Most of the tractor run splitters I've seen for sale around here seem to be $500 or less, certainly not a lot of money, scrap for one has to be much less, given they're usually a short but stout steel beam, it does not make much sense unless the person is a hardcore addict, who ain't too smart going after 1 piece of steel. I'd keep an eye out on CL or what have you, sometimes these people are foolish enough to try and sell right in the open.
I've learned, not to leave anything out on the property, odds are things are most likely safe, but I get an occasional ATV trying to cross through or someone you don't see, they see something of yours and that's all it takes to plant the seed, so I am careful.
One winter someone went to the top and back of our place here and took a nice deer stand down, took everyone elses on adjacent lands, as well as any game cameras, hard to figure when or who will do these kinds of things. Previously, and in many years past, and maybe because of the lay of the land, there was never any theft around here.
I live at the end of a dead end road and we own the land on one side of it, my driveway is at the end of the road, and I have a staging area for logs or park things there, but never anything that someone could grab easily, should not be like that, but it is, hate thieves as much as the next guy. There is something seriously wrong with a person who decides to take something they do not own. One thing I do believe is that when someone steals, sooner or later something bad will happen to them, seen it enough to be comfortable knowing, odds are, they'll get theirs, might be ignorant to not know why or what, but it will happen.
Hopefully it turns up or you can source another inexpensive, likely not so much the worth, but the work you have to do, if someone made off with my tow behind splitter, I'd be screwed, not so much by worth, but being stopped from doing the work I need done with it.
When I was a kid, behind our tractor dealership was old power company vehicles bought on auction for resale, we used to do well with those, had a connection at the power company for purchasing these etc. There was a fair amount of odds and ends left in the utility boxes etc. One afternoon, I spotted a person sorting through the trucks, I think my dad was at the other end of the shop, so I did not move until he came by. caught red handed, and the best was I lived near a state police barracks and knew every trooper by their first name, one phone call and I got to watch the arrest. Sometimes the tables are turned. We used hang out at night at this place and hide in the dark, catch people, one particular young man while on the run ran right into my father, he said there was a distinct odor emanating from the mans drawers after that. He loved using the element of surprise, worked well. Theft was common there only a few miles from the house, place had a security alarm, no implements left out, you could almost count on catching someone trespassing after dark until word got out, the place was patrolled, it was great, open the overhead door, hide your vehicle, pick a dark spot and wait.
