Chris Sheppard

That thought crossed my mind too. I'm aways reluctant to use fuel in my saws I've not mixed myself, but that's more down to reducing the risk of using someone else's bad mix, but there shouldn't be any problem with using the stihl oil in a husky.

I already had the County so I put the money into a firewood processor. Was a cracking little tractor on the right going, but unless you really need the benefits of an alpine, there's lower cost alternatives that will do a similar job. Will see what can find pic wise, have a feeling they're all pretty similar to the others.

Did you find a home for the skidder Jim? Wonder if it could be strected and have a bogie axle fitted at the back instead without too much chopping?

They're all on the old computer, will try and get on it later, but there might be one or two in my album on my profile. Worked really well but in the end it wasn't getting used to it's full potential and running the sawbench or splitter didn't need a shiny alpine so it got sold.

Have you seen the smaller, budget Vreten? Can't remember the model number but it's black and red instead of blue and yellow. 4T and 4m or so crane from memory. Tyres were a bit skinny though. As far as I know, Andrew Holmes Forestry still do the Weimers. Not the best to get hold of by email though.....

Our 4T weimer's been a good trailer on the whole. The wheel track could do with being about 6 inches wider and a steering drawbar would be nice but it's a scaled down big trailer rather than a scaled up small trailer. We've only got the 3m crane on it but as it's a cut down 4.1m e can retrofit the longer booms if we wanted to. Did you ever see pics of the drive unit Steve fitted to one of the smaller JMS trailers? Worked well enough to push the tractor round just off the trailer wheels. Limiting factor with the JMS trailers was they were on quad type tyres so wuld have worn fairly quickly. That Mactrac looks a simple enough thing. Reckon an old compact tractor could be chopped about enough to make a front end not disimilar to the kranman front end. Can usually lose a good few inches off the bonnet before getting to the front of the engine. I'd love to have the time and facilities to make a proper little homebrew thinnings forwarder but I don't think it's ever going to happen. Best we might manage is to stick a steering drawbar on ours and maybe one day some wider offset rims and drive cages.

Usually a bit more than softwood chip - round us usually starting from £25/T roadside if it's a bit rough up to £30ish if it's not too bendy. Used to be that low it was hardly worth doing but biomass has pushed the price up nicely.

For sure. Can't beleive there's nothing available off the shelf in that size yet.

I reckon a smaller driven trailer with steering drawbar (of around 2.5-4T) would be a good first part to the project as there's currently nothing available like that. The only small driven trailers I've seen are tiny like the vahva jussi and kranman. Once a working trailer was built, it probably wouldn't take a lot of doing to make a front end and splice the two together into a working unit. If it could be kept as close to 2.5T and sub 16ft as possible then that would be a huge advantage as it would be easily transported too. However, IMO, in the UK there'd probably be more chance of selling a trailer than a complete forwarder. The downside of the tractor and trailer though is that it takes two trips each time to transport it onto site. When at Riko, I looked at the possibility of using one of the smaller alpines as a front end of a small forwarder or stretching an artic steer AGT but still kept coming back to the driven trailer idea - like with everything though it's time and money. Slighty off on a tangent, I still think a mid sized dumper could be made into a good compact skidder. Take the tub off, make it reverse drive and mount the winch and butt plate where the tub were - mini timberjack

We seem to have been lucky and have missed the last bit of snow completely - proper cold though with the wind.

That'd be a good starting point. Also, even though it involves trees and chainsaws, it's a whole different world to Arb. If you've not done any commercial forestry then it will certainly be an eye opener and chances are you'll either love it or hate it.

Depends what you want it for though doesn't it. 560 is great, no doubt about it, but for smaller thinnings the 550 on a 13" is just plain ace - feels similar to an old 242 but pulls similar to a 357. If we get the bigger hardwood thinnings we're waiting on comfirmation of, then a 560's on the shopping list though. I'm defintely not in the stihl camp and doubt I ever will be, but comparing a 261 and a 560 isn't really a fair comparison - ones a 50cc and the other's a 60cc.

Mine has been. 13" is mega flickable but pulls 15" well too.

Tis a good show, both from an exhibitors point of view and as a punter. Used to be my favourite show of the year and have been trying to get to it as a punter for the last couple of years but never managed it yet. As an exhibitor you'd get to go to the saturday night do with the band, bar and food

I could really make use of one of those, it would replace the current rig quite nicely. Just don't fancy being tied to an expensive machine for however many years it would take to pay it off.

Even a 20hp compact tracor will pull a small timber trailer (like a vahva jussi etc) more convincingly than a quad. Our Kubota is physically about the size of a fergie 135 and pulls our 4 tonne forwarding trailer without breaking sweat and is still only about 5ft6/6ft wide.

Not sure I agree with you there. If it's straight and you think it's going to start to go on it's own, then surely a wedge isn't needed. Also, surely you're increasing the risk of it chairing by taking more time and also leaving it with a semi cut back cut. If it's not straight forward enough to think it might need wedging, surely it's just as easy to cut it properly.

I think it comes down to assessing each tree as you come to it. Yes, in an ideal world everything would be by the book but it doesn't seem to work like that. A calculated risk based on common sense and experience.

Tis a bit more serious than that - it's driving a vehicle without the correct license. Don't know the penalties though.

That's probably why they've got so much for sale - sat it all at roadside and can't find anyone who can haul it without it falling through the pins

Should do, they can see a fair bit from the seat and reach is usually somewhere around 9m from memory. I know we can stack 2 rows of 3.7m and they can load the back row without moving.

An 8 wheeler or a 6 wheeler and drag.

I had to google it too. Looks a bit like a cross between a dogtooth and a cushion cut. IME the key is to get it off the hinge as quick as possible, whether that be by chasing the hinge on smaller timber (probably not something any instructor will tell you to do) or by letterboxing the hinge, notching the sides of the gob fairly deeply and using a dogtooth, or various levels in between depending on the tree and what it's going for.

the current pro 50cc husky is the 550xp - it would make the old ms 240 or 260 feel very slow and heavy.

Agree totally. I left the woods for a couple of years and very quickly realised I shouldn't have and made my way back again. If I was you, I'd forget college for the time being. If you want to get a start in the woods, go do CS30 and 31 first and get some experience. A college qualification is all well and good but is no good without the saw time to back it up. Then, if you wanted to go more into the management roles, college could be a useful tool. The fact you've already spent some time in the woods and haven't been put off is a good start - a lot of people have an idea in there heads of what to expect and find the reality very different. You'll never get rich and you'll ache places you never thought you could, but there's no job comes close to being out on a good site crashing down big sticks