RichardT

I had an old MF50b on the farm that was I thought underused and hence sold, I then found myself borrowing/hiring mini and micro 360s surprisingly regularly, so bought an ancient but very clean lightweight Mcconnell, no pump just a pair of hoses, for £200 at a farm sale. (Also no fixed top link frame, so care needed in use...)

For ad-hoc jobs it was brilliant, no digging a flat track to awkward hillside jobs, just drive there. Reasonably fast cycle on a modern tractor, a bit of a faff to dis/mount but no worse than a heavy flail etc. I also used a borrowed Foster DP2 with sideshift for a while, a bit big for my Goldoni but actually fairly powerful at work, comparable to the MF

As already mentioned, check farm sales, plenty of Ditch Kings etc sitting in dry barns.

I'm looking to get a small (10') container into my woods for general storage etc.

Problem is access: twisty public approach road, steepish curved track down to site, 8 wheeler Hiab not an option. Track and site are good rolled hardcore, and I know that an ex-military or utilities type crane wagon can manage it comfortably, as a Scottish Leccy post truck found its way there (& back) by accident a while back.

Fired off queries to a few container sales sites but they seem uninterested in anything non-standard, delivery-wise.

Anyone operate/know of a suitable wagon within realistic range?

Thanks,

Richard.

They're not built as heavily as Weidemanns, etc.

The plastic bodywork on CSFs is frankly rubbish, components and fabrication is OK. The forward steering pivot point on mine failed messily at c800hrs (it's welded directly onto the hyd tank) but was a cheapish fix, and that was down to abusive use as a snowplough on rough tracks for three successive hard winters. Otherwise pretty robust.

Older Kramers had mechanical transmission, no?

FC=Good, privately managed forestry = bad. Is that the gist, krummholz?

Idle curiosity: whenever I visit my family I see a yard which seems to have acquired another County or Roadless, don't know whether they're worked or just collected, but I'd love a nose around if anyone can ID the outfit in question. No specifics obviously, but not a million miles from the Air Balloon. Any ideas?

Good luck with the move, I've been mulling over the idea of heading northwards too, I;'m sure it'll work out for you. (Good luck also to anyone stuck behind your lowloader convoy on the A9....)

Nice uncluttered easily readable design.

As someone who periodically buys in arb/forestry/groundwork services rather than supplying them, a couple of comments:

-I like the simplest possibly homepage, preferably short enough to need no scrolling - some will be using small tablets/smartphones - and without partly duplicated menus.

-I'd prefer sub-menus on each page (eg on 'Services', one click to eqpt., safety etc. rather than scrolling only).

-I'd prefer your own pics wherever possible (I know you're got any number of those!), rather than stock photo library shots.

-I'd like an idiot's guide to the jobs shown in the gallery, or maybe linked by type from the services page, ie text on services offered and pics of relevant previous work are explicitly linked somehow.

- I love pics of toys, but maybe one or two of a human being minus full robocop PPE?

I killed my aged Dremel recently and bought a cheap Argos mains knockoff with a big box of tools, flexible extension etc. for about £25. Works almost as well, will quite obviously not last as long. Unless you know you're going to use it a lot, experimenting with a budget machine has something to recommend it. Then again, I have zero brand snobbery.

Might I have seen those machines nr Beauly a couple of weeks back? If not, someone's got a similar TJ/County setup thereabouts....

Well, loading per se, should be an "on the spot" activity

Often it is. We opened up our quarry for a new road 3 years ago and had a big Doosan working non stop filling a Moxy and a pair of 8t Benfords (or Barfords, or are they the same thing?). Another 360 at the other end spreading ready for the roller.

OTOH for a smaller job the other month a 3cx did both jobs handily, shuttling a mile or so by road between sires and moving pallets and dumpies into the bargain. Horses, courses.

Well, this is a bit odd.

I get that a digger, being a dedicated machine designed for digging, is - other thing being equal - a better tool for digging than a compromise like a tractor backhoe. But how is it also a better machine for loading than a loader? Tracking any distance a bucket at a time is painfully slow.

I don't think anyone disputes the idea that a good operator can do more with a given set of physical parameters - CoG, track width, gradient, traction - than a poor one.

Like Archimedes with his lever and fulcrum, give a micro 360 enough time and it can do pretty much any digging job you point it at.

Doesn't necessarily make it the best tool for the OP's job.

That depends entirely upon the operator...

I've yet to meet a digger pilot skilled enough to change the laws of physics....

A 1.5t 360 is a bit tippy on anything less flat than a billiard table, thoughbut.

I think you'd have to get a linkage mount for the AGT, I doubt anyone makes a subframe for them. These days they're all vertically fixed - the top link is braced - so you can't lift on the linkage, just raise the legs. Which is obviously safer, but with the low-profile alpines it means not a lot of ground clearance at the back end. Fine if you're not constantly grounding the backhoe crossing ditches etc. I've used one of the little GREs that Kilworth import from Italy, seem well made and even the smallest have sideshift. PTO pump better.

If you've bottomless pockets you could always split the quad/compact difference....

630 Minimaster | Vimek

That seems a bit pointless, to be honest. It's a crowded market.

"All of the schaffer articulated loaders oscillate as well.Most mainstream loader manufactuer's have the driver sitting on the back part only avant/multione seem to have kept the front seat"

Yep. Though not so much 'kept', they're much more recent designs. I've driven a couple of Weidemanns, a similar Giant from Holland and a rigid 4WS Kramer, and I prefer the Avant/CSF setup with the driver and loader aligned. I wouldn't buy another machine with no oscillation though. May as well get a micro skidsteer.

Worth pointing put that Dean's top-of-range Multione GT was the only model that oscillated laterally in the middle as well as articulating. The wee ones like my S20 are horizontally rigid like Avants , so like skidsteer or track machine you get the odd interesting moment of 2-point ground contact on uneven terrain. (I say 'was' because the new GT models are also non-oscillating, which seems a massive step backwards.)

All the Weidemann-style baby artics have oscillating centre joints, but they're much heavier than a Multione/Avant for the same lift. And I prefer sitting up front rather than on top of the engine.

Nearest equivalent I can find is this: articulated and 4WS, oscillating rear axle keeps all the rubber on the ground. They started off doing straight Multione knockoffs.

MODELS: pixy 45t | Cast Group - Miniloaders

Shame about the name thoughbut. Not sure if they have a UK distributor.

OK, so this thread has sent me off on a mental shopping trip which may turn real over the next few weeks.

For my own woodlands, so towability isn't an issue, hence 3-6T. Groundwork, firewood & thinning, clearing whin scrub, brash clearing, etc. We've got slopes, so bigger the better for stability purposes. Prices, not surprisingly, ramp up fast with size, plenty of 5-7yo 3ts with <3k hrs around the £12k mark, few decent comparable 5ts below 15k. Would love grab & rotator but unless I find one already fitted I think a fixed grab or just rake & thumb is more justifiable £ wise.

Couple more qs: zero-swing machines centre the mass, but presumably also lift the CoG a bit? Is a double-action hammer line pretty much std on modern builds? eg this...

Yanmar V1030 Mini digger

...seems to have 2 lines & rtn, unless I'm misinterpreting the pics. (Also steel tracks, which seem a rarity on anything sub-7+t.) Should I ever be thinking of hiring in a mower/mulcher (assuming I get a bigger machine ), I guess that's the minimum spec I'd need to run one?

Or I might just win the lottery and buy Eddie's all-singing, all-dancing Kubota......

"Scottish are generally socialist."

That's not really the case though, the most one could say is that there's a stronger social democratic thread in Scottish political culture.

Were Salmond - a wily observer of the electorate, whatever else he might be - confident of the socialist instincts of the electorate, he wouldn't have overseen the production of a 650 page independence manifesto that essentially aims to reassure by reference to a fundamentally conservative model of monetary stability, fiscal prudence, etc.

The independence prospectus tries to argue that everything will change, and at the same time everything will be essentially the same. It's an impossible circle to square, or to put it another way a cynical con trick.

Hence the absurd attempts to maintain, against all the evidence and any rational analysis, that the entire UK political and economic establishment is 'bluffing' and that a nice, safe currency union is still on the cards.

Hang on while I run that through Google Translate...

Right, the crowd circuit is available. Duh. Old age.

And a breaker line is pretty much standard fit these days?

So how's a compact job like #311 piped up for grab/rotator?

If anyone hears of a C200 Holder or similar for sale I am in the market for one. At the moment all I can find are in Europe for silly money.

Try Blocket, the Swedish classifieds site. Usually a fair few ex-municipal Holders there (often older c500s etc.).

Allens near Durham have had a few A60s lately, not sure if they're still selling this one: HOLDER CULTITRACK A60 TURBO for Sale - E W Allen Tractors

A Bob Morrison hunting recurve bow riser, a bowstring jig, and another pair of Bison Bushcraft cargo moleskins. And some Lagavulin.

Fair few trees down here, mainly extending previous windblow pockets. Could have been worse...

Was on the archery course at Mellerstain in the central Borders yesterday, nice old estate woodlands with lots of big straight oak, beech &c. Main damage there was to tall SS in a steep valley, over in clumps of 3-5 with linked rootplates. Not a nice clearance job, particularly for the non-pros who were attempting it...

Spotted this oak, c.32" dbh, twisted and snapped at c25', the odd(?) thing being there's apparently another older spiral split to L of failure which didn't open up when it went, don't know how normal this is but it says something about the self-healing capacity of trees..

Hi mate, yes, the Sherriff (Deere) workshop in Berwick did a good job, put some extra plate in so it should be solid even if it spends another winter snowploughing the rough tracks here full-time...

Thanks again for taking a look, there's a pint in the pump next time you're passing.

R.