Chris Sheppard

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

throttle cable as it's a TDi My old P reg 130, which did have a black box under the seat was also a TDi. Being land rover, there's probably no hard and fast age for when they di/didn't have them - probabaly just depended on what was on the shelf that day

Mines not got it on a P reg

Mine definitely had a sealed black box of some sort under the passenger seat with wires coming out - I got told it was an ECU, but not in the same sense as whats on more modern engine. Don't know what it was for though and never bothered investigating

Only the later ones once they have EGR valves I think - my 130 did but the 90 doesn't (130 was an early 97 and the 90 is a late 96)

It'd be too much big stuff for our little crane I reckon. To hand fell 2 acres won't take long though.

what sort of % is over say 18" diameter? Roughly what tonnage do you think there is to come out and how far would it need to go to roadside? We're not a million miles away but if there's a fair bit of bigger stuff or it's a long haul we're maybe not the best bet.

I'd doubt it would be worth getting a harvester in for such a small area. Are you looking for someone to come in and give you a price standing or for you to pay a contractor and then sell roadside?

That sounds ace Bet it's an awesome little thinning saw now

Can't comment on the 560 (though meant to be getting the demo one from our local dealer to have play with this week) but the 357 is a good all rounder on a 15". Not as flickable as a 346 but more grunt. Last had mine out in some 18-20" Pine with an 18" on and it pulled it without much drama, but swapped to using the 372 again and that made the 357 feel positively lazy by comparison. What puts me off the next generation of saws is the not field fixable electrics - even the local husky dealer said it's a fairly involved process swapping over ecu's if they ever fail as it all has to be plugged in run up and programmed again. Depends what it's going to get used for mainly as to which I'd be tempted by - doesn't help much really

Don't worry too much about it Andy, it's pretty normal to get some residues round there (well mine always seem to anyway ). It sounded like it was running well on Wednesday so can't be too much wrong with it

Agreed. Whilst my only experience of them was whilst working for Riko, I really got on well with it - knocked the socks off my old HP Hawk in every way and took bendy stuff well too. very fast and easy to use.

I'm surprised Marshalls don't advertise on here yet