Chris Sheppard

Think Nathan from Home Forestry said he'd built some so maybe worth speaking to him - he's on here somewhere. There's a guy who I don't think's based too far from you Sam (maybe not Cumbria but somewhere North of Yorkshire and below Scotland), who built the one at Grizedale. Met him a while back but can't rememember his name Do you not fancy building one?

How long's a piece of string? Work it backwards - to start with, what's it worth to you at roadside? Then work out how much will it cost you to get each tonne from stump to roadside, how much per tonne to fell/crosscut/stack. Take all that off the rodside price and that will give you the figure per tonne to give a break even, so then the rest comes down to what profit you hope to turn.

Where's it say that?

agreed

If you do happen to go for a 266 (or 262 possibly) I know where there's a genuine piston and cylinder kit sat on a dealers shelf gathering dust that should be similar money to a non gen kit but better quality.

There's definitely a knack to starting them. On my 181, I pull it over til it's just before fully compressed and then give it a good go. Usually fires first time and starts second or third. Trying to start it like a little saw just makes hard work and sore fingers

Qualifications (other than certificates of competance maybe) won't help much from a cutting point of view, more important for managerial roles I'd have thought. Experience, IMO, is more important. There seems to be a good few colleges offering courses that combine Arboriulture and Forestry but in reality seem to concentrate on tree surgery skills.

10-12 a week is an awful lot - do you tap then out to clear the filings? I used to use nothing but Oregon but after using up the last of a batch I bought a few years ago, the newest box I bought wasn't great. Tried Stihl ones and think they seem to last longer than the oregon ones. Dunno best place online for them though as picked mine up local.

254 wouldn't be a bad one. 242's are nice but seeme to command good money on ebay - most of the one's I've wanted have been too far away and the seller's woun't post or let a courier collect.

Finally got round to actually building my bench this morning and even got chance to christen it with a saw this afternoon Have a couple of old Husky 42's one's a late 80's grey top one and the other is a late 90's 42 special we think. The old grey top seems to be in better fettle but when warm and sat on it's side the idle would increase, sat upright again it would drop back to normal. Made me chuckle when felling with it Other than that it ran pretty well so figured I'd try the carb off the other one first before delving too deep - that seems to have cured it, though I've only cut a few bits in the garden so far. The other one is one I bought off ebay ages ago as a "good runner", yes it ran but very poorly - pics are on the other computer but what had happened was at some point someone had had te carb off and refitted but managed to fold the gasket in half and it was sucking in air (and crud probably) and it needs a piston at the very least. Only paid a little more than spares money for it so not too fussed.

As above, there are some similarities but not as much as a lot of people think. Yes, they both involve chainsaws and trees and there are some activities that are a bit of a cross over, but on the whole they are two completely different activities. There's plenty of companies out there that do both though successfully. Generally though (not always beforee any one starts ), someone with a purely tree suregery type background may be quite slow to start with in production forestry, making themselves a lot of extra work and someonewith a purely commercial forestry background may be a bit rough for non climbing tree surgery work. From my experiences, Tree surgery pays better money for less effort than forestry, but forestry is less stressful. There's plenty of people out there that like the idea of forestry but think they can earn Arb money at it. Most soon realise setting chokers all day or running 8-10 tanks through a saw shortwooding and stacking isn't as glamorous as it sounds EDIT: What Andy said

We bought our first house around 6 months ago and found RBS to be very helpful. Mrs is employed and also banks with RBS so that helped a fair bit too. They didn't really look too much into my earnings, other than bank statements going back a few months. They could also see that we'd been paying a similar amount each month in rent as we would be on the mortgage and that seemed to help too. We had to find 10% as deposit but at a reasonably hih interest rate, though e've fixed it for 5 years which would mean that based on how our rent had previously gone up each time, we would be paying a fair bit less each month than what the rent would have ended up. Hope that makes more sense than it sounds reading it back

Definitely think there's a market for some retro fit drive systems for smaller trailers - I'd certainly consider it for ours.

I think one of my favourite saws would have to be the husq 242, but if I could only choose one saw, and from the point of view of best all rounder, it would have to be the husq 372 I think. In biggish softwood it flies and is still fairly nimble with a 15" bar on. the new huskies are ace but the old ones still have something about them. As much as the 346 isn't a bad saw, the later ones just didn't do it for me

A lot of it comes down to the driver - big tyres and diff locks just mean you can drive a bit less carefully. I've had a bit of all sorts over the years and for off the shelf ability it seems to be either defender or jimny/SJ. Jap pickups need a bit of weight in the back to be any good but will always suffer with low ground clearance and big over hangs. Not that it would do what you want, but a subaru legacy will go places a hilux won't if it's just a case of needing traction My old 130 used to do pretty well for it's size though.

Saw a lot of the RM range in the flesh at a show in Slovenia a few ears ago - was really, really nicely made stuff and a lot of it ends up on the German markets. Do like tht little crane of yours Dave, would suit what we're doing really well but can't justify upgrading at the mo. EDIT: looking at that link, that's an RM crane on a Riko trailer I think.

Is it oiling properly? If all's oiling well and it's sharp, then try using less pressure when cutting and making sure the piece of wood your cutting is held well as a lot of the uneven wear comes from too much pressure cusing the wood to move a bit if that makes sense. (Well it did with my old Hawk) EDIT: just thinking about it - insufficient oil would probably just wear faster but fairly evenly, so prob not that.

Agree with that Whip bar and chain off and put a square across the rails - there's a good chance one will be higher than the other. If it's really bad and a file is too much like hard work, I've levelled them out before with a grinder but go steady so as not to heat it up too much.

We've a spare load of hardwood left at York, similar stuff to what you had last time so maybe a bit smaller than you want?

I'm fully aware of the differences between forestry and this tree, Sam. I was reffering to bit regarding thinning a woodland and paying for the wood, hence the quote.

Me too, it's called Forestry

No, but I wouldn't mind doing - it's only half n hour up the road from me. Get to see another of his cool trucks again soon though when he comes to shift two big fir sticks for us. He's bringing his 6wd wagon/forwarder based on an ex MOD truck but with a modern truck cab on and a monster Atlas loader. They use it it for leading oak out of the woods back to the mill. Used to like having an excuse to drop by their yard as it was just full of proper old school stuff and huge lumps of wood.

What about this? One of a kind, built by a guy from a local sawmill to us a good few years ago. Didn't realise he'd sold it until I spotted it on ebay just now. He's fairly well known locally for his home grown vehicles Forestry Tractor, Timber tractor, Timber trailer, Forestry trailer, timber Crane | eBay

£6500 - Ouch, isn't that over double the price of the TR70? As it is though, I reckon anything that's too big for the TR70 is good enough for the firewood stack anyway. Managed to get hold of one bag off of Andy at a show but I'd of happily bought 10 or so but he wouldn't part with any more. Have had a bit of a look at the grants but they seem like a lot of hard work

Heavy and noisy probably