Turbo Twister

So, I have been a bit busy lately hence I haven't been on this much. But! I had a brain fart the other day about making a handy log splitter quite cheaply. I had a good think about electric vs petrol, which one is more economical, which is more useful, vertical or horizontal type, and I came to the conclusion that neither of them suited my needs. So, here's my idea and it so far works really well! I'll possibly put a video on YouTube at some point, but I have some pictures for now. I own a ½ ton tracked dumper that doesn't get as much use as I'd like it to, so I removed the dumper body, purchased a 5ft long RSJ and built a removable splitter that can be raised or lowered to suit different height people loading it. The ram that functions the tipping action drives the wood through an old axe head I had lying around. The whole unit is held together with 2x welded bolts and nuts at the engine end and the weight of the attachment is enough at the other end to not require a fixing point. It probably weights about 50kg in total. It is operated using a lever operated hydraulic pump original to the dumper, the full stroke is about 500mm (approx 20 inches) but most of the wood I cut is between 8 and 12 inches so I can split 2 pieces at once. I would reckon it has a splitting force of about 4 tons, it did struggle on one knotty piece of Ash, but a lot of our firewood is knot free and my wife and I were delighted using it for just 10 mins and seeing the results. Bit of a long story I know but I thought you guys might be interested in it. Also, because it's part of the dumper, I can track it exactly to where I need it and add a small trailer as it has a towbar mount on the front, so I don't have to pick up the split wood twice. As it is quite a long machine, it is a 2 person operation to be efficient, but I can work it solo aswell at a slightly slower pace. Once I am finished with it, I simply undo 2 nuts and remove 2 pins, then lift off the attachment with another person and refit the dumper body, the best of both worlds in my opinion.

I read somewhere that a fella described the wiring harness on a 450 like a tributary of rivers, you just have to keep going up stream until you find the problem. I didn't take any notice of the harness when the front plastics were off as I didn't know of any problems, but I'll look at it when I'm at it again.

I haven't really had a good look at it yet, I brought it back home this evening and plan to check out the main frame with my laser level over the coming days to check for any discrepancies in shape. The front bumper frame and racks do have noticeable bends from a front impact, so I would think the frame got a bit of a knock too somewhere. I'll revert and update when I have checked, life is hectic at the moment! Happy New Year to you all.

**Update** The bike is finally put back together again and while it took a lot of effort to get the front end back together, I figured out that at some point the bike got a hard knock on the right hand side. The front bumper RHS is much closer to the front of the wheel than the LHS, and none of the clips or holes for plastic mounting points line up. But that's ok, I can live with that. The only issue I do have is the front lights. All 3 were working before we stripped it back, but now only the handlebar spot lights works. Dad checked the loom from the back of the lights into the next connection and neither have any power running to them. Anything I should be looking out for? I can manage with 1 light currently as I don't tend to drive either bike in the dark, but it will need looked at at some point.

We did a further test on the brake lines following advice from @Fishfiles. We appear to have 2 leaks, but cannot confirm exactly where they are so we intend to replace the complete brake line with new hose and fittings which dad has ordered. We suspect the leaks may be coming from the metal fittings that bolt onto the back of the hubs on either side, as one of them was slightly oily from the day before. As we were trying to bleed the pipes on both sides, there were plenty of bubbles coming out and no pressure would build up. We hope this is the last issue for the time being as I really need to get the bike to work on the farm

Update on the bike! Dad has been quite busy with the brakes on the 450 and what a job he's doing. He has the brake pads and discs on now and the wheels are fitting as they should. He attempted to bleed the brakes today but unfortunately cannot seem to get any pressure build up, so we will have to troubleshoot that issue. I have lots of work to do on the plastics and mud guards in the coming weeks, as most of the clips that bolt it all together are damaged or missing completely. I finish work in a week so will have a bit more time to work on it🤞

We haven't been doing a whole lot lately on the bike as everything dad gets new parts in, he finds another worn out part🤦 We are currently waiting on 2x new front drives due to excess play in the existing ones. I have been quite busy with work in the meantime but managed to replace one of the badly worn foot pegs last night. The bolts holding in onto the frame were rusted solid, I broke one by spanner and the other one had to be ground off. Hoping the bike will be back together before Xmas at this stage, as we really need it back on the farm to take the heavy work away from the 300. Just as I finished up, I noticed a small oil leak (last picture) on the rhs of the engine, so looks like a new seal is required.

Yeah you guys have all weather's over there. Interestingly, even though my dad and I only live 2 hours drive apart (approx 100 miles) our temperature difference is about 8°C all year round on average, bigger in the winter months. We are also higher up than him though, on the side of a bog hill. Our old Rayburn is our main heat source, I'm not sure on the year of it as it was in the house before my wife bought it, but I'd estimate its a 70's/80's era. You can still buy them new, but for about €10000!

Out of interest, how much wood do you guys burn on an average season? And what size logs do you cut to? In Ireland, most stoves and wood fired cookers over here are small to medium in wood capacity. I chop our wood to between 6 and 14 inch lengths, our small stove can only take 6-8 inch where as our Rayburn will just about manage 14 if the sticks are vertical. We tend to split anything that is 6 inch diameter or bigger, anything small is dried at that size. I would guestimate we burn about 2 cords in a season, more if the weather is cold.

Here is the making of our bigger log store, we also have 2x big pallets approx 4ft x 4ft x 4ft inside a boiler room and 2 more standing log stores around the side of the shed in picture (not pictured). If I was to measure it all, we could probably store approximately 4 to 5 cords of wood in 1 go. We plan to re roof this shed next year and extend the back sheeting by approx 4ft overhang, then we can store more logs right up to the roof the full length of the shed. This will all be for next years burning, as we have a wood burning cooker that also heats our water.

Photo of said statement above attached.

Thanks Fish! In comparison, I have looked at the same brand here and one that is just 12 inches wide is almost double the price of the 22inch one!

The new disc brakes have arrived! I won't have a chance to fit them for a while, but at least I can be reassured that I have them now.

Update on the front disc brakes! The pound is pretty poor against the Euro at the moment and could get a lot worse in weeks to come, so, from a little push from my dad, I have purchased the last remaining set of front disc brakes from Quad Bikes Wales😅 I also purchased 4x new centre wheel hubs as I don't like the fact that they're missing. @Fishfiles on average, what is the price of an LED light bar like the one on your own bike pictured above? Something like thst could start from 60/70€ over here. I think you can also get dip/high beam LED light bars over here, but they are very expensive.

Interestingly, they are not so cheap on this side of the pond, even though they're made here!

The light bar alone would probably be enough for me🤣

I think I'll leave the 300 as it's being put on light duty works and won't be under as much pressure now that I have the 450. But definitely considering buying the kits for the 450. I did some work on the lights last night (and found a 12v charger on the side of the headlamp that I didn't know about, awesome!). The 2 dipped/main beams were both pointing up to the sky and when I had them fully adjusted down, they were still high. I took the front plastics off and modified the old spring bolts with longer bolts and 4 nuts to lock it in place. Dad tells me I should fit a new spring in between the nuts to absorb any vibration from bulb housing to the frame it's bolted to, so I'll update that at some stage. As usual, all the small fixing points in the plastic are broken or half broken so I'll have to add some aluminium plate or galvo band to make new brackets that hold.

The bike is generally in wet muddy conditions and on steep hilly ground. There's 2 fields on our farm that are quite steep, I can travel them both by quad but not by tractor, it would be nice to have good brakes when mowing down the hill as I've had to adjust the brakes on the 300 a few times recently after doing a lot of hill work with it. The front brakes didn't work very good on the 450 when I got it, and they're looking a little worse for ware up front, so if I do upgrade them, I'd be willing to spend a little more to get the disc conversion kit. This is the set that Quad Bikes Wales sell, they only have 1 set left in stock, highlifter? On a side note, can you do the same conversion on a 300?

I had a quick search and found a guy on YouTube who shows very clearly how easy it is to do the conversion kit. I also found a kit for sale in Wales, quite steep! But to get the same kit from the USA is a bit more as the euro is currently weak against the dollar. All in, I'd be looking at around €550 just for the front brakes. The rear brake conversion is about €280, so it's an expensive modification. Saying that, I will be using the bike on high ground with the mower next year so I'll need as much brake as I can get. Do you guys recon the disc brakes are much better?

I got a link from dad for the service manual, I never thought of looking there to be honest (thank you!) Is it easy to do a disc brake conversion on the 450's? I vaguely remember you mentioning something about them in the past.

Hey guys! I started stripping down the front of the bike this evening to replace the breather pipes and have a good look at everything up front. For a start, whoever bolted the frame back together clearly forgot to tighten everything up (it was for the majority, hand loose). Anywho, I have the 2 rear breather pipes replaced and am working on the front ones, but I can't see where they fit on the back of the front hubs? I'm thinking the tips that should be there have rusted away or been broken off. Has anyone got a picture to show where they should be? Pic attached is what it currently looks like plus a close up of the poor repair job they did on the front drive mount.

Today, I brought the old mower deck into the shed and the engine started right up on the second attempt which was great, as it had been sitting under a tarp for several months outside due to lack of space inside. I have now removed the engine to be up cycled to the log splitter. You can see from the pic, the new flail mower is approximately 49% bigger, although the engine isn't as powerful. It's a 420cc Loncin engine (almost identical to a Honda GX engine). For comparison and scale, the floatation tyres of the old mower up against the new mower wheels, I'll definitely be swapping them out over the winter and will probably swap the wheel arms so that each wheel sits outside the mower (they are interchangeable left to right and vice versa for mowing tight to a fence or open field mowing).

I plan to use the old floatation tyres on the new mower in fact, as the wheels currently on it are quite small and they tend to dig into the ground a bit. I might use the smaller ones from the mower on the splitter then. I will only be using the splitter around the farm yes, which is 32 acres in total so the furthest distance it would be moving is about half a mile in any direction from the farm yard. For the main beam of the splitter, I had planned to buy an RSJ? I don't fancy having that thing crack and I wouldn't trust my welds on that particular part of the splitter 😅 I hadn't really thought about vertical or horizontal to be honest, I was thinking mainly horizontal as the timber we have on the farm isn't massive, maybe 16 inches at most? I also think it might complicate the build if I try to swivel it? (In the past, if I ever have a big ring too heavy to lift, I just cut it into slices with the big saw first and it's easier to move about then. The current frame the engine is built on can be lifted off the mower frame so I had planned to use it as is and build it onto the splitter (the electrical works for starting and running the engine, battery and even fuel tank are all attached to it as far as I remember).

What size of an engine is on that @Fishfiles? I'm wondering if 17.5hp is too much or if I would need to run it full throttle due to its size? I assume it's a need for revolutionary speed to pump the hydraulic pack?

Yes, permanent reverse on the B6000. The reverse gearbox for them over here is about €400/$450 ish plus postage. Since we only have a pto rotovator that bolts on to the back of the tractor and have no incentive to buy other implements, we won't be getting the reverse gearbox. The 2 quads do I'd say 95% of the work I need done on the farm, from mowing and shifting small trailers of dung to firewood and checking on animals, so the tractor tends to be idle a fair bit.