benedmonds

Not sure a 6 inch chipper needs 130hp... I know nearly nothing about engines but you could skip all the emission legislation and jump straight to electric. Thinking about it electric probably could work well for chippers, up to speed very quickly and they often don't actually need to run for very long in the day. The weight of the batteries should not be a major issue (if you ignore the stupid sub 750kg market.) I am sure there is a marked for councils trying to be carbon neutral... But I agree we are probably more then a few years away..

Surely it would not take a rocket engineer to wire one of these up to a chipper. This is a ready to go system that hits 130 horsepower and a whopping 213 foot pounds of torque! A big battery pack and your good to go. Curtis 1238e-7621 HPEVS Dual AC-34 Brushless Motor Kit - 96 Volt, EV West - Electric Vehicle Parts, Components, EVSE Charging Stations, Electric Car Conversion Kits WWW.EVWEST.COM

Our little avant is not really up to powering a flail, anyone know, would one of these powered ones be better/work?

My guess is an electric chipper.. Do I win one if I am right?

I don't get your point. I think you will also find Rail track remove and actively prevent trees on their land growing large next to the tracks. Trees don't live forever, one day all these 1000s of big trees will need to be removed. In this case it is difficult, it will be difficult now and likely more difficult in the future.. The tree owner is responsible for the tree and have to ensure it is safe, long term the cheapest and surest is to remove it..

A report is not going to do anything but decrease their bank balance. It is a big tree next to a train line. It doesn't need work doing now.. but it will do one day. No survey can guarantee the tree is 100% safe. We all have some caveat in our surveys saying "trees are living creatures etc etc..." Yes they could keep putting the problem off, pay for annual surveys and hope the tree outlives them..

If it is a big chipper let us know asap as we need one..

I think I have a brand new never used one, still in a box. I exchanged mine after the recall but haven't climbed since.

No-one will buy the house, it has a massive tree that will cost £100,000s to remove... My original advice was do nothing (inspect), but the client wants to do something and the problem is not going to go away if they do nothing. The tree could outlive us all but someone will have to deal with it sometime...

Thanks for the ideas. I am not sure the crane removal option would work/be affordable. It would need to be a massive crane.. The tree is 45m from the road, it is probably 4 or 5m up a bank and about 25m tall. We would need a road closure. We would need to move residents from their homes. We would need ground stability testing, we had to cancel a crane job 5 mins away last year as railtrack got in a huff. I guess it could be done in the 45 min breaks between trains but I would probably need 2 days. Using a smaller crane just to lift the waste over the house might work although there is not a lot of space not covered by tree. I contemplated felling it into the gardens but it is weighted in such away that I think we would likely flatten half the house (although this still might be a cost effective way forward.) Doing without Railtrack permission is not something I would even contemplate. Potential fines would be astronomical....

After some inspiration... I have a client with a large beech 20m tall approx 5m from main railway line. Currently in good health, with no issues. Small garden with limited area to stack and narrow 1m wide access to get all the waste out... The client wants to reduce the tree.. First issue is that there is no point doing minor reduction as it is going to be a ball ache and so needs to last. But if we do 5m reduction, we are stressing the tree to a level that might create issues to a currently healthy tree... Then the practicalities.... Rail track need a track closure, if we are going to do any works which could fall within 3m of the track (so any works) Day time week day closure is about £100,000 a day. So not really an option. A full block could only be nights. Not sure on price yet.. Or Sundays would give 45 minutes on, half hour off and so on, at best, at least £1,800 a day. The Client has to pay the costs of Railtrack There is no point throwing men at it as the limited access is going to restrict the rate ot the works on the ground. I would want 2 days for the reduction in the day.. But with 45mins on 30 mins off that is going to push it to 3 days at least possibly 4. I have never tried reducing a tree at night? But don't think that is going to be quicker and pretty sure neighbours won't be happy with chipper running through the night. We could just remove the tree as long term it is an issue but that is going to take even longer... The cheapest option might be just felling it on the house and clearing it up.. Or stick head in sand and make sure they have decent insurance..

Not necessarily, in this case it is just as likely the client thought: "this chap doesn't know what he is doing, I will get a professional" (no offence intended Paul). While in many (most) instances price is the main factor it is not always. We often have clients who tell us we were not the cheapest quote, but we were; the most professional looking, trusted us, had been recommended by a friend, didn't like the other guy etc.. Also he could have priced too low.. If you get 3 quotes 2 are similar and one is way lower you are going to think something is wrong with the cheap one..

I can't think of anything worse than having to go to Disney..

I would rather a UK machine but there are not many about in the UK. There are loads of low hour used machines the size I want in the states and they seem good value.. It is perhaps more of a ballache then anticipated. Otherwise we would all be doing it..

Cheers Bob, what have you imported? was it pretty straight forward?