Dave Tris

When you see a good price in Germany for a quality bit of kit, make contact with that supplier, and are then told that you must deal with the official UK supplier, it makes you very suspicious. Not least because, according to European law, you can buy from wherever you wish in the EU. When you then find out what the UK supplier's prices are compared to those in Germany, you know there is more to these prices than exchange rates, warranty, and suchlike. In my example, a new logsplitter (not made in Germany), was for sale in Germany for 2100 euros (about £1700). The UK price was more like £3000+. That's a 60% increase. Somebody, somewhere, along the line had radically inflated the UK price far beyond any extra costs due to trading in another country across the sea. The yanks know this. They routinely sell goods such as trainers at much higher prices in the UK. The reason they give is 'because we will pay it'. Cynical but true. I think we should take every opportunity to compare prices and get the best deal we can, from wherever we need to.

Glad to see you got such a good price mate, especially for such a quality piece of kit! It's just ridiculous that we can't get these prices in the UK. I got so fed up with the rip off prices here that I totally changed direction and may now go for one of these kinetic machines. Just waiting to see what reviews are like

Grenmech are actually british so if we this kit cheaper in this country then it sounds like a real market for once i.e. our price does not have to include transport costs and other costs involved with exporting. Chainsaws are one of the other proper markets – there are just too many out there for manufacturers to ‘fix’ an artificially high country price. It gets overtaken once the second hard market kicks in. Log splitter prices for good models like Krpan are just ridiculously high compared to the continent

Take a look at the cycle times, is that really 18 sec forward and 18 secs backward? You may need a good book to read whilst you're waiting for each split to finish !

This is probably not the importers but a combination of greedy exporters and greedy home manufacturers. I have tried to buy from abroad only to be met by a refusal to supply to UK. This tells you that there are 'special' rates that apply to the UK i.e. high. This means they sell high to UK importers who then have to pass on the higher prices. If we had a good (with log splitters this would mean equivalent to Posch, Krpan, Uniforest or suchlike) and competitive manufacturing sector they would realise that they could clean knock out the imports if they charged right. But they don't, they simply go for very high profit margins. So we end up with what we have: cheap on the continent and USA, high in the UK, little decent home-grown competition!

Can anybody tell me why decent log splitters are so expensive in the UK compared to the continent? As an example, you can get a Krpan CV 18 K in Austria for 2100 euros including VAT. The links here or here show examples. There are other sites that I could point to. I have checked with HMRC and this means that if you imported into the UK, you would have no import duties or VAT to pay, just the transportation which would cost about £150. I did actually attempt to buy from Germany but the dealer said that the manufacturer would not allow him to deal with UK clients! All in all, these prices are a heck of lot cheaper than buying over here. I know that the yanks cannot believe what we have to pay. Is this down to a lack of UK manufactured competition or the usual high prices simply because they can get away with it in this country? Maybe the Kinetic (or Flywheel) type splitters will take hold and give that competition. I guess that all depends on whether their pricing will be real or UK inflated!

I would certainly be interested in the 25t model. I have been looking at these for a while and trying to source one from the USA where SuperSplit started them in 1978 (according to their website). The US seems to have accommodated the safety differences over the last 37 years and I am sure we can too. To me it will be a nice problem getting used to the safety aspects of a decent pace rather than hanging around for the even the quickest hydraulic cycle to finish. Is this a chinese rebadge (like the Zipper I think, not sure about the RockRapide) or something that it is likely to have some decent quality control behind it? The mechanism of these is so simple that it should be a lot easier to get it right!

I need a log splitter for a few days or so and am looking for a pto powered model (our tractor is an older type with single hydraulics). If there is anybody out there who can oblige (NW Worcestershire), please let me know. Cheers - David

Many thanks for your offer Alec, that would have been ideal. I am sorted out now but will give you a call when we have our next pile ready. Cheers David

Had a Terrano a long time ago and found it rough, thirsty, and not really up to the job. Also worked with a landy and, whilst it was not brilliantly reliable, it was great for towing. Since then I have gone through two Shoguns from new and found them to be pretty good for a variety of stuff on the farm and road. Downside, like many 4x4s, is if you have any major breakdowns. Just spent £1.7k on a new clutch/flywheel!

Can anybody help me please? I have spent quite a bit of time trying to identify somebody who can hire out a processor (or processor with operator) in the north west Worcestershire area, without success. We have a growing pile of seasoned logs that need turning into useable firewood. All advice gratefully received if you know of somebody:001_smile: