Rupe

Sorry, my bad, we are pollarding them at 5m, not felling. Under some of the trees there is two hedgrows one on each side and after that there is some newly planted trees. That was only on three of the trees, we could cut a way in and get to the bases but the grcs operator wouldn't be able to get in and out quickly and he wouldn't be able to see what was going on or cummunicate with the other groundie. The stuff couldn't be lowered to the bases of the trees might have been a better way of say it. It either needed driftlining with the climber lowering the pieces from below each cut, or skiline with the climber controling in the same way. We fiddled about with both methods and got there in the end but I'm yet to find a perfect set up. The only video I have is from one of the trees that we had better access too.

The smaller cord tied as a prussik on two of the inward legs hold it in place when tightened.

Heres a pic of a 5:1 I made out of bits and pieces from the shed!

I've nearly finish a job of taking down 15 hybrid poplars, approx 90 foot each, priced it for 15 days, some are smaller and take half a day and some take 1.5 days so all in all we are averaging one a day, all need rigging and some we can't get to the bases to fit the GRCS. Two trees left and two days left to finish it on time. Anyway I'm fairly sick of poplars now. I have a tiny bit of video, where should I put it? Here or rigging and roping, or video area?

I kill them! The kind of customers I hire it too tend to be the types that would not let me down if they broke it. I don't have a full hire agreement in place, I tell them what its worth, I ask them if their insurance would cover it if it went missing. If they say yes, we are all agreed, handshake, that will do for me. Whats the worst that could happen? Its only my logsplitter I wouldn't allow my chipper out of my sight but a logsplitter, let them get on with it!

You fill it with a gel pack that absorbs heat easily

So thats not going to work on a standard ball hitch. Plus an electric winch would be usefull for other stuff and quicker I guess? You could do a lot of driftline work with a grcs and an electric winch, also dragging brush to chipper or hauling stuff along a GRCS tensioned speedline. I'm not going to fit a winch on the front of my subaru, so a ball mount would be ideal, maybe have a plate for it under the hopper of the chipper and run it there too?

Good point Steve! On this particular job we cant get to the bases of the trees, and there are no other ones to use. A tow hitch mount for the GRCS would be ok, I'm looking into that. I know there is one in the states but its for a 2 inch draw bar type hitch ( you remove the ball/pin hitch and fit the GRCS instead) see the video

As for speedlines, we have been having this problem for the last few weeks. We've tried a few things, had no room for vehicles going back and forth, so made do with a 4:1 on the end of the speedline. I want to do more of this so I'm thinking portable winch, possibly electric and tow ball mounted? Not sure yet, will let you all know.

Why do you want to get to the next job sooner? Is it better there than where you are now? Getting the job done for the most profit is what matters and the highest rate of profit per day averaged out over a year is what gives you a successful business each year. Simply getting to the next job sooner by handing money over to someone else to do the work for you is not necessarily the best thing. It will show higher turnover of cash but thats all. Monkeymadman, summed it up best, each job is different. I may be in the minority but I take my time, if I've got four days but can do it in three then fine, but if I can do it 3.5 then I'll work slower and make it 4, and get all the kit serviced while we are there and be nice to the customers etc. there is too much rushing in this business its no good for anybody or anybody's bodies!

I have to hire it out weekly, sunday to sunday usually, if I delivered/collected it daily durign the week it would screw up my day and be pointless. So I advertise it (only on a flyer that I give to customer or put in envelope with invoice) at 150 per week inc delivery (20 miles) and vat. So I should make 100 each time. They supply the fuel. I've negotiated on price when they clearly only need it for one day but they still get it for the week. Daily would be 60 quid plus vat plus delivery so not much saved. Done it five times this year so 1 third of the machine paid for without me using it. The rest is paid for out of selling logs but I mostly only sell them to clear my yard, I'm not a full on firewood supplier.

I also hire mine out to customers. After we've cut everything into rings or "firewood lengths" as stated in the quotation, the customer says "what am I supposed to do with that? Can you split them for me" I then give them a flyer for the logsplitter hire. Most people who have large enough trees and a need for logs often have a handyman gardiner type who they can hire the logsplitter for to use. Then its a few extra quid for no extra work.

No its not fly tipping, its a sense of humour of sorts, leaning more towards sarcasm. Don't take everything so seriously, you'll get ulcers!

Customising a splitter to make it road legal seems a waste of time to me. It can't be much less money than buying a trailer which you can use for other things. Its like those custom trailers for towing stump grinders, waste of a tow hitch, why take something to site which is then useless? Steve, my big trailer is only a single axle IW 8x4. it takes 1500kgs max so my LDV can just manage it full of logs. Its not much extra space but the low level and fold down rear ramp means four footers go on easy. We once put two four foot long section of chestnut on it that were so fat we could only just close the tail. Saved so much time on cutting and quartering, plus it was only two logs to chuck off in the layby on the way home!

What I mean by the quad pulling its own trailer is that the quad pulls the iffor williams trailer that was used to carry the quad in the first place,

Ed that is the business! Mine is cheap and does what it says it will but I would like one of those! It would be so easy to split poplar and leylanddii into chippable sizes. I know your gonna say get a bigger chipper!!

I'm not sure but I think the 25T rating of mine might be imperial i.e 25K lbs When comparing make sure you know if kgs or lbs. Steve have you not got a trailer at all? I have two but would gladly have more. For selling logs you can take more each journey, for moving logs from a job you just roll 4footers straight in the back. The quad goes on the sam etrailer that I use for the logsplitter, or the larger one which is mostly for the stump grinder. When on site the quad then pulls its own trailer and we use it to forward wood from back gardens etc (access permitting).

You could easily bolt some wings onto the metal bits that are there already to make a tray but, horizontal mode is rubbish! The controls are designed (cheaply) for vertical mode. Horizontally its hard to get a comfy position and your hands are working sideways. The safety control is hard to press so its easier to have your body weight pushing down on it. Two blokes would not lift it anywhere! Its heavy, not sure how heavy maybe 300KGs?? You would have to put a front jockey wheel on it a winch it up ramps. Mine has a standard tow hitch attached so we can move it around the yard with the quad or whatever is handy. This is a usefull thing for moving it or chippers accross lawns etc

Steve,this is what I have. Its NOT road towable, you need a seperate trialer, I use a Iffor william P6 unbraked small trailer which is another £500 ish Mine is a lawnflite but its the same as the MTD one, just a different lable on it. We take it on site for quartering rings, it saves having a truck load of sawdust to clear up.

Logsplitters - LS550 Code: Logsplitter LS550 Cost: £1779.00 (retail inc. VAT) Warranty: One year leisure/three months commercial Specs: 6hp Briggs & Stratton Engine 25 Ton Ram Force Vertical or Horizontal Operation Takes Logs up to 25"/63.5cm Jack Stand Two handle control 19 Seconds Cycle

Pete,records of previous good years wouldn't have included ladies so this year must be the best. The only comparison I can think of would be to see what position Jon Hartill got at ITCC in the year that he was euro champ and compare that to Jon Turnbull's position this year but that seems quite pointless, this just was a good year.

Nod, thats a shame, I won't be at the Welsh to see you fly!

Nice to meet you there Pete.

I use Paint shop pro. Its a simpler version of photoshop and more suitable for the amateur. You can paste photos over other photo but only as long as there is no background on the second picture. i.e.a white back ground need to be transparent and not actually white. Its cheap and might be available free from some p2p programs.