Marc

For me it's the head weight that's the issue, when your trimming faces in sweeping motions I want all the weight at the battery end not the head. With the electric long reach the motor is on the head making it heavier to sweep up and down. I don't Hedge cut for Heritage Trees but I do keep in with a landscaping firm that has been good to me over the years so through the summer I get climbers rates to cut vast amounts of hedges and prefer a petrol machine over the battery.

I find it heavier than the petrol version and poorly balanced, less vibes though and good grunt so can be used as you would a petrol one. For me it's weight makes it a non goer.

Surely more useful to buy a botex timber trailer? And cheaper. Just a thought

We are lucky to run both a Cat Skidsteer, tracked barrow, and Avant. We bought our first Avant cheap 10 years ago it's worth has proven itself time and again with at one point running 4 Avants and a Multione the Skidsteer ended up hardly being used. Our recent Avant was bought brand new and to be honest I don't think they are expensive, if you think they are then they are not worth it. Even with all our kit our biggest out lay is wages per week/month the cost of kit pales into insignificance.

Any thoughts on HOLP rototop ? There is also another similar product around but can't think of its name right now. Holp GmbH ? Startseite

We have the baby one P500, we have a lot of lowering devices but this one is used 80% of the time it's a little beast and with 500kg SWL that's plenty.

Simonm whilst I know it can be frustrating to have unreliable kit I hoped my earlier comments would at least show it can happen to most major manufacturers in this market place, there are plenty of us who have run Forsts without issues. My reasons for looking elsewhere is because I don't like using the machine, not that it's bad. Oddly the ST8 we demoed I thought was a beast compared to the ST6 at that weight though and price I'd considered a Bandit.

I actually didn't think it was complicated at all, my only grip was it didn't look easy told suspend, once you got to ratchet style bollards like the Stein or TreeRunner-my favourite. The other floppy ones seem a step back, other than hopefully imparting less twist in the line it seems slightly pointless bit of engineering, still innovation is always good.

The advantage from what I can see is less rope twist/hockling, not much else. Although I do look forward to using one someday.

What would those that know recommend for a mulched/flail head on a 5 ton excavator (Kubota kx161-3) Are Femac the way to go? One operator we use went direct drive and it's an impressive head can't remember who make it though.

I would love to demo it Dean, a new small chipper is on the back burner as the Forst and TW are running fine for the moment so wouldn't want to waste your time but if your ever down this way...

Because it's a beast for its size and so easy to use and work on, other machine just feel poorly designed, like Forst still persisting with those stupid buttons that make life hard, narrow hopper that makes feeding brash hard, feed rollers that do not grab timber easily, those stupid buttons that spit jams onto the floor making my old bones bend down to pick them up (nothing makes me grumpier), blade changes that whilst not a great effort are not a breeze like the TW. The TW takes brash so easily, jams are easy to sort with a quick back forwards of the buttons ensuring the timber/brash is in the rollers still, wider infeed deals with forked material better, blade changes are easy and double sided blades, sub 750kg so nice and light to push round in the yard. We have talked about this with the crew if we didn't have the luxury of the big chippers and only had one chipper to deal with our work everyone would choose the TW230 simple and does what it says on the tin. This is our long term opinion after all the troubles we have had so I would hope that says something, if there is a better chipper out there being it to me please.

I wanted to put context, yes we have had a rough time with ours yet our Forst is trouble free, we run 2 6" machines side by side with much bigger machines. When I demoed the Forst I very impressed so bought it, we didn't get to demo the TW230 yet was given an amazing Deal so went with it as it was over £4K cheaper than what Forst offered us on a trade in so took a gamble with it. The TW230 has cost us money in down time over 2 years and that isn't right, yet I am fairly sure it was not a conspiracy by TW to sabotage our business or their intention to cause me so much grief and loss, it's just a machine and they paid to put it right. It was one of those things, life is never smooth and it's the same for business and operating machinery. The Timberwolf has huge love from the team that are used to running very big equipment. When the team are assigned the TW230 they are happy, when I use it on site I am happy it's such a joy to use for it size class and that's what's important. The Forst 6" which was so impressive on its demo over time I have got annoyed with its foibles. I think if I bought another TW230 it would probably give us no grief, yet I could buy a Forst and potentially it could be a nightmare - sometimes it's a lottery with this small scale produced bits of kit their is no point formulating an opinion through one bad experience. I demoed a Vermeer BC190XL recently and thought it was a piece of junk that even our TW230 would run rings round, yet so many owners are loving it, maybe I am missing something? Sorry if I am coming across as confusing and contradicting we all have our opinions and mine is based on performance and when the TW230 is on song and spitting out bearing it is simply the best machine in its class I have used long term and would buy another for that simple reason.

Sorry Ty a 5 hour test on macrocrapa would be good enough, I'd be more interested in 6 months usage. Our TW230 despite its problems has been a fantastic machine to own and run and I am fairly confident it is one of the best machines it it's class, it's price is also one of the best and parts support is good. For me performance is just as important as reliability, and whilst I think the First is a more reliable and durable machine it's higher price and poor user experience puts it below a TW230 for me.

A lot of kit these days seem to plummet sharply, but then hold steady. It is harsh so we try to work on a 5 year basis which should be the prime of most chippers depending on hours used. If your getting more hours then 3 years is fine I worked it out as £50 a week over 3 years or £30 over 5.

1st month bottom roller bearing started to play up and fuel tank sucked itself in all the time, half a day to transport to dealer (even though the have a branch 5 minutes away from us who sold us the chipper only TW mechanic is at branch 25 miles away through Reading.) 3 days in workshop to repair. Fuel tank still sucked itself in and bottom feedroller went again at 2 month. Told no cure for fuel tank issue, but new bearing fix issued, so back to dealer for another 2 days downtime and delivery. Alternator issue giving stress control issue at month 4, back to dealer to have that replaced. New fuel tank came out which we fitted ourselves to reduce downtime. Month 7, feed roller again playing up told another new fix so back to dealer for that. Another 2 days downtime and plus delivery by us. Two weeks after feed roller fixes blades start to strike anvil, H box was not fitted correctly so back to dealer for strip down and repair again, 3 days downtime and again delivery by us. Paint began to peel badly by month 12 choose to ignore it. Month 14 solonoids worked loose throwing intermittent feed fault, we stripped this down ourselves and replaced the spades which were poor quality. Month 16 engine mounts went meaning we couldnt get the correct belt tension, updated part supplied and we fitted it ourselves. Month 18 something I cannot recall went wrong, serious enough that it ended up going back to TW to have paint issue corrected and a going over (I was away on holiday) this time the first time we were provided with a loan machine a TW280 Came back 2 weeks later and throttle cable snapped. Month 24 bottom roller bearing blew out completely, this time dealer collected and supplied a loan machine (although they didn't realise it was a loan at the time ) and repaired under warranty. Came back with broken grease lines and sub par repair that wasn't to the latest version, I spoke to TW about it, they said they were satisfied with dealer fix. A month or so later bottom feed roller blew out again. Even outside of warranty they had a chipper to me that day, TW collected our machine and replaced entire H box, H box cover and blade inspection panel to the newer design which looks to me to be hopefully a permenant fix. Still the best machine on the market in its size imo and I would buy another one. Even though the Forst has been faultless apart from hood hinge and Kubota Fuel pump issue in 3 years with first class service, we will replace it soon ish with a TW. Unless they can address the issues we have with the design that the TW doesn't,,, I feel we were just unlucky as the majority of the issues were teething problems with our TW230 and apart from the downtime and delivery costs they sorted everything without quibble. TW also not provide 3 year warranty.

Again what is the right rotator , we have a demolition grab on the 21ton machine for sorting big timber at the yard and it is very good if lacking the rotation torque of a worm geared tilt rotate set-up Everyone seems to go on about Engcon, but there are 3 other out there why do these not get much mention? And what are the cost differences.

I perhaps should of been more direct, I can find plenty of 5 ton machines in my budget, just which one for doing site clearance with multiple attachments - grab/shear/mulcher? Are all created equal as my small amount of research seems to imply they are not.

It's a TW230 and makes your Forst look reliable But, personally I forgive it and especially now TW have got involved with our dealer and are bending over backwards to make it right. It's still cost us around £5k in downtime due to its unreliability but it happens and we can soak it up. Although we are lucky to be able to absorb the downtime dealers/manafacturers need to understand that for some this is their main income and the costs as a percentage can be huge. There are some real heros out there providing above and beyond service, but I also look at this through myself and the service I provide, some customers I nail it and I love it when I meet there expectations, some customers will never be happy, and sometimes I just fail and it hurts. So sometimes you need to cut the dealer some slack they might be failing as it's very difficult to please everybody all the time.

This Ian the problem though Matthew I have found 3 or 4 KX161's all around 4000 hours but vary in age by several years and all command similar money. Age doesn't seem to have an impact on value. I am keen on the Kubota just because of opinion voiced here and elsewhere on the web imply they are good machines. What about the newer machines? We browsing has shown that a few are having issues with them running flails compared to the older KX161. Is there nothing comparable to help me broaden my search? The Takeuchi TB250 looks a good machine but again not many used examples around, Eurocomach look good but again used market in the U.K. Is non exsistent. We run a lot of kit and have no worries that a 5 ton machine will get put to use, although it is a bit of an awkward size as 3ton machines are so good and a 5 ton is not a huge step up. We have a Fiat Hitachi 21 tonner which is a good machine but kinda wish we had a 14tonner as it's just a bit more flexible yet still man enough. So I want to make the right choice and have a budget of around £20k preferably with grab included in the £20k Out 2.3 ton Takeuchi is very tired now and 7000 hours, all of these are just used for tree planting so now looking for something for the tree team.

Sounds like our Timberwolf... at least you got a loan chipper we were without ours on many occasions until they finally sorted this out and provided loan machines. Our Forst has been trouble free and is 3 years old with 750 hours only issue is kubota engine fuel pump went. And the hood hinges kept breaking until we welded them.

What are those Yanmar 5 ton excavators like? We are after a 5 ton model to join the tree team something to take a grab and have good hydraulics for a flail/mulcher. The Takeuchi seems a good machine we use a guy who runs a 3 ton with flail with grab from a 5 ton with engcon amazing what he can do. Hired a kubota with free hanging grab and wasn't as impressed still handy but you lose so much over a fixed grab. My only concern is snapping a rotator unless it's heavy duty enough as those engcons are bomb proof. Thing is I know nothing about excavators, have been looking at Kubota the KX161-3 but finding a good one is hard, looked at a 13 year old one that for year looked good but it worries me buying older diggers, would you guys be concerned. We are fairly commercial somwill work them hard. Any other options with good oil flow for arb work to look for in the 5 ton range?

Meh I had 5 200t's in my life, and now have an early 540 which i have used and abused for 3 years without issue, a lot of guys had 201's but as they became unreliable switched to 540's so for me it shows how good a saw it is, just don't handle it like a wrecking ball! Impulse pipe issues are common and the auto tune is fairly good so will keep a saw running if these split. But as with all things we all have our opinion and often there is no real right answer.

We trialled them with limited success, 50% of our projects we install irrigation systems 25% the client takes on the the after care, the rest we water by hand.

It can often be cheaper that way, watering contracts can be expensive and most don't want to pay the rates. Our local council employs a watering team who get paid the same rates as the Arb team to seasonally go around watering tree stock. Currently I have only 2 of my own, which are £5000 each for the year for each planting project and there is very little money to be made in them other than keeping the planting team busy during the summer months. Although like all things if I had 20 watering contracts I could possibly reduce the rate and make a greater percentage of profit. My main problem is selling the aftercare, as most of the competition don't seem to bother or will charge a paltry sum maybe water once or twice and hope to get away without replacing. So far I have lost 2 tenders for the new season from what I gathered from the QS it was down to the aftercare package being to high as planting should always be the same. We do offer full guarantee and no quibble replacement with the aftercare program. Building sites are the worst and failure rates are sometimes 50% as they skip the after care preferring to do it themselves to save on the cost which can be as much as 50% of the initial planting and as the planting is merely dressing with low risk to the developer to put right they take the chance.