Big 'Ammer

I use a couple and an old cambium saver to set up a quick 4:1 mechanical advantage system to pull back leaning trees over.

That's twaddle! The pole qualification is for felling utility poles i e phone or electric. Who says what size the pieces have to be that are going to be dismantled? He was "dismantling" the last part of the tree from the ground as his risk assessment showed that it was safer than having some one working at height with a saw etc, etc, blah, blah..... BTW, Ben's going back tomorrow to chog down the last two slices of that poplar off the spikes now he knocked the top out!

Nice job. Was the spec for the tree in the second pic "pollard at 1m."? ...or have you got a bad back?

I have a "specially shortened" muck fork for that job, ahem!

Me too, ....and with a man basket and stabiliser legs on the front, ....and a 10" pto chipper and 12 tonne trailer on the back, .... and a EA license in the cab for all the stuff in the trailer!

Some one had probably taught how to sharpen properly when he was a lad! Or maybe he was trying to emulate Jay Browning off axe men!

Very useful, thanks Tony.

Try Beaver Plant at York 01759 372552

Sweet!

Dean, how will you go about testing / proving it for a swl etc once its assembled ? for loler etc

Cheese, cold roast potatos, mayo and english mustard sandwiches. Yummy!

Fairy liquid.

Nice work Reg.

Same here.

I like trees, but-ts especially!

Thats the way to do it Mac! One of the last jobs I did when I was employed was a big beech takedown, rigged everything like that, some big bits too, from another tree with a huge limb overhanging the road, all straight into a trailer in the street which we kept backing underneath and pulling out the way again. Felled the main stem straight down the tight driveway. Real nice job, all went perfect. I got a phone call about three months later from a lady asking if it was my people who did the tree over the road, I didn't realise we were being watched. I said yes it was me, but I no longer worked there and gave her the contact details of my old boss. I heard back from her a couple of days later and she asked me to come and see her, as she was only interested in the people who had carried out the work she had watched and wasn't bothered who's name was on the van. What had mainly impressed her was the fact that a few flowers wern't damaged and that we had left the garden and street spotless. We got a small days work off her as a trial, which in turn led to about ten weeks work over three years!

To follow on from Pete's thread on interest on late payments; What do most of you do? Do you expect the customer to stump up cash or write a cheque before you leave, or do you send them a bill in post?

Beer tent!

Its like the people who go round game fairs in the middle of summer in tweeds and waxed jackets when its 80 degrees.

I have started doing this in the case of house purchases too. I am a business not a charity.

I, along with most people, will provide a quotation for free. However, in my experience, people who ask "do you do free quotations?" as the first question on the phone are invariably time wasters. They are going to want the world for £50 or are just 'getting an idea of price' to see if they might like it doing. Or its some piss-potical little shrub that you might as well do there and then with a silky and throw in the car boot. Quality clients with worthwhile jobs never ask.

Ho ho! I've got a selection of different 'ammers for various jobs! Big 'un works usually best though! If we start a job we finish it rain or not. If i've hired something we work whatever. If its raining at the start of the day then try and do jobs that can be done in the wet like servicing, site visits, office work etc. When everythings sharp and serviced I will send the lads home / tell them not to come in to make up for when they have given me extra time to finish something off or gone the extra yard in difficult conditions. This works well both ways and also encourages good maintenance habits, because if theres not much to clean and service you can be home much quicker! One of my grandads sayings about ramblers and cyclists and the like on wet days was "if they called it work, they wouldn't be doing it!"

I agree with Dean! When I had a 5 foot wide Kwik Chip in for some repairs we had a jensen 530 on hire for a couple of weeks. I backed it in and up our driveway to prove a point to the lads, but we soon got sick of trying to 'use the force' to back uphill and round a bend with something you couldn't see behind a chip box on a tranny. The novelty of taking it off and pushing it uphill in the dark at the end of a busy day soon wore off as well. There's no need for small light towable chippers to be narrow, and they would probably be more stable on the road too?

Nice work. On a serious note for the newbies, here is a good example on film of what happens when you cut through the hinge (7.12 onwards), tree loses direction. Ok out there on that site, but if it was in the back of Mrs Bloggs garden....

How do you back up when full of chip then?