Marc

Climbed for about 6years with a neck bungee and see no issue with it. I use a chest harness now as it ensures a better body position for ascending.

Why complicate the design though keep it simple and robust, I've kept my kit in a black diamond touchstone haul bag for nearly 10 years it is simple and robust, I've also had countless other bags with ventilation either through mesh or zips and they either fail or let in dirt and moisture. If it's wet it needs to be hung up to dry regardless after a day's work, or keep on climbing till it drys. I avoid anything with ventilation or zips these days.

I agree with treequip sentiments, and feel a kit bag should be totally waterproof I have a haul bag for all my gear and like its simplicity, external year loops for me are a bit no no, just simple clean external design to keep the elements out. Once off site and back at yard or home if my kit is wet I will get it out to dry and be well aired in an ventilated enviroment.

I had heard there was a bad batch of London Plane - platanus X hispanica which originated from a nursery that grew its stock from cutting so all the trees were genetic clones. Not sure if this is true or not

Good luck:biggrin: I've asked countless times and had a different definitive answer every time.

Stihl used to be good because they were Nilfisks, Stihl are now making there own and I have heard their first attempts are not great so probably need a few years to iron out the bugs in the build. If it's Electric then Nilfisk are hard to beat the E150/145 are good upper end domestic machines Nilfisk E145.3-10 H X-tra Pressure Washer - Black Cyber 2015 - CleanStore I bought a Karcher K5, it has a 5 year warranty and is fine but for the same money I could of had a Nilfisk which is a better product. Draper also do a pretty reasonable petrol pressure washer for £500 ish very powerful. As for traffic film, yes a hot wash is superior but a good traffic film remover (buy it in bulk 25ltr) applied with a pressure sprayer will sort most things out. I fill an empty 25ltr container with warm water from my tap then suck it out through with my pressure washer, it's the poor mans hot wash.

Still have any of these 915's Dean?

Right now acronyms are out of the way can we move on Tree work has always been based around one rope wether you double it over or not. I often find there is a preconceived idea that single line adds more force, I do not see this as true only in respect to the fact the device bears more weight your anchor points when top tied will be subject to the same forces. When base tied there are many factors to consider. I've also heard that a rope doubled over halves the force on each line there by making the rope stronger, yet there is always a point where the to parts meet cambium/pulley saver at that point it's a single line on a tight radius and no superior to a rope anchored single line which can be tied off in many ways. Paul Poynter has been doing some testing on rope tie offs the info on that would be interesting once the data has been compiled. I also see mentioned here that there are only a few CE approved SRWP devices what are they?

That's the pros of the Forst, they really are a well built chipper, we have had no issue with ours other than the grease pipes failing near the central grease point which we upgraded to thicker walled stuff. I spend less time on the tools and more in the office these days, purchasing kit for the team is one my roles, and the Forst has been brilliant due to it being reliable with back up I cannot rate high enough. I have to listen to the crewed well and it is universal all prefer the TW230 on site. it's still hard to choose between the 2.

I imagine the front mount issue is just one of those things. I'd also like to say in view of some of my earlier comments on Forst, please do not think I am bashing it we have a Forst TR6 and TW230 the Forst is a solid piece of kit with exceptional customer support and we are very happy with it, it's just the TW230 edges it on performance on site, where as the Forst edges the TW on build there is good reason they are popular on hire fleets. Like everything in life there are pros and cons and if anyone tells you they have made the perfect machine they are lying.

The front of the engine has dropped raising the crank shaft, it's also slightly angled now and does not run true to the disc flywheel rotor, there are three belts and because it is angled down the tension is not even on all three. If the flywheel slips it will not slow the engine and the alternator will not detect reduced rpm stopping the feed rollers so the stress control will not function correctly labouring the engine. Have you run a TW230 against a Forst? I doubt you will be disappointed, not knocking the Forst it is a great chipper, just hate the narrow hopper, stupid buttons and the damn lip that catches brash-Infeed should be smooth and clear of lips that can snag brush.

How did you arrive by that figure? I had me concerns one year I might jump a tax bracket, the thing is you only pay the high band on what you earn over. So for example if you earn 41k up to 40k you pay 20% then on the 1k over you pay 33% I rather earn the money and pay tax than not earn it.

Yeah I believe that's what's happened although can't see anything obvious yet, will investigate further this week, the rubber mount also looks queer. Good to see you guys at the show really really can't wait for our Bandit now after seeing all the impressive features in detail on the 990xp.

Just rip it out with an excavator at that size not worth the hassle of a tree spade to small and only one, they are surprisingly tough, you could hire an excavator and get it on a decent sized truck fairly cost effectively. But £1000 before it's even dug up and planted! Better of getting a decent nursery example than take the risk, although that could end up more costly. The point here is the advert at first glance looks ridiculous, yet it's not so crazy as we have often done similar jobs although in most cases the owner would get only a token some unless like a nursery they are willing to often some kind of garantee

We once removed one free of charge and replanted at another clients house we charged the client about £850 if I recall took a day to excavate and replant and it's still thriving now.

The bottom feed roller and tank should be sorted on new machines, both are easy to spot on used machines. So far in 600 hours we have had no other significant issue other than the engine dropping on its mount, but that's probably down to bad luck. Another issue to be aware of is the air filter, it's intake on the top of the machine leaves it prone to sucking in a lot of debris so weekly or fortnight checks are a must, and perhaps more frequent changing than the manual suggests. I would always push for buying new, they give good part exchange deals and 2 year warranty but appreciate its not suitable for everyone.

The best feature of the 230 is it wide opening making feeding brash a dream, with no annoying lip to catch butts (take note Forst!) The 230 is simply a phenomenal see chipper Not taking anything away from Forst there customer support has been second to none and we have not suffered any major down time using one, unlike the 230 which has had teething issues. Our 230 has needed, a new fuel tank and redesigned bottom feed roller, since both have been replaced there have been no further problems. Apart from the engine front mounts has some how dropped raising the crankshaft which now doesn't run true to the flywheel so we cannot get the tension right and there by having issues with the stress control which runs of the alternator. In the process of getting this sorted. As much as I do like the Forst we will probably be trading it in for the 8" Timberwolf next year.

That is our median rate where we are based, sometimes we can pull in more on jobs other times less but over the year we need to earn those kind of figure to be profitable with long term prospects- reinvestment in equipment, cpd, evolving and improving the business. And even at that it's tight. Also we do not pay any difference in wages/day rate all are on the roughly the same.

It's a very small difference!

As a self employed arborist I have turned over between 34-38 a year for the last 4 years depending on how much time off I had, I am just a run of the mill day in day out climber. My wife works part time and earns 10k a year. Our combined earnings with mine caculated to net profit was around 38k over last 3 years. We just managed to scrimp a 280k mortgage with a 20% deposit in January The average house price in my area is 325k and they are moving very quick So yeah 38k seems right in my area (Oxfordshire) My brother in law is a truck driver from Birmingham, he earns £110 a day driving with regular 6 day weeks if he wants it. I am on £150 a day with regular 6 day weeks if I want it. He is considerably better off than me as he has just bought a large 3 bed house for 150k and I have a pokey 2 bed bungalow for 285k that needs major overhaul!

Agreed, I have often thought with the snake anchor what kind of fall you would need to have to have it begin to absorb, those stitches I believe are designed to fail at 4Kn, your rope will also have some absorption and so will the anchor point in terms of flex, so I reckon you would need to have one hell of a fall before the shock absorbing function of the snake anchor kicks in. Although I have never tried it. Personally I think it's a poor marketing trick, the snake anchor is a great product that would of been just as useful if those stitches were rated higher. The via ferrata absorbers, they are on very small lanyards so minimal rope in the system attached to steel cable that are static so minimal absorption, so adding an absorber is prbably going to help. We may all climb from time to time with to much slack in our system that's our choice but it is usually always avoidable.

Meanwhile in the real world I agree with you but in practice it does not always happen. Only this weekend I was up a large Horse chestnut reducing the top must of been 1m above my anchor on skinny stuff, so 2 m fall, I was lanyarded in but that's not a life line, it was the safest option I had at the time to achieve the job efficiently.

If someone else is going to knock the top out then I would agree with you. But it seems he is making a concious effort to do the right thing and knocking the top out isn't.

A snake anchor particularly as a base anchor would take a lot before it started to absorb maybe as much as 10kn so you going to have issues. I've not yet seen a decent shock absorber yet, just use a line with a bit of give and keep slack minimal, or when you do have slack be sensible and not push your luck.

Reducing it is effectively topping it on such a species, you could wind firm it-there was an article somewhere about doing this I am unsure how to do it as I've never reduced a conifer before... Just topped them. Question is why do you think it will fall over? What is the union like is it a natural Union or previous topping/reducing point. Trees don't just fall over and I doubt it 100ft or else it would be freaking huge! If there is a genuine fear it will fall over and there is no tpo or conservation area then fell away. If the client is adamant to get something done and there is no tpo/con then like others have said crack on and get paid, we are service providers after all. Just be careful as it's unlikely anything you do will benefit the tree long term.