What brands do you use for equipment

[Reecee]

Looking at getting my own equipment for weekend work and getting into self employment
What brands/equipment do you use or recommend?
I have saws and PPE but need advice for MRS/DRT climbing kit such as harnesses, ropes and carabiners

 

[Doug Tait]

Best advice in my opinion is go to a shop and get hands on the different options.

Things like harness and spikes are especially individual items and you really need to wear them yourself to get a feel for how they suit.

Even general stuff like carabiners I'd rather feel in the hand than buy based on the brand name alone.

 

Having said that, to actually answer your question, any of the brands stocked by the usual suppliers would do to start off.

 

Personally I love my treemotion harness, DMM carabiners and zigzag with blue tongue rope but others will disagree.

[pleasant]

3 hours ago, Doug Tait said:

Best advice in my opinion is go to a shop and get hands on the different options.

Things like harness and spikes are especially individual items and you really need to wear them yourself to get a feel for how they suit.

Even general stuff like carabiners I'd rather feel in the hand than buy based on the brand name alone.

 

Having said that, to actually answer your question, any of the brands stocked by the usual suppliers would do to start off.

 

Personally I love my treemotion harness, DMM carabiners and zigzag with blue tongue rope but others will disagree.

This is very sound advice, but after many many years in retail and dealing with the public, please don't use your local place as a 'lending library' and then leave and buy online. It costs far more money to have a bricks and mortar premises than an online shop, and far too many people go in store, try stuff to know whether it's the correct size or whether it's comfortable for them, then buy it online. I have spent over an hour going through various machines before I've got to the right price, spec and quality that the customer is looking for only for them to whip out a mobile phone, do a quick search and say ' I've seen the same thing online for x amount cheaper' This is IN FRONT OF ME AND IN STORE. There is then zero value to my expertise getting the customer into the right machine, there is zero value placed to my personal back up and support should something go wrong, and invariably the online purchase arrives in a box (for which you have to take time off work to sign for it)  and then you need to assemble it fuel it and oil it...and then it may need a few tweaks to the running here and there.....none of which is taken into consideration by the customer. I generally ask what's the price online, and normally it's around £30 or £40 cheaper. I then say 'If you don't value all my support, help and service at £40, then Ok, buy it online, but I assure you at some stage you will need me, and I am more than happy to support a machine I have sold than one purchased elsewhere'

 

Normally works for what little they think they are saving.

[PeteB]

I always say, buy local, value them as a resource and they will value you business and dont begrudge them their profit - we all want to eat meat on Sunday!

[Mick Dempsey]

13 hours ago, pleasant said:

This is very sound advice, but after many many years in retail and dealing with the public, please don't use your local place as a 'lending library' and then leave and buy online. It costs far more money to have a bricks and mortar premises than an online shop, and far too many people go in store, try stuff to know whether it's the correct size or whether it's comfortable for them, then buy it online. I have spent over an hour going through various machines before I've got to the right price, spec and quality that the customer is looking for only for them to whip out a mobile phone, do a quick search and say ' I've seen the same thing online for x amount cheaper' This is IN FRONT OF ME AND IN STORE. There is then zero value to my expertise getting the customer into the right machine, there is zero value placed to my personal back up and support should something go wrong, and invariably the online purchase arrives in a box (for which you have to take time off work to sign for it)  and then you need to assemble it fuel it and oil it...and then it may need a few tweaks to the running here and there.....none of which is taken into consideration by the customer. I generally ask what's the price online, and normally it's around £30 or £40 cheaper. I then say 'If you don't value all my support, help and service at £40, then Ok, buy it online, but I assure you at some stage you will need me, and I am more than happy to support a machine I have sold than one purchased elsewhere'

 

Normally works for what little they think they are saving.

I agree and tell the youngsters the same, but they’ve grown up in a more online society and the money they save possibly means more to them than to us older folk.

 

Kid that works for me wanted a Stihl combi-tool thingy and a hedge cutter head for private work.

Priced it at the local dealer and then got it online €400 cheaper, that’s France of course where everything but wine, houses and talk is cheap, but still, difficult to ignore at 20 or indeed 62.

Edited May 1 by Mick Dempsey

[Stephen Blair]

I was always just get what I could afford to get me going.  When you are young with bills and could only save £10-£15 a week if you were lucky it’s difficult.  I used to stop and ask BT guys if they’d sell me any old spikes 😂

comfort is secondary imo especially in a job that’s not comfy.  Get what you can get your hands on to get up the trees practicing and earning, the good stuff comes later imo. 

[AHPP]

Shops vs online. Shops have to keep their end of the bargain up. When you take a machine in and a feckless workshop plays parts bingo that you could have done yourself without paying for labour, you might as well have bought it online.
 

My business bank is Lloyds. I could have chosen an online only one to save the fees; Revolut, Monzo etc. Went with bricks and mortar because there are branches convenient for me and I like to be able to talk to a human. When I had a problem, I went into a branch and they just called the same helpline I’d been calling and made the conversation three-way. What am I paying for?
And my most convenient branch has just shut. 
 

An example of a good bricks and mortar shop btw: Tesco Mobile. Open all hours, all over the country. Great service. They’re unsung heroes of looking after confused old people. 

Edited May 1 by AHPP

[Peewit]

26 minutes ago, AHPP said:

 

An example of a good bricks and mortar shop btw: Tesco Mobile. Open all hours, all over the country. Great service. They’re unsung heroes of looking after confused old people. 

I'm with Tesco mobile largely for that reason. Every Tesco Extra store has a Tesco Mobile centre in it. When you have a problem you can walk in and talk to a twenty year old with spikey hair who knows how your phone works, rather than talking to a bot or someone in Mumbai who is reading a script and is under instruction not to help you but to try and sell you some package you don't want. 

[Peewit]

7 hours ago, PeteB said:

I always say, buy local, value them as a resource and they will value you business and dont begrudge them their profit - we all want to eat meat on Sunday!

I go out of my way to use local independent arb and agri suppliers. The two I use up here are Robson and Cowan at Scots Gap for all things Husky and Gustharts at Blagdon for tools and PPE. Both excellent, knowledgeable keen to help. And I like to pick up tools and clothing and handle them before I buy.  

Both are a fair jaunt from where I live but it's worth supporting them as I know they'll support me when I need it. 

[Mark Bolam]

23 hours ago, Reecee said:

Looking at getting my own equipment for weekend work and getting into self employment
What brands/equipment do you use or recommend?
I have saws and PPE but need advice for MRS/DRT climbing kit such as harnesses, ropes and carabiners

 

 

‘I have no experience in this trade and know nothing about the equipment, but want to start doing my own jobs to keep prices depressed at Facebook levels’.