NorthStar Horizontal/Vertical Log Wood Splitter – 37-Ton, 270cc Honda GX270 Engine

This is a story with two chapters: the assembly and then the operation of the log splitter.The assembly was incredibly difficult. There was the physical part of lifting and moving the very heavy ram about to get it to center into the mounting. It was nearly too much for myself and my wife. But the more difficult job was getting NorthStar to provide all the correct parts for the model I ordered. There were nuts and bolts missing for three different assembly steps: both fenders, the face plate for the valve, and one of the structural nuts for holding the thing together was missing. About $30 later and I had bought those missing parts.The manual is written very poorly. They change the names of the parts from the diagram to the assembly description. There are no sizes called out for the nuts-n-bolts so you just sort of figure out which is the right size based on the pictures. There are several critical illustrations missing like one for the throttle controller mounting and for the hoses passing around the cylinder. Likely the worst set of instructions I’ve seen made-in-USA.Then I got to the step where you put the hoses onto the valve and hydraulic oil tank. They had shipped hoses for a smaller, less powerful unit, and thankfully they didn’t fit. I emailed customer service but didn’t hear anything back so I called service and they “overnighted” the parts, the order got placed five days later, and arrived nine days later. It was then I found out whomever put the wrong hose in the box, and hadn’t put in a bunch of screws, also didn’t put in the correct sized hose clamps. Another call, another ten days waiting for the “overnight” parts.I called customer service three times across the month I was working on the splitter, the phone was answered quickly, the technicians knew what they were doing, and were US based.You will be required to supply two gallons of hydraulic oil which was about $200 locally.Chapter two: the operation of the log splitter has been just super. After an initial few logs my wife and I got into a routine and can load, split, and stack a log in about 20 seconds. The motor starts the first pull on choke every time. It’s a bit loud so we wear hearing protection along with steel toed boots and work gloves.I have cut 9 cords of red oat with the log splitter and it was capable of splitting the larger 20′ diameter logs with just a bit of a pause. With most logs you do not have to make a full stroke of the piston, the log cracks and splits open after about 8″ of motion and you can just start retracting after that point.The two steel pieces on either side of where the wood sit form a table that is a nice feature in that you have room to catch and spin a log around for a second stroke of the piston. The assembly that pops off a stuck log is a nice touch too. Most of the logs come off with easy, this just assists popping off those that want to stick.Hopefully not many people have to go through what I suffered in assembling my unit and you can get right to the joyful operation of this beast of a log splitter.