Peter

If the Arb industry had slightly larger trucks they would be overloaded just the same as they are now. 7.5 tonners are even easier to overload than 3.5 tonners in my experience. Inspection costs are about £10 per week, and faults get picked up earlier than they would without being inspected, which has saved me money and means maintenance costs get spread out through the year rather than getting a big bill at mot time. It's nothing to do with the haulage industry, a restricted o licence specifically prohibits haulage work and is accordingly easier to get.

Sounds like a winner. In all seriousness though, if I couldn't afford an O licence I would have stopped doing Treework and found something more profitable. My relatively small investment in a proper lorry has paid for itself over and over. Sent using Arbtalk Mobile App

One of the landscapers I work with had one, he said it was brilliant to use but the deck brackets clip on to the front axle and that seemed to cause problems with bearings and eventual axle failure. Sent using Arbtalk Mobile App

Yes sand is quite heavy, half a tonne of feathers would be ok though. Sent using Arbtalk Mobile App

You could always emigrate. Or get an o licence. My 18 tonne lorry with chip box and palfinger crane is superior in every way to those American pickup/loader combos, and I didn't even have to leave the country.

You can tailor the events to suit a bigger field, but it is hard work yes.

The main issue is dropping it, if you can prevent that your onto a winner.

Any of them! Even in the throw line event in the isa there are usually a couple of low targets you could throw a rope straight over.

Isa rules do state a max length, and teeth must be covered. I use a gomtaro, tape a retractable cat lead to the scabbard and clip the end to the handle. Never dropped a saw in a comp yet!

The winner got to ring it up?!

Ah, if it was a rhetorical question then the answer must be 7.

They are all pretty pants in the slippy stuff when empty, the trick when tipping is to tip fully, then drive away while there is still some weight over the back axle, and don't stop until your on terra firma. Failing that stick a winch on the front. Used to run a cabstar and tracked chipper combo, that worked well as the cabstar is light and the chipper could pull it out of most muddy holes.

D you have problems with them jacking the price up?

How many of your trucks are petrol engined?

Plus if your running 6 trucks, say you get through a tank (50 litres) a week per vehicle on average, that's 15,000 litres a year..... Fuel prices only ever go up, so buying a years worth in advance is going to save you more the longer you keep it, and diesel stores well.

Anyone running 6 petrol vehicles for tree work needs their head examining! It's more about convenience than cost from the op, advantage being all trucks can be filled up every night, no running up and down to petrol station, maybe small saving over pump price. Disadvantages security and upfront costs.

Get a bunded tank at your yard and buy in bulk?

This is a debate that's gone round and round in circles for years. We tried regional events, what happened is the same core of competitors travelled to Scotland or Eire or Wales, and one or two locals joined in. With limited resources we decided to throw everything into one big event, as most of the European chapters do. We had a couple of really good events, but sponsors are hard to entice in an economic downturn. The disadvantage with one event is if you can't make that date then you miss the whole year, although anyone who is serious about competing will probably travel to Sweden or Germany and enter their comp too, since the top competitors are usually travelling subby climbers it's not too difficult to work your way around a few events in the year. My thoughts for what they are worth: The isa events have an image problem, there is a general feeling that comps are elitist, that there is a group of professional competitors who don't actually do any tree work and just train for competing, and that any normal working climber who entered would be made to feel like an idiot. The professional competitor thing is nonsense, everyone who enters is a working tree climber, there isn't any financial incentive to win comps so unless you had a lottery win you need to work, and it's the same work everyone else does. When I went to my first event in 2004 I was using the same kit and techniques I had in college, willans harness and a prussic, I was painfully slow and couldn't footlock to save my life. No one ridiculed me, I did feel a bit like a sloth but I came away with a vt and about 3 years of progress in a weekend. There obviously are things that could be done better, but please bear in mind that all of the organisation is done by volunteers, who have their own jobs or businesses to run as well, and it takes a phenomonal amount of time to put an event together. There is no funding from the isa, the tcc are self funded through entry fees and sponsorship. If you want big prizes then you need big sponsors or big entry fees. A single comp held at the same event every year would help with promotion I think, people need to know in advance when and where it's going to be. The introduction to comps weekend we had at Kibblestone was excellent I feel, it could be replicated on a regional basis but would need people to organise, not much harder than a rec climb meet up. The days of having 4 uk comps are long gone though, there just aren't the resources available. On a brighter note though, despite the perceived problems in the uk, for a tiny nation we are incredibly successful in the European and world championships. Just think what we could achieve if more than 17 people turned up to the uk event......

I did all the uk comps for about 5 years, always really good fun and learnt loads. Would have gone this year but by the time the dates were announced I already had something else planned, I guess a lot of people were in the same boat. Sent using Arbtalk Mobile App

Pretty sure the glass in the pic is just sat on the wood, the wood is cut perfectly flat though so the glass is evenly supported. Toughened glass obviously. Glue would fix it permanently, but would be visible through the glass, you can drill glass with the correct bit but it will be more vulnerable to damage where it's been drilled, especially if you over tighten the fixings. Don't ask how I know that.......

It's a Deodora, Latin name Cedrus deodora, and those look like adventitious roots to me too, possibly at the site of an old injury.

90cm Schwert 3/8 2 Ketten passend für Stihl 066 MS 660 MS660 | eBay

I bought a 42" bar branded Sagenspezi from a seller on German Ebay, been really pleased with it. Around £100 for the bar and 2 chains.

I normally buy a years worth from nod at the trade fair, only a few weeks away.

Yup, already made that mistake!