Dean Lofthouse

My wifes rated in Gigawatts not kilowatts

I bought some from Saturn for my Bandit, exactly the same blades, marked with the same logo.

Hi Bob, been speaking to Pete who told me they are no longer issuing the list with K council. I will have to find out exactly when this tree was pruned, they showed me the list.

The Council should only hand out guidance as to how to choose your contractor and the questions to ask. They should not be promoting any individual or a list of individuals. I have no problem with Arbs advertising they are Council approved, or in other words have worked for the council and passed all their criteria. I work for a very well known Brewery on contract and have had to pass their very strict criteria.

At the end of the day all the figures you see on this thread are really for reference only. Each person has differing equipment and differing overheads. So need to charge differing rates. Someone turning up to take a tree down with nothing more than a machete and a washing line will take far longer than someone turning up with MEWP, mog and crane. One will take a month and the other one a day, so one could charge a very high day rate. What I am trying to say is there is a level you can't go below. If you have basic equipment, Truck, chipper, saws, climbing gear, clothing, training and insurance. You can work out a basic day rate determined by wear and tear and standard over heads. Plus the wage you wish to earn. Therfore there should be a minimum day rate that all of us can charge without going under and whilst keeping all our tackle up to date.

Just been out to price a storm damaged Ash to take down. Before I got anywhere near the tree I could see that the large branch that had peeled away did so from a weak union, a topping cut. The tree had been severely topped quite some time ago and new branches had grown some 35 -40ft. The worrying thing is they have just had it pruned and the tree surgeon never mentioned it should really come down or be cut back to previous. A Council tree officer lives next door and he said a while ago that the tree really should come down. The guy who did the pruning is on the council approved list. While there are many good Arbs on this list there are far more not on it and who don't want to be on it. Is it fair or appropriate for a council paid by us, to be showing favoritism by telling people they should only contact someone from the Council Approved list. I think it is totally wrong and shouldn't be the councils place to do so and if anything should go wrong it should be the council to be held liable for recommending them. I'm sure many of us on here have seen butchery work carried out by so called Councill approved contractors

Whats the mars bar for Steve, bribe a cornered Squirrel into not attacking you? Had one of them bound off my head the other day whilst inspecting a cavity 30ft up!! Crapped myself (nearly)

Well said Zen. I can honestly say, I have never "topped" a tree. I have taken off new growth from a previously topped tree, and I have lost a few jobs because I haven't, but agian, it comes down to you advising your customer. If they want a tree topping, I try to keep it simple, if you top your tree, you will end up making the problem worse, where you cut one branch off you will end up with ten growing from the stub, resulting in even less light penetrating the canopy. In years to come the tree will then become dangerous if this new growth is not removed and the tree will have to be taken down anyway. Have you thought of trying to get light underneath the tree rather than over, by doing a crown lift missus X. Basic rule of thumb is, you can't make a big tree small, but you can keep a small tree small. If the tree is too big for the location, have it taken down and replaced with a smaller species Missus X. Nine times out of ten the customer goes, oh yeh, your right, take it down then. As for day rate, you have to be flexible, "aim" for your set day rate, smaller jobs I try to fit them in all on the same day and "aim" for £60 per hour. It works most of the time but sometimes you don't always acheive your target. Good as a guideline though.

Chipper insurance is the one I struggled getting, ended up with the NFU on a trailer policy.

Moisture meters are cheap as chips, forget where I got mine now think it was maplins. If you quote moisture content in your logs it helps keep your existing customers, if someone tries to poach them. Your customer, if educated by yourself, will ask the new potential log supplier what the moisture content of his logs are. When the potentail log supplier stands there dumb founded, your customer will stay loyal to you. Trust me, it works.

First person I've come across with a back boiler dunsley. Where abouts are you bob?

Thats the beauty of getting to know your neighbours, so to speak. Tree surgeons round here don't snub each other, we stop and talk when we can and all get on. Like I said earlier, we even have a xmas do. In general we do not undercut each other, nor do we charge silly prices. I work three to four days a week and try to acheive £400 per day, that is the minimum I can charge to cover basic over heads. You should be allowing around £30 per hours running on your chipper, which would do, if you stack your brash, 1 -2 hours a day. I worked mine out this way. Chipper cost £18000, I would want to replace it at 1000 hrs thats £18 per hour. I would estimate general servicing at £2 per hour. Blades (with numpty groundsmen) £5 per hour and then your diesel. Thats just your chipper. Then sit down and work out: Your vehicle, public liability, climbing gear, trousers, boots, saws, chains, bars, log splitter, vehicle diesel, insurance, tax, mot, national insurance and 22% income tax. These costs are the same whatever part of the country your llive. One person undercharging can have a ripple effect. How you put yourself across to your potentail customer can also have an effect. So many tradesmen come across as patranising and know it all. I let the customer tell you they want their tree cutting off just above the main stem to allow more light in and then explain to them gently what problems are associated with doing that and have they thought of.... You can win so many jobs this way despite being slightly more expensive than "Dave the drystone waller, come fencer, come flagger, come landscaper, come tree lopper, come grass mower, come part time fireman.

I think there should be one of these in every tree http://www.zimbio.com/Beer/articles/42/Bar+Inside+Tree+Best+Reason+Visit+South+Africa

So you reckon to stay clear of the TD5. I was considering changing just before I changed the engine in mine.

I think sometimes it isn't worth the hassle of employing more than one person and having loads of tackle or two sets of tackle. You end up working seven days a week, long hours to earn the same profit margin as you would on your own with a groundsman. I work mon, tues, and wed, sometimes maybe thursday, pricing and maintenance on friday. Lot easier life for probably not much less profit

That's the man. Gary Drake Did some work for his Mother in law as well. I know if I need another, he'll be my first call. Going to the defender/disco the reason apparently they do better top end is the aerodynamics.

I actually bought it from a bloke in Osset who deals only landrovers, comes across all sorts. Just climbed under the landy, it has a sticker on the transfer casing says 1.410 ratio whatever that means

It does about 80 mph down hill with a wind behind. Top end suffered when I put the chip box on it. Someone else has mentioned transfer box ratio before.

Chip boiler sounds good but how do you dry the chip in bulk, had a quick read up and it states chip has to be below 20%. grey metal stoves are stunning looking but can't get round how they can make em so cheap. I'm one of these that thinks if things are cheap, they are cheap for a reason. Used to service powertools, the cheaper stuff was absolute crap when you opened them up, cheap bearings etc.

I had to buy my defender ex utilities and have the tipper fitted, cost about £2500 for the new back from a firm in Bradford Fleet tip I think it was. Not very good customer service afterwards, plus there are better tipper bodies around.

Yeh, your probably right Peter. The system on the combi is sealed pressurised so joining it into that should work. You would have a built in pressure relief valve and all the anti corrosive stuff in one big system. You could even just switch the combi to hot water only mode.

You can link into the combi boiler system with a funny looking exchanger, looks very complicated http://www.dunsleyheat.co.uk/layout.htm I think a seperate system such as yours will be a less complex setup. They do mention about having an auto divert valve which, when all your radiators switch off, diverts the flow to a large radiator say in your garage which disperses the extra heat so the system doesn't boil. Our gas bill has gone from £375 per quarter to £50 per quarter, I have a large kettle on the stove all the time and come sunday lunch simmer all the veg etc. Our lass just thinks I'm tight

It would be interesting to here anyones thoughts on log burning stoves and how they perform. I had a Dunsley Yorkshire Stove fitted, the non back boiler type because we have a combi boiler with no hot water cylinder and it would have been hard to plumb. We also live in a smokeless zone. I am beginning to regret not having the back boiler type now. The stove is extremely efficient, I light it around November and keep it lit 24/7 till april sometime. Closing down the odd time for cleaning. When up to heat, I can get one decent size log to last an hour and a bulk bag nearly a week. Logs Seasoned to around 15% moisture nearly melt the stove on low draw. The only problem is I have to leave all internal doors open in the house to allow the heat to move around and the room with the stove gets stifling. I am now thinking it may be worth taking that one back out and having a back boiler one fitted with an exchanger thingemyjig. £3K ish total ? The stove I have cost me £1200 Anyone else got an efficeint stove with back boiler and how does it perform / compare.

Described yourself just perfect there Toc

I think each vehicle has its place, I have done quite a few jobs where a mog wouldn't have got and then others I wished I had a mog Take downs on the edges of private woodland where I have reversed the defender 8 or 9 hundred metres through tight gaps in trees, up bankings under low branches etc. It doesn't bear thinking about turning up in a transit and having to cart all your equipment nearly 1 kilometer and then leaving someone with the rest of it just in case it goes missing. I think for an all rounder the defender takes some beating