Chris Sheppard

Cheers Geoff Spent most of the afternoon drooling over bikes on ebay

We're really fortunate as our electric comes via a the factory that used to own the house we live in so we pay them based on meter readings - last bill was £82 for 5/6 months over winter. Previous house wasn't too bad at about £100/£120 a quarter with Npower.

Bet that goes well Finally managed to get in for a Module 2 test today after last one getting cancelled because of the snow - Passed it

Cheers Geoff 4 strokes are a new thing to me but definitely can see the appeal. What you thinking of getting? I'm kinda on the lookout for a pre 1990 DR 200 (or maybe even a 200 engine to drop into the blown up black one ) but there's a bit of me still want's another whizz bang 2 smoker....

550xp 357xp 357xpg 2159 372xp 181se 242g (almost running, think wants diaphrams replacing) 42 grey top 42 special (in bits - prob end up as parts) Do need to have a bit of a thin out at some point. Probably end up with a 560 this season and at some point will buy myself something 90cc +

How old are you: 30 How long have you been climbing: Don't climb but 12 years in the industry (couple of them not ful time though) Where do you work: North Yorks/East Yorks Where have you worked: Dumfries and Galloway, Lake District, South Yorkshire Where would you like to work: British Columbia maybe What Climbing System do you use: N/A What Harness: N/A Whats you favourite saw: Husq 242xpg Least favourite saw: Stihl 08S Favourite tree to work on: Larch Least Favourite tree to work on: Could be any Probably Hairy spruce that should have been thinned years ago.... Favourite work to carry out: Felling big softwood in front of skidder Favourite arb vehicle: defender Throwline or Ladder: N/A Do you climb outside of work: N/A Where would you like to be in 10 years time: Probably a bit more yard based, being a bit more creative rather than just crash bash.

Ta Am finally about there now. Got front tyre to fit in a few min and front sprocket cover to make and if I get chance before next weekend, a bit of a bashguard. Forgot when I changed the gearing that the new back tyre was loads taller so have got an even smaller front sprocket on the way - want to at least be able to pull second through the woods this time Know it was never intended to be a proper enduro bike but there's just something about the little DR's that I like. At least next Saturday it's all pre 1990, Trail bikes or Beginners so the going will be a bit less heavy than it will be for the modern bikes on the Sunday Temporarily admitted defeat with the original carb so it's running the pumper off the black one and it seems to be loads better.

What he said ^

Struggling, but if had to be 2 and no more then it would probably be 560 and 390 (or 395).

Depends what I'm after really. On the whole I go into the local dealer and he'll get somewhere near or beat online prices, depending on what it is. Some things we'd struggle to find locally so it's online for them.

Mine's getting closer - all being well the proper tank will be back on it shortly and the RM80 sidepanels will loo less bodged on Actually got it to move under it's own power for the first time today too Got some fresh tyres to fit too and the carb's taking some settign up but it's a whole lot further on than it was.

I'd agree, especially for a first saw too.

They can be a bit hit and miss, some go really well and others are just OK. The newer ones don't seem as agressive power delivery as the older ones for sure.

I'd be fairly sure the winch on the TW150 that I work with is faster/more powerful than most winches normally found bolted to a tracked chipper and even then it's only ever used for skidding when really necessary. For anything other than an odd stick or two then, IMO, there's far better machines to use for the job.

Absolutely. Though I think the the answer to the OP is neither - Production handcutting/stacking to forwarder is the most physically demanding.

But surely it's not production work is it? Wouldn't it be more cost effective to just cut to waste?

An alpine is great if the terrain requires it but there are cheaper options if you work less sloping sites generally. I used to run a 50hp alpine with a 3.5t winch and it was great for getting closer to the timber and had plenty of power to use the winch but lacked a bit in ground clearance and linkage lift height. Work alongside a more conventional compact tractor with winch (30hp 4wd Landini) and the only thing that sometimes lacks a bit is power on big uphill pulls (with the winch to the tractor, not once the trees are to the winch). Good ground clearance and surprisingly stable. On one estate we used to do all the thinning with a 2wd Ford 3000 and little fransguard winch - it was surprising where it would go and what it would pull. If you've decent back tyres, don't be too put off by 2wd - if you're pulling to max capacity the front wheels won't hardly be doing anything anyway

Cheers It's like christmas here at the mo, more bits keeps arriving off Ebay but I have to keep trying to hide them before SWMBO gets home from work

About the only sensilble option at £1000 would be a Jimny. Probably be fairly high miles and might want an odd patch on the boot floor but there's only a couple of things usually go wrong with jimnys and both are very cheap fixes. I'm almost convinced there's no such thing as a good Defender for sale anywhere - they become good ones after a while of ownership (making good things that have been bodged or repaired using low quality parts) and generally either get kept or stolen. £1000 is pretty much scrap money for a 90/110 or Defender, I'd say that even tripling your budget you're going to be hunting for a while to find a good starting point.

It's not something I'd do unless I had to as it's very slow in comparison to using even a small tractor and as said above is going to put stresses through the machine they aren't really built for. Speed wise, IMO it's to slow to be viable for any sort of production work.

If you were to go the second hand route, I would recommend the husky 242 or even just 42 (but not a 142 as they are a domestic saw) - they are really light and well balanced, perhaps lacking a bit in grunt compared to a 50cc saw but the time you lose in the felling you make up in the snedding.

The 550 is a great little saw but quite agressive with it - it would out cut the 261 no prob. If you've never used a saw before I'd say the 550 could almost be a bit intimidating. Weight and handling wise you should be fine with the 550, but maybe consider the 545 - the semi pro version of the 550 with just a little less power. Don't be put off by it not being the pro one - as far as I know they are almost identical component wise

I'm pretty sure the one that twists as you hit it in is still a splitting wedge. I have one (not a stihl one) and it's great for splitting logs but is too small of a surface area to use for wedging trees over IMO as it sinks into the timber rather than lifting the tree and isn't very grippy - it did it, but not very convincingly, but that was all I had in the landy at the time.

Previous house had a bare veg patch when we moved in and we had a go at growing our own, but it didn't go that well - mainly down to me not keeping it weeded and keeping beasties off from eating it so kinda gave up. Did try again a few years later with some smaller raised beds I'd made and found that a couple of minutes every time I let the dogs out meant I kept it weed free and with some simple frames made of cane and netting managed to keep the birds off too. That went fairly well and we had Potatoes, Carrots, Swede, Parsnip and a few Onions. Something I've tried a couple of times and failed both times was growing mushrooms - first time we got nothing at all and the second time we got one grow to almost harvestable size and then it just shrivelled up. Probably will try again but not holding out much hope. Since have moved house and haven't got round to getting anything sorted but I'm hoping to do something about it this year. Have got a few small rasberry and strawberry plants in pots that put a little bit of fruit on each year, does that count?

Usually if the wedges are coming out it's for something fairly decent in size so usually I've got sledgehammer, a wooden shafted magnesium high lift and a pair of smaller plastic wedges. That way the high lift does the work and the plastic ones just chase up the cut and the chances of clipping the highlift is minimal. For hitting them, I've got a 7lb sledgehammer with a third of the shaft cut off so it's a lot less numb to swing. Have toyed with the idea of an impact bar before but IMO I don't think it would have the weight for anything with much backlean and the length of the bar doesn't look like it would give much leverage compared to giving it a shove by hand.