Big 'Ammer

If you have a 60 tonne crane on site why are you cutting it in to 9" rings?

The same as an 880 on the ground. Pisses me off too. How many cuts at full throttle do you think you will be making in the day with the crane? 20? 50? 100? How longs a cut take? A few seconds. I'd just get on with it and not worry. Are you the boss/self employed or an employee? If you're your own man you can do as you like. I ringed up 80' of ash trunk last week with a 2100 Husqy and an 084, because I was feeling 'nostalgic'. Couldn't feel my fingers after for 10 mins. I would have let any of the staff have a go with these saws too if they fancied a go, but reminded them that there was a 660 available. Their choice, I've done my bit.

Bobs comments put actual facts to what I said earlier, teach your staff to sharpen and maintain their saws correctly. You can only do so much, horses can only be led to water... Using good quality, well maintained and correctly sharpened saws, you are unlikely to get anywhere near your maximum exposure limits in a normal days work. Educate staff in the right selection of machine for the job, have something with heated handles availlable, split the work up between the team, and its not a problem. Theres no requirement to log users hours, just show that you have a knowledge of HAVS and that you have taken steps to look after your men.

I was told on the course I attended, that anti vibe gloves dont make any difference..... only to the coffers of those selling them! Otherwise the council lads would have to wear them.

The important thing to remember about these times of exposure is that they are times for 'Full Throttle Trigger Times'. If a saw has a reading of say 45 mins use, thats 45 mins at Full Throttle. Don't count the time your holding it on tickover. You may well use a saw for 4 or 5 working hours in real time in a day, but the actual time you have that saw running at full throttle may only be 45 minutes whilst making the actual cuts. If you have modern, well maintained saws you'll have no bother. Older hedge trimmers and hand held blowers a far worse than chainsaws for vibration. The most important thing to reduce vibration is to have a correctly tensioned and sharpened chain.

I am surprised that you didn't have something already in place, being LA, John. As a contractor, I had to attend an awareness course about it with our LA back in 2004. Our LA teams have to log their usage of machinery every day and hand in the sheet at the end of the week.

Falling deadwood is really only the concern of the beaters anyway.....

Used to run 2 Kwik Chip 222's, heavy to tow but substantial and well made, now badged Tunnissen190. Currently run Jensen 530T and very happy with it. I agree that dealer back up and service plays a big part. I've never used a TW or Greenmech, so can't comment fairly on the thread. Used most of the Jensens and 200 & 400 series Kwik Chips, and a 620 petrol Vermeer for many years! I wouldn't want to use the vermeer nowadays, but as Skyhuck said earlier, it beats brashing it up in a trailer.

When you look at the umpteen thousand quid you'll spend on a new chipper, a few hundred in lessons and a trailer driving test is money well spent IMO. Then you can buy and tow the machine that is the most suitable for your needs without having to compromise.

Sounds like old fuel. I dug out my 2100 to ring up some big ash last week. It was at a mates and hadn't been run for months. Started with 6 pulls and ran for a few minutes and then wouldn't go at all. Should have really put in new mix to start with, but it fired up and went, so I set off cutting. Left it 10 mins and tipped out the fuel and refilled with fresh and it ran like a dream, no bother for two full tanks. I was well impressed how it went against a 660 doing the same job. Couldn't feel me fingers for a bit afterwards though!

I was just being light hearted, but unfortunately you are right. We have to do the same. Common sense is no longer allowed to prevail, even when your having a day away from work.

Shoot days excepted, Dean.

You'll need 50 gallons of red, to get from Skye to Wimbledon and back! A thoughtful modification.

Well done fella. Nice and tidy afterwards. First of many, many, more .....

The Easylift is a good platform, however the extending outriggers have to touch the floor before they extend and this can cause set up problems round obstacles such as gravestones, or when you want to set up on say a flight of steps. You win with stability of a large footprint, but lose out by limiting your drop zone. R16 will go through a narrower gate than Easylift 150 also. I like the look of the Traccess 170 but have yet to have a go in one. Your choice of machine will depend a lot on what you want to use it for.

No more than other similar makes I suppose. I like the simplicity of it, not a lot of fancy electrics. Don't know who's importing them at the moment though, if you need parts. But there can't be much to these sort of machines that can't be sourced from a electrical factors, hydraulics place, and that a decent welder couldn't sort, if need be? Thats how I look at it.

Ernest Shackleton.

The R16 is small enough to get into awkward places yet still have good reach. As regards price, mines paying its way nicely.

Speaking from experience of using a lot of different mewps, I don't like the Teupen Leo 15 for tree work. You can't control the fly jib as the operator, so its therefore pointless it being on the machine. The ground controls are a fiddly affair underneath a panel, not very handy in an emergency. Dean's RQG 18 is a very capable machine for tree work. I'd like one. In the 15m class, out reach is very important, but a machine with a smaller footprint and a boom with more sections can get into tighter places and up over and around obstacles and branches better than a long boomed machine with long outriggers which has to be parked further away from walls etc and needs more space to swing the boom round at low level. The Easylift 150 is very similar to the Basket RQG15 but the Easylift has longer outriggers and therefore more reach. Both these have a single bottom section and are quite long and numb in a confined area like a graveyard for example, not bad machines though. I have an Italmec R16 and like it.

We used to tidy ours up occasionally with car body underseal from a motorists shop. Not the genuine stuff, but looks ok and provides some protection.

Nice one mate! Looking forward to the video footage.

[quote=IC TREES;140340 that wouldn't happen to be john woodmansey would it Nige? I worked for John for 10 years, Ian. In his heyday he was an excellent climber and he taught me very well, despite the fact that 3 strand and Willans were just going out of fashion when I started using them! I was chucked in at the deep end pretty much from the off after a few months on the ground, and after three years was the main climber.

I have been following this with a great deal of interest. One of many reasons I left my last job was that I was expected, day in and out, to go and climb without another climber on site. For years and years prior to this, I climbed with a very good climber on site on the ground, but we had no second climbing kit, the guy I worked for didn't own one. We used the same set of gear depending on who was climbing. This probably sounds incredible nowadays, but we had no intention of having an accident, so instinctively took care and thought about our actions whilst working in the trees. However, When I left to start my own company, I made a concious decision that if the job couldn't be done safely and profitably by the prevailing rules of the times, then it wasn't worth having a go, and I'd be better off retraining into another industry. Its been said earlier that no one in this game is whiter than white all the time, and I am no exception. There are things I do that may be considered by others to be 'not by the book' or 'the guidelines say you have to do it this way', but I am comfortable that my work practices do not endanger me or anyone else. Experience, and consideration of the outcome of one's own actions, count for everything in this trade. For the record, since I started my own business, I have never once climbed without another ticketed climber and spare kit on site, nor have I ever sent an employee out to climb without another ticketed climber and spare kit. Time needs to be made for novices to have a go, or they never will be competent, as no matter how many pieces of paper they hold, they will remain novices. I've spent a fortune on training staff, which in the first few years I could ill afford. Nevertheless, in my opinion, the longer term benefits and profits of a well trained crew far outweigh the savings that are made by not spending money on appropriate safety training and finding the time to put it in to practice.

If you decide to buy it, don't forget to factor in the cost of modifying the hopper / control bar to make it meet the current regulations. I may be wrong, but the pictures don't suggest that this has been done.

That 'something else' was no doubt the safety nudge bar retro-fit on the Vermeer hopper, wasn't it Tommer?