Tom D

Here's a couple...

Inflation doesn't help. Looking at my accounts for last year I spent £22k on motor expenses, thats just fuel and servicing. Scary.

Things definitely aren't what they were, and probably won't be for a while. The scary thing is.. if the euro goes tits up and drags our banks down (could easily happen) our government will have to print more money to bail them out. This will cause inflation which will mean a hike in interest rates. High interest rates will be seriously bad news, the reason why this recession hasn't felt as bad as some others is the fact that interest rates are virtually zero.. It will be horrible if they go up significantly. What really sucks is I have finally got the hang of running a business... and now the economy has turned ****.... If I had known 10 years ago what I know now I would have made a fortune. Instead I was working 6 days a week for 250-300 a day and was skint all the time....

We have a rayburn 355, it is very good, been reliable, sand has plenty of output.My one gripe is the lack of a second proper oven, the warming oven is handy but a simmering oven would be much better.

Its pretty knackered, if any part of it could reach the path in the event of it falling then I would fell it. Otherwise its a nice habitat tree. Or fell the leader at the point where it has split and leave the rest standing as a monolith...

I have one, VERY good machine, no electrics. Just check its genuine....

Its a Chinese one Dean, You can tell by the lettering on the label... :lol:

Where will you build it Dean? Got any areas in mind?

Where are you? I use guys from time to time. PM me your details....

Nothing wrong with being professional, but a lot of those issues could have been cleared up at the phone call stage. If you had asked the species you could have told them that ash flushes late, same goes for the one near the house. Asking a few simple questions at the phone call stage can save you loads of time and fuel.. TD Tree & Land Services Ltd.

Mine has done 85k, about 30k of that is with an empty trailer, 30 with maybe 2-3 ton and 20 towing the wee tractor, this is a genuine 3.5 ton load, the rest not towing. The rear radius arm bushes have worn, though not to excess, I will replace these with the hard poly bushes at some point. Other than that no problems, clutch is fine, and with the 6 speed ones you have a lower first gear which helps with hill starts, as well as cruising economy. If you are genuinely towing 3.5 ton then the landy is good for the job, having coil springs really helps the comfort too, especially with an empty trailer. It will eat brake pads though, but thats no big deal, just make sure your trailer brakes are well maintained and up to the job.

You must be a play station freak!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/sheep/reaction_version5.swf I can't seem to top an average of 0.21....

Well, we made a start, I reckon we have split around 200 bulk bags worth. Around 150 m3..... The pile doesn't seem to be all that much smaller though..

Yes the 2.4 The latest ones are a 2.2 land rover engine same as freelander.

What you have to remember is that there is a cost for visiting the site, once there, extra stumps would be likely to add little to the overall cost. A good firm with a decent machine should be able to do 10 stumps on the same site for around the £600 mark. Thats about what I would charge, although for the bigger jobs I bring in a specialist contractor, they do a great job leave the site really tidy and I get no comebacks. I am edinburgh area too so if you want me to put you in touch with them let me know, it would be around the £600 mark for 10 stumps though....

A few years ago everyone would tell you that the td5 was crap and that the TDI was the best thing ever. This is because the real land rover enthusiasts don't buy new ones, they hate change, and nothing new can possibly be as good as their old bus. So they buy older ones so that they can spend their time adding bits and fixing them. Now that the td5 has been around for a while the enthusiasts are running them too and hey presto they are now the best thing since sliced bread. I have never owned a td5 but have driven them and know plenty others who have owned them. They are good. Better than a tdi..... but not as good as the tdci. Trust me in another 5 years there will be loads of beardy real ale drinking landy boffins going on about how good the tdci is and how much better than whatever the latest engine happens to be. Here are some facts, a longer stroke engine gives more torque, the tdci has a longer stroke than the td5 and therefore produces more torque. Both engines can be chipped of course, but consider this: a local tyre fitter who I know runs a fleet of defenders, he had to get all his td5's chipped for towing his heavy trailers with earthmover tyres etc.. When the tdci came out he found that they didn't need chipping. They are the same HP on paper but the extra low down torque of the tdci and its 6 speed gearbox make it a much better tow truck. The 6 speed box is also much more pleasant to drive, and so is the interior. I have had a tdci since I bought it new in 2008, it has been excellent, and is now pushing 90k miles, used every day, hammered towing every day. I can't fault it. and given the choice I'd choose it over a td5 any day. But the decision is yours. Just try not to be too swayed by the beardys.

What part of the country are you in? sounds a lot, unless the stumps are huge. Central London perhaps?

Try redpath tyres, you might be able to get a decent set of part worns....

The way it works up here, contracts over a certain value are published and you have to tender, sometimes with a PQQ as well. under that value individual managers at the council are allowed to go out and get whoever they like. So to get a shot at ALL the work you have to be pals with a few people. Some councils have a frame work instead, with this system they publish a tender and PQQ and you submit hourly / daily rates, a set number of firms are then appointed to the framework for a fixed period of maybe 2 years. Managers at the council then have to use the contractors on the framework... We are on a couple of frameworks, and have won open tenders too.. we do not get many of the "its who you know" jobs.

I'll bet your neighbours would love that, get her cranked up on a sunday morning....

That was the spec, all left where it fell, we just cleared it off the track and cut up some of the bigger bits. Big tree that, managed to bury a 28" bar in some of the branch wood.

Its crossed my mind before, when I did this one I took some big lumps off, but I did move around a bit to keep it reasonably balanced. It wasn't as bad as yours sounds though... [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VUx_GLpwS8]Middleton beech dismantle - YouTube[/ame]

Contracts over a certain value are published by law on the internet. its public contracts scotland up here. try this for starters... http://www.bis.gov.uk/files/file39469.pdf