Brushcutter

Had a fire on Friday to get rid of the offcuts from making 1x1 tree sakes for the FC. There was so much that it was done with the tractor. When its time to chip the sawmill waste its the hottest job in the world in winter. Start with some 6 layers and your down to the base one before long.

Its good for extraction. About to thin a larch plantation which we need to cross a big grass common to reach. Being frozen means that the tractors won't make too much mess. As for working it can just be upleasnt in the frost and snow. Fortuantly i tend to do the forwarding/skidding so i get a nice warm cab, and in the summer it works the other way as the cab has air con too. Unfortantly this has made me slightly soft.

So true. Mine were fine then after a year or so they start to do that. I prefer the Husky ones. The STIHL ones are better being clear but i just like the husky ones.

Didn't get on with it at all. I broke it getting it stuck in the 346 oil tank i think.

I've always used bio chain oil. I've tried but synth and semi synth but i always come back to bio. Its much nicer to use than the other two and it always leaves the insides of the saw cleaner. I've tried cooking oils but they tend to leave the chain sticky. STIHL Bioplus is very expensive one of the reasons i tried cooking oil. I got myself a 10litre bottle of Clakes own chainsaw oil. Its very good. I'll be getting more when i'm out.

Quite fancy that county with a winch on the back. The 1164 with crane/winch and trailer would be a great little set up. I expect it will go for close to 13k though.

Difficult to say without really seeing the tractor but some of those counties are a steal. A guy near me is a collector/restorer/exhibitor of county tractors. There is about 5 in his yard.

I've only ever used Valtras MF and valmets. Prefer the bigger cabs of the valmet and MFs. Use baby tractor 80-90hp at the moment good manuverability and work well with a lader. In an ideal world a 110-130hp tractor with a crane on the cab would be what i would chose. Would work well with a harvester head, smaller biofuel chippers and still have a good towing capacisty.

Its a 6 tonne winch on the back of the Vatra in my picture its about 85hp. It will power a 9tonne one but again on young ash thinnings 4tonne would be more than enough.

Stephen has had a Holder Skidder with a two 4 tonne winches on the back in the classified section for a while now. It looks like such a fun tool to have and its very reasonably priced as well.

That was this Feb/March skidding out some Chestnut which we felled to become coppice. We sat the skidder at the top of a rack we cut and dropped everything down it. Then Dragged it into the tractor and processed it ride side. Did 5' coppice posts 8' firewood and 12' logs. Worked well as we weren't constantly driving around in the woods. The skidded ground threw up loads of intersting wildflowers after we were done. Not much we took out was >18" about 35 years old. There was a fair bit of sycamore in there too that came out the same way. Not done much work in young woods so i can't say how useful it would be but if its steep then whiching is much easier than dragging it out with a quad/trailer. At the age you said it would be quite small stuff so it might be best to drag it out as a tree length and process it up on the landing. If its too tight for that then its best to use a long chain and do a wrap around 3 or 4 logs before chokering the chain and dragging up the load.

What an amazing video. Thanks for posting. The camera work is fantasitc some and the music is really set the mood. I'm glad that someone out there is doing that sort of thing. Here we have the ancient tree hunt, which is along a similar line.

Nice job. Love the skidder. I've always wanted a go in a proper one.

I'm a big fan of both saws. I think i'd go for the 346xpg over the 357 now that the new 346 is out. I've been using the 346 this week to fell medium chestnut about 25" across and some larch of a similar size. Worked really well. Done some really big 3 15" guidebar stuff with the 346 and it coped but it wouldn't want to do it all day every day but for smaller stuff its ace. I use mine for big stuff right down to coppice size stuff. Its also very good in the tree (when i do go aloft).

Nice tractors. I like the jake mount best of both worlds really. I'll have a look a prices. Thanks for the info.

Thats a good guide was going to put my Herts uni one up but that one is much better. Go into Waterstones Tony and check the academic book section there is normally a few good books how to write/reference.

Well done! Is that as part of a college course or the Lantra ITA? Seems a lot of questions i think there were 2 or 3 sides of stuff to write for my side arm flail Lantra stuff.

Its true. I've often though about why people don't get stabaliser legs made up for front/rear linkage and run them spool valves. Give you a bit more stability with the big stuff.

Hand thought of that. Worth looking into thanks. As for them going at interesting angles with the crane on, that the biggest disadvantage of having it on the roof as aposed to just under the rear window. Stability can be an issue. I'd get the tyres water ballasted and some wheel weights a front block and maybe some belly weights too.

I was thinking of getting a 570 or 580 botex crane to go on the newer valtra. Or A Kesla equivelent not decided yet. I was wondering on what you'd get for selling the crane? I was thinking it would be in the region of 2.5k? I think the trailer/crane setup is wirht about 6k

You can do a degree or masters BSc or Msc respectivly. Both can be done by home study. I know with the MSc though you have to go to the uni each month to do an exam coursework too.

Hi Just throwing around a few ideas for upgrading forwarders. Currently got a Botex 5050 on a 10 tonne trailer behind an Valtra A92. I'd like a roofmount crane on a bigger valtra. Just need to work out the sums to do it:thumbdown: I was wondering how much the just the crane on the trailer would be worth? Apparently its designed as a roof mount but bodged onto a long king post trailer. So i'm asuming they can part ways. I'd like to keep the trailer to use behind the new rig. Its a Botex 5050 5m reach 500kg lift at 5m and 1750 close in. Has continous rotor and a botex grapple. Could do with being repiped apart from the graple and extending boom which have been. Has PTO pump and 8 levers controls block. Thanks Andy

Looks nasty. I'm glad it didn't hurt you too badly. I threw a 20" chain off a 660 which made a mess off the chain catcher and hit my boot. Didn't damage it but i thought my foot was bleeding. It hurt so much and ached for a day or so.

Hi Jon, Nothing was wrong with it traded it in for a new Valtra A92 with a loader. The one as my avatar actually. Think it was '94 reg. As for why i didn't like it i just didn't like the cab it was an unplesant place to be. Everyone else loved it just not me. I tend to do a lot of tractor loader/skidder/forwarding stuff and doing it in an unpleasnt cab just makes it more hard work than it has to be. 10k is a good budget for a tractor you could probally pick up one with a loader too for that money. Have you looked on farm trader they have some 390s for about 12k 4wd too. Also Wilsons have a Valmet 665 85hp tractor in for 12k. Andy

About 2 years ago we sold off our MF390 4wd with a loader for 10k. I hated the thing but it was a good little tractor for out in the woods.