arboriculturist

What happened to your plan to buy a forklift Beau ? That's all you need if you invest in a reasonable excavator as you mentioned in another thread.

Just to keep this thread busy : There is certainly no chance of sourcing Ash in the SW, Oak and Beech is about it and Oak is of course a non-starter unless you can force dry. It think it will be more of a question of who you know in future, to source the material you require. I plan to work harder on gaining contacts starting now, as that is what will make all the difference going forward. There are too many out there scrabbling for the same material. everyone has a processor. Survival of the fittest it will be and who has the working capital to hold stock. The time when you could ring up and order a load and expect a delivery in a week or so are becoming scarce. Where once if you force dried you could pretty much live from hand to mouth, holding very little stock due to the fast turnaround, now its a gamble not holding roundwood stock as now when you need loads it is not readily available. Of course those like gdh and Ash do hold a load of stock and have invested heavily - its a lot of capital tied up but it works.

We are about to do this on an Iveco tipper, but were going for coil helper springs. Any feedback on using leaf or coil helper springs on this type of vehicle would be greatly appreciated.

In order to survive you need to be retailing top of the range consistent products that others fail to achieve, with a service to match. Farmers son's never seem to produce any great volumes ( gdh being an exception ! ). I have never tried to price match others, that being a flawed business model - seeing who can sell at the lowest prices. Having your prices advertised weeds out the time wasters, skinflints etc. with a string of questions, as they don't attempt to make contact. Raw material prices are rising and this must be reflected in our pricing structure !

It looks like to be able to stay in the Woodfuel business long term, you will need to running a very tight ship!

Talking about Processing - Have you seen Timber prices creeping up like here in SW England? Combined with recent vehicle / machinery fuel price increases, labour rates etc. - our margins are reducing dramatically and trying to keep prices static is becoming a real challenge. Hard times for the Harvesting Contractors also - the've been hit by many of the same increasing overheads as us combined with one of the worst harvesting Winters on record. I can see a lot less future posts on - 'What logs have you been chopping today' !

Is that your own harvested Beech or bought in? The diameters look good for processing.

Ah Ok - Spits on open fire and takes a lot of drying out - split it as soon as you can.

Horse Chestnut - Avoid like the plague !

Thanks Matt - What exact chain components are added to lengthen the chain?

I seem to recall on the Tiny Echo historic thread - Use a standard 10" Stihl Bar, no need to drill, just have an extra link fitted to the Stihl 10" chain. I think people started drilling the Stihl bar so they did not have to have an extra chain link fitted to each new chain. Steve B has a 2511 - he should know ! STEVE ?

Does anyone know if you need an extra link in the Stihl 10" chain - to fit the 2511 ?

Happy Days then - i'll order a standard bar. What about the Stihl 10" chain - an extra link required?

May give that mod a miss then !

I take your point as we have 150's also and the 3/8 is too aggressive for target pruning. Just another link in the Stihl 150 chain and I can't recall the mod required on the Stil bar to allow it to fit the 2511 - additional hole drilled I recall from the Tiny Echo historic thread?

Just wondering what you prefer on your ECHO 2511 climbing saw: The STIHL 10" Bar and STIHL 1/4" .043 chain OR THE 10″ Sugihara bar with Sugihara 1/4 .043 chain ? The saw came with almost a carving bar supplied and the standard 3/8 chain, which is aggressive to say the least - perfect for dismantling though. Time for a 2nd saw while offers are still about.

Cancel the photos - The Posch architecture is too dissimilar.

On a Posch 360 the holding side arm is not perfect - I plan to fabricate your double point roundwood hydraulic holding arm - relatively straightforward. However adding those flaps is certainly going to be a challenge to sinc. with the splitting ram operation - would you mind posting a couple of close ups when you get a minute. Thanks for sharing.

Did you find with your last processor that short 8" logs often fell twisted into the splitting chamber and you had to straighten them up manually to split? Do the flaps stop this happening do you think on the 480?

It's uneconomic for us to retail anything less than a m3 due to the logistics of a rural location, even though barrow bags attract a premium. I can see it's good marketing financially. Is the aim of the Newsletter to increase sales? I think the quickest way to get old is lack of exercise and our disabled customers seem to manage to arrange help. I appreciate you have some great strategies for business and thanks for sharing.

Delivering in barrow bags clearly works for some - others find it unnecessary. Ash is large scale as are we and there are never complaints delivering loose loads. They seem to enjoy the event. It's far better environmentally and for the customer's health and wellbeing. Take a trip to Scandinavia and many just get the unsplit rings delivered, which has gone on for generations starting with a horse and cart.

That's an interesting thought - trying to burn rubbish then pointing the finger at the stove supplier

3.5t choice as he just wants it for use on his land

We have a 1.5, 4 and 7.5T. Many many times we have hired in and spent a small fortune over the years and always been under pressure to get the machine away, often weather changes, people off sick etc. - owning the machine takes the pressure right off and gives you time to start and finish the jobs at your own pace. If you are like me, you are here and there all day every day! By choice I would buy a 3.5T in your situation as it has reasonable reach and capacity to most small jobs like putting in new hedgerow gateway openings, hardstandings, small tracks etc. Anything smaller just takes forever. I was always told get the largest machine you can and another wise man said always level up the machine when working - wiser words have never been spoken. Make sure it has full set buckets including wide grading bucket. 3.5T Easy to source and sell on - just don't by JCB !

Real words of wisdom there.