Tom D

Haven't done the books yet, I bought 65k of kit to try and soak some up and was then told by the accountant that "they" have changed the rules so you can't get 100% capital allowances anymore.... 60-70K of that turnover was subbys... I made decent money last year though...... for once..

Haven't done the books yet, I bought 65k of kit to try and soak some up and was then told by the accountant that "they" have changed the rules so you can't get 100% capital allowances anymore.... 60-70K of that turnover was subbys... I made decent money last year though...... for once..

To a large extent the overheads of a two man team ought to be similar, you may add more equipment which may increase turnover but will also add to costs. Profit is far more important than turnover. I do think that if you are not reaching the vat threshold of around 80K you are probably not really making the money that you deserve. The running costs of a van, chipper, groundy etc are going to be fairly similar around the country. Like Skyhuck I also think many people don't really know what their costs are. Last year I did £250k (3 man team and occasional subbies) this year won't be anywhere near as much, the year before was around £130k in previous years I had done 80-90k and TBH I had not made as much as I would have liked. I think for a 2 man team around the 100k mark ought to be ideal. FWIW I would rather bring the vat threshold down to 50k so it was a fairer environment for everyone, it would be hard to operate a serious business turning over less than 50k whereas a higher threshold merely punishes those who climb above it. Hardly an incentive to expand your business and contribute more to our ailing economy....

To a large extent the overheads of a two man team ought to be similar, you may add more equipment which may increase turnover but will also add to costs. Profit is far more important than turnover. I do think that if you are not reaching the vat threshold of around 80K you are probably not really making the money that you deserve. The running costs of a van, chipper, groundy etc are going to be fairly similar around the country. Like Skyhuck I also think many people don't really know what their costs are. Last year I did £250k (3 man team and occasional subbies) this year won't be anywhere near as much, the year before was around £130k in previous years I had done 80-90k and TBH I had not made as much as I would have liked. I think for a 2 man team around the 100k mark ought to be ideal. FWIW I would rather bring the vat threshold down to 50k so it was a fairer environment for everyone, it would be hard to operate a serious business turning over less than 50k whereas a higher threshold merely punishes those who climb above it. Hardly an incentive to expand your business and contribute more to our ailing economy....

I bought a masport 22" from Jonsie, it has been great so far and was in the £3-400 range I think. Its a decent well made mower. Look on the FR Jones site on the RHS of the screen.

Mike! are you dying your hair ginger just to fit in with the noggies????

I have a lumbermate, which hardly ever gets used, however once I get a more permanent home for it I will get the back off an old 7.5 or 12 ton curtainsider, the flat floor will keep things more rigid and you can draw the curtain for loading and working. Thay can be picked up quite cheap...

Fruit looks big for a bullace, I'd say damsons. lovely when ripe on their own or make jam or gin.

Will do, it says its good for 180 deg so I have high hopes.

I got this stuff to make some modifications to a rifle stock, I have so far used it to fix a broken wire on my phone car charger, attaching a ceramic name plate to a rock at the end of my drive, Sticking a new wing mirror onto the transit, and making a comb raiser on a plastic rifle stock. Tomorrow I am using it to repair a hole in the sump on my chipper (isuzu want £300 for a new one!) It seems to stick to anything and yet doesn't really stick to skin, its like play dough in consistency, so is dead easy to work... sugru | the exciting new self-setting rubber for making, fixing, and improving your stuff

They deserve it TBH.

My Dad used to carry a lorry wheel & tyre for inflating tractor tyres, You can blow up 2-4 tractor tyres at 20-30psi of one lorry tyre at 100psi. Maybe a small commercial would be big enough to blow that up a couple of times.

Does it blow up off a compressor or off the exhaust?

Nice work Josh..

if a new cord isn't biting, take one leg off the crab, twist it a few times and clip it back on, can make all the difference.

I'm still getting around 70%, but its 70% of not enough. Seem to be getting about 2 calls a week at the moment.

With a second kid due any day now I'm tempted Mike! Great opportunity for someone there!

How many 50x80cm log nets would you stack on a pallet? I need to get some pallets and want to know how many to buy.

Yes, and to uncover the broken drain, which we have done, I now have to replace the pipe and back fill..

This was a big leylandii windblown in the january storm, it lifted a massive 12" drain as it went, it was a former lade for a waterwheel. No one was bothered until it flooded with all the rain we have had recently. We are finishing the drain repair tomorrow.

I did a demonstration of my firewood kit at a renewables open day at this farm recently, we also got a tour round the biomass boiler and dryer, it was very interesting. I think this is the future of your wood chip pile, a unit like this can dry the chip down to an acceptable level, even wet leylandii, it is then burned heating the local community. Read the article, the figures that this guy has saved are pretty incredible. over £30k just on grain drying! http://www.ringleader.co.uk/files/newsletters/woodendbiomassstudy.pdf

Are they youngsters? My Dad has a saying. " one lad is worth a lad. Two lads are worth half a lad" Quite true a lot of the time.

I used to leave one guy doing logs when I was busy with other stuff. (arbtalk) He used to average 8-10 cube a day sawing the cord and splitting with a pto splitter. Now we are still doing crappy arb waste but with 2-3 guys and a 30 ton billet splitter and a processor, we can do 20-50 cube a day depending on what sort of stuff we are dealing with.

Tell them you'll do it for £50 because you love felling big trees. That way you'll get the job and you can see how long it takes so next time you'll know how much to charge. With big trees forget about the brash, its the timber that takes time. Crane and a couple of 20yd skips and do it in a day, or 5 days cunning it all up and taking it away in a transit. I did one in the snow a while back, only had the landy and trailer, it was 10 loads of timber, and the client kept the cord wood.

:001_rolleyes:Yes!