Charlieh

Anyone had any experience of JCB JZ70? seriously looking for one as it ticks most the boxes of what's needed for our work currently and being a couple of miles from the factory with lots of local lads that know the kit, it would seem a sensible machine. It will primarily used for conservation work, loading the mill as well as on woodland sites to assist with access

Does anyone know of a free way to get maps of underground bt/openreach services. We have a job coming up where we need to identify where cables run from an underground junction box. Im slightly nervous that there maybe fibre optic in the area. The architect is digging in and saying they cant provide utilities maps and im wary about the fact we will be digging within 12inchs of the junction box. I have just been through their online system and there is an annual subscription to pay which tbh I could do without. Slightly wary as the CAT wont pick up fibre that may be run down the road verge

Last week I had an interesting situation arise on a harvesting site. I had grabbed a combi can and saw out the truck to sned a couple of poles out and went to fill the saw (MS260). The can had a bit of pressure in it and it sprayed a bit onto the saw and the floor. I waited about 1minute checking chain etc. Walked a few paces and pulled the saw over. What happened next took me buy surprise. The saw burst into flames, I flung it and it managed to ignite the spilt fuel on the floor, all within 10ft of the back of the pickup with diesel and cans of two stroke. I kicked the combi can about 10ft away as that was on the ground. I rolled the saw over a few times but it was still flaming well, so I grabbed a couple of the bottles of water out the truck (as the extinguisher was about 100yards away) and doused the saw. What (on disassembly) had happened was the ht lead on the saw had rubbed the AV mount and the shielding had failed. As a result when the saw was pulled over it sparked to the av mount, and the residual fuel ignited. There were a couple of basic mistakes that ordinarily wouldn't cause a problem, but when combined together they could had been a whole load worse.

Im aware that you can get a unit that basically creates a pto shaft output drive from a hydraulic feed input. Similar to Eddies winch set up on the Kubota, has anyone tried a set up like this from tractor hydraulics. I am looking to run very low hp requirement implements on a hydraulic drive to avoid an issue with not having a pto output on a front linkage. The tractor has a constant pumping circuit that I can run the implement on and leave the other acting spools free to run the link arms any pointers would be appreciated

if your buying an artic be very careful on slopes, its really easy to get in a mess, if you are in woodlands with even a gentle slope I would stick with a rigid version, especially if your skidding stuff with it or running heavy 3pl attachments

Oregon wide black ones so much more comfortable than the usual stihl and husky offerings

Chainsaw/ clearing saw operator and greenmech safetrak with operator. done plenty and this is the quicker option even clearing the chip off site compared to burning

270wes but its on 3/8 I have am 8 inch cannon carving bar on it

Run two one 4 years old and one new this morning :-) both on 1/4 I have the small echo on 3/8 and if I could get a 1/4 spur I would swap it straight away

Just after some pointers as being a newbie with the LT40, I can get on fine with longer timbers but when I try to mill shorter lengths for example 5ft lengths of fruit wood, im struggling to clamp the timber solidly, if I put more pressure on the clamp it ends up not cutting square. Any pointers

I also prefer the stilh blades, hold their edge better and seem to balance more and less vibration

Hand cutting is ace, whats not to love about first thinnings, 100trees a day, brambles, hawthorn, this was a block from yesterday, and pretty much represented about 50% of the 3.5ha compartment. If it rains your wet, no amount of waterproofs keep you dry. If its above 10degrees you sweat to death in the ppe. I have been in a t-shirt two afternoons this week occasionally we get onto some big stuff that's two wet or steep for the harvesters to work and that's always fun. I just really want some good frosts now to get onto the wetter sites

not had one go, but out of interest what make was it? I would report it to the manufacturers as that could have had serious implications if it had hit someone

That's interesting, my big FS is the worst for vibration but its an older model. I think the 560 is about 3.5hrs per day but that's actual trigger time. which I don't know how long your actually cutting for but I suspect its not that long. I just hope the HAVi's record trigger time and not just when the saw is on idle as otherwise its going to give a false reading as we often put saws down to stack brash and timber without stopping them

Anyone using HAVs monitors on saws? I have a couple of units to run on the 560xpgs's when we are out now as a couple of clients are wanting to see evidence of HAVs monitoring and exposure record keeping. We are going to run 2 for now and average these out. Once the two saws running monitoring units start to approach 100 HSE points then we will swap jobs round.

Mark I may be after half a dozen CS280wes in the new year. My local chainsaw dealers doesn't stock echo and its a tractor dealers who really aren't interested (and probably dont know which is the dangerous end) is my other option. My CS270 has done a bit and we need a load of smaller saws for scrub cutting as carry bigger saws about seems a bit pointless for stuff upto 6" in diameter. I will give you a ring next week on prices

Need a bigger low loader now do i???

If its just for shifting timber on a forwarding trailer, I would get a timber crane, especially as the botex has the mounting points for putting a 3point linkage crane on it already. I would think mounting a lorry crane on the front of the botex trailer would also put a lot of pressure on the steering drawbar. Have you looked at the igland timber cranes that Wilsons are selling? not a lot of money for a crane which would bolt straight onto the trailer, either that or a Farma crane as they are really well made units

Shame your so far away as got a woodmizer lapsider sat here just clamps on the bed for shingles and feather edge

Not really take by roof mounts, even for forwarding in thinnings. Think they suit arb contractors and chipping sets up fine though. I would rather run a trailer mounted crane. The tractors need to do to much n-arb based work through the year to run a dedicated unit

yep could well be, I'll drop you a message. haven't got a hiab as well then

well currently the drawbar is being made slightly longer so I can have the option to mount a crane without compromising the turning circle. I suspect a fold up hiab would probably be most suitable as I can see mounting and de mounting a timber crane would be a pain. I didn't have a problem run a botex forwarding trailer on the spools, so I would assume I think I have enough flow. I would be think a 0.4grab would be fine as im not shifting huge lumps of arb waste, just stems to bring back for the mill, and im aware how much prices of grabs increase with small extra capacity once you get above 0.2's

That was my fear, and it will be used for forwarding back to the yard with some regularity when we are doing timber for milling. It will be on a 150hp+ tractor as its a converted king tank moving low loader so wont be the lightest of 19ft trailers

What's the speed difference between using something like a cranab/farma/botex timber crane and using a hiab/atlas/palfinger type. Looking at getting one mounted on the bolstered low loader I'm having made and I can't decide between a demount timber crane or a permenantly mounted hiab. The primary function of the trailer is to shift kit around so a fixed timber crane isn't an option. the original plan was to load with a forwarder and grab on the loader back at the yard but I would rather be able to work alone without having to have the other kit to shift stuff back to the mill. Hiab probably makes more sense but just strikes me it could be really slow

a few of these may have been on here before, there have been plenty of others though, including tractor and balers, quad bikes and plenty with my old landy 130 which used to sink for fun. Full credit to Eddie for getting me out on more than one occasion with the alstor and the tractor and baler