Ty Korrigan

That's just it. On the phone the engineers are very helpful, great guys. Can't fault them at all, very patient and calm. It's the managements refusal to help any further. If it was MY company I'd offer to fix the fault for free considering the down time and losses experienced. I may change my signature to: Ty

Well now... I'm normally pretty buoyant and upbeat. I've got a good thing going and I share the good times with my team. But recently, I have been feeling a bit low. Ever since I 'invested' in a new stump grinder my days have been that much darker... Not my first choice (sorry Dean) but a low hours Carlton 4012 From the first we had a mysterious issue with it losing power to all controls and yet the motor would run. Time and time again, in front of clients, the public and the competition it would play up. We spent hours on the phone to the supplier but all to no avail. Eventually one of the technicians observed that we may be starting the machine in the wrong mode (a simple toggle switch easily overlooked) Once we stuck some tape over the switch to ensure no-one would ever touch it, our control problem became 90% better although it never really went away. Then, last Monday I loaded the machine onto the truck for a job he next morning 1hrs 30min drive away. Disaster! It would fire up but no control to the hydraulics. No manual, no radio and as it turned out later, no tether remote either. So, since then it has stayed on the back of the truck. Unable to move off under it's own steam and weighing a ton none of us fancied dragging back down the ramps in case it fell sideways. So with work to organise I quickly hired another truck for the team to use. Today, Friday, after many hours on the mobile to the supplier and many a wire checked and re-checked I am still stuck with a 950kg grinder perched like a big yellow lemon on the back of my truck. Tomorrow I will go and find a farmer to help me lift it off with a loader and place it in a trailer. Now here is the rub... I have now LOST over 7k in work, contracts for builders and councils plus other costs over a mysterious electrical fault on a £20k machine that I have used for 30hours and that the supplier has washed their hands off. Not strictly true, they ARE happy to charge me for any repairs at £55 per hour plus parts. It came with a 'verbal' 30 guarantee which I felt VERY uncomfortable and suspicious about. However, as this company is highly thought of in the Arb world I dismissed my fears thinking I would be well looked after in the event of a major crisis even out of guarantee. Well, it appears I am wrong and find myself out in the cold. I would expect this class of service from the perfidious French but NOT from a reputable U.K company. I am bit low tonight after a phone conversation with a senior sales manager from this company and as I do not drink, I'm trying to drown my sorrows in a fruit smoothie instead. Ty

That sounds a very interesting business project. I am looking at starting an company with 'association' status in order to give work to immigrants and aid their integration into French society. Mainly garden work and cleaning services. Also roof and gutter cleaning which seems to be the reserve of the 'travelling' community. Regards Ty

Stein Arb-trolley. Thank you for buying it off me Normandy Lumberjack:thumbup1: Always hated ratchet straps, they wrap themselves together before use then refuse to come undone once done up. More recently, a Carlton 4012 grinder, pig of a machine that like our Iveco gets stuck on slight slopes on wet grass. Ty

Here: Alder leaf beetle/RHS Gardening They were thought to be extinct in the U.K until recently although they have made a come back. Spraying with normal greenfly killer will do the trick. Regards Ty

Planting Alder? You'll be sowing Ragwort next like a French farmer... Ty

Hello Adam, Why even 'deal' with them? They are there for a good reason and doing no long term harm to a common tree of little value. They will be feeding other animals in turn and if you deal with the bugs then you are effecting a link in the food chain both as grubs and as winged adults. We had no long cold spell last Winter and as life is cyclic you may find next year hardly a bug to be seen. Of course, you could perhaps deal with them 'biologically' but in my experience by the time you have identified the pest, ordered the control and applied it (in the case of other bug eating bugs) the moment has long passed. If you spray chemicals then you kill all bugs good and bad. So, do nothing, really just do nothing. Regards Ty

And so it comes to pass, we are going to try our hand at this cut. We have some oaks and chestnuts to reduce surrounding a lake and quite by chance I cycled past one evening before being asked to quote and observed bats flying out of the canopy of some of the trees to feed on the plethora of flying beasties over the lake. We already use Aspen fuel and chain oil for the climbing saws and Pie Eater Pete has his new 150 with it's skinny chain. BUT... My question is this. Is leaving 'dead wood' or wood unlikely to regrow/develop epicormic growth really likely to encourage further decay in the stem? After all, the wound is no larger in diameter than the one left by a pruning wound. So what if fungi grow on the stub left? Is it a dead cert the same fungi will for certain make a meal of the whole tree as a result? A coronation cut is certainly going to increase to surface area available for fungi to feed on. Regardless, we are going to try our best to make some decent habitat for the 'chauve souris' which translates as 'bald mice' Any advice offered, welcomed. Cheers Ty Cheers Ty

Don't overlook the possibility that this charm could just be tat sold in a hippy new age shop full of incense and wind charms with no more mystical power than a split tea bags contents at the bottom of a greasy builders mug. Less mystical and far more interesting is the WW2 shrapnel I ground out of yesterdays stump. I picked it out of the chips by scanning them with the mystical magnet attached to the bottom of the grinder radio remote. This had made the stump untouchable to all saws and so it remained in the garden over a metre high refusing to magically disappear until I magically appeared and cried "Expelliarmus" before running my grinder 3 times widdershins around the stump. Ty:lol:

Perhaps Glastir also read thread like this an think they can get a hard up hungry mug to work for that per day... Ty

So easily could have been a classic YouTube FAIL video. Ty

Oh my, I do declare that I love the feel of a fat wedge in my pocket on an undeclared Friday. Ty

I find that on larger jobs, ones worth running a crew of 4-5 on, that there is a far better margin to be made. I shan't talk about my own figures, that just get's up peoples noses. However, it has been a long road to realising that if you don't ask, you won't get. I know what my running costs are, the rest is lovely profit. Ty

Keep a wee log book with the dates, time, distance of your private mileage as this should be the lower of the 2. Ty

Needs a Dyson attachment... Ty

It's only a CS100 on a stick, don't you know how pokey those things are...? Ty

Rohan trousers. Striders, expensive, only in grey now sadly but breath and dry fast. Also light weight polycotton ones called 'bags' for hedge work and general brash dragging in 30c heat. Ty

Here, it is normal practice for a client to send back a quote signed with a phrase "I've read and approve this" When we don't or forget, we often have issues, normally with couples who have not agreed between themselves as to the nature of the work. It has been a while since I meted out any sort of revenge to a non-payer, I normally walk away as I am older, wiser and cannot stand confrontation and more. Regardless of this, a late night visit to spray the hedge with Roundup is one way I once satisfied my thirst for revenge... Ty

You could stake the root ball, peg it down with wires across it. Goaty is right about movement. We got caught out when we planted 115 2.5m Leylandii in 15litre pots recently and had to go back to stake half. Hilliers...? You may find they will be in stock come November as few people would plant even container grown stock in the Summer, even with irrigation set up as we did. Ty

A donk: Ty:lol:

CAT tool here as well. You never know if an electric cable might be draped (not buried) along the bottom of a conifer hedge 20years ago to supply a shed or garage and is still live... Ty

Stump Busters are not 'omnipresent' Your client will most likely stick with you alone if the stump is an optional extra on your quote so offer it as such even if it is at a price. In 3 years the grinder has cost us approx. 1000euros in parts (new cutter wheel, axle and bearing plus belts and servicing) It has grossed around 27'000euros Your bottom price is it's hourly cost plus your business costs including your wage. Anything else being profit. It may be the reason you get the tree job too. So... Fuel, say 4.2litres for a 27hp machine = 7euros Teeth, I price these in (green teeth) and don't sharpen then on a small grinder. So 12euros an hour for teeth (including an allowance for the pocket wear) 3.50euros for wear and tear. 10'000euros for the machine, sold after 5 years for 5000euros. 1000euros per year in depreciation. You do for example 100hours per year grinding so that is 10euros per hour for depreciation. Total 32.5euros costs. You may be able to reduce this by sharpening your green teeth if used but add in the time and tooling to sharpen the teeth regardless and you'll arrive not far off the original costs. Add your wage and business costs PLUS...profit margin (you want an bigger truck, chipper, grinder don't you...?) I arrived at around 60euros per hour The grinder actually averages 90euros per hour and many jobs the grinding time is an hour but the quote is 120-180euros. (price in your travel/load/unload time) Right, now I've told you my secret to making a million you own me a pint of English Ale. Bon Nuit Ty

I charge as much as I think I can get away with. You should do the same. Don't give your clients presents, they won't do the same for you. Plus NEVER be tempted to do a stump for free just cos your on site. It's not just fuel and teeth but all that hidden wear and tear, belts, bearings, grease, oil changes and depreciation. Just stop mithering and buy one. Ty

One was brought down today when No.1 Climber topped out a lone Lawson. The eggs where ready to hatch and smashed open in front of the chipper. Afghan chipper feeder was shocked to see is despite all he has been through in 14 years of war. Shame but I'm not losing valuable work for 5 due to a birds nest, that is just nuts. If I didn't do it then some-one else would and the coins are better off rattling around my pocket. The biggest predator of wild birds must be domestic cats not tree surgeons. Not as if we are felling a Scots Pine with a Golden eagle roosting in it now eh? Ty

We needed it these last 2 days. Fighting with curly Lawson branches and knarly fists of hedging. 4 of us out including the Carlton 4012 following on grinding as we cut. I called Mac at GM and he mentioned the possibility of such a machine in existence... No reply from Mr Wolf as yet though. Ty