Marc

I have to disagree arborgrunt, I was a habitual smoker and honestly can say it never affected my output, qaulity and most of all safety! But each individual is different. I worked for a company where 50% smoked at work I did'nt notice any difference to the companies where no one smoked. Although I do know of exceptions to this. It was down to a good employee who knew how to use his staff, he often said to me he could not live with himself with the thought of sending a team out where one memeber of that team could compromise his own safety and that of the team. And he knew we smoked. One guy during the time I worked there was laid off because he just was'nt competent enough, and he did not smoke. Safety was very important, and their safety record was impeccable. So I disagree, but i'm sure with certain individuals it would seriously affect their ability to work safely. And smoking weed is in no way comparable to drinking alcohol, I would never drink and work or drive, but then that does'nt bother me cause I don't drink much, 4 pints and i'd be wrecked! For the record I quit weed in september last year, now there is no way I could smoke and work. The only difference i've noticed is slightly better short term memory, and more organised.

I said exactly what you said just in more words, i,e don't slag em off just say you do it differently and that you think your ways better!

Yes it is a pleasing shape Telhol not bad work. Not to criticise, this is just my observations and personal opinion on how I do it, I could be wrong: I do not always look to evenly shape a tree, trees will grow irregular and I try to maintain that if i'm reducing, unless its a really over extended limb then I may reduce it back a little more than the other limbs to give balance. Also when pruning to growth points I try to match the diameter if possible or no less than 1/3 the diameter of the limb I've removed. If you can do this throughout the tree then sometimes you can hardly tell the trees been reduced, because pruning points are so well hidden. Its not possible to do this on all trees though. Oak, Beech and Horse chesnut are easy - Some Sycamores, Lime and populars are not so

1.6 mature ash an hour I personally am rubbish and putting a time to how long it will take me to do a job, thats a real skill to get right. I priced a job removing Ivy from a house, I thought a day me on my own 250 would be enough,,,,,,, took me 3 days and 3 loads what a cock up that was.

I know what you mean, but they are your competition! Don't outright slag them off be diplomatic, put your approach to pruning forward in a way not to accuse the other company of being butchers, but just that your way is better. Then when you see the competition down the pub, rip the piss out of them for doing such a shocking job.

A guy I used to work for had magnetic signs for when all the customer wanted was a top job. I personally like to weigh up the tree, usually a topping is just the first part of an eventual take down. If it was a decent specimen i'm not sure what i'd do.

Well I probably have but not more than a dozen together unless its a forest/clump and they've all competed for light, then they can be very tall and straight with relativly light crowns. Maybe I underestimate heights, I do some pretty big tree work we use upto 18" chippers regular but a genuine 100ft is fairly rare. Usually Popular, Cedar, Wellingtonias, Dougie's, Lime and some Oak.

I agree with that to some extent, its their tree after all, but you still got to try your hardest to convince them and give them the pro's and cons to good reductions - bad reductions. I've on occasion been asked to top, but I will not do it, being a subbie I have that luxury, I will talk to the client, find what they want and adjust the specs in a way that i'm happy and the clients happy so that the invoice is paid. So far i've been lucky.

Dome'ing, shape'ing, sculpting, high pollard, bog brushing or just plain and simple lopping and topping. Saw a another outfit the other day in a nice red truck with the name Tree Care, thought to myself nice name simple and to the point, then I read what was written underneath. Professional topping and lopping of trees, not just any old topping and lopping mind, but "professional" lopping and topping. But then an old boss said to me once, "it does'nt matter how **** the work you do is as long as you leave the site tidy" Needless to say I decided not to work for them anymore. I'd rather leave the site a mess than do a **** job, a site can always be cleaned a poorly reduced tree is had it.

90-120ft ash tres to reduce to 3 ft stumps, holy smoke they are some huge trees, are they forest grown or in groups to achieve such great height? I've don't think i've ever seen a 90ft Ash, and i've felled some pretty big ones. Did a load at a trust site last year, best we could manage was 5 a day leaving trunk on site, 2 were straight fells 3 were strip then fell. That was with a well oil'd 3 man team and chip left on site. Those trees average'd 60-75ft and were massive! We did this on a day rate with a rough estimate on how many days it would take us, roughly £1500 a day. About £300 a tree approx Total job must of been around £9000 or more?

Area/market same thing surely? People on council estates do not always pay the best (but generally provide plenty of tea and biscuits) Yet rich areas where house prices are higher people will pay more for a service (but make less cups of tea) Also cost of living in certain areas etc.

Only ever used them, for cutting soiled timber/stumps, the odd root or Ivy near concrete, any situation you may blunt a standard chain quickly. Its about the only use for them really, as an ordinary chain will outperform/makes more sense in any other situation. They were sent of for re-sharpening, can't say how much it costs.

My boss has one of those, great little book, they should sell it as a cheap little guide, or better yet give it free to members of the forum, Colin?

Generally i've seen less downtime with a Schiesling, its one robust chipper imo. But I do love the timberwolfs, simple and does what it says on the tin. Your Entec belongs in a museum treefitter:proud:

MattyF thats what I don't get, I do look after my saws, once a week I get all the covers off and clean the fins, check spark plug, clean filters, heck I even clean behind the carb. I even keep a maintenance check list. I know my 200t may look grubby in the pic but thats just due to working in the rain and such Generally I keep my saws in good order, but i'm not so anal as to clean the plastic. Yet i've had no end of problem with my new climbing saw and new MS250. I know guys who don't look after there saws and they get trouble free running, and some who get the carb issue. Maintenance does'nt seem to be the issue here, I started to look after the saws at one place I worked at and those saws were some of the dirtiest abused Stihl's you will ever find. Yet generally they stood the abuse and ran trouble free. Not saying you should'nt look after your saws, I just found that Stihl take mistreating very well in my observations. Basically my point here is Stihl have a rep for making robust contracting tools, but I can't help but feel something has slipped on the latest carbs. This is a quality control issue not maintenance.

Ha ha please get some pics, that would be so funny to see.

Since Magnus reminded me of this thread, I thought i'd post some pics of the troublesome carb, if you notice the place where the accelerator pump should be has a brass blanking cap over it, so do this model carb on the latest 200t's still have an accel pump? I'm guessing if it does then its not designed to be replaced. My MS250 has also developed similar symptoms, I have taken this apart and again traced the issue back to the carb, which also has an accelertor pump which is made of brass, where the cam operates the pump, it has been ever so slightly worn, i'm going to replace it and see if this resolves the problem. I'm also starting to think maybe the way I look after my saws could be to blame? Maybe the fact I DO look after my saws is the problem, I maybe should start not caring.

My fiancee is doing web design and has already started to build mine as part of her project, a simple website along the lines of most of the sites i've seen is quite simple and quick to set-up. I'm trying to pack a lot of stuff into my site, which is the most time consuming and hardest part to organise and get right, I hope to have videos, and extensive galleries, whilst trying to keep the written stuff short and sweet. It'll probably take me many months to get the content right. Although we built the site layout in a weekend.

150/200 a day

O.K point taken, I just found the engine and tank very small and compact I did'nt think it would give you to much extra payload without it from memory. At least with it you could run the trailer unattached to your Landy.

I personally love my Geckos, I don't think you can go wrong with Geckos, but you may hate them, kit can be a very personal choice.

Why would you want it without a powerpack, that only makes it more versatile in my opinion. I've worked with Dick, and can honestly say I found his 130 tipper just as practical as any 3.5t tranny type tipper, but even more flexible. And coupled with the 110 and loader trailer an extremly usefull and effcient combo, especially as Dick makes full use of long lengths of cord for firewood production. Nice to see you here Mr Robinson

I thought this thread was going to be to be about which you'd prefer to eat, which is rainbow trout for me. I'd say they are Salmon in the pic, if my little knowledge in this area is correct.