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Mike Hill

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Everything posted by Mike Hill

  1. Mike Hill
    Your ramps could be slid beneath the chipper between the tracks,thus eliminating the need to tip the deck. I often drive the chipper onto the chip,instead of tipping a half load. All tracked machines can have a tow ball fitted. Mine has one,as well as a 4 ton electric winch I have both a plant trailer and a tipping trailer,it's as easy to unload the chipper from one as it is the other. You know your jobs better than anyone,but you won't loose as much on a tracked machine as you will a tow behind. You could also use it to pull small stumps and tow trailers into and out of jobs. I recently pulled a 9 ton Valta and crane combo that was sunk to it's rear diff out off a job,treble purchased the winch cable and chained the chipper back. Versatile machine.
  2. Mike Hill
    A tracked machine is extremely versatile even in an urban environment. Giving clients an option to retain the chip,towing a trailer full of waste out of a job etc. Taking one off a trailer takes less than a minute.
  3. Mike Hill
    You could well be right about insurance and no tickets. Its going to be a large waste of time and money if the original poster invests in all the tickets,only to find the job is not for him. You can be fully qualified and entirely incompetent these days.
  4. Mike Hill
    As do plenty of people with all the tickets. How effort and understanding you put into this trade is entirely individual,there are thousands of hours of self directed learning available online. Its not hard to learn the basics of Pruning,I have taught it to plenty of Children and Home owners. Most of the largest and difficult Trees in the World were tackled by people with no Tickets,PPE or Training.Are we more stupid now than before?
  5. Mike Hill
    I think you will be fine just jumping in after buying a few bits and peices. Thats what I did 20 odd years ago.Some people don't have common sense or any sense of adventure,College courses are the norm now,not required but many feel they are. The industry now is "training this and certificate that",just take it easy and chances are you will be fine.I would rather have a new bloke thats self learned than a new colledge leaver full of false confidence.
  6. Mike Hill
    You are over complicating this. You can forecast the predicted life span of kit,because you can determine when you will sell/replace it. Tree work involves alot of educated guess work and gut feeling.
  7. Mike Hill
    Perhaps you could calculate it thus: Cost of Rigging kit / by how many days in expected life span + running costs (ie Loler) = how much to charge per day. If you wanted to,you could sell it on Ebay after a year and use that realized value to subtract from your running cost or just use it to buy more kit for groundies to steal?
  8. Mike Hill
    I like your concept J,but I don't like the mandatory part of it.Perhaps if the Government publicized the benefits of Winter Tyres more people in the areas most effected might get a set off their own back? All season tyres are pretty pants on propper ice.They and propper Winter Tyres (even those with studs) are not very effective on Black ice and its the worst road hazard in the Winter because you can't see it.Its so easy to think the Road is only wet,take a corner and slide clean off the Road, Winter Tyres have a much,much softer compound,the tread is also cut into little slices during a winter with little Snow or Ice the wear is accelerated greatly . As Josh said,they are also weaker in construction. Its taken for granted that you have to change /pay to have changed your tyres in October here,then store /pay to have your tyres stored untill the Spring.
  9. Mike Hill
    You could use your 6K to advertise to as many people as possible in the area you wish to work in. Then as demand increases,look at buying a new chipper.Untill then you could just hire one as needed. New gear is not problem free,nor does the manufacturer reimburse you for your down time.I have never bought a new machine in the 10 years of running my own business.
  10. Mike Hill
    Hello There is a hell of alot of threads answering questions just like yours above.If you do a search you will get loads of answers pretty much covering all you will need to know.Best of luck with your new change of direction and keep us informed on how you are doing.
  11. Mike Hill
    Lethal Louis and a Big Spruce.
  12. Mike Hill
    I think our attitudes will change towards facebook as an advertising platform as more and more people use it. Year before last I ceased our local paper advertisment after nearly a decade.I noticed many of our elderly clients,the type I thought the local paper was attractive to,owning smart phones. People like facebook advertising as it can be used to contact businesses either publically or privately via message.Last year I had a problem with my website,the company seemed to ignore my Email requests for assistance.I posted a complaint on their facebook page and viola! problem fixed in an hour.
  13. Mike Hill
    A stick of Blasting Explosive with an Electric Detonator still embedded. Probably been there since the site was blasted in the 1990's.
  14. Mike Hill
    Send me over a Bag of that Saw Dust please! Iove the smell of Macro!
  15. Mike Hill
    True we all should keep an eye on what everyone else is charging.After all new Plumbers or Sparkies charge the going rate,new Tree Surgeons don't seem to be that smart. New start ups do drive the price down,there is simply more competition for the same amount of work.How many time have you heard "we'll start out cheap and then bump our prices up" or "I didn't make any money on that three day takedown,i did it for experiance and company exposure"
  16. Mike Hill
    I think you should go for it.No one can take your degree(s) or your current experience from you.However if you " hit the wall" in your current career mentally,you will regret not changing sooner. Speaking for myself,I only regret the things I havn't done.Well apart from the one that gave me Herpes but it was fun at the time.
  17. Mike Hill
    Website for me,followed closely by referrals.
  18. Mike Hill
    Your welcome,glad you got it sorted.
  19. Mike Hill
    There are another few things,but most of the time the rollers stop working because the solinoid is faulty or not getting 12 volts it needs to open and let the oil to the roller motor.
  20. Mike Hill
    Check that you have two green lights visable on the circuit board when the machine is running at full rpm As well as one steady orange light. Check that you have 12v constant at the solinoid on the valve block Check that the screw in limiter on the end of the valve block is screwed right out
  21. Mike Hill
    From memory the 528 has two lugs,one of each side of the rear bearings that have bolts through them that you can wind in to push the bearing block one way of the other.They have allen key heads,
  22. Mike Hill
    Your front (Engine end) bearings have bolt holes,you cant adjust them sideways. Tighten up for front ones first. Your rear bearings have slots that the bolts go through,this allows for your sideways adjustment.With a new Anvil and a New set of blades,gap your knives at .5mm on the inside(side closest to the shaft) and 1.5mm on the outside(side furtherest away from the rotor shaft) .This allows for warp in the Disc when it hits a big bit of wood.Its going to be a arrrse pain getting it right and you might want to clamp the bearing down as you torque the bolts.Remember to loc tight the threads and clean the bolts first. Long story short the blades do not meet the anvil square,they run a little bit on an angle to it. A reminder to use New unsharpened blades and a new Anvil or the Knives will hit the anvil if you have gapped it with worn or sharpened blades.
  23. Mike Hill
    "Nicest Transit you ever did wish to see Boy" "
  24. Mike Hill
    On the last few large site clearance jobs I have been using a hand help GPS to mark the areas which will take the longest and those that will take the least amount of time.Then putting the co-ordinates on the Picture from Google Maps. I was wondering if anyone has experiance using a drone on large sites?Especially a Drone that can relay its position via GPS. The ability to fly over a site,instead of trudging around it would save alot of time on quotes.
  25. Mike Hill
    Grab a trauma kit off Ebay Joe. There are plenty to choose from,have a bit of surgical latex tubing in there too.The Trauma kit will/should come with some torniquets but its handy stuff to have. I have a big first aid kit and a little one for the "whoopsies and the owies" plasters,tweezers,eye wash etc.Saves blokes rummaging through the big kit looking for a plaster.

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