Charlieh

a woolly hat has been employed at times, but i dont see the police accepting it as a valid hands free modification

Im after recommendations for a hands free kit for my mobile, it needs to be quick and easy to swap between vehicles and be loud enough to hear it in a Defender. I dont fancy those in ear types had one years ago and never could get on with it, Cheers Charlie

scyamore in woodlands are a problem due to their ability to dominiate the canopy with little light penetration they severly impact on natural regeneration of other species and also really effect the ground flora. They are a great species to grow for wood fuel if your putting them in a plantation for coppice. In terms of wildlife habitat, apart from the above issues I've mentioned they are exceptionally important to birds as a food source, being only second to oak in terms of the food chain they support.

if your buying kit out Cambridge, go and look over it well, then look at it again, and again, and then if you dont think you can find a fault basically its something internal wrong with it. its a scrap off loading sale for most uk ag machinery dealers, you really have to know your kit, there will be tractors in there missing gears out the gearboxes, electrical faults that only show once engines are warm etc. there is very little in there that you would stick straight back into work. We have had a couple of tractors out of there and a baler all needed work, but its determining the faults before you bid on it!

logic flails are ok in rushes, brambles, thistles etc but rank wet grass doesnt do them any favours (it eats belts), my only critism of mine is that you struggle to go slow enough in really dense vegetation. but for tidying up paddock edges etc in a hurry they are great. handy being able to off set it as well.

I am not aware Heartwoods are working with CW more than any other of the small guys that get a look in at the firewood coming of sites. All heartwoods do is go in advise the woodland owner on what they could do with the woodland. They dont sell firewood, so its upto the individual owners who they sell to, which if your running a business is going to be the person offering the highest price. Heartwoods are helping to promote getting unmanaged small woodlands back into some management, if increased timber prices stimulates this then surely its a good thing. Its increasing the work for forestry contractors, as more woodlands will need managing. Certainly any sites I work on i try and get local guys to do the work, or the best suited contractors for the job. I also advise that a lot of the time its best to sell the timber standing as for large numbers of small woods owners, as its not often worth trying to manage felling, extraction and marketing seperatly on these sites. Heartwoods isnt government funded, there is some government funding for specific projects but its largely funded by external funding such as environmental grants. There is no push at all to national companies, in fact its far from it. I havent read this article, but it sounds like its been worded badly, or certainly being misinterpreted from what is actually the case.

Has anyone overhauled an igland winch before, I need to take the drums off to get at the control levers which have been beaten so badly they want replacing, whilst im at it im going to do gearbox oils etc on it. Is removing the drums as simple as it looks or is there anything i need to be aware off? Also are Jas Wilsons the only place that stock igland parts or are there other stockists as they are the only ones that come up on google, if anyone knows of any forestry suppliers that may have bits floating about please feel free to let me know Oh and if anyone has a manual for an older igland dd winch that they wouldnt mind parting with I would greatly appreciate it Im not sure of the model, going to ring Wilsons on Thursday to find out if they can tell me from the numbers stamped on the drum casing, and see if they can provide me with and exploded parts diagram (which is what the winch kind of looks like currently )

parts arent to bad, they are old design from late 1970's ish type era but they still make them (or if they dont they did until recently for overseas markets), the anti vibs can be a bit fierce but thats not generally that bigger issue on an alaskan mill really,

yes, great saw, 36" no bother they are a good saw, the only thing they lack is the chainspeed of the 084/088/ms880 range, but they have a huge amount of torque which means they will cut through everything you put infront of them!

Jetboil are great as you can cook boil in the bag ration meals in them, boil very very quickly and great to set up for a quick brew. Good for upto 2 cups full if there are 2 of you working Kelly/Ghillie great on sites when felling and you have a bit more time at brew stops, handy to occupy peoples time if you need someone out the way! they are quite social things as people will gather round them, and you can make a larger amount of cups full at once if there are several of you Flask great until mid morning if you drink black coffee or tea, I cant stand milk in drinks out of a flask

Im pretty sure there was an importer, I cant remeber who though, and i was a while ago so there maynot be now. The occasionally come up used on ebay but still make £50+ I have looked at them but decided they were going to be a pain for planting broadleaved, due to the diameter of the tube

Nice one, it would stop me spilling "environmental fuel" all over the back of my truck when decanting it into a combi can. I have sent an email with some pictures attached

I didnt realise kramp did bio oils, just rung my local chainsaw dealers to get me a price as he has a kramp account, it cant be any worse than £90+ for 20ltrs of stihl bio plus! Im going to get 25ltrs to try first. Cheers for the heads up on that

Typical, well its different to what they have on their selector guide on their website. I had been told not to run the 0.050 on pro lites as the narrower kerf doesnt wear the bar rails at all evenly, but it sounds like they have changed this! I run micro lite and micro lite pros with 95vpx on all my smaller saws, its a great combo for saws like the 346xp

ER no and no they do an 18" and as far as i was aware the micro lights are the designed for running 95vpx the pro lites arent designed for 0.050 they are designed to run the normal 0.058 gauge chain.

2nd vote for Schwegler alana ecology or NHBS both the same company but sometimes one is cheaper

Im not 100% sure yet, as i say im just operating it not bought it. I think given its niche in the market and its likely to be on sensitive sites then its a good option. Its not going into conifer clearfells and the likes as thats for the bigger kit. It only uses about 7ltrs of red diesel a day so thats not to bad and the components are all easy to source parts not specialist, so that keeps the cost down for example the drive chains are the same o-ring chains as used on moto-x bikes, and the bearings are all common sizes. The research on the alstor shows that in terms of cost it sits somewhere between dedicated forwarder and tractor+forwarding trailer in terms of cost, so it is competative on price. The big benefit is you can tow it to site behind a 4x4 not have to haul it on a lorry so if you have a small woodland with say 25tons to come out its a viable prospect to get it in for a day. Prior to using it i was very sceptical that it was just a glorified atv and timber trailer, having used it for a week I will confirm that its defiantly not, Its far superior to most other vehicles in a woodland, and will travel over terrain that set ups such as a county and 5ton trailer will struggle on.

Its very much situation dependant, Mini forwarders are awesome, I have recently started operating an alstor its got a two ton payload ultra low ground pressure will drive over most terrain and will pull out 50ton a day on reasonable sites. The same with alpines not quite as good on the terrain as the alstor, but can run other implements such as flails and processors which is a big plus. My quad is great with a logging arch on the back, but its not quick for production but for personal firewood its a cheap option as is the 4x4. they cant handle the terrain that the above can. One plus for the atv and 4x4 is once onto rides if its a haul back to a yard or hard standing they are generally pretty quick so if your hauling on decent rides more than 250mtrs these will speed the operation up significantly on stuff you can hand load onto a trailer, although you probably will only be looking at getting out a few tons per day this method as you will get worn out quickly.

If you like the Maverick why not try a terrano they are not bad off road, refined enough on road, I had one for a while and several friends round here have them, one has one that he uses working for murphys construction with 280K miles on it and it runs very sweetly still (and it hasnt had an easy life)

are you using good solenoids, also are you constantly holding the winch on for very long drags, anyone using mine i tell them to give it a break every 15seconds or so just stop winching in for a short time only a couple of seconds, as whilst the husky will pull most things (very slowly) the amount of current its drawing through components if its doing long heavy pulls is very high and unless your running a set up with dual batteries etc you can potentially end up damaging electrical components on the vehicle eg alternator. Also if you use it a lot had you considered getting a lodar remote of ebay, i bought one used and my husky winch isnt wired up for a hand cable just the remote now, so i can operate it anywhere within a 60mtr radius of the truck (really handy if your using it for felling as you can control the winch!)

Yes a 130 and big trailer is a formidable combo on the road though, i tow a 16ft ifor behind mine having done my trailer test a few weeks ago and even dispite having done a lot of ag work towing etc its a different game completely in the landy.

they should have issued you a receipt for any items they have impounded

I needed some bits for the recoil starter and it was cheaper to import by a large amount, but you wait 3weeks for parts vs a few days for UK dealer parts

I have had bits for my ATC from the local dealer but its been cheaper (a lot) buying from ebay in the US. I had a ATC200E and I really miss it having sold it. what ever happens dont damage the drive shaft as the shaft alone is about £200

ok thanks for all the info, it maybe that we review this idea then. I dont want to cause any issues with the machine as we want to limit downtime as much as possible.