Rob D

As soon as you drop your price by that much of course the customer is going to think you're ripping them off.... Wouldn't you think that if someone did the same price matching for doing your double glazing? And if you get the job this customer is going to treat that as a benchmark price and expect all the work afterwards to be similarly priced. You've got to stick to your guns and your price. It sounds like your quote was well thought out so keep your credibility intact and tell him/her that for a professional job where you are trained and insured that this is the best price. You never know - the other firm may never turn up to do the job and matey will come back to you. Drop by £100-00 or so to clinch a deal but any more than that and you need to walk away from it.

I'm definately quieter this year than last... which was quieter than the year before that. All the work that is coming through is by word off mouth and previous customers - I certainly wouldn't like to start a business right now. It can be a bit of a downward spiral if things go quiet. Less work means you're not out and about as much - less referrals, less people see your truck and less neighbours/onlookers come up to you halfway through a job and say 'don't fancy having a look at my trees while you're here'. And it is strange how most will always say they're busy even if they're not. I know a lot of the larger operations near me are laying off which will mean a short term surplus of small teams operating in the area but a lot of these will struggle after 6-9 months. Just wondering how much people are charging out there for a days work for say 2 or 3 people? I know most (me as well) charge by the job but generally speaking. I aim to get £400-00 for 2 people and chipper for a days work. £500-00 for 3 people. Hire for a MEWP would be on top of this if needed. If there's some good timber to take away/mill then I'll reduce that price. I'm not vat registered and cover only private work. Some days may go better than others but this is pretty much what I need to cover costs and dare I say it actually come out of a job with a profit. Even though times are quieter I'm not going to start quoting less. We don't get paid nearly enough for the dangerous job we do as it is. Demand for firewood where I am has gone through the roof - last year I sold twice the wood in half the time. I split the wood as soon as it's on the ground and then store in a polytunnel for a year. People are sick of getting wet wood as there are plenty out there selling freshly cut logs. Makes me look better and customers will pay more when they know your wood is dry. Firewood always used to be something you did when there was nothing else to do... Now you can make some proper money out of it and I still split everything by hand. Of course you have to wait until winter to get your money back and that is generally the busy time for tree work but 1 or 2 loads delivered after work is well worth the reward.

Aspen 2T is the way to go in my opinion. It's stable, consistant and burns with so little fumes. You get a precise 50:1 mix of synthetic oil whenever you fill your saw. We need to be charging enough for what we do to be able to afford the decent stuff for our machines. I think it says a lot about our industry and how we're regarded that we can't charge the extra and not have to worry about the extra £10-00 a day we'd spend on the Aspen. There seems to be fuel surcharges on everything else so why can't we add our own? I've had plenty of people try Aspen and they say it's great and the machines run better and smells a bit funny but you don't get that 'muggy' feeling if you've been leaning over a saw all day..... and then they go back to the petrol pumps...!? I don't get it...... Are we just not earning the money we should be earning?

I like trees but they do make an awful mess on the roof, and they grow too big and my neighbour never gets his lopped back and leaves fall off and they're lifting up the house with the roots and they're bloody dangerous because a cone almost landed 20 yards from my wife last Sunday and at 5.48p.m the sun goes behind that branch over there and that's it we have no sun when we sit out on the patio at 5.55p.m for our evening drinks and that means our lives are totally ruined and I know it was here 60 years before we bought the house but the sun the precious sun, we must have more light, we must, so.... do us a favour mate.... just cut it down will you!

I'm looking to buy a new big saw for milling soon. Looking at this thread and also speaking to people I find can leave you none the wiser! It seems different people have different preferences and also where people have probs with one saw someone else loves it! For instance the MS880 - I've used mine solidly for the last 2 years milling and general cross cutting but it has never seized. But it is a bitch to start - I now start 2 handed or it can pull your fingers straight! And despite keeping it well maintained and a recent carb kit it has trouble idling.... Is it the older 088 that used to seize or have there been problems with the 880? I did have 2 makita DSC9010 on a double mill set up. Worked a treat until both overheated and seized. Replaced the piston etc. and yet a month later another had seized. Can't have been the fuel as I use Aspen. I don't know whether this was because they were on a double set up and so revving higher or whether it is a problem with the saw itself. But I bet there are poeple out there who use this saw every day with no problems. So what to get? I did hear that Stihl and Husqvarna are not putting a lot of r & d into their biggest saws as there is not enough demand to warrant it. But surely there has to be more torque in the MS880 with 8.7 bhp compared to the MS660 with 7.1 bhp. I know the MS880 revs lower than the 660 but this is not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to miling. And the Husqv 3120 - some seem to like it and some don't. Pretty hard to know unless you have had a lot of experience with both....

Not on my own comp at the moment but I'm sure I found a website with 1 ton bags for £1.99 each. As for the net bags if you look in the back of an old Forestry and British Timber mag or the Forestry Journal there are plenty of ads for the smaller net bags. But as above do not leave them in the sunlight. They fall to bits and then you have to repackage them in fresh bags!!

I know but I was on the phone to them for 20 minutes and had to drag the info out of them! What the real kicker is the older carbs on the 200T didn't seem to suffer any problems so why change them or get them manufactured elsewhere? Of course the answer to this has to lie in saving money.

Just to add a bit on the 9010. They are good saws but the air filters are pretty rubbish and need replacing every 4 months or so. Also I just had a fuel line split on one of mine and a carb kit put on the other. They seem to be higher maintenance than newer saws. The 7900(1) and 5000(1) series are newer developed models. Again though you have to make sure those air filters are cleaned regularly to maintain performance.

I sell mine after it's sat for a while and composted. Goes for £60 a load. I advertise in the local paper alongside my treework services and logs etc. People keep coming back for more. It might be an idea to learn the process as the chippings break down i.e. how initially the bacteria soak up nitrates and give off heat before in the end dying and releasing back nutrients. It helps if you can advise your potential customer on the benefits as well i.e. better water retention, worms come up and pull down into the soil encourageing aeration and humus deeper down, attractive to look at, weed prevention, gradually release nutrients into the soil, encouarges beneficial fungi that can often co-exist with plants and make them stronger and healthier, inexpensive for the area a load will do. Oh the list goes on!! Before I had a place to keep it I called the National Farmers Union to see if there was a farmer who might be interested. One called back and I happily tipped on his land for a year before getting a larger yard. As for do you need a liscence for a chipping pile. I expect so. You need a liscence for farting into the wind these days!

The 90cc saws are pretty much the same as the older Dolmar 90cc saws - they've just been rebranded. I think this is why they are quite cheap. The new 7901 I've had a go on and it struck me as being a bloody good saw. Same feel as the 5000 but bigger. I'd for a 7901 over a 9010 if I had the choice but that's me. I've got a couple of Makita chainsaws and they're pretty good. Mind you I seem to be having lots of probs with all my saws recently so I'm not all that much of a fan of anything at the moment!

I had exactly the same problem with my 200T. Brand new and 2 months down the line it started playing up. No amount of adjustment made any difference. It would rev and die as if it was running out of fuel all the time. Called Stihl technical. They were not helpful. They did say however that they had a problem with some of the carbs on the newer saws. He said the dealers were aware of the problem and send it back and it would be done under warranty. They weren't sorry or anything for the inconvenience of not having the saw for a few weeks. I sent it back and upon it's return it's been fine ever since. You think of Stihl and you think of solid German engineering and manufacture but most of the components are made abroad.....

I've been using Aspen 2t for the last 9 months and I wouldn't go back to mormal mixing. I get it in batches of about 50 (5l cans) as you then get delivery free. I changed mainly because I was feeling s*** after milling timber all day. The difference in fumes is worth the extra money to me..... Besides how much time do you spend going to the petrol station and mixing your own fuel? And let's face it you prob never get a perfect 50:1...... Yes it's expensive (especially milling)! but buy a good load of it and you'll never go back.