Kev Stephenson

Arrived yesterday, thanks for donating. All hung out and being sampled already.

Can you easily afford say £300 a month to pay the finance even if you have a couple of slack months? I certainly noticed an increase in productivity with a modern age chipper, (I came from an entec), as well as a massive reduction in running costs and down time due to no breakdowns. One day lost due to a broken down chipper pays that months finance.

Damn right I will keep looking at other suppliers. The quadchip was the right price at the right time and had a turn table, I'm not saying its the best 750kg machine out there but it fit my requirements at the time. Since buying my quadchip timberwolf have released the 230, Forst seem to be rising in the market and in another 12 months when I change machines who knows what could be out there. There is nothing worse than blinkered people who will never look at anything else and swear blind their brand is better than everything else when they haven't run anything else to compare it to.

I did a full week job before Christmas and asked for 40% after 2 days in cash or as a bank transfer. Customer was more than happy, bank transferred before we left on day 2 and brought me a print out as proof. Payed the balance on day 5 in the same way. I wouldn't ask for money up front though unless I was supplying materials or hiring in non standard kit (cherry picker, etc)

greenmech quadchip here and haven't had any real issues over the last 2 years (machine was ex demo so is a bit older than that). I will certainly look at the new timberwolf sub 750kg machine and the forst when I update mine.

I have just spoken to Justin at FR Jones and he has asked me to post here to let people know he is having issues with his computers and phones due to a power cut earlier. He apologises to anyone who has been trying to get I touch one way or another and will post on this thread when the issues are resolved. Keep trying though, I got through as the phone issue is currently intermittent. Happy new year to one and all Kevin

Basically if you were not doing the job you do would you have still bought it? If you would have bought it anyway then it is probably not deductible without an argument or percentage claim. E.g. Double cab pick up. If you were not doing tree work would you have a car instead? Do you go anywhere for yourself in a works vehicle? If so you should declare a % claim. I have just got another van for a new team and discussed with my accountant letting one of the lads take it home. I was told the official line is no problem and the driver could collect anything for work on his way to or from work provided it is a direct route (e.g. Calling for a paper at the newsagent he would pass anyway). However he could not collect his kids from the childminders in the next village in it without being subject to company car tax. Do you use it 100% for work or some for work and some for personal use? E.g trailer, clothing, computer My accountant charges me less than a days work for the team. I file all receipts and invoices by date in lever arch files and give an estimation for personal/business mileage for all vehicles and then get my books back and tax return to sign. Easy. I cut trees, I don't do accountancy. The bank also like it that I have bound official accounts professionally done.

At 6 years old the harness has cost you one pound a week, buy a new one. I seem to remember I was told it was down to the life of the fibre used to make the webbing and other parts of the harness having a life of 10 years before possible degradation. The assumption is the first 5 of these are written off in the time at the webbing factory making and storing the webbing, the time at the harness company waiting for the webbing to be used, the time it sits on a shelf at the manufacturers then the time on the shelf at the arb shop. This gives 5 years (playing very safe) of use before the 10 year fibre life is met. Again this is probably open to interpretation but if you had a fall due to a failed harness would your insurance company pay out easily or argue that you should have replaced such a critical item of PPE before 6 years? You could say your tree motion was one of the first so how could it have taken 5 years to first use. You could also argue that treemagineers ordered a mile of webbing using some for development over say 3 years then went into manufacture using the remainder of that webbing which they had owned for 3 years. Your choice but for 2-3 days pay as a subbie you have a new one that won't need a LOLER reinspection due to modification or repair

At 6 years old is it not time for a new harness? I am led to believe that LOLER states replacement after 5 unless exceptional circumstances.

For the sake of £17 buy a boxed first aid kit that meets the British standard recommendation for kit on site for 1-10 men. Keep what ever you want in the truck to supplement this but you are meeting a known standard that surely can't be argued with.

what the hell is that you were drinking? Makes the badger spit look appetising! I'm guessing there are not too many problems with constipation this morning.

snotty horrible beast but plenty of firewood

1. Sugihara don't do bars for the T540XP (or didn't a month or so ago) 2. Why so long?

Various arbs of varying ability getting together to have a play in trees with their own kit and the opportunity to try out other peoples kit in a private woodland without the pressure of work getting in the way. There is also usually a zip wire set up and loads of general banter. Location, about 3 miles of M6 Jn 36 Time, when its warmer

Look out for the rec climb events that come up during the summer. You climbing in the working environment without the relevant quals could open a can of worms should there be an incident plus most people will be working their nuts off to earn. The rec climb events are all nice and laid back with plenty of people around to pass time and knowledge in a nice relaxed environment. I will be holding one in spring in the lakes with BBQ, camping, beer, fishing, boats, etc to play with as well.

My payment terms are 7 days, after 14 I send an email or text stating that in 7 days in invoice of +25% will be sent unless cleared funds are received. It's always the commercials that have an issue, I am waiting for a letting agent who called me in to do work on behalf of a client, they are now saying they want to pay when they have drawn enough rent from the property to cover the work (2 months). I have told them it's not good enough and I have contacted their client to say the late payment charge is the responsibility of the letting agent and they should not accept it passed on. Commercial pays better but takes longer and it is generally cash flow that kills small businesses

When I was on the chemical works we used to send new lads to the power plant for a bucket of steam in a steel bucket with a lid on. The lads in the power house were used to this and would put an inch of hot water in the bottom and tell the lad not to take the lid off until they got back. Take of the lid and see the inch of water and send them back telling them to run next time. Others include a packet of grinder sparks, new flame for the welder, a plumbers weight, or to the shop for a bag of clitoris mints

It's all in the interpretation, if you supply the person responsible with issuing the contracts a sizable 'gift' will this sway who he issues the contracts to? Could it lead him to give you a call to say price at £x and the jobs yours? Could it be seen as 'this is your share of this years, keep it coming for more of the same next year? Is it bribery? My wife works for a big company and they have to declare everything to the MD including who paid for a meal if they go out for a dinner meeting.

I'd got to near enough £3k toting it up in my head before I got to the last 30m run. I would have said you have the best part of £2k in materials and a good 4 days for a couple of people plus nails, other consumables and disposal fees.

It's more a case of don't bung the head of contracts at the housing association £100 taped to a bottle of 40 year old single malt to bring your tender to the top of the pile or leave the other applicants paperwork on his desk while he goes for a coffee. If you want to give the old dear around the corner a big bunch of flowers and a bottle of expensive wine because she has passed your name around the local WI meeting and it got you a nice contract then all will be OK. It is also more on the person receiving the gift to declare it to the tax man if it could be seen as more a perk of the job than a true gift.

New dealer time. I don't use my local dealer as his stock levels for parts (bars/chains/etc) and machine repair times are shocking, I probably haven't been in there for 18 months. I use a dealer 200 miles away for 90+% of my stuff and use rapid hire which is less than a mile from me for tiny spares (clutch springs, AV springs, plugs, etc). With postage so cheap and diesel so expensive I can send a saw 200 miles next day delivery cheaper than I can hand deliver it 10 miles.

Mine got carb, coil, pot, piston, flywheel I think but I don't think all that was part of the upgrade as such, some people say the carb is a different issue. If you have a switched on dealer talk to them. I spoke to Stihl at the AA show who said to send it back and get the dealer to call Stihl technical so I did and a week later the saw came back to me fixed. I have got one of the first 201T's and had a new carb on it 2 years ago which didn't make much difference. This new rebuild/refresh makes a massive difference.

Speak to your dealer, there is an upgrade which can be carried out under warranty. I had mine done and it transformed the saw.

We see this quite a bit. New development of say 100 houses and the developer as part of his planning condition has to make good the 'spare' land (footpaths, stream edges, open green space, i.e. that not in gardens) and get the land to a standard the council are happy with before it is signed off and adopted by the council. Developer sells all the houses while working very slowly if at all on the spare land then goes bust before the land gets adopted. The council hasn't yet adopted it, the developer is no more and the land has no value hence the receivers can't sell it as part of the bankruptcy process. The bankruptcy is signed off and the land has no owner. In these cases fulfilling your legal requirement of the owners permission is all but impossible. Either confirm with the council that you have done all you possibly can to find the owner (post notices, land registry search, council checks, etc) and the council agrees that you can carry out the work (get this is writing) without the owners permission or walk away from the job. Someone will do it without permission and full checks I am sure.

I use Stobarts. It costs what they pay me to load it so I don't make a penny from it but then to me it's a waste stream that just clogs up the yard.