I just bought the full splitter. it's also been around for two years, the 35 ton half beam model. the swivel base plate is to take the pressure on the ram when the wood wants to bend. I can pick it up or drop it off it.im not sure if it needs it. but the spikes are nice and seem to hold up very well. 4 ways can be manipulated slightly up and down in the head. If the bolt is near the top of the head it still works the same way and makes much larger pieces! I never run mine all the way down unless esxtra does my littlewood.im here in missouri and I have split all the oak and walnut wood and the 4 way works fine if the wood is pretty narrow. I don't use hickory for splitting!

Hi Wild Bill, this is my first time watching your videos. Thank you for taking the time to show this separator. You even did a great job showing you how to split wood the old fashioned way. I just received a 35 ton full beam like yours and was very impressed with how well it was designed, built and worked. I don't understand the 4 ways but it's not as important as it seems. I just needed to loosen the adjustment on the control valve so that at lower pressure the cylinder was easier to retract. This knotty box is elderberry, hard-soft maple, oak here in Mich. My turntable isn't rattling, but you could try tightening a large o-ring or something on the back of the plate to quiet it. The scraping plate is shaking mine a bit but I'll fix it. The hydraulic oil filter is a good and clean design. t take damage. Replace every 5 years or longer? Not important. These Yardmax are great machines and with a little tweaking they will get even better and will last a lifetime. Even the tongue jack is good as is, but you can put in a fancier one for $15. Wherever they could weld, they made nice, solid welds. I am amazed that they can buy the engine, hydraulic pump, control valve, hoses, tires, steel parts, paid engineers, labor and sell it for what they do.

I have a county line 25. I've split most oaks up to 26 inches so far with no problems. I paid $985 including tax and put it all together. 14 gallon one minute two stage pump and 11.5 second cycle. Usually I just need the piece going about halfway through the split. I don't let it go all the way back either, it only takes 6 seconds to really leave. I have a fuel shutoff valve but don't use it because I want fuel on the carb so it doesn't dry out and leave a residue. My theory is that my old truck with carbs doesn't cut fuel and works fine 33 years later