Marc

I prefer my 540, actually prefer it over the 200t of which I had about 5 and all suffered with carb issues at some point

We had the multione on hire no different to an Avant really, so if you found that disappointing I doubt the multi would change your mind, alongside our 640 and hire 750 is was no better with bucket pushing into soil.

Hark st you and yer fancy long words It is pretty cool though

Okay I was t overwhelmed by it it would still be pleased if I owned one:001_rolleyes:

I wouldn't say underwhelmed, having used the old 150 and 190 a lot over the last 15 years the 230 was a significant improvement feels more like an 8" machine. So when we had the 280 we kind of hoped it would also be a step up from its predecessor but it wasn't such a leap.

To lazy to look it up but then es 8" TW the 280? We had one on demo it's alright just did not blow us away like the 230 did.

Ha fair enough, of course I mean like for like in the 6" class it's a beast, some people do not seem to rate it though so it's just my opinion. Strangely we tried the 8" chipper and didn't like it as much as we were thinking of replacing our Forst 6" with the TW 8", we have decided to wait another year and see what happens.

A 35ton crane is not much and you may deal with it in a safer more efficient way making it just as competitive, a decent sized mewp for that round are way is almost 3/4 the price of a crane so wouldn't even factor for me. Looks a good place to site the crane as well. The climb does look that bad either but it depends on how dead and fragile it has become, doubt a GRCS will be much use on that over a normal rigging device.

I've not used a better chipper performance wise the new TW230.

Only problem is the committed thief can easily get past the key lock which is a simple ring key, it will stop the opportunist. I'd fit this Meck Lock

Only ever used Zing it once its bedded in its alright. If it gets stuck, well that's why I have 3 throwline sets, if all three get stuck its time to go home.

Don't be so cynical that has never happened before........

I definitely do not have a low opinion of the police despite what my comments may convey, I am not naive enough to think just because their response and ability to deal with the crimes we are having are actually to do with the average police officer not trying it's not that simple. I just wish the powers above would put some more importance on it and start harassing these scrots a bit more, eventually they will catch them red handed, after all they see to know precisely who is doing it.

I agree with what you say Huck and also do not know the answer to your opening statement. I am convinced our crimes involving theft from our yard is linked to others in the area and is part of a larger ring/problem and the lack of unified policing means this ring of highly organised individuals are not getting looked into. I am frustrated but also annoyed at ourselves, our recent site theft of the Avant in which we got a full pay out from the insurance company was essentially down to us not taking enough car and getting complacent (we should of added more deterrents and not left the machine on site overnight) Our yard thefts are also following a similar theme, I am not the owner of Heritage I just help manage the company but find it frustrating we do not invest in better security, but this security is expensive I has been looking at site safes suitable to store our handheld tools in which are the most vulnerable and am I am looking at between 10-25k for something I would feel confident would stop them, we have alarms and cctv but these are worthless. Trying to convince the MD that an outlay of 10k+ is worth it is hard the reality is we probably spend around £500-£1000 on locks and bars which are easily defeated. Although when you consider the recent break in cost us £8.5k in new saws and 1.5k in repairs to the ram raided building and tool storage for me spending £10k plus on a secure site safe is worth it. But I then have the concern they will still break into that having heard of one of the local tree services watching the cctv of their constainer being cut into and cleaned out in a 4 hour break in, these guys have the time and means to do anything to get our equipment.

So am I to understand that stolen equipment is not reliably registered by the police? And that there is no unifying system to log serial numbers or unique ID? Our equipment was well marked but I hold little hope of recovery. Generally if a crime is reported it helps to first look to see if there is potential for lines of enquiry, there were 2 cctv systems on the street and plenty upon leaving the area, this was a large and very obvious piece of plant loaded onto a truck/trailer. We now only bother to inform the police for a crime number, the saws stolen were all old, worn and due for replacement a way but it's hardly the point.

Our Avant got stolen just before Christmas from a site we only bought it a few months earlier. Reported it to the police and they didn't even turn up, countless cctv cameras nearby to which the police could use for information. Previous time we had a theft from site I did the leg work and got the cctv footage with clear facial pictures of them leaving site, they drive a blue 2 tone mitsi pajero R reg the police even knew them they went to their homes but found nothing so no arrest was made. 2 weeks later the police advertised in the paper for information on a gang who burgled a nearby home driving a 2 tone Mizi Pajero R reg they couldn't even put 2 and 2 together that it was the same people. When are hard was broken into they dusted it for fingerprints the doors and handles which we all touched but not my personal mini felling lever which was by the internal office door and obviously used to pry it open. Where are these hundred of saws going that got taken in a few months back in 2014 we got hit Jenks, Tree Soloutions and 3 more whose names I cannot recall at this time, you can't tell me that easily more than a hundred items of power tools are sold back to the working arborist in the surrounding counties or bloke down the pub. Be honest now who has ever been offered a saw? I know I have never been offered a saw in 15 years and neither of the many hard working arbs I have met in my freelancing years. There is enough movement in legitimate saws being handed on second hand at a reasonable rate. So sorry if I think the police are not effective, but alas if I go past a speed camera above the speed limit its easy to prosecute (and by the way I think that's fair and have no issue with it)

The CCTV at our yard and others around us serves as no deterrent, only people I know who escape are those who secure their stuff in a robust way - loud alarms that are hard to disable (hidden sirens hard to reach or cut the power supply to) and secure storage -shipping containers do not cut it they need to be concrete and steel with thought given to oxy acetalyne torchs or grinders, make it hard and they will not bother.

Yes be careful Jonny they may be back first time they broke in to our yard they took all the saws but left the hedge cutters and blowers, they came back within 3 months but we stopped keeping saws there, they pulled open every truck every lock box every unit ransacked the office, that time they took the hedge cutters and blowers. It took us 3 years before we decided to keep the saws in our yard again in safes we built a ourselves 3 months later they broke in ram raiding our roller shutters and ripped off the door to the site safe by tying them to a truck, the safe with the hedge cutters/blowers held so they gave up and made off with the saws. We know they will be back so are keeping the saws off site again till we re appraise our security solution.

Pretty much, although Mark is not fat it's more in terms of his skill. You cannot beat a good operator.

I know Steve it's a comment born out of frustration more than anything, I appreciate the efforts of Arbsafe and what you do. Last time this happened in 2014 there were over a 100 items of Stihl power tools stolen over a period of a month, that's what £50k of equipment stolen in a month plus all the costs involved within that (work schedule, wages, repair) if that doesn't constitute serious organised crime I do not know what does. And they are round again this year and so far hit us and it seems John Burch. It cannot be coincidence that they target only Stihl power tools, and the recovery of these tools is non exsistant.

It's a 3ton machine, it's the size of the operator that counts. Its amazing what he can do with such a little machine.

Putting it straight to work on a site clearance project for the EA

With the grivel one I just choked a carabiner on the other end and use that to quickly disconnect as it wind me up larks footing onto the wire rings on a top handle, so perfect for quickly disconnecting for "maintenance". It's for an ice axe and has a decent load rating, not so decent that it will tear you in half if the saw gets stuck in the kerf and goes bye bye. With the cheapy lanyards I cut the ring off and force a carabiner threw, I then pass the loop threw the saw ring/handle and clip into the carabiner which is another quick way of avoiding larks footing.

Get one of these from go outdoors, personally I just use a cheap old thing, wasn't impressed with the Drayer one. Did like my Grivel one though was more depressed about that being stolen than the actual saw which was a tempremantal swine, hope the ass that has it get repetitive strain injury trying to keep the thing running.

We were hit again 2 weeks ago same as the last 2 times over the past 4 years saws only ignoring everything else (climbing kits, rigging kits GRCS and lots of other specialty kit) they even gave up on the hedgecutters and blowers leaving them, only on one other occasion did they bother to take those, it seems saws are what they want. I hear of lots of other around us who also get broken into in the same fashion taking saws only. That's over 40 Stihl power tools in 4 years, can't help but think it's the same people. This makes it seriös organised crime yet the police do nothing. Sad to say this time we didn't even bother calling them just went and bought new saws as all of ours were 3 years old and pretty abused anyway. It's not a good way to look at it but we are just tired of the lack lustre response. And sorry Steve it seems logging our serial numbers means nothing as it's very rare they are returned.