Alycidon

Dragging the full bags anywhere will result in the bottoms being worn away in one trip. A big fertiliser bag laid in the bottom of a log bag act as a repair, these can usually be begged from most cereal farmers in April/May time. Some people empty the bags into their tipper prior to delivery. If you want to deliver the logs in the bags then ideally you will need either a tail lift or a IFW GD type trailer and roll them off using a pump truck down the tailgate. The beavertail is the most suitable thing you have but its far from ideal as the bags will tip backwards on the beavertail. I am finding that about 30% of bags are NOT returned for one reason or another, stolen, blown away, binned, lost, I have heard most things. Usually selling logs late in the winter when a customers usual supplier has run out means that the customer tends to go back to their normal supplier the next winter and you may loose the bag. I would suggest you will need to charge £20 inc VAT for a bag and pallet if you want to cover your costs and make a few bob. I am at the top end of pricing in my area so am tending to take it on the chin and press for bags back. I am now attaching a letter to all invoices advising if bags/pallets are not returned then a £20 charge will be levied. Buying in crates of kiln dried from Latvia etc is looking increasingly viable as the cost of cord rises, and the crates are not charged. Just don't get involved in the 2 cube crates as they cant be unloaded safely without a tail lift, rolling them down a tailgate is an accident waiting to happen. A

Even then it would need to be hand balled out of the shed by the looks of it unless you have something like a Bobcat loader. A

I have killed greys with air rifles but they are very very tough. 22LR is to dangerous agreed, semi auto shotgun is best tool shooting wise. Personally with limited time I prefer to trap. 2 x Number 4s in a tunnel with peanuts in between usually works ok, A

Funny you say that, Wilsons recently had a used Transaw for sale, I guess someone changed it for a bigger Posch. I have also had good service from Fuelwood. A

In Northants I have never seen as many Badgers as we now have, I have several active sets, one going back over 50 years that has been untouched in that time, some of the excavations which are now covered by trees planted in the mid 1950s are massive. A friend of a friend farms south of Birmingham, he has regular TB outbreaks but only when he has badgers or DEER on his ground. He takes steps to control both. Personally I think deer are just an able carrier if not more so. The grid earlier showing the infected rate of shot badgers was interesting, a far lower infection rate than I envisaged. A

They would be Ok for holding ready dried logs but put green timber in and it will mold as there is little air flow through them. Usually used for seed bulk grain. A

Fair comment, 800t, so around 1100 cube, you need a big barn for that lot for sure. I have been at £125 inc VAT for 18 months for Ash + Syc, air dried down to about 10%. A quick look online at two or three of my local competitors, the lowest is £80 a cube for KILN DRIED hardwood followed by another at £85 for seasoned and £100 for KD with free stacking if needed. No mention of VAT if charged being extra. The 85/100 guy is buying in cord, the other is a mix of arb waste and buy in. At £60 a ton to buy in delivered thats about £45 per processed cube + VAT. By the time you take time, wear and tear etc, fuel etc into account it may be cheaper to buy it in from abroad in crates, certainly not a lot more expensive. A

They were all using similar timber 2 years ago, perfectly straight, 150/200mm. The only one I saw using anything bigger was the big Bindenburger 500, that had a guy behind it with a chainsaw snipping off any dirty log ends !!. I am currently minded that to justify such as machine you need to put big volumes through it. Cutting 30 - 40 cube a day is needed for long periods, so you need massive ( to me !!) sales and massive storage of the processed product. With the cost of cord increasing and the price of logs in the market (Certainly Wood excepted) seeming to be constant then I cant see that investing 30k into a processor and rack would pay unless you have volume or contracting work for it. I think that there will be a decent market for contractors as it will be more cost effective for people cutting perhaps 100 tons to get one of them in for two or three days rather than investing the money themselves unless they have it to spare. The alternative of course is for Fuelwood/Marshall/Wilson etc to hire machines out by the week. A

Were you by chance using an Esse Firestone?. I am an Esse dealer and was wondering how you handled it on site. Dan the Esse rep tells me that someone with a firestone sold 4000 slices of Pizza at the Festival all cooked on the Firestone. I have sold a couple and set them up with my LE1 stairclimber but it has been a struggle. Looking for an easier way to handle on site. A

Downside of that is the ring would need to be of a shorter length to finish up with optimum size logs, either that of split at 1m and recut. I would suggest if you have a processor then use the splitter to produce one meter lengths in a diameter to suit the processor. A

In my days in the heavy goods vehicle industry I was a distributor for K Seal, its good stuff and does what it says on the can. I would certainly try that route first. A

Broken a coil spring that holds the ratchet for the elevator winch into place, stops it unwinding. Spring is about 10mm in dia and about 4 or 5 coils. Fuelwood say complete ratchet only but might be able to get one, current models have changed, mine is an 2007 production. Any ideas, I did put the remains in my pocket but am not sure it is still there as the trousers have been washed since. Thanks A

Please explain further, thanks. A

They are all about the same and depend on the volumes you orderm carraige tends to be a killer if you only want a few as they are sent on a pallet. In 100s from memory about £5.50 each in 100s when taking carriage into account. A

S G Baker, having had bags on order last year with Bag Supplies from late 2012 ( that order is still outstanding !!) I had a batch from S G Baker. Their loops are bigger than the BS ones which helps. Slighty different sized than the Bag Supplies bags so they dont stack well when mixed. Will be using them again, SG Baker A

Suspect that at 60, 61 in November that I am the oldest here. A

The wagons on the Chirk job were originally built as tilt slide sides/roof for Rover cars. When they folded the wagons were later converted to timber use. A

Did 274,000 miles in my 200TDI auto Disco, just sold ( well gave away really) a TD5 Disco at 262,000. At 180,000 they will need a set of injectors, these can be sourced from breakers easily enough. A A A

Euroforest?. A

Whwn I was a young lad the landlord of my local at the time kept a chainsaw in the beer store behind the bar area, any trouble and he would fetch it out , fire it up and wave it about saying the pub was closed. He never had any issues. A

Evening all. My Black and Decker petrol strimmer is 'beyond economic repair' and needs replacing. I only use it a couple of times a year, maybe 5 running hours in total but when in use I am cutting nettles mainly up to 4 feet high so it does need to be a half decent bit of kit. As I can be cutting up against walls and young trees a blade is not a good idea. So I need a decent replacement but dont want to be spending for a pro user top spec tool. It would be nice to have a hedge trimming add on for a later date. Suspect one of the mid range Sthils might be the way to go. Any recommendations?. Thanks A

I use a Manni 627 for most of my firewood work, have an Allbut log grab for the front. It lifts 2 filled cubic meter bags of hardwood logs easily, have had about 4 cube of Ash + Syc trunks on the grab that have been felled for 18 months so fairly dry, thats about its limit. Perkins engine but very fiddly to do anything to, pretty small fuel tank but a very handy bit of kit. A

When I ran an independent splitter off the MF135 tractor hyd while at the same time running a processor when the splitter got to a tough bit it could not get through it lifted the processor into the air instead. Did not do the leg under the splitter chute on the processor any good, bent it so had to straighten it. There is a facility to isolate the rear lift hyd and so run a MF80 loader with a hyd bucket tilt but dont know what that would do to the splitter oil flow. A

Grazon. A