Chris Sheppard

Running a few months behind where i should be - my 110 doesn't look anything like what it should do. I've been set the challenge to have it MOT'd and sat on the club stand at Driffield (not looking hopeful becuase work keeps getting in the way) Top picture is for motivation, bottom picture shows how far I've got - I did get the bulkhead and sills off today ready for the skip though. When I get my ass in gear it's getting a 3.9 V8 and Auto box with LPG to replace the dead 2.5 N/A diesel. Did think of putting the 300tdi out of the 130 in but V8 wins every time

No direct experience of the vented ones but heard plenty of good about them - it's still possible to get a bit of mould if theyre stacked a bit tight. Not sure how you process your logs Stevie but if it was me I'd bust everything up in long lengths with that cracker thingy you have and stack them up in long billets - almost can watch them dry and put a tarp or something jsut alon the top to keep the worst off. Before I bought a processor I was always jsut working out of the wood and used to billet everything up and stack it off the ground along the side of the track with no cover - rain never did it any real harm.

There's a fairly good chance they'll go mouldy in the standard bags - I tried it even with fairly well seasoned timber and they still went manky as they jsut don't get the air they need.

Absolutely. I had some sycamore I felled in winter/very early spring before the sap statred to rise, split it into 1m billets that week, stacked it on the side of a breezy ride (uncovered) and had it ready to burn (not perfect but certainly passable) in 3 months or so - only ever managed it that once but was certainly an eye opener. On the other hand - they had some butts in the yard on the Estate that had been there 3 years or so - disced them up and they were still dripping wet in the middle. Split it as soon as you can and half the battles won

Well said.

A fair point - let me explain; To keep the nose weight of the trailer to a legal level whether loaded or unloaded, the body of the trailer slides forward or backwards independantly of the axles and drawbar using a hydraulic cylinder. To be able to do this the drawbar is constructed from a large piece of box section rather than an A frame and the largest capacity hitch available in this fitting is 3200kg. All the extra steel involved to build the trailer to have an A frame drawbar and still allow it to slide far enough would eat a long way into the 300kg extra gross weight and also add further to the nose weight. The original fast tows were built as a way of transporting a compact tractor to the woods and then being able to forward timber too without needing two trailers or making two trips to the wood and back eack time (one for the tractor and one for the trailer) and depending on the exact spec of the trailer and what crane is chosen, the carrying capacity on the road is typically around 2000kg - enough to carry most compact tractors.

Done the first one before thinning some big ash and syc - couldn't start until later than was ideal and ended up going through the knocking any of the decent sycamores over first them coming back to once everything else was down and dealt with a week or so later. Didn't know about the other methods - always good to know

We always thought if stuff was going to go missing it would be the smaller machines as in theory there would be more people likely to buy them - each of the bigger ones was around half a tonne plus - one did have wheels but they are heavy to move on anything except concrete/tarmac so they must have come with an hiab or something similar - even moved a few bits out of the way to get at them! Funny how they waited until the snow had meleted enough not to leave wheelmarks I used to leave my own stuff parked in the woods for all the time I owned it - am sure people had a poke and a prod at it but worst I ever suffered was a handful of pine needles in the tank. Sign of the times? Maybe.

Never found a pair I got on with, always thought I had more control without them. Had a couple of pairs of the basic husky ones as there were a few times I had to wear them despite arguing about it but I always found that if they got wet it didn't matter how slowly you dried them out they still went solid. Did try puttting some leather oil into them to soften them back up but then when they got wet they went slimy. In the bin is the best place for them IMO. That was all ground work so don't know about climbing

Thanks for keeping your eyes open. That one was all above board and bought at the APF. Still had no news on them so am guessing long gone now - police didn't seem to optimistic as usual. Worst bit of it is all the hassle afterwards, welding the gates back together, welding a new clasp on the container, all the paperwork and then the Excess on the policy to pay. B**tards.

Wow - that's some cupboard. Wouldn't last long in our house. Do like chocolate but not in big amounts, ours usually has bags of midget gems, wine guns or amwerican hard gums or big bags of salt and vinegar sprials or onion rings - yum. As said before doesn't last long though.

Not the best pic but hows that for splitter porn - to get an idea - thats an 85 hp Same on the front of it.

We can supply up to 100 tonne - if you're looking for a new one drop me a PM

we had one at Birdsall for crosscutting with (everything was skidded out) and we had to use a bench grinder to sharpen it. Don't know if it had to have special discs or not - sure someone else will know though

Can't comment for Arb but from forestry point of view mine used to get proper minging when thinning softwood. Yuk

Probably not recommended but petrol on a paintbrush always worked for me - used to shift even the most stubborn gloopy stuff.

Looking good - never thought of doing the legs that way Have got several half chopped up gas bottles where I've started building astove and then just got round to finishing it

Thanks for the words of support guys, I've scanned some pics below - the sawbench is exactly as per pic - the 18 tonner looks like the 25 tonner in the top left and the 16 tonner looks a fair bit like the 25 tonner in the top right but all orange, no wheels, bent leg and the oil tank is vertical and mounted on one side. Tried cropping it to fit the page better but it wouldnt get the important bits in . There may be bits we haven't noticed gone yet but i'll let you know

Morning Guys, Went down to the yard yesterday morning to find the gates wide open and the lock ground off - Had a look through the yard and looks like they've taken a PTO saw bench, a Vertical 16 tonne PTO splitter with Hydraulic winch built in - (this is fairly unique as one of the legs is bent at a funny angle where I had a mishap loading it) and also an 18 tonne PTO vertical - this should be even harder to shift as it's the first one of this model in the UK. Can't see anything else missing as yet but they've had a good look around and been in the container too. - they must have been fairly well geared up as the splitters are both around half a tonne each. These are all brand new and you won't miss them - They are Ballario and Forestello machines - Bright Orange with Blue bits (though the 16 tonner is completely Orange. Will post Serial numbers when I can find them. These were taken at some point over the weekend from Kingsley in Hampshire (between Alton and Bordon) If anyone is offered any of the above then please can you let me know - either by PM, email ([email protected]) or phone the office direct on 01420 487300 Chris

a mighty 1.3 I'd guess! here's my old lux in various guises- was a nice truck but gutless and heavy on engines - shame there's not enough room for an amazon engine under the bonnet.

I agree with Dean's line of thinking in that someone who has experience in using the machinery they are selling does help go a long way to be able to putting it across well without bullsh***ing the customer. I don't have a problem with a company doing both and I would always shop about too but then see if my regular dealer could match the other prices. I wish I knew how companies had time to both do tree work and sell equipment though!

definitely the best out of the 4 die hards IMO

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.