monkeybusiness

It’s more the operating centre etc which is harder for a lot of people. Paperwork is no big deal, having somewhere to run from/park makes it more difficult than it needs to be.

No shit Sherlock! The law needs changing to make running heavier trucks straightforward (no O-licence etc). It’ll probably have to change when the additional weight of batteries are forced upon us mind....

Once you put a big arb body on it they do.

The 3.5 tonners weigh pretty much the same (whatever make) so why not? At least it should be running in a safe condition if actually overloaded on paper. Probably cheaper to buy originally, 3.5 tonners make strong money anyway.

If you ask your local dealer if they can get close to the online retailer’s prices in my experience they will often try - it’s worth paying a bit more to keep the local guys open anyway. I’d much rather spend locally where possible.

I’ve had a few PMs asking for location etc - it’s in Cheshire but could be loaded onto a pallet easily enough. English oak (Quercus robur). Approximately 3 feet across, it must weigh 150kg minimum I’d guess. I’ll get some proper measurements if I get a chance today though. At £50-£80 it won’t be going anywhere unfortunately. This is a big old lump, and it is all there in one piece.

That makes sense and is brilliantly described. How come these issues don’t tend to present themselves on/in harvested timber though?

We felled an oak today and have a really nice burr that the customer would like to sell. Any ideas of value, and who might buy it? Or should I stick it on eBay?!... Cheers, Dan

Greenmech Safetrak - get the chipper to the tree, wherever it is. They are far and away the best on tracks if you want to go across tricky ground (which is the whole point of a tracker chipper surely?!).

Whatever you want to call him, I hope he gets caught and I hope he ends up in a nasty accident.

The guy in the pics is a pikey in my eyes, whether he’s a traveller or not. I couldn’t care less how he classifies himself/how he was brought up/what demographic he associates with. (Some travellers don’t help themselves though as they harbour/protect pikeys and live off their income). You don’t have to call yourself a traveller to be a pikey as far as I’m concerned.

To me a pikey is the lowest of the low, a scummy thieving lawless benefit-scrounging tax-dodging dirty criminal scourge on society. Whatever ethnicity they decide applies to them or where they choose to live is irrelevant. If if you want to see what I mean by pikey, have a look at the pictures in the first post in this thread. There is one right there - he and anyone who knowingly supports him fit the description perfectly.

Don’t think I mentioned travellers. Nope, just read it again and definitely didn’t at any point mention travellers.

Dirty thieving pikey rat wants those fingers chopping off.

A lot of the older Fords only do 30k though - painfully slow on the road. I’d love a TW though!

I’d be very wary of buying any second hand tractor fitted with a loader personally. Much rather have a tidy non-loader machine to start and fit one myself if needed. I’ve got an Agrotron and am very pleased with it (it’s powerful but relatively small so good amongst trees) but certainly not without its issues, but I think that would be the same with any brand. Anything second hand is a potential grenade, but I wouldn’t personally want to buy a new machine and stick a mulcher on the back/drive it into the woods etc. Our job wrecks nice kit, no matter how careful you are.

Definitely a squirrel.

It started out as a bit of an unofficial ‘I’m better at dragging trees than you’ local affair, but has grown into quite a big competition. They have to drag a load of tree trunks around a trials-style course with really tight gates and very steep slippery terrain. I couldn’t really follow the scoring but hitting the gates was obviously a no-no - the operators were amazingly skilful and had the timber double choked (one near the skidder, and the second nearer the back of the timber) and used the double drum winches and machine’s pivot to steer the logs around corners etc. Some of the skidders were also fitted with cranes which obviously made the job easier - I’m not sure if these competed against other similar machines or not though. The cranes were ridiculously strong and were used for dragging as much as lifting. It has apparently turned into the biggest event of its type in France, and draws in quite a few trade stands. I think it’s as much a showcase/working demo for the skidder manufactures as anything else tbh. Or it may have just been a bunch of pissed Frenchys having a big dick competition - either way it was ace to watch!!!

They are an extremely disorganised bunch - I’ve bought blades and some bars/chains on the cheap from them in the past and pretty much every transaction has been cocked up in one way or another. We even had a wagon (that couldn’t get down the lane to us) turn up with a big wooden crate on a pallet addressed to us from them - I was out and received a call from my dad who asked where I wanted it dropping off. Not expecting anything I tried to contact Saturn to ask what it even was - they assured me it must be correct but couldn’t actually confirm what they had sent. Long and short of it was that this great big crate with unknown contents (but unlikely to be cheap!) was abandoned at the neighbouring farm. I had a panicked call a couple of hours later from Saturn asking me where whatever it was was - I still don’t know what was in that box though! This has just reminded me of another order from them - only half of the order arrived. It took a couple of days before the other box turned up at a neighbours who share our postcode - both boxes were dispatched at the same time as part of the same consignment, but had been addressed differently. Muppetry through and through!!!

I think they are possibly the same company?

Sorry to hear this. It’s all to common - anyone buying second hand kit of unknown origin is feeding this unfortunately, whether they admit it or pretend it isn’t the case.

It used to be a £30 fine for the driver, no points etc. Not sure if that’s still the same but has been whenever we’ve had an issue.

Hopefully they die a violent painful death.

It’s a real bargain - tbh it’s the last thing I need at the moment though as I’ve already got a few and have other things to buy as a priority. But never say never!