drive the tractor for an hour!

Haha I apologise Mark, I will do my best to improve on this platform!

Thank you I’ve looked at their things already so I will give them a call and see what they have within budget.

Yes this would make a lot of sense. I think you’re bang on here. I will keep looking around. I’ve looked at a few companies already so I’ll keep digging to find something with a bit of a name.

Yeah I’ve thought about that, but once we have it we could potentially look at hiring it out ourselves. And that is something I might look into. Plus we love hoarding equipment!

Based near swindon. I do know as with everything we seem to be interested in buying that most of these products are available much further north in the uk unfortunately!

Oh right ok… I was told by the chap on the phone they were actually manufactured in Germany… but worrying if they are in fact “made in china”!

Great information thanks you. I do plan to go and see whatever I end up choosing in person and have a play. But I will have a look at those brands thank you!

Our wood did come very cheap in fairness. £4k for 2 artic loads we have a telehandler that I plan on getting a log grab for as the forks are a bit dodgy for moving large quantities of timber about!

Thanks for all your suggestions everyone. I have looked online and saw lumag selling one capable of doing up to 500mm for about £12k. Is this one to steer clear of? The have a few different models and they are all made in Germany (known for decent engineering). I’d be interested to know peoples thoughts…

Hi there, I hope I have put this in the right area. If not maybe an admin can move it for me? I am after recommendations for a firewood processor. We have taken delivery back in August of 2 artic Lorrie’s of 8foot ash wood cords. By hand, my father (67) and I have cut up and split 5/6ths of the timber and filled our 60cubic meter shed. It took around 3-4 weeks and almost killed both of us. I expect to need to do this operation every 2-3 years. That isn’t really feasible to do by hand that often so we are looking into a processor. compared to a commercial operation we don’t get through that many logs, but we need a machine to make the processing quicker and more efficient. I am happy to spend up to £15,000, but preferably less, on a decent processor to get the job done. Our cords come in sizes ranging from 200mm up to 4-500mm wide. So it would need to be able to handle up to 450mm preferably and we can do the odd one that is larger by hand. they aren’t always perfectly straight and some are quite knotty. I need it to be able to split hardwood timber up to 35cm in length. I would also like hydraulic indeed and possibly even a log table(hydraulic if possible) to help with the loading. if anyone knows of a decent machine either new or second hand that would be up to the task I’d love to hear about it! There are plenty of cheap Chinese ones about on eBay and such that claim 50ton splitting force and up to 500mm wide logs. Not sure I trust them. Especially as most seem to be under £10,000. Unless of course someone has some experience with these cheaper machines and can vouch for their effectiveness. Edit: we have a kubota 105hp tractor if PTO is required and we have 3 phase that I can run if needed. any help would be much appreciated! Thank you, tom