Chris Sheppard

I'd agree with huck and others on that - live elm is a pain to season, but standing dead is great. Still usually wants a bit of drying but if it's lost all the bark then it's not far off.

It does sound quite cool. Shame it's a bit of a trek.

I wonder if it would make any diference if you put slightly less wood in each drum, just for comparison. It looked quite tightly packed in the pics - I don't know if that would make any difference to how the gasses circulate within the drum?

I can't say with any sort of certainty, but my gut feeling is the gasses can escape too easily and not really getting going. Was there any pattern within the drum of where the brown ends were more brown/less charred? Maybe an increase in the size of the vents as well as the flue might help. Does it have a flue for each drum or just the one in the back right hand corner (if that's what can see in the pic?). It does look a really nicely made set up, hopefully a few little tweaks and you'll be sorted

Mine pretending it's a real bike at practice day at Driffield yesterday. Had a good day out and it held it's own pretty well I reckon, considering it's got about as much power as a KX60 White tank looks a bit silly but the yelow one sprang a leak the other day.

That looks great Steve Got any pics of the manifold set up? When it was gassing, did it really roar? my experiences are fairly limited, but on the whole I found less holes worked better, especially fairly mall ones as you could almost get the gas to light in little jets. I reckon to hold the heat in better, if you were setting it somewhere semi permanent it could work well if it was set into an earth bank to act as insulation. I do still want to build something like what you've done eventually.

I reckon that about sums it up nicely (though thankfully we don't get the midges) I don't like it when its too hot, I don't like it when it's cold and wet and I don't like it when it's really windy. The rest of the time it's great, but even the bad days are better than being stuck in an office etc, even if you don't think it at the time

Absolutely. Ones's designed for moving a few tonne of wood at a time and the other one's designed for twoing huge trailers. I reckon the little forwarder would have whooped the tractor on the offroad bit with a load on the bed, even if the tractor was weighted up on the front. One APF we ended up with an artic parked in the middle of the stand, axle deep and they tried shifting it first with a teleporter (still on the tarmac) that just lit it's tyres, then a big tractor that did the same. Camee along a bit later with a Valmet 860 fully loaded, hitched up few revs and it pulled it out like it wasn't even there

Didn't think you were having a go I was just telling it how it is If that's per man, then that's more than pretty good going. I don't know anyone over here that could physically put enough wood on the floor day in day out to do that (Everyone has exceptional days once or twice, but usually not very often). What we should earn and what we can earn are two totally different numbers Ah, forgot about ramorum - thankfully we never seem to have got it near enouhg to affect us.

^ what he said, plus I think it has a slightly bigger tank too.

You're a funny guy I still think it feels like a 242 on steroids

I've yet to find a jacket I find comfortable to go felling in, so find the best thing is to just take plenty of spare top layers and change them each time you stop for a cuppa if need be. As far as I know there aren't any waterproof saw kegs available any more. Once you've got a layer of sap down the fronts they tend to keep water out for a good while anyway. Usually by the time it's soaked through me kegs I've had enough and want to go home anyway.

The 550 is a bit like that too, if it's sat ticking over and then you pick it up it ca splutter a bit when you first blip it. Take the spark arrestor out as soon as you get it and it will about cure it.

It'll be the same with any big manufacturer of anything - they don't want to deal with the day to day stuff, that's why they have dealers in the first place. A good dealer will do what they can to keep the customer happy, though there's plenty that will wriggle for all they're worth. Replacing an odd bad saw will be no skin off Husky's noses in the grand scheme of things - if they were that bad, they'd have to do something about it or risk losing sales.

That's because we only have little trees in small blocks compared to what you'll be used to. Plus, the wood is of low value in comparison to the amount of work involved - if the wood was worth more, perhaps more would be done to manage it better. That's interesting on the Larch, Jon. Round us we can usually get a bit more per tonne on Larch logs and chip than we do on any other SW (well, we did last time anyway).

Get it out and get using it, the chances of it being a dud one are fairly slim. I can only think of a couple on here that have been mega problematic. If your dealer's anygood you shouldn't have anything to worry about.

I'm going to have to disagree with you for once Jon Other than the few niggly problems early on, there's only a couple of people on here I have noticed that really seem to be fed up with their 560's - with everyone else mainly happy. Whilst I don't have a 560 yet, I've had my 550 for about 14 months or so and it's never yet let me down. I know that if it did my local dealer would do everything they could to make it right - sometime's the problem isn't the manufacturer, it's the dealer not having the balls to take on the manufacturer. The only reason I haven't bought a 560 yet as well is because I already have another 4 saws that will do the same job and can't really justify another just because I want one. What amazes me most is the fact people actually want to go back to 346's - There's much better old huskys out there than the 346, the 242 or as already mentioned, the 254 for instance

Sion, Don't get too hung up on rope length - in reality, 50m is still a good distance and I'd be surprised if there's many occasions you'll need to pull more than that, especially when you're on an alpine as you should be able to wiggle well in. I can't comment on the durability of the smaller cable but It's not going to last as long as the thicker one before it starts fraying and curling up I'd guess. Even a lot of the big winches don't come with 100m on them - that sort of says something. Have a look on the side of the winch where the chain grooves are, there should be a sharp edge on one side - this is for cutting the cable with. Get yourself a decent lump hammer and make sure that edge is fairly clean. If you need to cut the end few feet off in the woods, wrap some electricians tape around where you need to cut, lay it across the sharp edge and two or three good belts with the hammer should cut it fairly cleanly. EDIT: forgot to say, when you load the new rope on, before you use it properly, reel it right out, attach it to something sturdy and wind itright in with a bit of load on, otherwise you can crush the cable where you're doing a big pull over a loosely wound drum (that will make more sense when it's in front of you than reading it here)

55hp Compact should work really well with a 3T or so PTO winch. It will be faster than almost any vehicle mounted solution and will have enough pull to deal with most thinning work on a small tractor. I've not used the portable capstan winches, though I'm sure they are great for smaller trees and occasional use. I'd expect you will wear out a rope fairly quickly though, more from abrasion/damaging it than over stessing it. Thats where the 10/12mm wire rope of a tractor mounted winch will come in. Personally, I'd discount an electric winch mounted on a vehicle straight away - nearly all of them are painfully slow to use to pull timber with. I had a Superwinch Husky on a landrover and used it once and never again! Tractor mounted one may seem expensive, but the extra productivity will more than justify it and the depreciation will be fairly small compared to some other kit. For the sort of use it sounds like you'll be giving it, a PTO one should last you a very long time.

What you've been told is a load of twaddle. A lot of hardwood is felled for firewood, and quite often commands more money standing than sawlog grade softwood. Some mills will take hardwood down to as small as 6" top diameter from memory, whereas the most saleable firewood is Hardwood thinnings from about 4" diameter up to 14-15", and straight with it. That will sell roadside for as much or more than Softwood sawlogs too. Softwood wise, because of the biomass/firewood market, we only usually bother cutting Sawlogs and chip/firewood (rather than things like pallet/bars/strainers/posts etc too). In hardwood, on the whole it's worth more/less hassle to sell out as firewood, unless it's decent grade (and usually Oak, though sometimes Ash and even Sycamore).

Reckon there was some definite cutting to length depending on how tired Worst ones were the short ones that fell between the pins of the trailer We've just about done our bit now, been in chipping today what Rich couldn't get, little bit left and another few loads to forward out.

I reckon you're right - that's how I read it.

The MSA/Sordin ones are fairly pricey at £70 or so, but worth it IMO. If possible, get the older style ones as they seem to be a better muff than the newer style ones (like the ones in the husky catalogue). I'm currently running a set f the new type ones as helmet mount and they're doing OK, but they just don't sit as well as the old ones as the shape is different - but that might just be me having a funny shape head. If you were to go for the Husky ones (which are just MSA/Sordin ones in orange) the dealer should be able to do them for a whole lot less than they are in the catalogue, mine did anyway and he didn't take much persuading either. For cheap, those one's that Aldi or Lidl had for £30 a while back aren't bad - not very robust but good sound reduction and the radio bit of it works really well. Only bad thing I can really note was the battery cover fell off and got loast within a few days, never t be seen again so mine are held in with duct tape at present.

There's loads of toys I wish I'd kept over the years. Think the one I kick myself the most over is getting id of the County - It would have come in handy for loads of jobs over the last couple of years. Sure there's other Counties, but they'd never be that one. My old HJ62 Land Cruiser - 4L straight 6 diesel with no turbo. Sounded ace, pulld like a train and was so huge inside. Mechanically was mint but body was rotting so it went and was replaced with a Hilux that looked great but was useless. Worst of it is now all the panels that rot are available to buy Twinshock CZ 380mx - was a beast of a bike and sounded ace. We sold it for not a lot and now it would have been worth quite a bit. Took it to an enduro once when my CR gearbox fell to bits - houred out before the first check after going through something like 8 plugs Think those are the main ones, though often wish I'd kept all my G.I. Joe stuff (Action man was a bit before my time) and from time to time I wish i'd kept my old KMX 125 I had on the road at 17.

It wasn't bad - seemed odd to be able to get into top gear running round the wood. Weather was ace, jut ended up with a sunburnt face with white bits where sunglasses were Not 100% sure on power but 30 something. Trailer is a 4T weimer with an oddball 3m weimer crane. An extra metre on the crane would make a huge difference but it works OK with the stumpy one and can lift loads more than it looks like it should. It's very similar in build to the Farma stuff. The tractor and trailer work really well together, the only thing the trailer dosn't like is side slopes.