Peter

Parrotia persica?

Black, although the one on my 660 is the green one.

Hmmm, tempting.

Well, if I'm the only one can I have exclusive nationwide coverage?!

Cool, if you are going ahead put me down for one then.

Clicked yes, but I would pre-order when you have an idea of timescale.

If you selected the species and the planting site, then no. If they advised you to plant it there, then maybe. Just out of interest, were they container grown trees or bareroot?

Maybe I'v always been lucky with operators. I have also flown the platform for a colleague to cut, that is the fastest way although somewhat labour intensive. I just hate having to constantly put the saw down, move the basket, pick the saw up, put it down........ With a good operator the basket never stops moving, and the saw never stops cutting. I can see I'm not going to convert you so I'll leave it there! As to moving the basket and cutting simultaneously, that used to be standard practice with the versalift machines I used to use, if your hands were big enough you could span the controls with your left and and cut with your right. On the many of the modern machines however, you need to depress a foot pedal to make it go, so unless you cut a wedge to keep it permanently down, and you can run both joysticks with one hand, then I think you'd struggle. If you can then maybe a career in the circus beckons?

Same here, no price drop without a concession on the amount of work, ie they keep the chip or I just stack the brash, or my favourite kind of work, drop it and leave.

No, but you would still have to pay for the operator to drive it to site and then stand around all day smoking skinny rollups.

That is slightly ambiguous in your case, could either mean as it left the factory or in special non-sinking rig with flotation tyres and pontoon outriggers!

What grey areas? If the cutter is less than 5 metres from the operator then he is too close, you shouldn't be cutting.

I have my IPAF ticket, and I would still rather have an operator in a big truck mount. Makes the job so much smoother, I can just cut non stop, while he/she twiddles the levers.

So what exactly does the process of getting CE for each rope entail? Presumably your splices come with their own cert of conformity or whatever separate to the ropes EN?

Thanks Cleetus, very pleased to hear that you have got the CE. I was only joking about the burying machine, I know you can produce perfectly consistent splices by hand. Are you intending to get it for double braid as well?

I cleaned my 660 up with a brake cylinder hone and lots of wd40.

Rootzone Parking Areas you mean?

Are you going to try cleaning the cylinder up or is it too far gone?

No, the bollard/winch is only subjected to half the load of the pulley.

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.