Marc

Non of the work we do has to be carried out on the weekend apart from the odd exception, if you want a day's extra work we can find it can't see why the team would then want extra half days pay for it. I do think it weekends there should be a little extra or a nice easy 1/2-3/4 day at full pay. I've worked 6 days weeks as long as I can remember make hay whilst the sun shines an all that. Probably why my tax bill is also heart wrenching.

I was the same rate even weekends ground work or climbing. I understand your point a out shelf stacker although weekend work doesn't pay time and a half unless it goes over the 40 hour week. Shift patterns can provide bonuses. just because it's weekend work doesn't mean the job value goes up by 50% if you want the extra day it's just another day rate with maybe a a little extra. Each to their own though.

Lying in the sofa doesn't count.

Our ropes are not designed to take a fall on, you need dynamic ropes for that, as far as I am aware we climb on static ropes (well semi-static) with a small amount of stretch 3-5% to at least take some small amount of energy absorption, as fully static lines really do not like any type of fall. I do feel that perhaps our ropes are marked up a little though they are designed to be used everyday over extended periods of time making them different from search and rescue ropes for the reasons Pete Mctree states. I gave rope like this a try it ended up being used as a tag line, it just doesn't perform well as an Arb rope - disliked tight bends with poor knotability and poor heat resistance it might of been all nylon! Can't remember now. Stick to arb specific, polyester outer for better heat resistance, withstands tight bends/takes knots well with greater durability for everyday use. The SAR product is designed as a rescue rope yes it meets the criteria of EN1891 Type A it's intended use is for occasional user with shorter life cycle.

I struggle with it, I'd rather have good experienced guys and pay them good money, you get what you pay for and experienced qualified staff are worth their money and dare I say it even more. So of those I work with want more money although until my competition charges more money so we can I cannot pay more than we do. Pay scales are equal we have ground crew, climbers and tree planters on the same money, the works are often of same value so don't see why pay should be any different. We will pay good money to the right individual, and those that grow with the business we hope to keep as it takes years and years to develop someone.

Also worth checking the hood and sensor if it fires up fine and runs without load.

An interesting thread by the way, there are no easy answers. I am not sure where the OP is based, but we start apprentices on £10ph because we will offer paid training most apprentices are young guy with few financial commitments. I don't want to make assumptions as I see it a lot and try to focus on how we do things and not how others do it. I'd like to pay our guys more, the question comes up from time to time from the team unfortunately we can't pay much more than the industry standards as the company couldn't afford to operate as by far our biggest outgoings are wages. Simon, regarding this 39 year old, this year we peaked at 25 workers this ebbs and flows as most are self employed to help with work load, some approached us due to adverts we had out, and others I approached. We always ask what they want to earn essentially what they think they are worth rather than what we are happy to pay them, most people understand the value of themselves and what they offer and current rates.

I thought they were very cheap! Bare in mind this is to tow upto 7.5ton at upto 60mph on a road legal trailer behind a long wheel base 1850-2450L38 I don't want anything shonky - it has to be robust with good welds and correct specification steel.

We were running 362's 461's and 661's for the larger stuff. The day in day out saws were the 362's and 461's Recently we overhauled our stock and ditched the 362's, they were just to heavy and to close to a 461 in reality. We now have 261/461/661 and find it the best range for commercial arb. Have a lot of love for the Husky stuff just not in my experience a good company saw as they do t seem to take indifferent multiple user abuse like Stihl.

As per the title really, does anybody use the Atkinson VOS Heavy Duty Hitch or have opinions on them?

The expected life span of your cam is 6months. I know those whose lifespan is as little as 2 months or less, it's a wear item after all.

Swivels are expensive prone to wear in one place and on the whole not much use, a ring is simple, effective and reliable. Swivels do have their uses in certain applications yours doesn't sound like one. But go ahead and use one if you must.

No idea why they are all sideways but there we go, a few more mostly tree work

Various self explanatory

Depends what you think is fair Paul, I offered you my cheapest rate and you thought it to high. What your paying seems fair for the area and staff you employ as that seems the going rate on the books around your way.

Yeah it breaks my heart to, and we never seem to have the time to keep them clean they just get used and abused. Petty damages are also annoying it's all part of the abusive nature of the job - during winter months the interior can soon get trashed. At the end of the day they are a tool and nothing more, you have to detach yourself from the realities of how they will be used and look at the real positives of new and also try to employ decent individuals who will at least try and look after them. We are not a big company by any means, but I reckon by my rough calculation a new 3.5tonner will pay for itself in the first year. What ever we can sell it for in 5 years will be the deposit towards the next and so on. If you only ever look at bottom line and making ends meet you want grow, but like the tree that was planted badly.

It was a while ago I think we paid around £1500 for the rotator grab and switch gear. Problem is no one will ever tell you the price which frustrates the hell out of me it always seems so cloak and dagger. I'm not even sure what an Avant-Multione realistically costs but I know what we paid and it's nothing like the list price.

Again aftermarket shears can be found and adapted to fit the Avant. The rotator isn't particularly good for stacking timber, and to be honest what you describe seems all the benefits of our grab and more.

It was around £1000+ for the tilt rotate grab, obviously the Avant only has one feed so there is some sort of solenoid valve fitted to the grab which you plug into the Avant for power and keep the switch besides you to switch between rotate and grab functions on the joystick or levers, takes a bit of getting used to.

I've not tried the tree shear yet, I like the floppy grab though for manouvering long sections of tree easily, the HD grab can be a pain with these. The last pic is of Alistair Magee's flail/mulcher

Depreciation and risk factor into it for sure, if I was a start up I doubt I'd go down the route of new, if I was stable and consistently had work for the last 3 years with a couple of guys helping me I'd go new on certain tools like vehicles and chippers and try to work them on a 5 year basis. I help in the day to day running of a buisiness and our previous model was to buy second hand after the depreciation hit and buy out right. It has its advantages in that our finance payments going out monthly was very little. As we have grown, unreliable old kit has suddenly became something that losses us a lot of money and became a financial risk, as we have invested in new kit our profits have risen due to less down time and more productive equipment, work is income downtime is loss and it mounts up quick! The reality is once you have x amount of employees and turn over x amount most kit apart from the really big kit costs very little in comparison. Our biggest monthly outlay is wages by a significant margin, those wages need to be in vehicles working with kit that is not tired and unreliable. It has nothing to do with image, tax reasons or being no good on the spanners and everything to do with not wanting the financial hit an unreliable tool brings. Like i said if I was starting out I'd definitely buy second hand the financial risk is much less.

Just filling space so message will post...

Indeed I did, still my thoughts remain the same and as another poster has said I don't blame the planter it's all levels who are at fault. A few of our contracts now require a 3/5 year after care program including replacement and we will not receive all the money until that time so it's all factored in to the overall cost, so you tend to make sure the planting is done well to give the stock the best chance of survival so your not hit on replacements.

Okay the mower pusher is a muppet, but what about the planter? Not hard to do cross member, put a decent mulch circle and spiral guard/strimmer guard. I blame the planting gang for not being robust enough.

The data is there in nature, and it's been how we carry out work mature trees for the last 10 years. David humphries also started a thread around this a few years back. It seems only now that it is becoming more recognised.