Marc

A bit, more annoyed that I didn't judge the extent of decay and use it as a learning experience for the next one. Dare I say it quite like the fact I got paid though, we are a service and even though the extent of decay was no where near as bad as I thought I felt it was the right call. Back on topic the O.P AdamBa seems attached to his tree so I'd be looking at making a far more robust decision over what steps to take. someone mentioned reduction is that wise given the Kretz ?

Typically pragmatic answer - i recently surveyed a mature 20m+ Lime with Kretz and an open wound at the base about 40cm wide up to 40cm high. Likely target was a field used primarily for fetes and other church activity including overflow parking. I reccomended to fell it, as my general understanding is due to the nature of Kretz it can be difficult to qaunitfy extent of decay through either resistograph or sonic tomography - happy to be proved otherwise. i asked the contractor to send me a pic and to be fair it wasn't bad, bit gutted really.

For me it has to be 20m plus @SWORDSTA your comments on proficiency is difficult to quantify, I've never come across anyone who is quicker in a bucket than a climber due to the ability to quickly position, where as a plateform will often need to be packed up and moved. Ive worked with a 50m truck mount on 35m Beech in Germany working one side with climbers in the other side, 2 in bucket reducing, yeah it was more comfortable the climbers did a better job faster than me, although we often work with 2 or more climbers in a tree which helps with positioning and speeds things up. Also safer and less fatiguing. thats just my opinion and observations doesn't mean I am right

It will always divide opinion, and think it's based on what work you find yourself doing. we are in the fortunate position of owning a mewp, and crane.. i don't think it's a macho comment, just my experience and of those I work with who climb daily that climbing is both easier, quicker, more importantly safer than using a mewp, also it allows us to achieve the required specification. again this is based on us and our work. I have worked for those that frequently use mewps it works well for them so do not judge how others on how they choose to work. we are all here to work safely and hopefully have long and profitable careers. i think we all to often try to compare ourselves to others.

Pretty rare, I'd say once every 2months. Usually because it allows us to efficiently carry out the job. occasionally it's the safest option.

The Echo is a nice machine I have one at home that's over 5 years old we had them at work. its interesting to hear different feedback for me as a commercial tool the Stihl is hard to beat. i look at commercial tools differently these days, i expect 2 years out of the Stihl hedgecutters and 3 years from chainsaws, before they are replaced with newer reliable machines, if they last longer great. it all depends on how you look at machines and how they get used.

What should be standard practice?

Never checked roots before planting, but we have had a batch of Oak stock fail on a site before, like has been said there quite likely was issues with the stock. having seen a few rootballs whilst it does look small we have planted far worse, that have established into fine trees over the years.

I've tried everything else and prefer Stihls, we buy 2 a year on rotation after 3 bin them, rebuilds can be expensive so it's not worth it. most of the other makes out there are pretty decent, it just for out and out abuse and hard time the stihls outlast in a contracting role. have 2 of the new ones now and so far really impressed, plastics seem chewy/soft but maybe that's no bad things. A lot lighter than the 4 mix Stihl vibrate like a pig though, be interesting to see how they hold up to a seasons abuse.

Neil if I was looking I'd certainly be applying. Be a great opportunity for the right candidate, not that I should say that of our competition as we are also always on the look out for talented individuals. Marc

I was going about it in a roundabout way, the advert gives no indication of what the assets are worth so for me the turnover makes no sense, a good truck, chipper, the tools and a yard would be worth the asking price alone. The client address book and company image isn't worth much at all. it would be like me as a freelance climbing arborist saying, I am going to retire I earn 45-50k a year working pay me 40% in one lump sum and I will give you me contacts. After all when I am gone they will still need a climber. i would have more luck selling my assets. Sorry just my view.

I will not message you PM because lazy, but being one to our yard, we have a 6" currently alongside our TW230 if the new Sub 750kg can outperform it I will buy it. but you still have the stupid buttons...

Your instructor is right a lanyard is not for life support, it is a work positioning device and adheres to different standards, the hip rings also are not classed as life support although some harnesses like the treemotion have options where you can use central D's as life support. If you look at an ART rope positioner its design is very different from the ART lock/spider jack again down to the fact the positioner is built to be used as a work positioning device and not life support so adheres to different standards in design. when ascending up rope over rope as we refer to it, the lanyard should be used with you body weight supported by a branch the lanyard securely holds your position and yes stops you falling the side D's are not intended to support 100% of your weight whilst hanging un-supported or for ascent in and out of the tree. i would use a simple prussik and swing cheek micro pulley as a cheap and good alternative. The only issue is it can become sticky, prone to jamming and hard to pay out slack when there is a lot of friction and weight on the line.

I have worked with a plethora of chippers (Jennies, Tunissen/TSIndustries, greenmechs, Forst, Schiesling, Bearcat, TP) can't praise the TW230 enough. Not tried the new Forst but they haven't changed what annoys me other than infeed, so will wait for feedback from others first.

Can I be blunt? Also you say for sale, based on the above it would be your assets that have value. Is your price the cost of these?

I thought so, it is such a tragic event my heart goes to the family, it's the first time I read the post from the father and it out a lump in my throats as it is such a terrible tragedy. Personally I think the father should visit colleges and speak to young students about what happened, so that they may think twice about when in a certain situation up the tree. I know those that worked with Alex... it is a difficult situation.

Is this a recent post? I assume this is the arborist who died in Oxford? whislt it is tragic, I feel pursuing improved chainbraking so in the event of a kick back scenario was not the cause of here or solution. Improved training, work practices and awareness is what's required.

We have a legal payload of 6/7ton depending on rear axle configuration which is a healthy whack of chip and we can easily fit that in the back, you have answered your own question though Nick the 7.5tonner is the ideal set-up for your needs, no 2 companies are the same and I wouldn't want to operate a Unimog where you are.

A lady I worked for in the Cotswolds had an army Daf with hiab Ag reg. loaded with timber from a roadside contract running on red, got pulled on the A40 and dipped. It ended up going to court where she stated chapter and verse and walked away, thing is she read the whole rule book. As far as I am aware you can haul arb arisings away from a contract in a Mog running on red back to your yard. We then sell the arisings as a product from there which is hauled away in walking floor artics as a product. But like I said grey areas, I for one can't see how you can be ag reg yet pay duty on fuel, but agree some will walk away once dipping the tank and finding only white.

Interesting Kevin, I'll check with our accountant how this is done. When I started out I always put CPD through my accounts without issue as a legitimate business expense. In the scheme of things it's a small outlay with hopefully a big capacity return.

We already have the Unimogs on Ag just sick of the grey area and want to move to white and opl. When it comes to cost I try to look at true cost to the company, loss of earnings/wages whilst the employee is on the course hence why it will cost us £3200 per employee. Which sounds a lot bit of course you have to look at the benefit it will then bring.

How much is the the training and test? Last time I looked it was going to cost us £3200 per driver we need to put 4 through

One day I am sure we will Tom, we are pretty good at keeping 20 year old Mogs going and at half the cost of the new shape they probably work out pretty even in the long run.

Kevin I have not seen another viable set-up for us, believe me I am always looking to get away from Unimogs I hate them, in fact 2 of our Unimogs will be going on the next few months to be replaced by a Tractor which we will buy a rolo trailer for, it's a compact tractor to tow 18ton. I keep going round in circles wanting to get away from Unimogs but always coming back to them particularly the square cabs as good examples can be found if you know where to look at modest prices, we also know them very well now so can carry out any major repair in house. We looked at new U500 on operators license, they have great capacity the problem is finding the right spec second hand and to buy new I could buy 4/5 good clean square cabs that I know, so it comes back to comfort zone. Buying the Tractor is a big leap as I have no idea about tractors. Same when it come to trucks.

Will have to hide that from my boss as he would be all over that, just like a fracked jcb backhoe loaded which is another pointless niche bit of kit. So what alternatives are there for hi cap chip trucks? Something that can carry 6ton? And tow 10ton. As much as I hate Unimogs they seem to work for us but I spend a lot of time trying to keep them running. Constantly looking for viable alternatives.