Mike Hill

Havn't gotten started yet.

Did the nasty shouty boss hurt your feelings? Show me on your Teddy Bear where it hurts the most.

@ArbMish You sound like a bit of a minge. Are you sure this industry is for you?

I had one like that,it was a kin cracking machine.I have its bigger brother the A340 now. I would have a turntable machine over a fixed anyday of the week,you will supprise yourself on how often the ability to slew the machine comes in handy.That machine will be much easier to work on than your reular inline machine. Buy it before I do.

Could probably get looked at a bit more often. Letting stuff build up like that is often a hazard,but you know what to look for and how to clear it now.

Yes. I felled trees in Canada with it. Its kin leathel. The chains were sharpened on a machine though,never saw one get hand filed.

A 3.5 ton truck,8" tow behind chipper plus a stump grinder. Then spend 10k on advertising. When i started up 10 years ago,i spent 40k of my own money. But the competition was scarce then and it enabled me to hit the ground running. I was spending 1200 quid a month on advertising at the time.

I have sent/checked in,saws of all kinds both new and used over the years.Never had a single problem. I drain the fluids,air out the fuel tank and pack it up taking care the bucking spikes don't go through the packaging. I would just check them.

Oh God. They have translated the book then? A collection of random bollocks collated by a Norwegian Journalist with heavy nationalist leanings marketed towards urban hipsters with Custom Axe collections,neck beards and Audi Quatros.

Only if the injector dosn't "bottom out" on the threads or is an old type that clamps in.Annealing won't increase the thickness of the washer,which is why you want to use a new one. If its worked for you,then keep it up.But some of the injectors I have replaced took 7 hours to get to,thats alot of work to redo if one leaks because of a 5 pence washer

Hydraulic Motor Stevie? So you can drive the chipper instead of using a PTO shaft?

Why did you do that?

£10 will get you a very tidy tracked machine. Some Jensen 530T's have a removable hopper,when thats off the machine is less than the length of 1,5 Wheely bins and 110cm wide with the tracks in.I have taken mine down flights of steps,around an indoor swimming pool and out the glass doors into a Garden.

Thanks Stevie.I will go and have a look at it tomorrow.They don't come up for sale over this side of the country much.

With that Trailer and Van you are two thirds towards having all the plant you need.The last third is a tracked chipper. You will not be as productive as any tow behind or tracked machine with a "mini chipper" They will not process brash faster than you can get it to it.This is where a bottle neck will form on the job,this is where you will start to loose money.This will happen on every job you will need your tickets for. When you start out,you will end up getting jobs for people who have had every other sod in for a quote.You will underprice more than you get right and with a mini chipper you will just make a hard job harder,I know money is tight but if you have £2K to buy a mini chipper you might be able to finance a new tracked machine,This will destroy the brush,give you no hassel and "buffer" the effects of the under quotes you,I and everyone else does when they start and sometimes after. You are going to hire in Climbers to help at the start,and you will be marooned on an island of Branches frantically trying to force a machine to do what it was never intended to do, Starting out against other firms,without comparable or superior kit is just "a hiding to knowhere" .

Thanks Matty. I will try and have a play with it,I can see it burning the clutch out if you over loaded it.

I recently got a job that needs a bit of winching done,and this winch is close to me in distance. Does anyone have any experience this this model and specifically if its going to go ok behind 130 Hp? The Trees I need to drag are only about 10" in diameter,there are not too many of them either. This winch has had the bearings and chain replaced recently. I have little experience of forestry winches.

All Blue Whales have a diet rich in Sodium.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.

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?