Chris Sheppard

Depends how far from base you would be to start with - sub 50km and I think you'd fall under an exemption.

It'd help if I re-newed my subscription

Glad it wasn't just me thought it was a bit of a camp pose too

HOW MUCH!!!!???? I could have had 70 of my old County for that

That thing is great - like a mini Ponnse Dual

I was always fancying one of those little Vimeks but upon seeing Woodwise's one in FJ that got me thinking. Seen it in the flesh at the Weald woodfair a couple of times and really think it's a great concept; like you say, it's the cost of the head that scuppers it. That valmet and botex that was on here a while back at that auction would have been a good starting point and only £13K was a bargain. I'm still wondering about one of those Naarva stroker heads but they're a guillotine rather than a saw, but might be a start.

Absolutely. We're currently using one little tractor which is either pulling the traielr, winching or pushing up brash.

We tend to do a lot of smaller woodlands and blocks that have been neglected so harvester is out for a lot of the work, at least initially, whether because of uneconomical to bring to small site or timber not really suited. Done a lot of handcut to skidder and nearly, but not quite as much shortwood to forwarder. Both work well on the right sites and timber, it wouldn't be fair to say which is best as one would be good for one site and bad for another. As for output, of course we're not going to get anywhere near the output of a harvester and proper forwarder, but my overheads were a fraction of theirs. Other than a harvester, there is, IMO, no way to effectively remove a man on the ground doing some sort of manual work, even a processor requires the timber to be felled in front of it, and shortwooding needs a fair bit of hand stacking, to be efficient. Currently, we're workign a site which has a selection of different compartments of different sizes and species (and thankfully it's all flat!) from untouched hardwood first thinnings right through to Softwood clearfell and each one we've attacked differently as required.

Might stand half a chance of getting there once it's finished Saw him twice last week - in the same week

I'm hoping to make it down just not sure how yet.

Living the dream I reckon you'll be onto a winner with the Valtra, I'm surpised there's not a few more doing it over here yet.

Tell johnny to shurrup - it's a proper arb stump is that

Ed, are you working your way through a set of camp Husky catalogue poses

Might as well be if it's one of those tong belts

Nice one So, plan of attack, try cleanign the current barrel with acid (next question - where would I be able to easily lay my hands on the acid?). If re-usable, get a new piston fitted, sort decomp, vac and then maybe pressure tests, all being well jobs a good un Thanks for all your helpful advice so far guys, I hope other's will find it as usefull in the future

That sounds great fun, be a change fro mover here. Iv'e never seen anywhere so forested (if thats such a word) as Finland - all we could see from the top of a hill in every direction was softwood and sky

then follwoed by hillside extraction

The plot thickens - just been havign a closer look at the barrel and found a split in the tube from the auto decomp - possible cause maybe?

Am open to trying to clean the barrel, but what chemical would you suggest to use? Yep, I'd tend to agree about the piston, it can sit with the 372 one that I have still (which makes the 357 one look mint!) I'll pop up a pic of the auto decomp tube - all I can see is a short bit of pipe coming out of the side of the barrel and going back into it lower down and i didn't need to undo anything during dissasemble. Think I've grasped the open and closed ports bit now, cheers guys

yep, it could be uncleaned first thinnings on a proper slope like we have round here - too steep for machines Reckon we all need to sit quietly until jack comes back

finally got round to taking pot off tonight, see attached pics. Gettign a bit confused now though - piston is about 46mm and the pot a tad bigger, now on ebay I can find 46mm piston kits and also 47mm piston and pot kits that says they'll fit and give a bit more power too - does that sound feasible? also, I'm gonna sound a bit daft here but what am I looking for to determine between open and closed ports? The pipe from the auto decomp goes from the decomp to an outlet a bit lower down on the pot, is it as simple as fitting a normal pot with no lower outlet and bunging in a normal decomp? Can't see anythign obvious on the crank case.

was just puttign 2&2 together and came up with 5 Know a guy down wiltshire with one just liek your green ones (same tyres and everything) and he bought it from a guy in Norfolk somewhere.

That's all useful stuff to know. That's exactly my thought on the alpines - great on the rigth job, but for what I want it for I'd need a big one, or something like the holder You didn't happen to sell one liek in the pic to a guy called jason down in Wiltshire in the last couple of years? That looks just the job My thinking is it would handle the 4 tonne trailer nicely too