Chris Sheppard

Getting a bit of a backlog here at the mo but making some progress on the old Husky 181 as managed to pick up an unused genuine barrel and piston kit for it for £30 Really should get round to taking the rest of it to bits Got a real tidy 42 special that wants a bit of fettling (don't think it's owt too major), and then the good running 42 (1989 Vintage!) decided to spit it's dummy out just before christmas as well and got shoved in the naughty corner with the other. Out of interest, does anyone know what actual differences there are between a plain old 42 and a 242?

I wondered that too

Did discount twist your arm then

It is - I put most of it together

try looking up norwood lumbermate as that's what they are called elsewhere and were over here before logosol started branding them up.

we've been using a 30hp Landini on a job lately with 3tonn winch and loader with grab and it's been punching well above it's weight. Did have the timber trrailer behind it for a bit but it was a bit heavy on the drawbar for it if loaded a bit much. Currently pulling the trailer with and old 2wd internationla which is fairly small but have an alod 40hp Kubota to pull it with when we finally get a day in the workshop to finish getting it ready for the woods. I think a bigger compact can work well on the right job.

We got some decent ones in for the APF last time when I was still at Riko - don't think they have them on the website but there was some fairly big ones including swingaway and quick release and seem to think they went up to 20,000kn

According to our local dealer it isn't available in the UK at the moment and as far as he knows there's nothing to say it will be

It depends how you define struggle though Yes it would do it, but you wouldn't want to do it very often unless you were patient. From what I have heard though, the 435's aren't a bad saw for first thinning/formative pruning.

I run a 90 for work, admittedly more forestry than arb but we have had the trailer behind it to chip into on a couple of arb jobs. A hicap would be a better bet but I know the 90 is a good one so am loath to take a risk on swapping. I use a widetrack sankey trailer behind it when I need to get into the woods and it goes anywhere the 90 will so far and carries similar capacity to what a hi cap would.

TBH, if you're looking for a saw to take to 15" regularly, you'll find 50cc a bit tedious after a while. I'd be inclined to go the sencond hand route (as others have said, talk to spud) but look at something more like a husq 357 as it'll still do small stuff but have a bit more go for when you want it. Reckon now the 560's proving so popular there shoudl be a few 357's kicking about now

Someone on my wavelength

I got told by our dealer the cutting out under load was caused by a fuel pipe being too short so when you buried it into a cut it pulled on the pipe and nipped it shut, cutting the fuel. Anyone else heard similar? They certainly seem to have cured it now anyway

We've just had a 560 on demo for the last week and was really quite taken by it. Whilst it's aimed as a replacement to the 357, it feels a fair bit lighter (even though it might only be a tiny bit lighter in reality) and knocks the socks off it power wise. We had it on 15" and .325 semi chain and it balanced nicely. Didn't try it on 18" but am sure it would pull it fairly convincingly. I'm still not 100% convinced about all the electrickery but having actually used one now, I'm almost persuaded to take a punt (though might hold out for a 550 yet)

Do it, you know you want to We've had a 560 on demo this week and it knocks the socks off the 357 power wise - I don't really want a 560, but a ported 357 might fit the bill

SWMBO has a 2000 model Jimny and has had it for about 5 years now. It's been great and has been fairly fault free. It needed the bottom pulley doign about 18 months ago (common fault on higher milers) and needed the crank and cam sensors replaced about a year ago - also a common fault but only a 30 min job to fit, Both jobs coming to a grand total of around £200 in parts but other than that it's just been usual wear and tear parts like pads, discs, exhausts etc. They aren't the most comfortable, or very powerful, but they are quite a fun little thing to drive and are really not bad off road at all.

Sorry to hear Stevie, know where you're at as we were in a similar place a couple of months ago. Remember the good times.

Have been doing a fair few saturdays of late but really should have been doing Sundays to as got a bit of a deadline to meet. Once this jobs over and done with though, planning on not working weekends unless really have to.

Meant to be picking up a demo one some time this week or next - local husky dealer reckons it'll be enough to swing me round into buying one but I'm not convinced it will Not going to turn down a new saw for a week though

Husq 242 with 13", closely followed by Husq 372 with 15"

Have a customer with a sweet chestnut tree that he is quite attached to but has taken a lot of damage from falling limbs recently and is pretty well fubared. It's one of 10 trees taken from seedlings from a big sweet chestnut on one of the local estates which grew with a distinctive figuring and these 10 trees were planted in various locations across North Yorkshire as a bit of an experiment to see if they would grow the same. The damaged one wasn't particularly old, or a particularly nice specimen, but he's keen to try and do something so as not to lose it completely. We're wondering how easy it is to take cuttings and whether it's likely we could have any success with them putting roots down as I've no experience of doing anything like this. The remaining stem is only around 4-5" diameter and has now lost pretty much all it's branches and we're thinking that maybe it's best to take the stem right back to ground in the hope it may coppice, but take cuttings too so that if it doesn't coppice there's half a chance something might survive. We have kept the branchwood to one side and they do look to have a good amount of young growth from last year present. Are we clutching at straws or might we stand half a chance of saving something? Any help apprecated

Whilst none of the pines blew down over Christmas, the guy's arboretum didn't do as well. Noble Fir went and took a biggish Douglas with it. Nearly took a statue with it that's apparently priceless and missed most of the guys fancy Rhodies. Made clearing up a bit of a job but we fettled it today

Before Christmas we made the desicion to crack on and finish off the Pine we're clearfelling so no more of it blew down while we were off. We were getting sick of fighting throughj the deep rhody in places with the tractor so set about crashing it down, snedding it up, leaving it all where it laid and then called in a bit of help (dunno if these will come out in the right order!) First time have had a digger on site and am now a bit more convinced it's a worth while excercise. All we need to do now is a bit of crosscutting and forwarding