Ty Korrigan

No, though it is very low 1st and reverse with difflock. 20 cm wider and 20cm longer than our 2007 3.5t Ty

3litre = 170hp I was wrong about the weight, it's only 7t Ty

Don't forget Luckyeleven that like you I too started with a Kangoo, CS100 and a tinny trailer. The future is bright! Ty

3 images of our new 7.5t Iveco. Late and poor light but I'll take some more soon. It has a payload of 3.4t with humans and saws. The other 3.5t Iveco parked behind a miserly 700kg so we are overweight on a daily basis. Ty

Indeed, but it doesn't show on the Ifor. Hence 'obviously' overweight... Ty

Iveco 7.5t 3litre with air-con, leatherette seats and a maze of little dashboard cubby holes to keep the boys sweeties in. Geared down low as it's limited to 90kph Not recieved my tacho key yet but I've a weeks grace on that. Now to rack out the tool chest. Signwriting has been ordered. 2.5 teams rolling! One on trees, one on trees and landscaping and another on stumps, quotes and maintenance. Ty

Yeh... Awesome feelings come with awesome new kit. New chipper just before Xmas and a new truck today. 3.4t or around 8m3 load. Looking forward to testing the difflock out very soon. It's all good for me! Ty

I generally avoid going obviously overweight by taking 2 vehicles to jobs. One towing a 3.5t tipping trailer good for 7m3 of chip. However, things are afoot and a new 7.5t truck is in the pipeline. Ty

Hello, Time to change this part before it breaks in the field, too much movement in the head. Has any-one tackled this themselves? If do, how many hours might it take? First glance looks 'simple' ha ha. Disconnect the head from the body and lift off. Removing the bearing, well I guess I'll suck it and see. Bearing cost, any ideas on that? I may message Carlton's tech dept as well Thanks in advance for any advice given. Ty

I detest the plant. It's a total pain to push through a chipper and the berries stick to the back of the chip box in a grey slurry. I've 2 lads taking it out of 40m pops over 3 days this week. The client had a garden party last summer and a few guests had a fright when a ball measuring over a 1.20m crashed down in the middle of lunch just missing a table of diners. Ty

Got to love Dean's dribble! Ty

That's good of Orange Plant. New machine of course and from that towering green giant G.M who are renown for their own high standards in customer care. You'll get an entirely different level of service from Orange Plant should you buy a used machine though... Ty

How much does the hydrostatic model cost from Kaas? Ty

7litres! How much bhp is that? Our new Iveco 7.5t (due shortly) is a mere 3litre and I think 170bhp with a Euro 6 engine. Deezle has dropped to a euro per litre here but the French government plans to raise the fuel duty once again. Ty

I can better deal with upfront people who might say "I need your help, I'm skint and I have a problem you may be able to solve" Than those who can pay yet try to engage you for no reward. Ty

I have a 90euro local call out fee for drone rescues. I'm completely indifferent as regards to whether it is a childs Christmas/birthday present or the clients ability to pay. It's my job, no concessions. Same with my woodchip. I sell by the m3, I've several adverts out there and a steady trade going but I regularly get people asking to fill a bin or bags and expect it for free because of the small quantity. I charge for these things because they are not basics essential to life and are items people buy with disposable income. In response to that I'm going to sell small quantitiès in sacks. That should knock the freeloaders on the head. I've doing a job for a charity in Rennes. I'm pretty sure (judging by quality cars outside) that the administrators are not on a tree surgeons salary. Going rate applies with extras charged at time. Ty

I used much this same arguement when todays client called me about the extra 150euros I told his wife we are charging for this that and the other requested on top of the agreed work. I charged 'pro-rata' in tandem with the original quote. No-one has been diddled. As it was, the client almost refused to pay for ALL of the work as 'apparantly' we have left some drag marks from branches on a wall. So tomorrow/today now I will go back with a brush and bleach and clean the wall and take my cheque with a smile. Ty

the "Whilst your here just can you" I actually found this on FB and it refers to a woman who complained online about being charged £2 for a cup of hot water with a slice of lemon when she visited a cafe but was skint. Now, you probably think that's a pretty fair complaint, right? Well, here's the manager's response: I'm sorry that you feel that you were ripped off and Ill try to explain why you weren't. You entered the cafe and the waiter showed you to your seat, gave you a menu, waited for a time and then took your order. He entered it into the till, collected a cup, saucer and spoon and took them into the kitchen. There, he selected a knife, chopping board, got a lemon from the fridge, cut off a slice and put it in the cup. Then, he returned to the dining room, drew off the necessary hot water and carried the cup to your table. When you were leaving, he printed off your bill, took it to you, processed your credit card payment and cashed off the till. After you left, he cleared away your cup, saucer and spoon, took them into the kitchen, washed and dried them, along with the chopping board and knife and put away the lemon. Then, returning to the dining room he restacked the cup, saucer and spoon, wiped down your table and replaced the menu, awaiting the next customer. That's at least 2-3 minutes work for the waiter. The cost of overheads for the business, i.e rent, business rates, electricity costs, bank charges, etc works out at £27.50 per hour of trading. I pay my colleagues a decent living wage and after taking into account holiday pay, national insurance and non-productive time prior to opening and after closing, the waiter who served you costs me £12.50 per hour. Therefore, together the cost is £40 per hour or 67p per minute, meaning that the cost of providing you with 2-3 minutes of service was £1.34 £2.00. Then the government add on VAT at 20% which takes the cost of that cup of fruit infusion to between £1.60 and £2.40 irrespective of whether you had a teabag costing one and a half pence or a slice of lemon costing five pence. I have to pay my suppliers otherwise the facilities wont be available to other people who use them in the future. I accept that it makes the price of a cuppa in a city centre cafe look expensive compared to the one you make at home but unfortunately that's the cruel reality of life. It's actually the facilities that cost the money, far more so than the ingredients. Perhaps, the rudeness that you perceived in me was triggered by the disrespect that I perceived in you by your presumption that you could use our facilities and be waited on for free. Ty

Here in Frenchy France... Our local council wouldn't look twice at us first (wee chipper and trailer set up with HB20 grinder) Once they saw we had grown to a vat reg limited company with on the book employees running a 6" road tow, tipper truck and second vehicle for a grinder etc they started giving us work. Another satellite town to Rennes also local to us demands alot of paperwork EACH time you are invited to tender and puts in clauses such as "Must use a 12" chipper or be able to grind stumps down to 70cm" Yes no joke, that is exactly what they do. So that only the larger regional companies get the work. Being vat reg is important here and also limited companies rather than sole traders are more likely to be used. Ty

In 2011 I rode a 1000km endurance cycling event here in France. One of our group clipped a large living hedghog at night which punctured his tyre and another guy during the day on a roadkill same effect. Spines through the sidewalls. Ty

I found Ad words and Facebook advertising complicated and unmanageable with both taking money far above my agreed limits. They both automatically raised my budget without my consent. I would need a course to understand the nuances of their systems. Ty

Yes, swings and roundabouts when you have a foot in different countries. Cheaper housing and excellent health care in France but like Denmark, most self employed pay 50% MINIMUM in taxes of one sort or another plus a grand+ in health insurance for a family of 4. My first year here, a family friend with a groundwork business put his arm around me at dinner one day and breathing Pastis in my ear gave me this advice. "Remember, to get ahead in this country, work 4 days for France, one day for yourself...!" Ty

I perhaps fortunate with being only 2.5hours from Caen. I've bought several Ifors since 2010 all from the same dealer over the phone and moved all but 3 on for a margin to French clients. Transport for each one, no time off work, I used a guy returning with an empty van who delivers stuff between France and U.K plus he used the trailers for extra cargo space so around 75 euros a trailer. Chippers, new prices here are far higher but using a U.K quote in my right fist I beat our local dealer down for the second time over a G.M machine. I didn't bother with looking in the U.K for a used 7.5t truck this time with finance being so cheap here. Ty

We bought our tipping trailer September 2014 in the U.K for 2200euros less than the French dealerships price. The CofC came with it as standard and it took a short morning to get it registered here. Admitedly the pound is a little stronger now but I always get a quote on kit regardless. At the time, 2012, the Iveco tipper we brought in was 40% less in the U.K than the same year/condition/mileage etc in France. Just the CofC for the tipping unit which caused us grief....grrr! Even with the strong pound there are still significant savings to be made over French prices. Except for John Deere, our 2 tractors were far less in France. Ty

The Ifor dealer here is a bit of a **** to deal with. Proper got the 'ump when we showed him a U.K quote for an Ifor tipper. Wouldn't negociate a centime. Told us the price we had was what he paid himself! Before bringing ANY vehicle into a foreign country it does well to look up before hand the procedures for importation and registration. Many models of vehicles cannot be registered in another country or must under go expensive work to alter the dash or add lights. Some such as Japanese grey imports into the U.K cannot then be imported into France. Our Iveco tipper conformed (500euros for a CofC) but the tipping unit did not so we forged one instead with the aid of a draughtsman (£200) Our Atlas tipper trailer (pinched last year) All the relevent parts carried an E.U CofC but as a whole trailer did not conform even though it was an almost exact copy of an Ifor! It's all a bit Thomas Tank if you ask me...BLEH! Ty