Marc

It's not, where as the 230 was a massive improvement over the 150 the 280 is only a slight improvement over the 190 albeit with the engineering improvements found in the 230. When I had it on demo for a week I didn't notice it spitting chunks out although the dealer had said there was some slight mods to the feed rollers on the one we had. It is a good chipper with many of the nice features found in the 230 - double sided blades that are a breeze to change, robust grease pipes off the grease bank (although as always you should ensure the grease is getting where it should) and a good feed box that handles forked material well. Problem is rare I say it I prefer the Forst ST8, which is a miles better than the ST6. Where as the 280 is only slightly better than the 230 which is miles better than an ST6... We own a TR6 and 230 among having run and owned many other chippers. As a business I'd be happy with either a 280 or ST8.

I hink you need to play around with your hitch a bit, especially if you find taking slack out is as hard as paying out slack- binding hitch. I climb on 12mm with a Knut hitch which I tie with 10mm friction hitch as I tend to find 8mm bites to hard, it's a very personal thing though so just play around till it's right.

Olive trees, I kid you not but our CostCo's had some really nice ones. We can source some nice ones as well between 300-2500 the Costco ones were almost as good as what we had and half the price. Ilex crinata pruned as clouds. If for flowering then Wisteria standards are nice. Not keen on Acers anymore bit old hit and can look a bit crap after a while Palmatums especially snake barks are nice though.

Maybe in some areas, I'm not to sure round here I had seen one price and felt it was spot on cost wise, not that I am going to give away figures here but let's say it's priced at £800, then subbed out to a 2 man team who accept £400 the council make £400. I don't have an issue with that other than I think it's exploiting the sub contractor who doesn't know any better. From my understanding the goal of the local council I am talking about is to become totally self sufficient where in they are less reliant on tax payers money which in theory seems a good idea. Problem is the incentive is not there if you pay your estimators twice as much as your lead climbers which you expect to work to a high standard and compete with the best in the area and earn little more than the person doing the council tree watering contract is not going to happen as the good climbers will chase the best rates and rightly so.

That's kind of my point, how can they compete against better paid more highly motivated lead climbers at companies who have better teams and kit. I know our local city council has been trying to get a commercial team up together to compete against local firms but judging by the ads they are struggling.

Indeed the statement that the Ivy got entangled with his leg and pulled him in - sounds more like he stuffed the hopper full of Ivy and used his foot to present it to the rollers hence he couldn't grab the stop bar, all conjecture of course. As for the second link, truly tragic....

Unlikely, council pay scales are a joke - although there are other perks. There in they lack quality-safety and motivation to compete.

I don't bother with a torque wrench most of the time.

The Vermeer BC190xl is probably worth a look, we will be getting one on demo sometime. As for schliesing I never rate them for out and out performance but they are still in my opinion one of the best out there

You been on the polinca?

You've worked with Smasher Magee as well then I'd use Alistair more often if I could only our buisiness is not quite large enough or consistent enough. The other issue is there are plenty out there who charge half as much, only problem is people not seeing the value of a good quality productive worker with his own quality equipment who will improve your reputation and simply get it done.

I am no expert either but I am also a loler inspector, if any of the critical stitching is damaged or frayed I would fail it simple, I am not here to argue about how much it actually affects the strength if it's damaged sort it or bin it. From memory the Komet/miller used to state "average life span of 5 years" which was different to and rather open to interpretation than say Tefeulberger who state clearly "the life span is 5 years" I always interpret this as from first use and not manufacture date. For what it's worth I used to change my Treemotion every 2/3 years.

I had the Carbon Fibre ones and prefer the new DMM shanked Ali ones full Velcro.

I got that from JB's Facebook page so credit to him.

He obviously doesnt have a Protos then at £150. Pretty sure my last helmet cost £90 all in, try not to think about it really just buy what I need.

I have not seen Giorgio's I will watch it later, I did read about the destructive testing Tefeulberger did depending on stem diameter and type of carabiners (bar profile v oval/ibeam) failures occurred as low as 4-6kn. Going back to mallions I have seen this which is an interesting idea.

Hmm I was thinking resinaceum, kicking myself now for not taking a much closer look tree displayed good vitality with no issues of note although within a School and high target area confident it's not an immediate concern the tree is not particularly large although a nice example, I am also not the contractorer responsabile for duty of care and tree audits on site so not my place at this time. Not dealt with Ganoderma on a Sorbus before without looking into my reference books what are the thoughts with this species? Is it considered particularly aggressive? Most of the time I leave alone after a through inspection.

I don't think there should be a set route, we are climbers every job I look at my first thought is can it be safely climbed, if yes, then would it be more efficient and cost effective from a MEWP, if yes, use that - or no then climb it. If it can't be climbed then can a MEWP be safely utilised? and so on. A MEWP should never be first choice, just as much as climbing should not be the only choice. I think most of us now realise that a MEWP is not the default safest option and just another tool in the box.

TomD glad you understand, our Timberwolf has spent a month being repaired for various reasons on different occasions, just one of those things but that's a month where a gang cannot potentially earn the cost soon adds up - 20 days at x amount a day that is around x amount in turnover lost. Timberwolf seem to of stepped up their game, although we are out of warranty now but further failure of repeated problems not resolved during warranty I expect to be carried out free of charge. The Forst has been with us longer and done more hours than the Timberwolf and let us down only once, Redwood had a chipper out to us the next day which we had for a month whilst ours was being repaired. We were fortunate I am sure, as even as I type this I am thinking of customers I am failing that I need to get back to tomorrow, yet other customers get immediate response, it all depends on work flow at the time, it's not that I mean to let them down and I am sure that's the case with the dealers to. The sad thing is those I do let down will probably never use us a again, some may give us a second chance. Customer care is a fickle thing and hard to get right.

Carabiners have poor off axis strength, a mallion is probably a better choice

It does look a little dry, although it also looks cast... MLS have you approached Forst about this?

I did a brief inspection of a site and came across this at first glance thought it was inonotus, now thinking gano. Was on a Sorbus.

Like others have said gob looked a little shallow, also sometimes I think a thicker hinge is a bad thing as a thinner hinge the fibres will fold better it was after all only going one way. Apart from that looks like he did everything right, he knew the risk he knew he probably should of been better prepared (ratchet) it barber chaired but nothing bad happend and it hit the deck in the direction intended I guess so jobs a good un

I have a bucket of about 100 used teeth just threw away about 200 or so as scrap, we will chew through 4-6k of teeth a year quite easily, never resharpen not worth the time.

Yes but each guy can put more brash in, and it will pull it through more realiably and spend less time in the workshop. I have worked with slow and fast chippers, sometimes slow consistent reliable feeding is faster in the bigger picture. Never used a 75xp though, so I maybe wrong.