Jonny69

For this to work you would both have to have professional indemnity insurance that covers equipment inspection. I am not sure if it is possible to add to an existing policy, never looked in to it. It is probably a good idea if you have lots of equipment. If you are a small business it will almost certainly cheaper to get someone else to do it once every 6 months.

vduben, a maillon or a Petzl OK is the best bet. The petzl is an oval carabiner. Some rubber bands or similar would also be good stop the parts from moving about. You would probably not want to use an offest D carabiner in this setup, the cambium saver is effectively trying to pull the carabiner apart when wrapped round a larger stem. Jonathan

Alex, do you have any photos of the Spyderjack in use? Also what rope were you using it with (if it makes any difference)? Cheers Jonathan

What is the difference between a Type A and a Type B rope? Cheers

Generally they will not "Creep", like a prussik or Blakes may. VT's either hold (as it should be) or don't. If they dont then you will need to re-dress the knot. A problem I have with mine (cause I like them set up very free) is that they can be a bit hit and miss with gripping properly. Trouble is everyone time I set up one that is consistent it feels crap and does not self tend as well as I want it too.

I thought Collybia only affected Oaks. How old are the brackets? Do they have a small collar just below the base of the head? They could be oldish Pholiota brackets. They should have a textured upper surface. If they have a collar on the stem then they are probably Honey fungus. Also If there are, or have been brackets on the lawn then it is most likey Armillaria. BTW I think it is most likely Pholiota. mainly going by this comparison photo http://www.pbase.com/02purser/image/70117784

Myrtle? Urr I forgot the Latin. The only Myrtle I can remember atm is Chilean. Edit: Just googled it. Luma sp?

The HSE requires "competence". Proving competence in a court is the difficulty. An NPTC qualification is proof of competence to insurers, however you can get insured without NPTC or Lantra tickets (though I have never tried, or at least you could do ?????). If you have Public liabilty insurance, with or without tickets then 3rd parties are covered provided the insurers know all of the details. Whether you choose to follow NPTC/HSE guidelines is then up to you. "I believe experience far outways qualifications as i have come across many qualifed climbers that lack ability and rely on there qualifications and do bad tree work." There are also alot of people with years of experience and ladders who happen to be doing bad tree work.

I thought that if you had air spools fitted or the trailer had its own proper brakes, a 4.25ton trailer was allowed. If this is the case then a that extra capacity would be useful for carrying big wood. Btw Matt. I have had a Quote from Milemarker for fitting everything and this included the PTO pump (Which gives the fastest speeds and allows a varied pull speed). I am wondering how you would go about running a seperate set of valves so I could run a log splitter from the same Pto pump. Oh, I have a 90 CSW with the 2.4TD Duratorque and it is excellent. I can not reccommend it enough. Jonathan

If the tree is big enough to put high lift wedges in then there is no reason to use the split level cut. Split level is good for control of small leaning trees.

Best way to ascend with a VT or any other "Advanced hitch" is to foot lock (I know it is not body thrusting). Your feet tend the slack and take the weight. I footlock to move around a tree probably 80% of the time, even when it is slightly awkarwd. It saves your arms, hands a shoulders from taking a beating by by loading your legs and I find that makes means I can climb for longer. Jonathan

What are users thoughts on larger machines that are petrol. I have used a petrol TW/Entec Trukloader and it was an excellent little machine however.......... I am thinking about makes and models of 6 inch chipper and have seen and been offered petrol models (There always seems to be a petrol one lurking about). I do have constant access to Red diesel however if the performance of a petrol is better I would happily use one. Any thoughts on reliability and performance before I take the plunge. Thanks. Jonathan

This is for if you have a difficult branch that your access line is near or resting on. Begin a swing when you are on the ground and time it so you are swinging away from the branch when you make that lock. It saves alot of effort. I find it smoother to do a little jump off my feet and slide the rope up quickly with my hands to minimise the time my weight is in my hands. This takes a lot of the strain off the wrists and forearms.

When was the last time you took your chainsaw for its MOT? I believe it is the same situation for Bull bars fitted to cars. They are not allowed to fit them at the factory but aftermarket, even OEM products are fine provided the vehicles comply with EU regulations when they are initially built. The fact is that so few people (most saws are owned by homeowners) will ever bother to modify their saw that the extra emissions would be inconsequential anyway. Jonathan P.S opening the exhaust port on your saw may initially produce more power however reliability will probably be compromised. Small 2 stroke engines require Back pressure or exhaust resonance to function correctly. Matching the back pressure of the exhaust to the carb and fueling system fitted takes a lot of trial and error. Besides, if you dont dyno a modified engine then proving it is any better is difficult. A sharp chain will make 10x as much difference to cutting speed that an engine that produces 0.3 more horsepower. One other problem is heat, a modern saw usually runs very hot which is how they are supposed run. However increasing the horsepower almost always leads to an increase in heat. effectively cooling a modified non water cooled engine is difficult, especially if it has to fit into a small plastic box and airflow is not created by movement of the engine i.e a motorbike or Radio control plane. Read some RC car or Plane forums as they are always looking to produce more horsepower from a small two stroke and alot of the guys doing it are very experienced.

http://w01-0504.web.dircon.net/acatalog/mammut_srt_low_stretch_rope.html Hi, give this a try. I currently climb on the Beal Antipodes 10mm which Hitch And Hike sell however this is cheaper. Elongation is not as good as the more expensive ropes but if you are not a competition climber the slight amount of stretch should not bother you too much. Ths rope accepts all forms of mechanical device as most of them are designed for caving or climbing anyway. You can also use the spare rope from a 200m reel (you should have plenty) to do some light rigging or split it like I did. One slight issue is that the ropes come with a waxy coating to protect them from all the mud and water in caves. This will come off eventually, until that happens decent gloves make it easier to grip.