Tom D

Mark carter..

I just bought 2 346’s and 2 357’s, second hand, ex environmental agency, they are in good nick, 2 have been ported by spud and the other 2 are spares. I wont be buying another modern saw. Our 560 didn’t even last 3 years, my 1991 254 is still going....its sad that the new saws are so poor but that seems to be how they are.

Downforce on the rollers is important for brash material, AC Price do an add on which really helps, so you can lift the roller up to get it in and then crush it down too. Leylandii has never been a problem and usually goes through without needing the downforce. Hawthorn and other ball shaped shrubs are more tricky. One things for sure any crane fed chipper is way quicker than hand feeding.

How much did you want for it Ben? I’d have been 5-600 for the trees and 150 fro the stumps. Always hard to price from a pic, but I think that would be about right. There’s plenty guys up here who would do it for 450 too though. Ive said this before on here: imagine there are 100 customers in your area thinking of having work done. Of these 15 are just wasting your time and will never actually go ahead with the job, they just want to know how much it will be. Another 20 will think it should cost less than half your quote, the next 30 will get 3+ quotes and go with the cheapest no matter how un professional they seem. The next 20 will get 3 quotes but will take your professionalism into account, the next 10 will only care about professionalism and not worry about price, and the last 5 will simply get one quote and accept it regardless of price. You obviously want to be working for those who value professionalism over cost, or the one quote guys, and avoid the others. So when you loose work like this don’t feel bad, let the other guys do it safe in the knowledge that while they are working for £450 you will be making real money on another job.

As of today I have 8 subs working, they are on a variety of rates from about 70 to 200 / day. The £200 guy comes with a 3.5 ton van and can run a site, the others vary in experience and are paid accordingly. I think the real cause of low wages and wage stagnation is the explosion in arborists in the last 10 years. When I started out there were just a few firms in the area, we all knew who each other was. Now I have lost count, I see vans and chippers every day, no Idea who they are or where they work from, but they are out there. This has had 2 effects on the industry, the first is that there are so many guys out there looking for work that wages have been driven down or stagnated, the second is that there are so many firms out there that prices on jobs are being driven down or have stagnated. I would not be advising any one to get in to tree work at the moment, well not for the money anyway. It is however a great job, no two trees are the same and being outdoors appeals to a lot of people. being a plummer may well pay a lot better but would you want to do it? I have to say I agree with Steve, the standing of the industry will unfortunately never change. Sad though it is...

Well. It certainly wasn't beating a550 beforehand. The most impressive thing was the pickup. It loves to rev.

Spud did wonders for my 254, it can out cut a 550!

I have spoken to Alex, its a cassette bearing and so will need to go down to get replaced. I'll probably get it serviced the same time. Unless mr trucks and trees lives in the borders....

I need to check if the breather is blocked..

254, still going up until recently, It might need a carb rebuild now. Great saw. especially when compared with our 2.5 year old 560 which is apparently beyond economic repair!

Does anyone know how easy it is to replace the seal on the input shaft to the final drive?

Any idea how easy it is to convert a triobrake 346 to standard? chesrs Tom

Tractor size is irrelevant Mike, the clutch will just slip when she's at her max. Even a 70 horse could slip that clutch. I found that with my igland roughing the clutch plate up a bit with some wet and dry improved the pull a little. Also if your tractor has a front linkage and pto I think it's only a couple of hours work to convert the winch to run the other way. On my igland all you had to do was unspool and remove the cable, swap the chain tensioner to the other side and then put the cable on the other way round and wind it on. I never tried it but when I had it apart one time you could see it was set up that way. (There were bolt holes for the tensioner at either side).

no you can still sell, you have to be quick and realistic. No one knows where the bottom is, and it can go up just as fast as it can go down, so there are always plenty ready to buy in at the right price.

Well so long as it keeps going the way its going i'm happy, my £2800 investment of 2 months ago is now pushing £14k. I have done this by holding some coins, trading others and margin trading and short selling some too. When the crash happens it won't be instantaneous, it will take 2-3 days to fully crash, well thats what happened the last time. So there will be time to trade your way out of it if you're smart.

I already did that today, but my main coin hasn't dropped that much.

You could well be right, I don't think this is the big crash though. Not yet.

it will definitely crash at some point, but the very fact that the crypto markets have attracted a different kind of investor means that how or when the crash comes will be hard to predict. Its bouncing back quite nicely now. who knows whats next?

No TP's are good, I had a 250 pto, and I now have a 160 and a (ducker) 200. I have also had tw, gm, Forst and bandit. TP are up there with the others.

Thats true Stevie because the blades aren't tapered, they do need turning however as once they round over it doesn't pull the stuff in as well. If you haven't turned the anvil its well worth trying.

I have the older version, the 160, its a good little chipper, it pulls stuff in nicely although not as aggressive as a Forst or TW, however the build quality is good and the chip quality is excellent. If I have a complaint with the TP's its that they are a but fussy when it comes to maintenance, they like sharp knives and well adjusted anvils or they don't pull the stuff in as well.

if you want to buy crypto with GBP then cryptosaurus is ok...

You're spot on there, so hard to know when the crash will come, it won't disappear though, the technology is good, so when the crash happens some coins will emerge as the winners, others will just disappear and be worthless. The same thing happened with the dot com bubble, out of that came google, Facebook and amazon. The trick will be knowing who the winners will be.. BTW i just closed my factom margin position, profit from 25minutes exposure was $1100! So today I started out with a stuck timber wagon which we had to unload where it was and then drag out with the mog, so we were late to our job, set the guys going then a meeting in Edinburgh, then off into the borders to grab a snatch block that we had left on another job, then back to the job, couldn't get the Landy and trailer up the forest track so had to mess around with the alpine dragging it up. Then finishing in the dark, plus we didn't get the whole job completed, so the job was £750 but we didn't finish it, meanwhile I just made more than that in less than half an hour with no overheads, and it's tax free! Still dirty hands: clean money and all that.. Mind you I know what I'm doing if my guys do a bartletts and put me out of business.......

I know. Just like a job only makes a profit when the customer pays the bill. I think I'm going to cash out my original investment amount soon, then I'm in for free. I enjoy playing with it to be honest. I margin sold 200 factom 20 minutes ago, its bombing nicely just now. It's nerve wracking knowing when to close the position, but that's all part of the fun.

Well my investment just passed the. £7.5k mark! From £2.8k a few weeks ago. I reckon this tree work game is for mugs..