MattyF

A Versatile set up would be a rope and a couple of karabiners and Prussiks and a side strop.. you could climb any tree with that. I solely pretty much climb SRT these days, there is a barely any one in this country teaching it so it would be difficult getting instruction and training for it.. treekit do have training days so keep an eye on there website. Personally if I took on a newbie apprentice who showed great prospects as a tree climber I would move them straight on to SRT skipping double rope . A good double rope set up though would be your hitch hiker with a VT and pulley saver... the hitch hiker is a useful bit of kit and I use it in my SRT set up.. but the pulley saver would be useless SRT ..basically there is loads of different techniques and as you said every one will be different in to what they use.

I think from my experiences of running large processors it’s all about the belts ,Power is good but if you can’t put it down , looking at the designs of ours there are usually three drive belts in tandom for the circular saw, they all need to be spot on and tight and the saw is very quick those logs would be 0.5 seconds. Looks an awesome project , wish I had those fabrication skills.

Send to spud , bin the auto tune and get it ported.. best thing I did with my 576 after it did similar to yours then dropped the crank...they do have a few problems and I think the reason auto tune has a bad rep is because of the gen one on the 576.

Did a load of beech on the bandsaw and started on this wind blow dead oak bounty and what a beauty got 7 slabs off should get another 4 in the morning.

Found it an interesting one , easy to mill and very light when dry... gonna make sliding doors out of these ...it didn’t like sitting out though after milling and I quite regret leaving it for a few months before bringing it in but test sanded a bit and it came up alright.

They where advertising for sprayers too.

Tell him to give my old man a ring some time of you see him soon ,would be nice to catch up with him.

Do you see Paul now still? Character isn’t he.... would not of been that one it lasted a few years mid 90”s before seizing If I can remember.

All this talk of 550’s 261’s ..... they are saws designed for snedding out spruce etc with high chain speed not cutting fire wood ,they are too highly strung for been buried bar deep with a blunt chain in timber for hours in end and I would not give an auto tune saw to a none pro saw to cut wood .. only sensible saw suggestion seen so far is the husky 365 pretty much designed for the task at hand ,a pro saw with plenty of torque which is what you need not high chain speed.. they will go on forever nice and simple with no auto tune and not as highly strung as a372 also a cheaper to buy....hurry up though before they all go off the shelves.

What are your thoughts so far on them over the stihls gaz

Pfanner arborist are the lightest I’ve tried , did have some stihl x fits but even the A’s I though where a bit warm in summer in comparison to the phanner arborist.

Not a personal dig but why mutilate a tree In to a rounded over lollipop... it would to me ruin the location taking any dignity from the tree and look an eye sore whilst contributing nothing to the tree but an on going management program for fast regrowth that the tree has put on to compensate for what it’s lost and cavities from large wounds.

I would just keep an eye on them , can’t really assess trees by photos unless it’s glaringly obvious , the one on the left looks like it’s had a bit of crown die back , maybe from root damage from building ?? but nothing alarming , I would definitely be considering replanting it’s replacement this season, birch are relatively short lived in comparison to other species, they grow fast and die Young, considered as a pioneer species they will take over an area of bare land then die off leaving way for other species like oak or pines.. if grown as single trees they don’t seem to do too bad though and last quite well as opposed to many that have grown and gone for the light in scrub.

Reducing them that much would be an absolute last resort .... birch don’t have a good wound response and don’t compartmentalise wounds well and the one on the left where it’s been marked is well over any guidelines for pruning and would leave huge wounds... if you had to reduce them 15% of the foliage max would be my thoughts. I’m curios though as to what fishing is at the location ?

Don’t think I’ll get out from them , they just wanted to shut me up pete! Bill I am sure I have the SRT foot loops some where for them and will try and dig them out for you ,glad they are working for you... I think if your used to any hi topped saw boots they would work great , nice and light but I would personally not go back to high tops . I do have a pair of fell hunters I brought for forestry barely used for that reason.. if jo wants them and wants to do a swap if he has any of his old mill legs hanging about.

I always thought they where very susceptible to honey fungus and phytophthora .. over my career spread out I’ve done and quoted a few and it hasn’t been an over night thing.

I could be wrong here joe but the grey Andrews with the foot clip in foot ascender attachment possibly is still low cut at the rear.

Yeah I would say that’s it ,thin and flexible.... You just need to get those leather straps on your geckos though... I think they are not to bad if you get them up tight enough but mine would move about if not and come off the heel, would be interested to know what mark and rich are wearing spike wise on them.. I don’t think rich has ever had any bother with spikes on the Andrews though.

[emoji23] Red shoes no knickers is what they say mate .. those bright yellow rivets are pretty handy on the Pilates ,having spent the day in a dank dark larch plantation they kept reminding me not to put my saw bar in my feet.

Not enough in them on the soles , great chainsaw boot for general tree work almost like wearing scarpas but if I had a lot of straight upright spar work I could not wait to get them off... some days on spikes they didn’t bother me at all ,but I can think of many occasions I could not wait to kick them off... I think I bitched about that a lot going from pfanners to Andrews but over time got used to it.. and now I’ve gone back I noticed straight away how comfy the Pilates are on spikes.

To me mate as I’m pedantic like that ... I could not work out why they felt different as I’ve had three previous pairs and they gave me no bother at all from new, the last pair nearly crippled me after two days and I was back in my old ones just to walk!

Joe Andrews as spiking boots the Andrews are at the bottom for me ,I always looked for a reason not to wear spikes and the thought of spending a day on a pine spar with them on makes me wince ..they are great climbing boots don’t get me wrong probably the best I’ve worn until they slightly altered the design... I sold the last pair I brought after a week of using them ... just could not get on with them, I’m on my second week with the pfanner Pilates which at £180 quid and as soon as I put spikes on it made me remember what great spiking boots pfanner made , I could be in spikes all day and not know they are there, they also have the cut out tops , granted they feel a bit bulky in comparison to the Andrews but that soon goes. If you do get the Andrews the SRT loop needs lock tight on when you assemble it. Old Andrews , new Andrews and the Pilates to show you what I mean about the rear heal tops .. it’s a must for a climbing boot and what made the Andrews in the first place so good for climbing

Pfanner saw trousers have tick guards.

Changed my too sordins on the husky tech and have been fine since.