Tom D

TD Tree & Land Services have a vacancy for a groundsman / climber in the Edinburgh / borders area. Any experience considered, but punctuality, reliability and a good work ethic are mandatory. Salary is negotiable, likely between 15 and 20k. Please call Tom on 07801 538 717.

So what are the issues with the st8? I demoed one the other day and was very impressed. I don't want a lemon though. As far as the washer goes, what's the big deal, cutting a washer is fine if it needs to fit round a flange or something. And I suspect the bearIng issue is due to the fact that the early bearings had problems and the newer design is a beefier unit and had to be modified to fit.

I remember going up a single line when I first started, my old boss had bought it for access. We used a double ascender and foot loop. That would have been about 2001/02. I think it was a while before people started working off SRT though. I could be wrong. But it wasn't really invented was it, the rope access guys have been doing it for years..

We've just had the same problem with our 550....

I think the AA are stuck between a rock and a hard place, if they make it too hard no one wants to do it so the scheme is pointless, make it too easy and they get gripes like this. I think it is wrong however to be able to subby a climber in just for the assessment. Groundies maybe.....

Nice! A lot better than Bartletts effort...

I might be selling my GM 1928 soon....

I think that even if the truck had done an F1 start it would still have ended up on the parked cars. Maybe at 45 deg to the cut...

thats very true, something I teach all my guys. That said I still wouldn't have taken that on in that wind with that setup. when the pull line is not perfectly in line with the direction of the fell it pulls harder on one side of the hinge compressing the other side, this may have been a factor here.

Ok, just to be clear I have never dropped a tree the wrong way across a road, what I mean is if you fell enough trees one day one will go wrong. I have however had one go wrong in the woods (scots pine)one of loads I felled that day. one go wrong next to a school (Leylandii) and one go wrong in my dads garden (Leylandii). All three were small and no damage was done. At the end of the day we all assess risks before felling, even if it only mentally, with small trees that process can be a little breif and sometimes with brittle timber and a heavy side weight or lean things can go wrong. The thing is is to make sure that in areas where a misdirected tree can do serious damage all risks have been assessed and mitigated. Otherwise things can and will go wrong, and the consequences could be severe. In this incident presumably there was a risk assessment which took into account the risks on the site. I would love to see that document. Was pedestrian safety mentioned? Was the wind or species mentioned? And if so what were the controls? I wouldn't have felled that tree like that, I have felled loads of trees in public places many more public than that, princes street in Edinburgh springs to mind. The method needs to suit the situation and whatever we say about the excecution that method wasn't appropriate at that time. The risks of failure were so high even before they started the saw. That is where experience comes in, knowing when to use and when not to use a particular technique. I would like to hear a response from the AA because I am AAAC and I I'm trying to persuade clients that for tree work contracts AAAC should be afforded similar credit to ISO. This kind of thing does not help my case.

If you work in this game long enough that will happen to you at some point. However there are some points that can be taken from this video. Given the weather conditions and the species, was this ever going to be a safe fell? Probably not. Using a vehicle to pull over a tree is ok but is suspect that the truck was positioned on the road for reasons of grip, a snatch block positioned on the other side of the grass area would have been a better idea, the truck could then have stayed on the road. (Assuming that there was a suitable anchor) The worst thing about this incident is the pedestrian management, there is a guy on the pavement very close to where the tree lands, the camera man is then allowed to walk right up and into the crown of the felled tree. There doesn't appear to be any traffic management either, although no cars come..

So, how exactly do you talk these beautiful young things into going into the woods with you?

Get it climbed, its not big enough to cause any worries.

Nice work! although I think you need a smaller sword or a bigger stone..

The twin syringe Gorilla glue epoxy is my go-to glue. Its well strong and sets fairly quick for an epoxy...

Nicely edited Tim, I enjoyed that.. Nice work too.

Cheers Steve, they look stunning! have you oiled them or something, they seem to have quite a shine. I paid you today by the way..

We can do it Jake, we have our own licenced bat handler now. Give me a call tomorrow..

???? If a machine has a pto shaft setup for the machine the shear pin is designed to break before the machine does. Simples. The drive train on the tractor is designed to be strong enough to handle the engines horsepower.. hence the bigger tractors have stronger drivetrains. The only time you have problems is when shafts get mixed up...

Why bother? Changing a shear bolt is a pita, turning the key on the tractor is much easier. The shear bolt is setup for the strength of the shaft / machine that it is attached to. If your tractor hasn't got the power to shear the bolt then thats fine, it hasn't got the power to bend anything either....

We had one for a couple of years, nicest car I have ever owned. But i'd never have another. Fantastic to drive and if you have a hi spec one (we had the HSE with TV, DVD multi changer, etc) it really is awesome. But you need to allow around £2k per year to keep it on the road. ours wasn't a bad one but it still cost a fortune. There is just so much to go wrong with them. Like Dave I miss it, but my bank manager doesn't.

The standard factory ones are ok too.

We had a landrover written off due to this a while back. I have also had a very near miss myself with the same trailer (snaking across all 3 lanes of the M8). Luckily there was a gap in the traffic. I have been towing heavy trailers for 20+ years with a variety of vehicles, so here's my tuppence worth. Snaking is caused by the drivers response to a small movement which, if timed correctly (or incorrectly depending on how you look at it) exacerbates the yaw. So you feel a small wag and unconsciously apply opposite steering pressure at the exact moment that the trailer is moving back in the same way. This makes the yaw bigger not smaller. The thing to do is learn to not react to the initial wag. Just hold your line. Accelerating out of a snake is best avoided. It doesn't always work and if it doesn't work you are going faster than you otherwise would have been so the resulting accident will be worse. Best policy in my experience is to lift off the gas and don't brake. Try, if there is room, to make a slow turn, change lanes on the motorway for example. Don't try and make corrections to the steering, try and hold your line or your turn if you have room to make one. The best policy overall is prevention. Do not have any tail weight, you need positive pressure on the drawbar at all times. Do not however have too much nose weight as in the picture earlier in the thread this lifts the front wheels and severely reduces braking performance. I discovered this to my cost when I went up the back of a lorry on a wet road towing a tractor on an ifor. Use a trailer with indespension type axles rather than leaf springs, these are much better in my experience. Make sure the towing vehicle is up to spec. Our defender that rolled had no anti roll bar on the rear axle, (many don't) our other one does. There is a noticeable difference in towing performance between the two. Make sure your tyre pressures are correct, soft tyres help exacerbate the yaw, especially on trailers with high walled tyres, sot so much of a problem on the modern low profile jobs. Finally, test your load, I always do this. Once loaded you set off and at a moderate speed, 30-40 mph, on a quiet straight bit of road give the steering a wee jerk. This will make the trailer wag, then hold your line and watch it in the mirror. If it comes back into line immediately then all's well. If it keeps wagging for any length of time then stop and adjust your load, if you can't adjust it then you will need to drive accordingly, i.e. slowly!

I've seen a few with honey fungus that wept resin like that, pull off some bark and look for the bootlaces....

They look good.. I'll drop you an email..