Chris Sheppard

Looks a well made piece of kit - I'm surprised they aren't more popular yet, especially as the nasty rough stuff that used to get forgotten about is now having to get used as firewood now. Do they need much more pressure than if you were just using a normal grab for loading or is it all to do with leverage?

LOL funny you should say that - we've been getting lots more enquiries on the domestic ones and it's usually the wife's that phone up for them - He saws and she splits!

I like the idea of the a frame - have seen ones like that where the bed is on some sort of big bearing so you can spin the disc around as you split it. If you're lokking to split arb waste then IMO a vertical with 1m stroke and an adjustable height table will handle most stuff depending on pressure. Splitting big discs on a hroizontal takes some doing (try balancing a saucer on it's side!) but on long lengths theyre great. Would tend not to bother with diesel - generally noisy, smoky and expensive usually - petrol ones don't use that much fuel and are fairly quiet. Generally you do get what you pay for but there are exceptions - try to buy something thats going to be big enough to deal with whatever timber you may be dealing with in the future (don't forget if you want to use a 4 way knife then you'll need a decent amount of pressure unless it's all fairly straight grained timber.) and don't be tempted to skimp if you're using it commercially, as a professional machine will generally be built completely different to a domestic one. There are some good semi pro machines out there too. One other thing to bear in mind is that you want to have something that's going to be backed up with a warranty and also have good spares availablitity.

Now why they never launched the Patrol pick up over here I've no idea - that would have been my choice of truck - as much as I like a landy that would win hands down

I had a diesel one on a K reg - nice to drive and was fairly reliable most of the time - was very thirsty and underpowered though Think I ended up with a bad one as it dropped a big end at 90,000 miles. fitted a 2.4 turbo from a mark 4 and it went really well for 20,000 miles and then cracked it's head. Miles more comfy than the defender but just didn't feel quite as robust. Being on leaves it handled the weight well but as has been mentioned, when empty they're not the best off road.

Maybe I didn't give the portek enough of a chance - really liked the idea of it was just perhaps expecting too much (didn't miss it though when it went )

I had one of the ones by Portek (i think that's who made them) and I persisted with it for about half an hour - it went straight on ebay and was quickly forgotten about. Buzzsurgeon on here had a brilliant thing that held the timber at one end - think it was called a log dog but I searched the web and couldn't find another.

I agree

I'd strongly recommend not getting a hilux surf unless it was the 3ltr - the heads are made of plastecine (sp) and have a tendency to crack very easily I also had a mark three hilux on a K and it looked really nice but was gutless and unusually for a hilux - it dropped a big end and then 20,000 miles later on another engine cracked it's head (yes - it was a surf type engine ) If you're work is going to take you off road a fair bit then a defender would have a tendency to sustain less damage, cosmetically and catching bits underneath. Discoveries are nicer to drive on the road and will go pretty much where a defender will go. They tend to look nice from the outside but can hide rot quite well on the inside. I don't know about every one else but I tended to find it was more niggly little things with the defenders - think the biggest job I had to do so far was swap an axle over and that didn't take long. £60 for a complete axle with calipers, swivels the lot.

I like that - looks like a smaller version of the old Timberjack skidder we had at Duncombe park for a while. Not seen anything like that being built more recently but did see where someone had taken an alpine and removed all the bodywork and then built theire own tubular body/roll frame - not quite as heavy duty but more robust than from the factory.

Being a landy it was fairly beleivable it could have been any one of us That was a big hole for a little car - hope she was o.k.

Here's mine- first one's the 130 - I'd like to say I was dragging the discovery up hill backwards but i wasn't second one's the 110 that's going to get a rebuilt using the V8 and auto box out of number 3 Am sure I've seen that white 110 hedge before somewhere What did you do to yours stox? Looks pretty painful!

me too

Matt, yours does look the biz. My pics are on the other puter but will post mine when I can.

Something to consider too - a japanese truck will soon start to look rough when you work it no matter how careful you are - defenders roll out of the factory dinted - even properly knackered ones don't look that bad

There was someone on here with what looked like a tidy 200tdi hicap that wanted a chassis for not much money. New galv chassis on ebay for £650 - would make it a cheap truck that would last well. If you do get a landy it'll be a love hate relationship but for how much youll hate it you'll always want another!

Always thought it looks great fun

My Auntie and Uncle have fostered kids for the last 10 years or so and have found it quite rewarding. They've had a selection of ages and every one's been different - you're bound to get some with more "issues" than others but on the whole they've had no real problems.

I left school in 2000, got in on a local Estate driving the old 2wd zetor with winch and rounding the fires up, one of the others passed me a saw one dinnertime - kept doing a bit more and a bit more then went off to college, did bits over the holidays, came back spent a year working for someone else and started with my own firewood whilst with them. Went out on my own in 2003 as a cutter, mainly thinning softwood for local estates, started taking on my own jobs, bought the Carraro soon after, few months later bought the County as I was doing more of my own jobs and less day rate stuff then as all the local estates started to restrict access because of there pheasants I started winding down until I was just running the county and a pickup doing firewood and then had a few local contractors I'd go and hand cut for. Diesel got too expensive and my firewood supply dried up so in 2007 I went to work on the books for a local estate during the days and was doing what firewood I could get hold of on a weekend and after work. Lasted just under a year before I'd had enough - didn't get on with boss (before I started he'd gone through 5 woodmen in 18 months as no one would work with him)