I would only get this thing if the wood that I was getting was huge stumps. It worked them extremely well. I used to get big stumps dropped off for free but now that deal has gone the way of the dodo bird and I'm cutting smaller easier to handle wood. I like a regular splitter now, but if I ever start getting big wood again, I'll probably rent it again. It's too expensive to buy.
As far as digging up the yard, yeah it'll do that. Although I do all my splitting in an area that it doesn't matter so I don't care.