Tom D

How dark is that house?! You need to take a lot more than one down Reg.

This is one of those jobs where things often don't fit the "rule book". Not only do I find these jobs more interesting but I often find that one of the crew will come up with a solution, its not always me. Having guys who can think for themselves, finding a solution built on experience, is the way forward. This is why the college boys who stick to the "rules" no matter what can be a little tiresome at times. Sometimes there are no applicable "rules".

I have climbed using a floating anchor tied off as shown ant have always found it slightly uneasy knowing that my line is exposed at the base of the tree. I like her attitude, not bitter or suing her employer either.

its pretty horrible IMO.

One query: does the heat store heat to full temperature i.e. 80-90 deg? or is it tripping on the heating at 50deg for the underfloor? If it reaches full heat and uses a cold water mixing system for the underfloor then that should work but if you are getting up to 50 and then the heat is taken away to the floor then that could be the problem. boilers like the ease are designed to heat the water very hot, not just up to 50....

I have a rayburn, with no accumulator tank, however I have a 200l hot water tank and the rayburn can heat that in a few hours from stone cold. Something sounds wrong with your system to me. We have a rayburn, stove and a gas boiler linked to a neutraliser, the capacity of the neutraliser will only be around 20l so no real storage value. Just a thought but I have noticed a massive difference in performance from good dry logs to those which are not so dry. I don't mean wringing wet either. Try burning bone dry softwood as this burns fast with a long flame, ideal for boilers, not so good for overnighting though. If you have any I'd burn bone dry conifer for a few days and see if this shows any difference in performance.

Even a slight bend in the bar can give these symptoms, take it off and look at it very closely....

True, its all about appropriate positioning, but I'd never rule it out. The longer you spend n the tree the greater your risk of an accident, even the best climbers will tire and as they do the risks increase. So for me providing staff with a lightweight saw that speeds up the climb is a done with safety in mind. This has always been our philosophy, for pruning keeping the climber as fresh as possible by minimising the work required and for dismantling, only making the minimal cuts, why make 10 when 1 will do?

If safety is your primary concern and you never cut one handed then you'd be far safer using a small rear handle in the tree and dispensing with the top handle all together. Top handles are designed for one handed use, they are balanced on the top handle (or should be) but they aren't as safe for 2 handed use as a rear handled saw. With the advent of the 150 one handed saw use is safer than it ever has been.

TY its a pretty low blow slagging a guy who's just had a serious injury. If you want a cut and hold thread then start one.... I wish him a speedy recovery. That said, anyone who doesn't one hand a topper is still a novice climber and wouldn't cut the mustard at my company. There's a time and place for it of course, but not being able to meet production targets should also be a sackable offence.

I have the electronic proportional controls on my crane, I suspect they require a certain flow to work properly. I don't know what the real answer is, ask Wilsons, all I know is when the revs drop below 1300 the crane won't work at all. Is yours a conventional front PTO Jonsie or an anticlock? Brush cutter, the front winch is great for when you have a crane and trailer combo as you don't have to have either or, you can have both. I am able to drag a log up to the winch, grab it with the crane and shove it on the trailer, its handy for sure. Plus thanks to the antilock front pto the winch can go on the back too if I want to do serious skidding.

This kind of thing happens from time to time, it does seem more prevalent among the firewood guys though. I got taken for 2.5k by a guy last year, I found out a few days ago that he has had a massive stroke so I doubt I'll ever see it now.... It could just as easily have happened with a guy from gumtree, ebay, or the local paper, not just AT.

That stuff is worth a bomb if milled and seasoned slowly. They use it quarter sawn for violins and cello's etc. I'd look into quarter sawing what you have left....

No doubt that forestry tyres would be best, but they aren't as good if you do a lot of road work as they are cross ply rather than radial. If you are a tree surgeon you could afford to fit the best non forestry tyre (Kleber IMO), if you are full time in the woods then go for the real mccoy. You can get radial forestry tyres apparently but if you have to ask the price you can't afford them.

I just fitted a winch to the front of my Nseries. I wish I had asked this question before. The issue is the revs, I wouldn't want to over rev the winch as it would damage the hydraulics and possibly other things, so I thought I could run it at half revs since the HP requirement of the winch is 70minimum and the tractor is 130 I thought this would work. I hadn't factored in the fact that my tractor is an "e" model and so develops 1000 rpm on the front PTO at only around 1700rpm, so to get 540 you are barely past tick over. This means that my 5.5 ton uniforest can stall the tractor, and also that I can't use the crane at the same time as the winch as the min revs for the crane are 1300. I have been looking into various options to gear down the PTO and have more or less drawn a blank. They are out there but the vast majority can't take the HP. they aren't cheap either and the will also mess up the front PTO shaft geometry. So I have decided that the best solution will be to lengthen the input shaft on the winch to take another cog and add a chain drive to another cog on another input shaft with a 2:1 reduction, this will then give me 2 input shafts, one for 540 and one for 1000. Uniforest do make a winch like this but it is setup for a clockwise PTO and mine is an anticlockwise one. So I have the advantage of being able to put anything off the back of the tractor straight onto the front, but it has made my winch setup a little annoying. That said the winch on the front is awesome, we skidded out some heavy elm sticks with it the other day and the performance is great, as is the radio remote, well worth the extra. If I were you I'd look closely at the torque and BHP graphs for your engine and see where the power will be when you are at 540 on the front PTO, not being an "e" model yours might make over 1200 rpm which would probably make a big difference. But then you want a bigger winch, which will suck more power...... Call me if you want to chat about it.. 07801 538 717 It looks great, even in soft focus LOL..

If you don't go for the full forestry tyres, I would say the Klebers are the next best thing. I had Klebers on my 6400 and never had any bother with them, I did with other brands. I have Nokians on the N series and they are good but I got a deal on a set of wheels and tyres. They are certainly expensive to buy new....

You're much more experienced with this kit than me, how do you think it would cope with a harvester head? What width was the mulched head? Cheers.

The forst is good but I'd say the TW would edge it thanks to the wider feed opening, I think the days of square openings are past and chippers like the bandits and greenmechs have shown that a letterbox opening is far better for brash. Now that TW have done the same they are probably going to clean up. That said I would't want a chipper that only weighs 750kg. I'd rather do the trailer test and get something more robust. The spun mass on my Heizo weighs more than that TW, Imagine spinning that little chipper on a spit at 750RPM and see what it could chip then......

I passed a U500 on the M90 this morning, it was sitting at 70 no problem. Doubt it was ag registered though.

Sooo tempted, Did you ever put a harvester head on it Eddie? Oh and whats the line speed on the winch? Cheers

I have reservations about these imported logs, partly from a biosecurity point of view, and partly from one of ecological soundness. What ever carbon saving comes from these logs must be severely dented by the transportation. I'd be interested to see what method is used to heat the kilns too. Foresty: Niall, is a local competitor of mine, I still manage to sell my logs and he is obviously doing ok with his, so there seems to be room in the marketplace. We both have to put up with the usual guys selling a "load" of wet logs as competition. Despite mine being air dried and his kiln dried I think mine would win a moisture content test though.

I drove from scotland to dorset to buy my first one.. Looks nice. You won't look back.

I have fallen way further than 50cm onto my ropes on more than one occasion, still here... Josh has it spot on.

I'd agree, IME a loose cube weighs around 300kg, given that thats at around 20% moisture that equates to (species dependent) around half a cube of solid timber at the same MC.

I'm surprised that we don't have an industry standard what with the popularity of stoves these days. Its easy for any delivery vessel to have its volume calculated, wether its a bag or the back of a vehicle. From there a price per cube can be given and everyone can see what they are paying. Selling by the "load" is fine so long as the per cube price is clearly shown...