Ty Korrigan

Hello, worthy of the Dull men's club, I just went through 3 years of figures for stump grinding. €25k for a €5200 small pedestrian machine. The stumps are 90% from our own removals and stump size is not a problem though fatigue is. So the machine was paid for in it's first 9 months, running costs are slim, teeth, squirt of grease and 3 litres of SP98 per hour. The recoil starter lasts 25hours or so but most spares have a Chinesium alternative. Still on original belts and bearings. Aside from being onerous to push around, I find it difficult to justify a larger machine on the following points. Insufficient hours per year. Time to recuperate investment. Costs of repairs/parts. Self propelled would be a help tbh but here in France machines like the entry level Bandit ZT1844 or FSI D30 would take me 3 years turnover just to cover the initial purchase cost let alone running costs and labour. So having rambled on there, my question is How much turnover would people consider is required to justify a larger machine? No, in my area can't rent a larger grinder as and when and even if I could the price would make it unviable. Example, the FSI B20 can be hired but it's a 90min round trip at €200 per day. Stuart

Not a song but a ballet, currently revising Tchaikovsky's Nut Cracker suite as I'm taking my 7 year old girl to see it in Rennes once school has broken up in December. I have 3 of his ballets as earworms stored away as well as Carmina Burana and Dvorak's 9th. Once, whilst cycling around New Zealand I suffered the theme from Big Country continually for weeks, every time I looked at a mountain or magnificent view it started rolling in my head. Stuart

I first tried chain oil made from recycled cooking oil. However the smell... the smell penetrated hair and clothes and also gummed up tank filters and oil pump. So moved to Aspen bio chain oil. Smell is far less instrusive. I had a batch which blocked the Echo oil filter which meant changing for a Stihl filter. I have twice oiled the fuel tank whilst rushing. Rinsed out with petrol, the saws stank of grilled sardines for a couple of tanks leading me to the conclusion that fish oil may be used along with veg oil. I wrote to Aspen but they were pretty elusive over the recipe. I have found that Aspen bio oil is not very effective on longer bars so over 45cm I still use a thick quality of mineral oil. Stuart

Could be worse, imagine being a French tree surgeon living on the island of Reunion with a dodgy Vanguard Efi... The entire machine would need to be shipped halfway around the world for warranty work... Stuart

No end in sight. Just empty promises and hollow words. Oddly enough, I've a colleague whose VW Passat has been at a main dealers for 9 months with an intermittant fault which puts it into a crawl. His situation mirrors mine though a Vanguard Efi is childs play compared to a car engine. Stuart

I agree with both Doobin and Pete B. Both have valid points. Longer supply chains mean goods cost more, often without the quality of back up and service available in the home country. Muck truck have an intersting video where they go through the various hidden design differences between their UK produced machine and the multi-brand Chinesium copies. I bought a Chinesium chippette last October for 2 specific jobs with poor access, even parking was impossible without a council permit. There are many superficial similarlities with the GM model though less refined which leads to higher noise from vibration and certain parts align poorly. It was however a mere €1372 shipped from Italy against €8500 for the GM model sold in France. That is a difference of 600% As I never expected to use it more than a handfull of times per year, I could live with the differences in quality of build. The days of ultra cheap all things Chinese manufactured may well be at an end. Containers which cost €1500 to ship pre-covid are now €15000 French news often dedicates articles promoting 'Made in France' From cars, white goods, clothes, footwear to smaller artisan level goods. Food, always food. I live and work in a town were houses start at €300k and there is no possibility of ever getting on the property ladder locally on a tree surgeons wage. I'll make economies where I can and where justified. Crossing borders and negociating post Brexit bureaucracy recently saved me €7k. Not an insignificant figure and all I am forgoing is a relationship with less than pro-active local dealers content to take your money and give little in the way of service in return. I still have a GM150 languishing at a Briggs Efi dealer since April, 8 months with end in sight, the warranty having run out in August. That is French 'service àprès vente' for you... Stuart

I believe the greatest threat to the health of all cherries, whether flowering or fruiting is the common garden Door Knocker with his flyer, ladder and cooling off period. Certainly here, more trees succumb to death from Door Knockers than Silver Leaf. "Can you save my tree" they ask. "No but I can save your next one if you call me first" Stuart

The clients eyes glaze over when I tell them about Summer pruning of cherries. "I just want my cherries lower down so I can pick them instead of the birds and I thought all trees were pruned in Winter" Oh f**k it, I'll prune your miserable tree in January if it means saving it from the local landscaper or hack who will take the 50% of the height you asked for... Stuart

Ah...just like in France, comforting to know I am not alone... Stuart

Just the ticket at 58db Cheers, I found one for €168 ttc from my regular online store I buy Stihl from. sobrico.com Stuart

Cheers, gives me hope. I live in a family house on a sheltered estate for nearly deads. As things stand 'almost' everybody is tolerant of the eyesore truck on the drive but the weekend chainsaw cleaning has been commented on and I don't want a visit from the housing association, not quite ready to move yet. Stuart

It is deafening, loud as my Honda mower with it's dodgy exhaust and stands on a thick rubber mat. Worse is, I occasionally forget to turn it off and so at 4am when the pressure drops on it comes... I'll look into the screw type pump. Stuart

Hello, Are there any compressors which have a low db rating that anyone can recommend? This budget one only cost around €200 but I certainly can't run it on a Sunday morning to clean the saws. Stuart

In France, one of the little pleasures of visiting the local tip (dechetterie) is watching civilians trying to reverse trailers of garden waste. It is as though they are herding cats using cars, the trailers seemingly to have a mind of their own.

And chainsaw shorts too, silly idea those.

It does well enough as a chipper tow tug, winching and loading rounds etc but true, it is a Tesco Value tractor. I couldn't have afforded better at the time and without taking out credit still cannot after having the unforeseen expense of having to replace my chipper this year. A truck is the next big thing on the horizon. If I was a another level up, site clearances and big dismantles every week then a tip top telescopic would be just the ticket. However my niche is domestic urban arb work where a machine is rarely required. The ten year old in me does like driving tractors though however cheap. Stuart

I joined a Solis FB page. It is a known issue it seems. I was contacted by Solis and asked to provide the serial number to help trace others. Stuart

Our 7t Iveco had difflock which was rather usefull. Stuart

I also joined the farm peacock in a right royal strut and crow about it all...

Done. They were not seized in and came out with little difficulty using heat, then 'degrippant' freeing oil then a hole punch, difficult to get central as there was a ridge on both. Then drilling and extraction with the Facom tools. I also had to jack the engine up to better align the holes. Viisions of Austin Mini subframe bolts, nightmare but all came good, an uplifting personal victory. Called my engineer buddy Didier who has ordered a fresh set of quality bolts. Stuart

Yup, loads of that technique so equally much snipping off the pointy stone and dirt filled tip before chipping. Tops mostly sailed down flat before breaking into a groundies nightmare of a thousand shards. Stuart

Those pops were all planted in 1986, client still has the invoice. The inner line, shaded by oaks is seriously skinny. My climber got through alot of that prescription medicine he stole from his Gran. Stuart

First pop shredded from where climber left the ladder on the way up, each trees lower portions covered in a thick lattice of dead ivy. Before each was topped out the climber transfered across with the Captain hook to set the next line, swung back in, topped out, rappelled down stripping the rest and repeat. Stuart

Buzzards Stuart

I stripped and topped them Mark. Most have heartwood decay, a few spike marks will most likely lead to extra epicormic growth. I would have used a tracked mewp to place the climber if they merited the cost but they are coming out in 7years. Stuart