Marc

Depends on the council!

A lot of ear plugs give a higher protection than standard muffs, I tried the atlios on at the trade fair, a very nice comfy helmet, would of bought one had my colleague not got the Kask and found it to small for him. Will probably get one eventually.

I doubt the conehead has a screen? Well i'm off to bed, before i go though here is a pic of Heritage Trees 20" Vermeer it gobbles up material at a ferocious rate, the Yanks sure make tough chippers.

Thats intresting to know, someone i work for has a big biomass contract chipping cord wood straight into a barn at a local estate, the estate has been complaining the chip isn't a 100% uniform G5. Only less than 2% is over, they reckon someone with a Heizohack can produce 100% G5 chip.

Its always the last bit of cord wood going through that would shatter or go through sideways and come out as long splinters, no good if you sending the chip off to a power station as they may reject the load.

It'll fill a 7.5t truck in under 15 minutes when presented with a steady stream of material.

See i live and work in the urban sprawl that is the south, i forget there is such thijngs as open spaces, The most of road i go is backing it into someones garden. I liked this Bandito chipper you could get it onto most sites, hydraulic top feed roller and handy winch. Not good for biomass as its spits kindling more than chip. Reasonably priced second hand from what i know, and parts should be easy to come by, looked well built to boot. I know nothing though and should keep out of such topics.

Just out of curiosity, as i know nothing about such things but why do you want a large pto chipper? Why not a large chipper with its own engine is it a cost thing?

I also here that about the EGR valves, lots of Landy owners i know remove them as they gunk up the engine and cause more trouble than there worth, only on there for emision reasons apparently?

makes sense

I'm kinda dubious myself, only i've heard good things from a few people now intially i thought it was snake oil they were selling. I've heard of all kinds of scams with these chips some are simple resistors that fool your engine management and have the potential to cause serious damage. The argument i've always gone with is why don't the manafacturers just make the engines more powerfull in the first place? Saying that the new X-trail now has a 2.0 dci putting out 150bhp or 170, where as the older 2.2dci is only 136bhp so maybe there is potential to unlock? How is the fuel economy as i have an X-trail?

I didn't bother looking at this thread earlier as i thought it was just going to be some gay hedgecutter, boy was i wrong that thing is the nuts just the sound of it starting up is unbelievable I WANT ONE! I'd never complain about hedgecutting again!

Thats a site I even see here quite often and by some surprising companies who'd you expected to have higher standards!! I don't blame you for not wanting to work in such conditions:ohmy: although sometimes i think there is satisfaction to be had in going somewhere and trying to impart some knowledge and experience in doing work to a higher and safer standard. There is a reason for everything, there will be a reason you see others working in a way you find incompetent, perhaps they know no better, or perhaps they really couldn't care less about there profession and what they do! I think your right to try going it alone there could be huge potential for you out there. Also try to get in some of the French freelance climbers, I know of a few exceptional French climbers they are not all bad you'll be able to spot the good ones, use them to help you out on the bigger stuff so you can learn from them to. Failing that i could always do with a holiday, i'll work for food and board:laugh1:

Like the Huckster i've only ever done the assesment, and please don't start saying if the nptc instructor didn't teach it then its not the way to do it, there are many ways of tackling a job other than the nptc way. Nptc is just extrememly basic proof of competency and thats all, the real learning happens in the huge variety of situation we find ourselves in on a daily basis. Also in the limited time you have to do an nptc unit they can only teach you so much so they tend to show you the more ideal and reliable techniques, but there are many other ways. As for the 20-25% my understanding and this is only really self taught info i've gained over the few years i've been doing this so i may be completly wrong, is that as the tree begins to go over the weight is being applied to the hinge at the optimum time for best control. Like Huck said though sometimes though at 20-25% the hinge will not be wide enough, so you'll want to go deeper to use more of the trees diameter as a hinge for better control/hold. If i've dismantled a tree and left with just a stick to fell I will nearly always do a gob cut of 50% or more this puts the hinge at or beyond the center of gravity making it easier to pull the stem over (particularly usefull on short fat stems where a rope assist is less usefull as you have less leverage, and wedging over a big stem with no crown in a direction it doesn't want to go can be hard work), a tree with a full crown though this is unwise as you want to overcome the cog of gravity through wedging, lever, rope or winch assist then once its past cog/going thats when you want the center of gravity to be on the hinge for greatest control. O.k lesson over for tonight ha ha

I know! TY you say "how was I suppose to complete the faced with such odds" and "I know a farce when I see one" I have been there and learned, I know never to go to a new company without some files a 7/32 3/16 404" and flat file with some handles will cover all bases. At Merrist wood you have probably learrnt how to do everything in ideal circumstances with good kit, and was probably never presented with a challenge. In all honesty it does sound like you was presented with very tall order, only if you'd said i've been in this industry years and never seen such incompetency, and not said i've newly acquired my chainsaw license (its not a license!) from Merrist Wood i'd of thought ouch what a harsh day you had. As it stands all i think is welcome to the real world. Still don't take my negative comments to heart i enjoyed reading your posts, your experiences are intresting and i'm not being sarcastic! I look forward to hearing more about your exploits and progression in the industry over in France. I wish you well:cool1:

So far from this thread i've only learned that it is very impractical to rope into the next tree, unless you can easily swing over into it. Otherwise that leaves throwing into it with a throwline, although i've tried and can honestly say its not easy, unless your blessed and get it first time restting your throwline in a mug or cube etc is a pain in the tree, plus you can not always get the ideal position to make a good throw leading to frustration and loss of time. As for throwing the tail of you line over and getting your groundie/s to pull you in, i must be doing something wrong as i tried this and as the groundie pulls the tail it just tends the slack sending back to the tree i'm anchored in, i can't pay out slack as the groundy is pulling the line. What am i doing wrong? Only the travers sounds viable, which leads to the point with throwlines. Part of me thinks it just easier that if i can't make a simple swing, then I would install my access line in one tree then throwline into the next, access the first tree then get my groundy to retrieve the access line and install it in the next tree ready. I can access most canopies in minutes with an srt system, i also have 3 throwline, so i could set-up 1 tree and leave 3 lines in the others ready for my groundy to install my access line. This just seems far quicker to me.

You may have your chainsaw license and all the gear but still i'm afraid to say no idea.

What is the going rate?

I'm 6ft, my colleague is over 6ft and the other guy 6ft+ and 19 1/2 stone, being the smallest i have to sit in the middle, it ain't funny! Good trucks though

I don't understand either, but when you read what testcricket wrote, he said they pulled it over so it leaned they way they wanted, thats a lot of tension put in! they then made the cuts, the sudden release of tension can cause all kinds of funny things to happen. Without good details oractually being there we will never know. Looking at the picture, i bet it was leaning back and biased to one side as it was multistemmed, the hinge was thicker on one side and thinner on the other so it probably didn't hold long enough in the right place. When i fell leaners with a rope assist i always try to pull exactly the opposite direction of the lean, i also only put enough tension on the line to stop the saw getting stuck no more, get my cuts right then walk away and pull steadily over. Trying to pull over a stem 90degrees from its lean is hard, it all depends on the wood and how strong the hinge will hold, you can try to make it thicker on the tension side but this will not always work 100% accuracy is not a given.

So many tree it hard to pick one, 1st London Plane - platanus x hispanica 2nd Hornbeam - Carpinus

Simon Holmes from chainsaw training, woodchipper training, tree felling training, uk is fairly close to you at Arborfield near Reading.

I feel like i'm being really harsh, and i don't want to come across that way. You say your 100% sure is was gunna go but the wind took it, to me its less than a 100% certainty when there is wind involved even trying to time the fell in between gusts in that scenario is dodgy and not worth the risk when a good alternative is there. There is no getting away from it you made a big boo boo. Thanks for sharing, and take away a positive lesson from this.

Can i just arrive and compete? Or do i have to fill in the form online (I hate paperwork)

Absoloutly with number one, i've done it once as i wasn't 100% sure i could get it right and with powerlines and a busy road I want very good odds, or at least finding a scenario where i can up my odds (i'e experienced groundcrew, traffic management, more kit options etc) and more money due to extra risk/complexity!! I hate to admit it but i will work by insulated powerlines, i know the leccy board may do it for free, but i can do it for cold hard cash. Obviously not trees that are actually touching/chaffing/resting on lines, or bare cables going through canopy or under drip line, but the job in this thread yes i'd do it. Going down the lecture route, this is the kind of thing i've talked about before, Testcricket your doing a job by a road and powerlines, your working for basically peanuts,,,, probably do not have PLI or ELI? And i hate to say it messed up a simple job in a very bad scenario (road + powerline) obviously no traffic management, did you even have anyone on the road just in case??? This is where accidents and injuries can happen very quickly. You got lucky! Learn from it!