Mr Ed

It will be self explanatory on your plating certificate - GVW (gross vehicle weight), and GTW Gross train weight. Dont exceed either, or else its go to jail, do not pass GO, do not collect £200.

It always looks so rosy to employees, the boss always has wodges of money and an easy life. At least when they set up on there own they find out exactly how frigging hard it is...

I was offered the chance to do Ski instructing in Andorra. Wish I'd taken it...

The beech is anything up to 5 ft across

East Manchester. You want some Jonny? or would you prefer 10 - 18" material?

Just remember that the work you get will take work away from someone else. Its a finite pie. The more people that want a slice, the smaller the slices get.

Few of my thoughts. I'm like Jonny woodpicker, 2nd generation. When My father started up his own business, He was the Only tree surgeon in the whole of north and mid wales. Nowadays if I throw a stick up Bangor high street, it'll bounce off 5 tree surgeons. My option is'nt up in the poll. Is there too many tree surgeons? yes. by far. Does it bother me? No. I've raised my bar to the level that I'm only quoting against other accredited firms, and I dont win my jobs by always being the cheapest. Yes there are to many tree surgeons, but all other trades are equally competative. What we really have is too many people on to small an Island. And I'm not talking about pikies. There are far to many highly profesional outfits, well equiped, trained, insured, and do quality work. Still to many of 'em. Finally, new equipment means nothing. Most of my stuff is at least 10 years old. My grab truck is a '95 (although the crane is 2007 with full radio remote), my chip truck is a '95, my pickups are 2003, my excavator is '99 etc etc etc. The trick is to keep it smart, clean, working and above all else PAID FOR. FIN.

Got several big Beech coming up. I have a 32 tonne crane truck, so can supply in BIG pieces. Its a halfway up the country though, so delivery costs might be offputting

Will, feel free to call if you need any help with this - We have a significant amount of experience of working on SSSI sites, (check out my skyline extraction thread) We are even starting to write specifications for this kind of work for Natural England. And we use our size machine for doing this with no problems.

I spent ages trying to get my 530 to feed properly. Maybe you guys who think they are great are'nt feeding proper sized pieces in Mind you, the guys reckoned my jensen chipped much better han any other they had used. I'm just to used to using proper sized machines.

I have a hitachi EX135ur. 14.2 tonnes gross, with total zero tailswing. Later hitachis are close tail not zero. On the lift thing, I have found mine to be no more tippy than a conventional machine, different machines seem to behave differently - a Brand new PC130 komatsu we had was dreadfully tippy, whereas a JS130 JCB was great. I think if your doing serious scrub work, the machine I have is a small as I would want to go. Many times me and Matt have wished we had a full size 220 for site clearance, but I can move my Hitachi with my 8 wheeler, whereas a 20 tonner always requires a low loader. I also have a full size dozer blade on mine, that comes in very usefull. Will, If you have a picture or better discription of the work, I can soon tell you what will work. I can also come down and do a few days for you with our machine if you want, If it fits, then you know what to buy.

Chipmaster 220 is junk. Not sure about the 252, but the GM1928 is most excellent, much much better than the comparable jensen. As an ex jensen owner, I can only say that I found them to be pretty useless on the infeed side (Junk feed systems), but the build and finish is very good.

You do if your using a crane Dean.

John - If you ever need help with similar, I have an 8 wheeler with big radio control crane.

As a thread it also shows off your considerable skill Dean. I think if anybody had any doubts about getting you to do any work, this thread shows how anal you are about doing an absolutely spot on job.

I have a real soft spot for those Classic range rovers, I had a vouge and a 3.9 vogue SE, and they were truly superb. Whoever built those 2 abortions shoud be shot for cruelty.

There is plenty of market for chip right now. I will buy every scrap you can produce, and collect it from you in artics. Bear in mind the BC2000 is at the large end of the Arb type chippers, rather than being a small biomass chipper. Ideal for sitework, but it will need a 200+ hp engine to cope. You will need at least 10 sets of knives, and turn them every 6 hours. The drum on the vermeers was never the best quality, nor the bearings. Keep the knives razor sharp to avoid strain. PM me with details if you want any further help. I can also give you some work aswell.

Nobagob

They have. Its called Arbtalk.

New or used?

Never! Cranes are a totally different ballgame to mewp. I've done jobs with a crane in 4 hours that would take you a week without. You would never see that kind of efficiency made up with a MEWP.

According to best practice guidelines, we still should use them EVERY time, unless its impossible due to access constraints. My take is keep encouraging everyone to use them as much as possible. That means I can charge a premium for doing the trees unreachable by MEWP

What machine are you talking about? Looking at buying one or already have one? The one in my avatar is a 22" capacity machine, I used to charge it out at £90 an hour, would fill that chip liner in an hour.