Peter

Some companies have gone down the route of a steel mesh divider in the cage I believe. Have to say I have never had an operator refuse to get in the basket with me, sometime they look as if they wish they hadn't, but its too late by then!

Never bothered putting an hd filter on as there was never any dust in it.

Excellent, get some pics when its done!

No, it's standard safe working zone for chainsaw use, been around ages.

Yes you can use a whoopie sling to attach the portawrap, but you will need a really long one if you plan to do any biggish trees. I use a deadeye sling with a timber hitch, it only gets tied once for the whole job, so a whoopie sling is kind of wasted really.

One correction to that Steve, whatever rigging rope you run you need to go up a size for the block attachment sling. So 16mm line, 19mm sling, or 14mm line, 16mm sling. The load on the block is double the load on the rigging line, so it must be stronger.

Thought it was Liros. So what splice are you going to try?

I don't believe either of those are rated for use in SRT.

On a more serious note, milking is not really a defect, it should be considered a normal part of rope inspection and maintenance to check for and remove any slack cover. Does your rope have a factory splice?

The HD2 sounds interesting, I hesitated in fitting the old HD filter as it must restrict air flow somewhat. My 441 is a 2008, and still has it's original filter.

Come on then Stevie, have you pushed the big red button yet?!

How much do you weigh again Tommy? Steve is a racing whippet, I reckon he could climb on a bootlace without it milking!

The 441 has a brilliant filter system, never a scrap of dust inside.

If that were true the 5.5 tonne iveco would be identical to the 3.5. The reason they are heavy is that it is really difficult to build a 3.5 tonne tipper that weighs less than about 2.5 tonnes unladen.

HD filter has a blue mesh insert thingy, does seem to help keep the fine dust out. Why they can't send the saw out with a standard filter that works is beyond me.

Samson instructions are by far the clearest and easiest to follow. You can download them from their website.

I think you are wrong about MEWPs being better for your back. I find they always give me crippling lower back pain as you are forced to use the saw above the guard rails and at arms length all the time, plus I find you always need to lean out over the rail, making the problem worse. Secondly, the industry will never gravitate towards MEWP use, because such a large percentage of the industry is small one or two man outfits. As you rightly say, right machine for the right job, how many small companies are going to be able to run 2 or 3 machines? Before you ask, I spent a year working for a local authority on street trees, using truckmounts for 95% of the work, and I have also used tracked spiderlifts, trailed machines, self propelled booms, and big truckmounts with operator. Having used just about every type of MEWP for every type of tree work, there are only a few situations where I would rather use a MEWP than climb: Large hedge trimming jobs, ideally with a scissorlift, Chogging down really big stems with a really big saw, Bulk pruning of roadside trees with a self propelled boom, lastly, and I can only think of 1 or 2 of these in 15 years of tree work, structurally compromised trees that would be safer to use a mewp than climb. Usually a big truck mount in these cases, so the machine is far enough away to avoid getting squished if the tree fails.

That still applies if he uprated a 3.5 tonner.

Self drive truck mounts are unusual, but I know Peter Douglas in Stockport does them.

So why not just buy a 5.5 tonne iveco and save all the hassle of airbags and leafsprings?

Yeah, that's why they stopped selling them.

What vehicle are you planning to uprate?

Maybe. I know I wouldn't want a fire going in summer, but I hate being too hot so I would probably have to fit aircon at the same time!

Solar would be worthwhile, as it will generate hot water in summer when you don't want the stove burning. Groundsource would be a waste of time, as it requires quite a bit of electric power to run, especially as you have plenty of free wood.

Interesting. I put a 3 bar blow-off valve into my back boiler circuit to guard against what you describe. If it was possible to site the cylinder directly above the back boiler, then the water would circulate via convection, and you could still have an open system with a header tank. You would still need an overpressure safety device of some kind on the cylinder, to prevent that exploding! The long and short of it is that combi boilers are rubbish if you want to run a combined system.