MattyF

Would of thought the hydraulic pto easily achievable by salvaging the gear off an old cherry picker meant for transits or landy’s.

No monster tree or owt but for memory value it is this one of me and my late father both climbing and getting set on some small dismantles is priceless.

Double bridges is the way forward , like you noted it’s pointless if one bridge fails.. I find SRT and two swivels or I have been mostly using one srt and one normal hitch climber system on a shorter rope for small trees although with working ddrt seems a ball ache with swivels as the rope will hockle ...not too bad if the ropes shorter as the twists are easy to get out but it won’t be compliant if both systems won’t get you to the ground.

I have seen a few issued this year mind ... after I stopped a few guys and asked wtf they thought they where doing I had a gleaning permit waved in my face [emoji38]

I think it’s a shame to admit but the killing of foxes with dogs was outlawed and the main reason it’s still in the public’s eye and raising so much content as is its one rule for us and they can get away with breaking the rules....that’s fair enough despite how much I think it’s the best way to control countryside foxes, I think a lot of hunts conduct them selves in a manor which wins them no support with the majority of the general public too that does not help them ..but I’m more annoyed that because of this blowing up again the possibility of all other “blood” sports will suffer, I’m massively in to game fishing and I’ve returned well over 50 salmon and sea trout last season .. kept one early salmon but I care about the future of the species so returned all the others that I caught like most of the thousands of other anglers out there in the U.K...so find it unfair its in the blood sport category, game angling is changing massively and it’s only a few idiots who are irresponsibly killing fish in my view.

I still think a strong fox will go back to “its” territory than go on miles away... will a hunt really carry on for 20 miles ? Thing is the leftist class war environmentalists do acknowledge the need for apex predators hence all the calls for lynx and wolfs to be reintroduced.. but that’s ok because it will only be killing the toffs sheep.

If you don’t own them then no you can’t touch them, you will be prosecuted for criminal damage , theft and what ever myriad of health and safety breaches they can catch you on ..I would also imagine you would need a gleaning permit for the removal of any fallen timber and can be prosecuted if caught .. if you own a wood you can cut 5 cubic meters per calendar quarter without a licence though.

I’m nearly a 100% for fox hunting , I like seeing foxes from a distance but I don’t like having my chickens killed and I’ve seen desperate foxes cut themselves to bits going through wire in order to feed themselves and young a fit healthy fox won’t go near humans as it’s more than capable of hunting instead of scavenging and will out run the hounds every day of the week so the apex predator survives he will also keep other foxes out of his area.. Problem with shooting them is you will have a 100 young pretenders going for the spot of the fox you just killed and they will decimate areas until the hierarchy of apex predator is restored to a natural balance.. ask any keeper who has killed a fox and has to spend the next week shooting hundreds more for the ones coming in to take the prime spot next to the pheasant pens.. you need an apex predator not a marks man to wield out the week and keep a healthy population, that’s my argument any way.... I don’t agree with the boarding up of fox dens or digging them out.

Didn’t Tony Blaire ban hunting with dogs ! What has got the antis backs up and done no other Feild sports favours is most hunts have carried on and openly killed foxes regardless .. the terrier boys have been illegal for years but still carried on. I’m in no way anti hunting with dogs and would completely turn a blind eye to any hunts in my area as I feel it’s the most effective way of controlling foxes and keeping there population healthy... but most of the hate for fox hunting in general is a class war thing and has nothing to do with animal welfare.

Personally from a production point of view I think it’s mentally ill to use old saws... as well as being worse on emissions that damage your health and the anti vibrations being less efficient which again damage your health especially so on a worn saw or ones with non factory cheap parts fitted they are in no way as productive... buy a new saw if you have a lot of felling and replace it after a year if it’s your livelihood and keep the other for spares that are readily available ! If your really tight then sell the old one as used saws seem to make stupid money !! but I’d rather have the spares to keep a saw going in an emergency.. if you can’t do this your not charging enough. On another note I’ve not had much of any auto tune saws go wrong apart from the usual wear and they are still easy enough to change cylinders and pistons on if they do go.

40k box is all your gonna get unless you find an old fast trac ... which I would not touch with a barge pole! Just need to keep your eyes open for any well looked after 40k tractor would be all I could advise.

2511 echo 550 husky 500i stihl

But it’s not two ropes it’s three if we follow your other guidelines of having a rescue line installed as well ... if I was continue working SRT with retrievable anchors which I feel is the safest way to work on a average large tree of say around 22 metres that would mean around 150 metres of rope is needed.... that’s a 150 m of rope to manage... Put that along side conditions, rigging , woodchippers and groundsmen with saws I think I’ve pretty much trebbled my chances of some one cutting my rope or it getting damaged by rigging , being ripped out the tree by getting caught on machines.. all of these concern me greater as they are risks I can not control as a climber and VERY REAL ones I have personally witnessed.

Can any one confirm that the guy originally from HSE who prompted this walked out after two months and his name please ?

Kesla are generally considered the rolls Royce of cranes with a price tag to match.. lot of good cranes out there though .. and good trailers but I would look at these “ guerra “ as they have hydraulic drive instead of those dodge cage drive wheels for the ultimate tractor set up .. some pics here December 2019 - WWW.FORESTMACHINESERVICES.COM

I’ve never heard of any one having issues with the 500i ! only issue Or niggle I have is the air filter needs cleaning twice or at least once a day... I know guys who use them on big outside Sitka and will kill a saw a year but have not had an issue with the 500i and he said it was the first saw he’s owned that hasn’t needed a rebuild in 12 months! Any ways 462 is a great saw , light, very responsive and handles nice in hand although the trigger and handle bother me as they feel like they may fall apart and some thing is not quite right there but 20” is what it feels best on to me and is a great saw. 572 is more of a 24”saw , definitely feels like it’s made to carry a 24” but is a heavier than the 462 and you can feel it in the handling.

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]