John Shutler

i think it’s hard to go back to not using comms when you’ve used them for a while. 

i think they are essential for some tasks, and i flatly refuse to do any of our roto stuff without them.

on my AAAC audits i’ve had a number of comments about how calm the sites are which IMO is down to the comms as there’s no shouting 

we’ve used sena for years but i’m not convinced they are the best solution as can be temperamental 

so did you shag her or not? 

@aspenarb bob, can you provide any more info on your blade sharpener? i think you said it was a modified cylinder mower sharpener? 

the visor works very well for the grcs.

i’ve had mine for 13 years and never had any issues with it moving with or without the visor 

pattern blades from HQ chipper parts are much cheaper, about half the price of heizo ones and just as good

Although any excavation within an RPA needs to be justified the reality is that the % of incursion will be so low that there won’t be a negative impact. that coupled with a bit of arb supervision during the works and you should be ok 

i’ve just taken on a SSSI site and am in dialogue with Natural England about what they want to see in terms of management moving forward. We also had to get permission from NE for the tree safety works around the perimeter adjacent to the highway, this involved the he submission of a method statement for approval which detailed how the works would be carried without causing harm to the SSSI. we were also given a period for when the works must be completed, in our case it was an 8 week window.

bit of a mixed bag of work recently.

Bit of mulching to finish off a little clearance job. a 30m dead scotspine which we took down with a 35m hoist and roto for the timber under 25m. sugar maple removal with the roto and a fair reach into a garden and a fiddly little oak reduction that we’ve done every 3 years since 2011ish

I generally tell people these days to do nothing till they can't stand the thing anymore then fell it.

11 hours ago, doobin said:

404, I didn’t think you could run it on 3/8? Or at least, the bar mount is different than my other stihl bars!

we changed the sprocket and nose sprocket on the bar of my 88 so that it runs 3/8s. the only reason we did it is that all my other saws run 3/8s and we buy chain by the reel. i’d never make enough .404 chains to warrant buying a reel of the stuff so it works quite well 

don’t stress about transport, having a can do attitude goes a long way. my first tree job i used to ride my bike to the station, get a train, then ride to the yard. don’t stress about having a car or moped, just work towards it. personally if you can manage without a moped then save up for a car and some lessons and you’ll be sorted. turning up on time and getting stuck in goes way further than having motorised transport at 16 imo 

23 minutes ago, josharb87 said:

Well I best be the odd one out  and say at least some of it looks like oak, first pic to the left, colors and how the fibers have split 

 

 

 

 

but as the others, I’d be extremely happy to be paid £300 for that! 

 i agree josh, there’s definitely some Oak in there. 

value is a funny old thing, to a bunch of tree men the value paid is over the top, to the homeowner who now has a driveway full of timber maybe it seems more reasonable irrespective of the time and cost to process it. 

the n174 is a great tractor. i’ve been running botex roof mounts for 10 years and wouldn’t look anywhere else but everyone has their own preferences 

yes feed the heizohack with the roof mount 

n174 with roof mount for picking up timber, small enough that it’ll sneak in to collect timber or put the heizo or 8.5 tonne winch on the back. does 57k

t234 is mostly used for pulling big trailers round or the roto which weighs 18 tonne plus the trailer and really needs the extra power

1 hour ago, Joe Newton said:

Go on then, enlighten us?

I must admit I'm not sure how it relates either 

I can't comment on either of those particular machines but when I upgraded my belt driven predator to a hydraulically driven one (cutting head) id honestly say I wouldn't go back to belt driven. 

3 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

 

succinctly put mick 🤣

(edit, no message included) 

17 hours ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Seriously though 41? Absolutely the perfect age, experience and physical ability.
 

its funny because I'm 41 now and after 20+ years climbing I think my experience and abilities can be utilised without being the one up the tree 🤣

That said I do look back on the days when I was a purely a climber and it was far simpler than my work now.

3 hours ago, monkeybusiness said:

That’s all mine do.

and mine

1 minute ago, richy_B said:

How do people transport larger (5-8t) arb diggers?  Can you use an agri tractor and plant trailer if you are mainly doing tree shear work / vegetation work? 

I move mine with one of my tractors and a low loader trailer. I live and work in the new forest though so might be a bit different round your way

10 hours ago, doobin said:

It’s the cost. They are silly expensive. 
 

I went down the route of purchasing mini loaders rather than tiltrotators for my diggers and I reckon that’s made me a lot more profit. If I only did excavations it might be a different story. 
 

tilty prices have gone mad in the last few years. At the end of 2019 I had a quote from engcon for an ec02 and top hitches to share between a 2.7t and 1.7t- see pic. Nearly 9k for the unit, two top hitches and three buckets. That would now cost you around £15k. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. 
 

after three years of waiting, I’ve finally picked one up second hand. £3k. Great you say. But adding three buckets and a two top hitches is another £4k, and then I’ve got to spend a bit more and a lot of sweat and workshop time converting any ‘standard’ buckets I want to use in the future, as everything needs to be s30 hitch, even if direct mounted to the top hitch. Should have just bought it in 2019! Easy to say that, but 9k in machinery in 2019 seemed a lot more expensive than it does now post covid and inflation. 
 

plus that price was for an ‘ss1’ control system, whatever that is. This secondhand tilty I’ve bought is a ‘dumb’ tilty just with four pipes- although it does have the ports through its slew ring for a grab plus it has a hydraulic hitch which is good. 
 

I can see why people just buy a new digger on finance with engcon fitted and a bucket set on the finance too! This had better be worth it. 
 

I specced both my e27 and e19 to be optimised for both a grab and rotator and possible future tiltrotator when I bought them. Twin auxiliaries with joystick rollers, extra counterweight each and a short dipper on the e19. If anyone is thinking about a new digger but not wanting to commit to a tiltrotator just yet, think about how you spec it would be my advice. At the very least start off with an s-type hitch and buckets. Wish i had! I share an oddball pin centre between all three diggers, if it has been s30 I’d have saved a few k in time and hassle now. 

 

 

you won't go far wrong with engcon (though all the brands are much of a muchness). The service from Engcon UK is fantastic. Ive had my latest engcon for 3 and a half years without a single problem, got to site today to find an error code and a non responsive engcon. Few phonecalls back and forth with ideas on how to get it sorted to keep me working and replacement parts sent out (pressure sensor and a new cable) today to be with me in the morning. you can't ask for more than that IMO. 

9 minutes ago, topchippyles said:

Price would be a massive factor i would have thought. 

it depends whether you can see beyond that.

I'm on my second machine with a tilt rotator and wouldn't go back

1 minute ago, monkeybusiness said:

There is also the consideration of what is being cut growing away from the machine - the weight itself might be ok but that weight might actually have a centre of gravity at a greater radius than the cut point. Depending on the head it may not fall to vertical, but instead massively increase leverage (and subsequent tippy-over-forces)…

I’m also surprised that we haven’t seen a big hiab grapplesaw through a house roof yet - once these units get old and second hand and more affordable I foresee carnage! 

Exactly that. The reason I bought the GMT was that I would have the ability to pick stuff apart and not swamp the guys on the ground. There's nothing worse IMO when massive bits (particularly when doing crane work) land on the ground and it takes ages to get them cleared. I'm all for slow and steady. 

I avoided the westtech because I believed that with the reduced manipulation at some point you'd be forced to take a larger section.....and then the inevitable happens

also why I generally avoid working for other contractors as they might have underpriced or not really understood the process so get urged to hurry up etc

3 hours ago, monkeybusiness said:

I remember a historically very prolific (and in fairness really interesting and creative) poster on here showing off his latest large excavator-based grapple saw creation. When I questioned what it’s swl was at full reach and how he could know what he was going to end up holding once cut he poo-pooed my thoughts as ridiculous, stating something along the lines of ‘There’s no tree in the world this machine can’t lift’… 

I’m guessing he either learned the error of his ways through a near miss or via a clued-up employer dismissing his RAMS as worthless as he apparently now preaches to all who will listen about load charts etc! 
There is a lot more to cutting and holding timber at radius than is often appreciated. 

It really does open up the wider debate about head types and base machines etc.

I know that if I'm within 12m out the side of my merlo 40-26  il be hard pushed to cut something big enough with the GMT 035 that would overload the machine. 13-14m away I need to be bit mindful of size (and a number of other factors) and at 15m I've got little to no capacity.

There are some very complacent/dangerous operators out there in a variety of different machines who either don't know better or just dont care

On 13/11/2023 at 07:45, slack ma girdle said:

This is the closest to a national recognised qualification. As far as i know, it still hasn't been ratified by Fisa.

Give us a tinkle if you want any advice

07966792798

its a grapple saw ticket but its not.

id love to know more of the finer details before committing to paying for the course.

in the 2-1/2 years I've owned my roto and grapple saw I've learnt more than could be passed on in a two day course. Unfortunately this seems like box ticking for box tickings sake but until there is a better solution then this sort of course will have to suffice.