Chris Sheppard

That'd be it Bet he was cursing a bit. My poor little tractor would barely straddle one of his wheelings in places! All that's left to come out now it where he's not managed to get with the mulcher and I can't get over the brash.

I think the key is the bigger saw to go for longer when it dulls off. Hitting a stone is never good on any chain but semi's always going to suffer less damage if it hits something hard so should go a bit longer I reckon. Openspaceman's idea with the bearers sounds a good one. Remember it being mentioned before but never tried it myself.

Know what you mean - could have been stringy spruce or gnarly pine and they'd have been still intact by the landing! It's when forwarding I get most frustrated as usually I'm a bit of a stickler for getting it on the trailer as nicely as sensible so it comes off better the other end, plus only running small gear, every stick counts. It's amazing what you can sned from the tractor seat with a bit of ingenuity

I'd say it would be more like an 880 with a 60" or similar - big but you'll know it's there. I'm sure a longer bar would have a marginally lower chain speed due to a bit of extra friction, but hardly nooticable. It's more the extra work it's doing in the cut when at full bar length. Plus IMO it'll handle like a barge

Spent this morning finishing off forwarding some firewood on a local estate, nothing odd about that on the whole, but was such a nice site to be working on. It's some woods surrounding a lake which is far enough off the beaten track to be a bit of a haven for wildlife, there were Swans, Canada Geese, Pinkfeet, Moorhens and Mallard as well as a few odd Pheasants and a Buzzard or two floating about. It was also a bit odd as there was barely any brash or stumps to deal with as a Mulcher had been through a week or so ago so i was like a motorway in places (apart from where the mulcher wheelings were 4ft deep ) Over Friday, Saturday and a couple of hours today I got 47 loads out. working on the downside and sayign 2T per load, I'm pretty chuffed as that was all with the kubota and little trailer and yesterday saw 26 loads out - just don't look too closely at the stacking though as it was all ramdom lengths from about 6ft to 14 ft - it's stacked a lot neater than I'd expected it to. Another thing a bit unusual was that I think almost every part of the job so far has been done by Arbtalkers, even if they are lurkers Few pics of my view from the tractor. It doesn't look it in the photo, but the stack is about 130ft long and between 8 and 10ft tall.

An Arbtalk hall of shame

I wouldn't want to use an 18" bar on a 550 because I suspect it would feel awful. It's a 50cc saw, designed to be light, flickable and nicely balanced. If I needed an 18" bar, I'd be reaching for a bigger saw. Husky say about using a 24" bar on a 372 - IMO 20" is as big as it wants and even then it's only if I have to. I'm sure either saw will pull the biggest bars it lists for them, but at the expense of balance and cutting speed if at full bar length. They probably list the bigger bars because it makes it sound more impressive, but just cos it says it in the catalogue, doesn't mean it will work well in the real world

You just want to use the Dolly for everything don't you really, Jon? We did have some success with the multicut on skidded stuff but with it still being full chisel it still doesn't like stones - OK on sandy stuff though, just lacking in bite compared to non MC full chisel chain

Found myself thinking about this thread again this morning while on the tractor, mainly all the negativity floating round, especially from those freshly into it or wnating to be. Getting your foot in the door is something I can't really help with, but ways of making yourself stand out above others and therefore helping to keep you in work I think I can. I appreciate not everyone will agree with all of these, but these are things that in my opinion make the difference between someone who fells trees and someone who does it well. Stumps - there's generally no excuse for high stumps (buttresses don't count as an excuse - you've got a saw, use it!). If the side of your saw isn't about on the floor you're doing something wrong. Snedding - Everyone misses an odd small limb from time to time, but missing lots on the underside isn't good. Likewise, leaving pegs. If you've gone the the effort to cut off a branch, do it properly, especially on hardwood. There seems to be more and more people almost making pruning cuts when snedding hardwood - if your saw isn't up to growling off heavy forks then get a bigger saw! Stacking - The other two annoy me, but as it's usually me forwarding it out, this is my absolute bugbear. Stacks that look like they've been dropped out of the sky by a chinook are no good for anyone. I'll mention it once, tell you a second time and after that I'll not pick it up until you change your ways Cutting to length/spec - beleive it or not, stuff gets a spec set for a reason. OK, Chip and firewood aren't always so critical, but still, if your sticks measure 14 ft instead of 12, and the wagon goes out light because it can't fit enough bays on, that's at least two faily important people you've upset so far. More importantly is top diameters/lengths for things like sawlogs - if a load gets rejected because of your mismeasuring, then you'll not be very popular again. A quick check on diameters is to have a series of marks on the side cover of your saw - the older Jonsereds used to have 5cm, 10cm and 14cm (from memeory) cast into the side of the clutch cover for that very reason. Brash - tops left hanging and brash 4ft deep a) looks crap, and b) tend to do damage to machines (not talking about purpose built obviously), if you're asked to mash it up a bit on the way - do it. Also, when mashing up brash, try not to leave spikes (ash is probably the worst for this) as they tend to have a habit of finding the sidewalls of tyres a bt too easily. One thing I've noticed over the years is each and every one of the above tend to surface when people try to go faster than their ability will let them. Get into good habits first and speed will come later. Overheads wise, a couple of saws, combi can, a few wedges and felling bar and you're away - don't get sucked into needing a 4x4 straight away, surely you can carry a saw and fuel a few hundred metres can't you If it wasn't for having to shift the tractor and trailer about, I'd probably have a little van or maybe something like another subaru legacy again. You'll likely earn very little to start with, but if you have the right attitude and are prepared to stick with it, then it can be a rewarding job. You'll have good weeks and bad weeks and at times wonder why you bother, but on the whole you should feel great Worse case, if you don't like it you'v got all the gear you need to go and chuck brash through a chipper

Depends on the tractor, but say 70-100hp tractor should pull 10 or so of that sort of size at a time I'd say. Usually the limiting factor would be the winch but you're taking that out of the equation.

This needs renaming the Doom and Gloom thread

As they're all small diameter trees, and it's all for your own use, I'd look at something like an ATV timber trailer and cut to something like 2m or similar and hand load/stack. Either that or just get someone in to forward it from stump. 5 acres isn't a huge area, Buying a forwarding trailer would be a bit overkill I reckon. Skidding small diameter trees is just a pain in the arse. Takes as long to choker a small tree as it does a larger one, but for less reward and no matter how well you choker them, one will always fall out of it's chain before you get to the landing

I'm not convinced. It sounded like the 100-150 was if he really went for it. I still reckon it's number of trees.

Not long got in, spent today forwarding on a local job and somehow managed to get 26 loads out - knees hurt, hands ache and I've got a sunburnt head too Eating me tea and drinking a beer now.

Stems I'm reckoning

Smallish loader tractor would be my suggestion. Maybe not as big lift as a teleporter but cheaper, can be used to run an implement too if need be and easier to fix.

On the whole a lot of the smaller Scandinavian machines are going to be fairly lightly built as over there people tend to have a firewood processor in the same way we'd have a cheap saw, sawhorse and chinese log splitter over here for domestic use. Like the others have said - if you use it nicely any of the Scandi ones should last well.

Depends what it is I'm selling - on the whole I'll start 99p no reserve and let them get on with it. Unless it's badly listed then there's a good chance what ever it is will get to where it should be fairly early on and then stand half a chance of going for too much later on. If it's something a bit obscure that not many people might be looking for then I'll start it at what I want for it.

Cracking little tractors - we used to pull the forwarding trailer with ours but it's now ending it's days as a yard tractor with the log splitter. Quite a small tractor for the HP and really nimble.

I've only skimmed through so chances are it's probably been said already. New blood - yeah right, how many youngsters really want to run a saw flat out all day in the woods when they can potentially be no worse off bunging brash through a chipepr and finishing mid afternoon. Putting rates up - ultimately the wood's only worth what the wood's worth. The only real way is to cut out as many middlemen from the whole process as possible. Thinking it's easy - Maybe its not the most technical of operations, but the skill is in working efficiently - fast (something plenty of people think they are), safe and presenting the timber to be as easy to extract as possible. For those that do fancy it, I do think the colleges could do with pushing a bit more traditional forestry skills as I've seen some fairly straightforward situations baffle newcomers because they've not been shown how to deal with them, or they've totally over complicated things and took loads longer than they needed. On the whole I love being out in the woods, sure there's lows as well as highs but it takes a hold of you and won't let go - I hit a low spot a few years ago and tried leaving it behind for a while but soon came back

Got a go with it today pulling some hangers - really quite impressed with it so far. Want's a bit of a tune and the clutch setting up properly, but nowt major. Seems a bit steady on line speed but reckon it'll be low geared because of it only haviing a small engine compared to say a lewis with a 372 bolted to it.

I had an early 353 as my main thinning saw for years and really rated it. Compared to the orange side 346's, I preffered it as it was less revvy but with a bit more bottom end. The later ones seemed to be less good though. I've not used a 545, but imagine it to be much like a 550 but less aggressive. I've been on my 550 most of today after not using it much for a while and forgot just how great it is. Been thinning some fairly heavy branched Ash/Oak/Sycamore with it and it just rips.

Like the others have said, meant to be the best of the best. I've not used them myself but can highly recommend the Koni Heavy Track shocks (the standard ones, not the Raids). I've got a set on the back of my 90 that must be over 50,000 miles old now - they were on my old 130 befor they went on the 90 and are still going strong. They're quite expensive too but for how lng they last they probably work ou quite chea in comparison to Terrafirma and Britpart.

I jut wait til mine's gone to bed