RichardT

Yup, can't be too many of those around Berwickshire. What weight's the loader good for? There's a series of threads on the US tractor boards about Carraros w/loaders snapping in half, allegedly thin gearbox castings on some models. Different company of course. I live near Eyemouth Tom.

Couldn't stop to see Tom, I was hauling livestock. By the old gates to Langton IIRC. btw has anyone seen Metrac/Aebi type alpine tractors used here? Not much use for trailer work I imagine, but possibly a useful tool carrier, I've seen them fitted with winches & flails etc in Switzerland, even a 3pl backhoe once.

Woodland - amenity or commercial, large or small - turns out to have been a good investment of late. Owners wanting cheering up should take a look at the new forest market report on the UPM Tilhill site. Obviously they have an interest in talking it up, and things could go south, but still...

I've seen one of these at Edinburgh Treefest, they look good but I doubt they come cheap. Lovingly handmade in sunny Galashiels. http://www.wolfglentipis.co.uk

Whereabouts are you in the Borders Tom? I think I passed a BCS (blue ones?) w/loader working a roadside copse just west of Duns a month or two back. I nearly bought a Carraro off Lee Lightburn a few years ago and keep wishing i had.

There's a Militant been earning it's keep near here de-bogging combines: http://www.fwi.co.uk/community/photos/harvest2008/images/98317/original.aspx

Carraro also make load carriers, I don't know if Riko import those too: http://www.antoniocarraro.it/backend/upload/carraro/web_files/25767.pdf There's a recon one on Autotrader.

Another Deere, and the non-tractor that works hardest round this yard..

For a pocket-sized Xerion alternative, there's this Austrian machine, if you can get past the name: http://www.reform.at/en/products/mounty-slope-tool-carrier.html

There are pockets of blown Sitka and Scots Pine scattered around our wood, the odd Noble Fir too I think, I'm sure I could pocket the camera next time I'm out with the dogs. Anything specific, and how quickly do you need this?

A good pair of ear defenders is a priority.

Ha ha. he looks like he's about to remove his own head with the grab in sheer embarrassment. Nice demo of the excellent articulation on the Vimek, perhaps they can use it on their publicity. I might be able to beat this, the bloke thinning in our wood cowped his Timberjack the other day, the forwarder op who hauled him upright apparently has the photographic evidence but is withholding it on pain of dismissal or possibly violent death. I'll try to counter blackmail with bribery.

I own and live in a plantation with some semi-/natural woodland pockets. In the process of gradually felling most of the former and replanting/regenerating as the latter. I get contractors in for clearfell & main thinning, which brings in some money, as do the pigs we run in some compartments, though not nearly enough to live on. Have done firewood on a small scale, but would need to buy in hardwood and kit to do it properly. Any number of things we could do here given £ and planning approval...in 4 yrs we've put in roads, yard, house, barns and services, so both are a bit tight by now.

I've tipped chips and firewood off the sides of my U900 in places I otherwise could not have reached. It was also handy for contortion-free maintenance access. Unless there's a huge cost differential (presumably not if you're starting from scratch) I'd strongly recommend it. There are implications for chip box design of course.

Small, powerful, 4x4, manoeuvrable and cheap? Good luck, I've been looking for months. Zetor 5xxx or 6xxx might work but Eastern buyers have been pushing the prices up recently. I'm buying a late 70s SAME Minitauro that needs some work, 60hp and 4x4, about MF135 sized.

How about bandtracks on a Tatra 8x8?

Aha, those cunning Italians eh. Sorted, thanks Ed. Front cover off reveals the wheel motors are a fetching green, they must have been helping themselves to the Avant parts bin.

as Ed knows I bought one of these recently (small s20d) and it's a very useful little machine, it'll manoeuvre in tiny spaces and carry a useful load to a good height with the 500mm-odd tele boom extension. Mine came with a 3pl and aux. hyds for the back, handy for a small vertical splitter &c. Grip not too good on stock skidsteer wheels but a change of rubber should improve this - and it can walk its way out of a bog, as I just discovered. Biggest mystery so far (no manual) is where to check/top up hyd oil. Maybe they forgot to put a dipstick on mine. Ed?

Finally changed to a Macbook pro a couple of months ago. It was that or a Vista machine. apart from a few necessary changes of habit the changeover's been pretty effortless and it's certainly a more intuitive system. Excel for Mac 08 sucks, the sooner I sort out my mass of live legacy files and dump it the happier I'll be.

The wood's been a plantation in some form since the 1810s at the latest, so the soil's taken a hammering anyway and will need tlc for a while. I meant grass as distinct from cultivable land. Or heather/blaeberry/ birch scrub, which is the local default, and we've plenty of that already.

Yes, clearfelled 2 yrs ago, stumps up to +/-22", I just want some usable grass so I don't need stumps lifting, just mulched to a whisker below final ground level. I've lifted & burned on small areas before but 1 Ha+/- with my wheezing old digger is a lifetime and if I have to hire in a big 360 I may as well bite the bullet & get a mulcher in instead.

I want to reclaim some spruce clearfell for other uses, I can find hourly hire rates for Ahwis etc locally but no indicator of how long it takes them to grind their way through an acre. Obviously site-specific, but ballpark/average?

Thanks folks, very useful Ed, standardised bits is a big + and there does seem an endless list of available kit if the pocket can stand it. Probably cheaper with forks etc. to get old skidsteer bits and weld up the brackets. Generally seems a better package than the smallest of the Weidemanns etc., also cheaper. May be overreacting on the colour, under the usual black Ingliston sky it looked a kind of bilious lilac. btw does anyone know who did the tree rescue demos at the Highland? Class act, standup comedy with ropes.

Hi, That'd be me, and it's catching as I seem to have deleted the message too. I ended up ringing the large chap from the CSF stand and got some answers, but I'd be interested in a frank view on how tough & capable they are, specifically the small 'S' series (I need a narrow machine). Any good on rough ground or mud? Can the smaller pump handle smallish splitter &c comfortably? Does that big rear overhang get in the way? Do you ever get used to the colour? Cheers, Richard

Hi all, Came across this site accidentally, very useful and entertaining it is too. Also quality Mog-porn pictures. This seems a good thread to piggyback a request for advice. I'm not in the business, I own and live on a softwood plantation with deciduous fringes and odd stands. We use professionals for volume harvesting but I look after firewood for ourselves (everything woodfired) and local sales. Internal access being tricky, I bought a U900 a couple of years ago to run a splitter and chipper and carry split firewood etc.- its a James Jones forestry conversion with hydraulics and linkages at both ends, 3-way tipper and a big roll cage (a near twin is currently on the Atkinson site). It's also pulled the odd plough, run a 3pl backactor, so useful all round. I'd like to put a small crane on it for extraction, ideally on the roll cage mounting behind the cab but if necessary on the back linkage. Buying new would cost more than the mog did, any advice on cranes suitable for this machine, where to source them, which end to put them? Also on the ability of the standard pump to drive a crane...? I could get a cheap tractor and self-loading Botex type trailer, but basically I want an excuse to keep the Unimog. Cheers