Chris Sheppard

Have you not seen the alstor on arbtrader for £19K?

Sounds good stuff Quite fancy trying one batch of dry and one of sweet.

Not this time it aint

Something I've been wanting to try doing for a few years, I finally got round to having a go at tapping some birch this year. Got around 7 litres so far and should have enough by the weekend to do 2 gallon's worth. Have found a few recipe variations on the web but wondered if anyone has any tried and tested recipes they'd be up for sharing? Got a batch of Elderberry and Bramble wine maturing at the mo - never tried making wine before that so it could be rank

We're coming to the end of a thinning job and should have at least one load, possibly a couple, of Birch firewood spare. All sub 15" diameter but 90% sub 12" and pretty straight. Cut to 12'. Site is just outside York with very good access for 8 Wheeler, though we do have a preffered haulier we can put you in touch with. PM for more info

Even taking the braking out of the equation, there's no mudguards, non-speed rated tyres, no suspension and a dolly can only be used for recovering of a vehicle to a safe place. Still looks ace though

Great book, good film and great soundtrack

That looks ace, but I'd be doubtful you'd get away with towing it like that in the UK for very long

So, a couple of weeks further on and so far all's good in 550 land. Had it in some skanky,hairy lodgepole today (you know the sort - even when they hit the ground they're still 4 foot off the ground ) and it made light work of snedding the big, horrible, hairy beasts. Ordinarily it's the sort of stuff I'd have been using the 372 with a shorter bar in but as the sprocket nose self destructed on that this morning, the 550 got drafted in and really surprised me. Did fell a few of the smaller ones with it too but generally they were 24" give or take and it was quicker to crop them off with the 72 on a bigger bar (which is a donkey to sned with) Only real gripe I have had with it so far, but seeme to have solved, was how easy it is to flood after re-fuelling. Pretty much it bolied down to not reading the manual properly and trying to start it like a normal husky and giving it choke - all it needs is half revs setting and a couple of pulls and away it goes For how reluctant I was to give modern technology a try, all I can say is I ain't half glad I didn't buy a 346 (just hope the electrics don't prove to be it's downfall)

Do Caledonian not bring in Kranman stuff anymore?

On Radio 1 this aft on the 10 min takeover there was a request for S club 7 by Mark the Tree surgeon from Kent - Was it our very own Mr Bolam

Just been out and whipped piston off - think we have a winner Wasn't obvious from the outside because of the state of the piston and the groove but a look from underneath showed this. What causes it to lose a peg? must have had some fair force to blow it through like that

Drawn a bit of a blank - both bearings seem complete with nothing missing and the big end seems sound. Haven't taken anything apart on the inlet side of the cylinder yet so maybe something let go from inside the carb? Anyhow, just managed to save a fair bit as managed to source crank bearings without going through Husq as the originals have the SKF part no on the side still £3.81 each inc delivery compared to £15 each from Husky

Has anyone had much experience using a husq 390 on an alaskan? I could do with getting a 90cc saw and am tormn between the 395 and the 390 - on paper the 390 doesn't look to be much behind on power, but in reality how do they compare? It's probably be used as much for felling as it would for milling, but the lower weight of the 390 makes it sound more appealing for dragging round the woods all day.

I've had my 550 for a few weeks now and on the whole I'm pretty chuffed with it. I was skeptical about the new generation saws to start with, but having used a 560 and now own a 550, they really do knock the socks off the 346 and the 357 in how they handle and how they pull in the cut. Longevity wise, only time will tell.

Have posted a reply in the other thread, but it sounds like it could be an early one (if what our dealer said was right)

The original ones used to cut out under load and was apparently traced to a fuel pipe nipping when it flexed on the AV rubbers when buried hard in a cut - maybe they need to make it longer still?

Definitely agree that the Oregon files don't last as long as they used to - bought several boxes of Oregon ones at an APF at least 6 years ago now, maybe more, and only ran out last year - they were pretty good, but the ones that I've had since have been next to useless, even tapping the filings out every few strokes. Was scrub clearing on some stony ground over the last couple of weeks so been sharpening a fair bit per day. Decided had had enough so bought some Stihl ones - so far they seem to be more aggressive and lasting longer too I'm amazed how many people you see that do drag the file on the back stroke still though and wonder why their files last even less

Rob, with the sort of skills you already have, I reckon you'd slot in well doing green woodworking/building etc as well rather than just crash bash forestry. CS30 and 31 would be a good start as the others have said though.

Jonathan Latham, Marshalls and M Large I think are all still dealers for them. For the rexton (or maybe Kranman) I think caledonian were the dealers.

Vahva Jussi do a really small one with the option of hydraulic drive and there was a big Farma one on here the other day - can't remember size but had an 8m crane on it so probably plenty big enough for 150hp tractor. Think Rexton did a little one with hydraulic drive too. From what I've seen, generally they are hydraulic drive (though weren't timberliner mechanical?) with hydraulic motors positioned to pull down onto the trailer wheels as required. Not 100% sure what goes on at the tractor end, whether they are just run off a spool or some other sort of set up.

I've found lighting them at the bottom makes them burn out faster and the sections fall off quicker - lighting from the top usually ends up with the whole length burning and most of the time hangs on to the sections longer too. Liking the drill bit idea

Just started on Ted Simon's "Jupiter's Travels" - is making me start to want a bike again though