Rupe

It brings in the money if the clear up is quick. A 300 quid job is still a 300 quid job when there is loads of shrubs etc in the way, you can't seem to charge extra for clear up time, I like doing these ones in the pics but that about it.

The white board is called foamex. I've used 5mm. LOts of suppliers on line, I bought it from the guy who will be doing the sign writing. He charged me £28+vat per sheet in 8x4 foot size. I don't know if its cheaper on line. Its a bit flexi though and quite soft. Not sure how well it will stand up, we see! In hindsight I should have bought more aluminium form the scrap yard at 20 a sheet but I had already got this foamex stuff. It the same as on my old truck and that stood up ok, it got quite scrated though and on the old truck there was no hollow space behind it. We'll see how it last. At least it is easily removable so I could feasable get new panels put in each year or two.

Heres some more. There is two sections of yew like the first pic, one on each side of the front lawn, then there are a total of ten big box hedges with the domes on and 8 smaller ones. Clear up here is a pain! I've never cut the box hedges, in the last 6 years I always seem to have office stuff to that day! All I do is the tops of the yews. Thank god for ipods!

Stevie, the no blower in the world is going to blow it to the neighbours, they are miles away! ALso if you blow too hard it just comes out the other side of the hedge. We collect all the trimmings from the sides on sheets and then rake up wahtever comes off the top, I rake over the top once after the first cut and then trim again and the little bits stay there or fall through. I don't mind about the tea. I only see the owner once or twice a year anyway, they live in the house in london most of the time or abroad. I saw her at the weekend though and we went to look at some future work in the garden and we went in the car as it was too far to walk!

I actually like these hedges. I've stopped doing a lot of hedges as they want cheaper and cheaper prices, and if the clear up is a pain then cheap price is no good. The clear up on this one is easy peasy, except for the area you can see with small box hedges under the main hedge. The rest of it is just grass so you can put sheets along and then take the stuff away. All the clippings 2800kgs last year, go to make the drug for breast cancer. The picture shows the main part which takes two days (three men per day) then there are two more large yew sections and loads of box hedges. Then quarter of a mile of beech, some laurel and it goes on and on. Also lots of tree work each year at this place which is one of my favorite sites although we've not had a cup of tea offered in the 6 or 7 years I've worked there!!

My annual punishment for something I did in a past life is trimming these Yew hedges. Did them last week while my truck was out of action and worked on the truck in the evenings.

Thank guys. I forgot to mention that IW junction box costs 12 quid! Absolute bargain, easiest to use method for wiring up extra lights etc. Once you've got it set up there are plenty of spare contacts on each rail for wahtever you need.

Then one side on so far. I've got plenty of aluminium left over from the roof to fill in the gap along the bottom edge, istead of the little alli strip that is there now. I need to go and do some work this week so the finishing off work will have to be done at weekends now.

The the roof went on. 2mm alluminium. It actually just strong enough to walk on a the front half but not recomended! I'll be telling folk they can't ever walk on it!

I've wired up the trailer socket electric. I was not keen on bodging it together so I bought a junction box from Ifor Williams, the one they use on the larger trailers. Its so easy to use, then you can get to it easily and addstuff in the future. I've put addiditional wiring in for some LED marker lights, extra pair of tail/stop/direction lights for the rear corners and flashing LEDs although I have not bought these lights yet. Then I've taped the wires away from the pillars so that I don't drill through them. Once the sides are on it won't matter if they come unstuck.

Dean posted a picture of a mower that he might add a tow hitch too that might work better.

I'm pretty sure the hopper is full of kit in that photo, the weight isn't too much, its just that it presses in the wrong place, i.e. not on the drive wheels of the grinder. If you sat on the hopper end it would lift the weight off the jokey wheel but not really add any to the grinder wheels.

It work but only on flat smooth lawns and paths etc. the exact same ones that are easy to push the chipp over by hand! It worked on the job in the picture cos it was a long way and we needed the stump grinder too, but otherwise not worth it. Th eweight of the chipper bears down on the jockey wheel of the stump grinder but not the drive wheels, so theres not enough traction for slopes or wet ground. There. I remembered what I had said yesterday.

I posted something here at the weekend but its been lost. Heres the photo that went with whatever I said, can't remember now but something about adding a tow hitch to a stump grinder!

Alaska. Yes a few months of fun back in the days before actual work! Some winter mountaineering and some spring/summer "hangin out" as they say up there.

Its got the same wheels, almost like early alloys!!

I wouldn't be surprised if its still going, but it depends on if its owner is still around. He was in his 50's or 60's twenty years ago when I took the picture. I can't remember how old he was exactly cos I was 19 so everyone over 40 looked ancient! He was an engineer and he built his house, his plane, the runway for the plane, etc etc. A very clever bloke! He "found" the truck about two days walk away from his house in the 70's. He walked back and forth, 2 days each way, carrying tools and homemade spare parts until he eventually drove it home 2 years later. (not 2 years full time walking back and forth, but in his spare time in the summer between building his house, plane etc) He had to cut trees down all the way back to his house to get the truck back. We were using it to bring cord wood from the woods to his woodshed. it pulled really well, it had three quite low gears so plenty of power but no speed. I did a days work for him for food and a shower (homemade solar heated shower of course) and he told the story of the truck. It a Ford model AA. The model A replaced the famous model T, and the AA was the truck version of the A. Produced from 1932-1942 Look at the similarity with this photo

I'm sure I've used one, on demo maybe, never owned one. There is only one top handle saw and it has a baby brother (192t) and the rest is for looking at!

Arbex--will just mean "arboriculture expensive"

Printers don't give a toss, they just print. Once you've approved the "proof" it gets printed. It looks ok though, thers nothing wrong, and poeple picking holes in your business cards is really anoying so i'll shut up!

Do you need the capital letter T in tree work if you have no other capitals? Oh, except the I in insurance looks capital aswell. Sometimes its Ok to Have Capitals on the most Important Words..... but you need to go one way or the other.

Here we go.

I suppose photo would be good. ..

I'm sure everyone is bored senseless with pictures of arb truck at the moment but I just found these photos whilst routing around in the attic for soem other photos (which I've still not found) Anyway could this be my first ever arb truck......... ..

Does it go over speed bumps ok?