John Shutler

out with the tree shear on my jcb today. the tilt rotater really transforms the shear as you can double or triple cut if needed. I went through today and took the tops out and il go back for a couple of hours with one of my guys to cut the thicker timber with a saw and stack on the chip piles 

i don’t answer my phone at the best of times.

my voicemail says to send me a text instead of leaving a message so if people can’t manage to do that i don’t generally call them back 

personally i think grain trailers tow better than silage trailers. silage trailers tend to be taller but shorter length whereas grain trailers are longer but shorter in the sides. 

both those trailers carry about 20 cubic metres but the blue trailer tows much nicer 

(actually the blue trailer carry’s 22m)

just picked up a cherry products smart box, great to be able to carry tools, spare pipes and blades and other bits for the heizohack.

easy to drop off if access is a bit tight 

11 minutes ago, Conor Wright said:

Reads like a dream setup that.

add my n174 and heizohack to fill the grain trailer and it’s getting there 👍

I bought the GMT 035 TTC for the roto, that’s in the back of the grain trailer behind the mog. 

very pleased with the new low loader, i’d always said my next trailer would have hydraulic ramps, it’s the small things in life 🤣

34 minutes ago, monkeybusiness said:

Sod the bobcat - is that your roto John?!

yeah that’s my roto

1 hour ago, swinny said:

Decision done. Picking this up next weekend. Smaller 1.8t.machine suits my workload better.

 

I've got a tractor loader and botex 560 after all so it only needs to get things so far, but I need a machine that can get anywhere. A 2.5t machine wasn't that.

 

Just need to sort a grab and possibly rotator now and some other bits and bobs..... Never heart of a Martin manual hitch before but nothing off my old Volvo will change over as different pin spacings and maybe diameter of pins! 

 

one online source said hydraulic flow was 48lpm which I didnt think was shabby! 

 

when i bought my bobcat e19 i was also looking at the volvo ec18. i think the 1.8-2tonne machines are a great little size, easy to move around, can still pack a punch in what they get done in a day and easy to sneak into jobs especially if they’ve got a variable width track base 

8 minutes ago, harvey b davison said:

Can I just ask, why does it appear that no one operates or even rate jcb. I only use 1.5t diggers now and then, so haven't got that much experience, it just seems odd that there is little mention of jcb. Cheers.

Ive got a JCB 65R on 600 wide tracks with an engcon tilt rotator

absolute cracker of a machine

not so much a job but our new (to us) roto and grapple saw turned up this week so spent a bit of time going through the functions 

4 minutes ago, swinny said:

Very nice John seems a lot of folk going for higher hp n series over the bigger t

personally i think the tseries have got to big unless you need high HP for a mulcher or big heizohack 

200hp will run my heizo nicely and i can still sneak it into places you won’t get a tseries 

9 minutes ago, woody paul said:

It's a little bit to black. Will be a sod to keep clean. 

it’s ok i can live that 

new tractor turned up yesterday

N174 with botex 570 crane 

8 minutes ago, Dan Maynard said:

2 hours ago, John Shutler said:

13 years later 

Have you still got it?

never bought it 

2 minutes ago, Khriss said:

Depends if 'you feel lucky'   😉 k

13 years later 

the problem is you want his work to much and because of that he has you right where he wants you. 

you should have told him the price was the price and if he wants any different then you can work back from the price, but certain aspects of it won’t be done.

the mewp is your issue, you drove it in there and it got stuck. I don’t know the situation but generally you know your getting in a shot situation before you get to the point that it requires £650 worth of recovery 

accept the loss, forget about how wealthy he is and chalk it upto experience 

Just now, Mick Dempsey said:

Comes from bitter experience John!

I think we've all been there at one point or another

I lost 2.5K when I first went out on my own 13 years ago, on a chipper that didn't exist. You don't make that mistake twice

8 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Update:

 

I drove eight hours across France to view/buy this machine.

I  get there and first impressions are it’s a little shabbier than I thought it would be, few dents, rust patches but only a small red flag.

 

Then I look the engine over and noticed the the oil filter has the hours on which it was changed written on in marker pen 100 hours ago (compared to the hour clock) so clearly the service claimed by the salesman didn’t actually happen.

Another small red flag.

 

We open it up and the blades are a bit fooked, the other side is ok but it’s clear that no one has done more than throw a bucket of soapy water on it after the trade in.

 

There’s now 4 of them on the case two salesmen and two tractor technicians assuring me that it’ll be ok, you can turn the blades, it’s a solid machine etc.(There’s a bankers chèque for 30k in my briefcase)

 

I ask to see the anvils, we get to them and they’re surprising ok, I reach into the space between the rollers and the anvils and pick out a stone the size of a big Malteser and some concrete that’s just sitting there.

 

I tell them I’m off and there’s no way I want this machine, no matter the discount.

 

I explained to the salesman (much to the amusement of the technician) that I was happy to pay top dollar for a good machine, but this was a long way from being that.

 

Anyway at least I didn’t do what Mick 2010 would have done and bought it as I’d gone so far..

 

 

Fair play for checking all those things mick. there’s a lot who wouldn’t, then would complain down the line 

5 minutes ago, Dan Maynard said:

Surely you'd be even deeper in do-do if you get the amount wrong by a factor of two though? Like I did on Saturday, multi stem willow to clear up fallen stems and repollard remaining. Thought a morning work, took all day so have to go back for the other tree.

I have also just priced a leylandii removal so maybe this will be a future post on this thread.....

id say your unlikely to be so far out on material, maybe you don’t get a 6th load out in a day or you’ve got to go back for another half a load of chip you couldn’t fit in another trailer.

i’m not saying i’m infallible, but maybe i’ve just got a pricing method that works well for me or maybe i don’t try to screw down prices to win a job 

ive not a  serious cock up for a few years, certainly not in the last 10 years or so since I started buying more kit.

most of the time if you've cocked up its down to the amount of arisings, but if your chipping with a heizohack and running chip in a bulker trailer and moving timber with a timber trailer another load or two isn't the end of the world

generally when it comes to amount of chip il over estimate then be pleasantly surprised that we've only moved 100 cube off site

9 minutes ago, monkeybusiness said:

Does anybody in Bournemouth fancy approx 10 days work stripping a site under instruction from an ecologist?

There is quite a bit of gorse to fell and remove (can be done mechanically providing arisings are removed) and also a load of brush-cutting (two passes in phases, down to 100mm to allow ecology inspection followed by a final ground-level pass). 
Ideally I’m looking for a team/firm to take the whole job on - I’m after a day-rate price please.

Cheers, Dan (07970188050).

I've just sent you as text message about the job in bournemouth. I'm in the new forest so not far away.

Can the brush cutting be done in two passes of a excavator mounted flail head, or does it need to be brush cut?

I can shear al the gorse and chip with heizohack and remove from site

@Rob D I think il just keep popping in 😉

54 minutes ago, Khriss said:

Telehandler with log grab, def. K

As simple as that.... 🙄

To the OP, whilst telehandlers are good at being telehandlers they are to a certain extent a one trick pony. The merlo I have in my yard is invaluable, however its no good for driving an hour to winch a tree over, or for going to site to pick up lengths of processor size timber or for the multitude of tasks a tractor with roofmount or trailer mounted crane is far better suited. I ran my buisness for 12-13 years before I bought a telehandler yet I've been running tractors with cranes for the last 8 years and can say that they have brought far more change to my business than the multitude of diggers, skid steers, loaders and unimogs  I've also ran in that time

Im now looking to buy my 5th tractor and crane combo. you don't need to spend 100k straight off the bat when an older 8 series valmet with crane can be picked up in the 20-30k range

good luck