benedmonds

I know this is often discussed, but there have been lots of new little chippers out in the last few years.. I am considering a 750Kg machine. I have not used one for over 15 years and we have bigger chippers.. It is to be a back up, or for smaller jobs or for guys who have yet to do their towing licence. The TW 230 had a lot of positive feedback, was it hype? are they holding up? Are they much better than an old 150? Geenmech 130? Forst ST6 Advice and recommendations.. It won't be out every day so don't really want to spend big bucks but if the newer machines are if a different league then it might be worth it. We have 3 timberwolfs and so they are probably top of my list.

5 years on from the picture above, my eldest basically looks for trees to jump off.. Normally into water, but now he just runs at them... 20170924_162012Trim.mp4

These were my trainees a few years back... 4 6 & 8 at the time..

The average person in the UK earns £27,200 a year Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4412440/Average-salary-145-UK-jobs-revealed.html#ixzz4tj6V51Xo

And the chippy is on 60K....! about the same as a GP. I bet they regret all those years at medical school..

Groundies also needed..

Still looking

Free lance work for groundies, climbers, and consultancy available.. Fair rates of pay. Could lead to full time position...

You don't need to know how to climb to do tree work from a MEWP. There are plenty of MEWP users who will have never or rarely climbed.

That may be true, but you can put an experienced climber in a Mewp and they will pick it up pretty quick and could do most, if not all work as safely if not as quickly as the experienced MEWP operator. But an experienced MEWP operator with little climbing is not going to jump up the massive tree with no MEWP access.. My point is that sometimes only a climber will do and climbers need to learn the trade climbing, one of the best ways to get a hang of climbing is day in day out reducing street trees, WAH would say that these can be done with a MEWP so should be. Without experience on the easy (often MEWP accessible) works climbers can't move on to the big horrible (inaccessible) take-downs..

Another issue with using MEWPs all the time is that you don't get the experience climbing.. I see this as a big disadvantage for those jobs when you can't get a MEWP in.. When I was in NZ (this was 15 years ago) most of the climbers were Brits and the local guys were all in the MEWPs, they never got good enough climbing..

What is that as a percentage of your jobs.. As a one team outfit doing the sort of domestic arb in the UK we do I can't see it being viable. A bigger outfit like beechwood has more jobs where it is going to be suitable and therefore it makes more sense. We have 2-3 teams and I don't feel the need to buy one. We used them all the time in NZ, but that was mostly council work and lots of space.. Here we hire when I think it will speed a job up, make it safer or is required. High hedges and Ivy clad buildings mostly.. Firms doing street trees might find them usefull and it was commented when we were doing street trees that there was no good reason (financial viability not being a good reason) for not using one, so using the WAH hierarchy of risk we perhaps should have been... My view is it is safe enough climbing if not safer, but that is not what WAH says... So if it were to go pear shaped for a climber doing a tree that could be done with a MEWP could you get it in the neck?

I have a job to take out a MASSIVE poplar. 40 + m tall, wide and horrible, tiny garden loads of targets.. To be honest it is the only tree I have ever walked away from, 5 years ago I "pollarded" it's slightly smaller neighbour, it took 4 or 5 men 5 days if I recall and I think I lost money on it.... I had given the neighbour a price to do theirs, but after experiencing the smaller neighbour I realised I was going to be paying to do a horrible job and told them I could not do it at the rate I had quoted.. Well my nemesis has returned to haunt me.. How big a crane would I need... How do I get a road closure? 36m to the road.. Over the house..

Not my area of expertise.. It gets broken and takes my business partner several hours to fix.. I think it would be fine if you nursed it, but the guys tend to be a bit on the rough side and knock things out of line..

We currently have a Kilwort saw bench we use for processing arb waste. We split into billets then saw to size. When it works, it is fine but the guys have a habit of breaking it... Can anyone recommend a more robust machine..? While searching the forum I found a film of it in action, I posted but had forgot about it, so have re-posted.. ..

Yes, but I think they changed from percentages in 2010

BS 3998 has only been about since 2010..

I need an individual/team to undertake 8-10 chainsaw carvings in the East Midlands. Drop me an email to discuss.. [email protected]

Heavy going is an understatement... Volume 2 is the most boring book I have ever tried to read... As others have said heave is very rare. As I understand it, It will only occur where a house is built on a dry soil with persistent soil moisture deficit. So the tree has to have been there before the house and the house built onto the dried soil. The soil obviously needs to have a high plasticity index. I think that the taking it down slowly over the years has been shown to be a waste of time (for the client) as if there is going to be swelling it will just happen over a longer time. Also Having not suffered from seasonal subsidence is unlikely to have any bearing on the likelihood of heave. I recently spent a considerable amount of time trying to convince a client that his 5m prunus was not going to cause subsidence to his property. We reduced it and he is still concerned.. He now wants us back to remove it and I have spent even longer explaining why heave is equally unlikely... I hate it when a client starts a sentence "I read on the internet"

It is very local to us and I have been, but not for a few years, it was a public rather than trade event. Something to do with the family.

I tend not to bother selling the staff, just wear them out and throw them away..

It will however: Break down, leaving you unable to work, possibly while still having to pay the guys who turned up and didn't moan about the job Depreciate and be expensive while employees should get better over the years It can't rake up or cut hedges or split logs or do a multitude of other jobs needed throughout the year get stolen or set on fire, leaving you buggered.. Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of bigger chippers (we have three 10 inch and a 7 inch for spare). But for most domestic work the brash is handballed at some stage so as long as your chipper can keep up with the brash draggers there is little benefit of a crane fed machine.. Land clearance, motorway stuff mechanical feed is going to win every time but most jobs an extra man is more versatile especially when it comes to raking.. Over the years I have tried lots of different methods, At one park we have removed 30 + big poplars in 3 different occasions. The first 10 we knocked them all over then brought in a whole tree chipper, big 360 with splitter and forwarder, which then "cleared up." It worked well, but we closed of a large area of park, the machines made a BIG mess and we had a lot of raking and ground reinstatement. The second 10 we used our 10 inch chippers had a small 360 to help with handling and logs taken away. Less mess/damage, less machine costs, I think better outcome. Wage bill was obviously higher but then staff are an asset The third 10 were a bit smaller and more spread out and needed a bit more climbing so, we did them in a more piece meal fashion , 1 or 2 a day, clear up after each. I am not sure I have a point, each method worked, I should probably should have worked out which was the most profitable..

No problem. 01332 875 869

I am away until the 27th but might be able to help. Ben

I can't say I am a fan, I have tried for a while, but I don't like change.... I liked the old unread posts page, I check arbtalk daily but like to see everything on one page and decide if I wanted to read it or not. I now have to scroll down as you can only get 5 threads on the screen at a time.. Can we just have an unread posts with the title?