MattyF

Also gives you an mechanical advantage pre tensioning Mick , I’ve seen it lift some canny bits in the demo vids , have rigged wrenches up so you can pull people in to trees so can say it works well in trial.

On another note Americans do get a bit more hyped up on topping trees , but the oldest trees in England are usually pollards or lapsed pollards so I would not get too worked up, there are plenty of topped trees in Europe that have survived centuries!

Can you put any more photos up of where the primary limbs join the stem at around fence height ? It looks to me that the tree may have been pollarded to that height in previous years ..well say maybe 30 or so years back as the whole tree crown is coming from that area ... you say it dropped limbs ? This could be an indicator the tree is already infected with ash die back so it’s a catch ... on one hand if it wasn’t re pollarded or heavily pruned it would of continued to drop limbs on the other any new growth from epicormic water shoots will be more susceptible to infection as the barks thinner.... personally I would take it down to a metre or so above the old pollard points on the fence so it’s easy to mange and can be kept on a manageable rotation , say every 5+ years as that looks like to me how it was originally managed and hope for the best, what’s left now is an embarrassment an insult to nature and the tree.... but if it’s not infected with ash die back it will grow back!

Shame they can’t still develop a decent 3.5 t 4x4 transit

I had a g66 or what ever it is as I fancied a Christmas holiday project , you can do a self build so replaced the crank seals /bearings and a few other bits for genuine but the saw was incontinent and leaked fuel every where , the fuel lines ,caps where junk so was most of the quality of the other bits ...wasn’t a bad saw in timber mind but I would not want it in the front line.

Couple of brades 7lb axes I found ... put one in brick acid to get the deep pitted rust off and it came out a bit bright though.

How much for the D ??

Fair enough, I’ve been cutting racks of soft wood and a rack a head by lunch , swapped saws and the other guy took the 560 and was nearly caught up by home time... that’s why I like them , it keeps you alert I find and more productive, you have to move with the speed of the saw... now in hard woods it is slightly more different and the control of the 400 is noticeable as you say with chain skip and it has plenty of torque but again chain speed is not a bad thing depending on the operator.

Hmm I’ve cut quite a bit with 50’s and 60’s and it’s never bothered me , as forestry production saws I don’t think they can be faulted, never really liked the 361’s or 34’s but did miss the 262xp but not the 266xp .. any way I guess it’s a personnel thing .. I miss that scream on the 400 to the point I thought an exhaust mod might let me like it a bit more but on opening it up there was nothing in the exhaust to mod ! Glad I gave you some happy memories Steve! I don’t think you where that happy to get a 372 in bits that I’d tried to rebuild [emoji23]

Had one for a while as my woods saw, it is good in hardwood haven’t really worked in any soft wood plantations to give a verdict this year ,but plenty of torque more than the 560xp , Bill Pearce had a brief go and thought it like a ms440 in terms of power ... it feels more like a traditional stihl though like the 440 more so than the 462 which feels like it could of been a husky. With the magnesium piston I was expecting quicker pick up or I guess more of a husky type raspy Rev. It picks up very nice but doesn’t seem to really scream like a 560xp. Vibrations seem very good though.

Never liked the 372 , mine always Constantly broke, it did have better vibes than the stihls of the period though but and the 365 was a bargain for what it was, not as highly strung ... can’t fault the 400 though but the jury is still out.

1 .... who goes on a cruise!

1 .... who goes on a cruise!

Wrong thread !

Another for the courant bags , Had mine 4 years and it’s not fallen to bits yet!

Have you mounted the winch on the loader mike ?

You do what you gotta do dude, if your cut for it you will be hobbling around still going with two fuct hips and arthritic hands when your 70 and loving it. I would say though I have been in the industry since I was 16, I grew up in it too and at 42 now have seen many arbs come and go , many people seem to have some sort of mid life crises and decide they have a calling to work with trees, be a climber and be out side and I don’t recal many if any of the later cutting it at all and on average lasting around 5years before having enough and walking away regretting the day they spent 1000’s on training and giving up there cushty jobs. If you can get level 3 certs,great but it really sums up the industry in my view , folks with virtually zero experience in jobs on trees, dealing with trees and watching them for years getting the jobs for the boys because they couldn’t or can’t cut hard work and weather and that’s all this job is , a relentless battle against things that have full on potential to kill you in stupid heats , freezing or soaking weather, machines that break down and dealing with absolute dick heads in the general public , apart from that it’s mint and I would never do any thing else [emoji38] You see you kind of get institutionalised and addicted in some sadomasochistic way to it, im convinced also there is some kind of chemical imbalance in good climbers who need a fix of adrenaline to even lead a normal life... they can’t go on holiday , they can’t spend time out side of trees with out the urge to get up work hard , get stuck in and go for it ,basically it some kind of ptsd .....like Charlie sheen said in apocalypse now about getting back in the jungle and all you can think about when your there is coming home.. well any way , best of luck[emoji1303][emoji1303]

35 is way to late if you want to make a production/freelance climber .. by the time you have got any skill set worth paying you will be 40 and every sporting injury will come out or worse arthritis .. at this point you may have enough skill set to cope with most trees you still won’t have 10+ years that it takes in my view to even grasp the characteristics of different timber and it’s conditions, seriously I would give this a lot of thought as I’ve seen people come in at there mid 30’s and 40’s tired of office work and doing out door work has finished them , unless they have vast funds of family fortunes to squander.

I never had a pair fall apart just wore the leather away on the ones that where over two years old so no point getting them resoled ... would of been in them 6 days a week for work and worn for general walking /beating etc on a Sunday at that point so they would of taken a bashing !

Are not my findings with it ... even in beech cord or rings.

Fine , climbed in them for a good few years going through 3 pairs get about 2 years to a year and half out of them and they could be resoled easily .. before moving on to other boots like newer pfanners or Andrews found they are a good spike/felling boot... maybe not for you if your doing a lot of tip work and dead wooding though.

They do a short and long handled version , it’s not an Oregon design but rebadged.. It is though with out a doubt the best for handling timber I’ve used as it’s light and not harsh on your wrists so you can be accurate and fast and neither does it come out easily , unless you twist it and want it too unlike most the other makes out there that fall out with any weight on them ... I’ve moved big logs for the processor or big rings all day on many occasions and it would be my go too , in fact if you had to test four or five models any one who has had a play would choose it, even if they have dismissed log picks in the past I’m that confident In it.

Best I’ve found Oregon Log Lifting Pick 28″ WWW.RADMORETUCKER.CO.UK Could not get on with The ochenkopf or stihl ones.

I would give FMS an email and ask what they would run as they have enough of them in and out of there workshop to have an idea what would suit best . I know someone who had a conversion and head done but had no end of problems with the base machine he had picked up himself overheating!

Bit of a let down to have the same power as the 880 still though! They have been doing a good job on there other saws.