monkeybusiness

I’d imagine getting an architect involved with a suggested chicken hut in the woods has put the planners on full defensive mode, and the TO is going to pull every angle to counter what appears to be a foot in the door for future development. Or am I being cynical?

That’s a very kind offer, thank you.

Hi - a mate suffered a serious break in in South Cheshire last Tuesday night (27th March) and had the following power tools stolen - 1. STIHL MS880 48” BAR (spare 36” bar also taken) S/N 181034060 2. STIHL 084 25” BAR 3. HUSQVARNA 390XP 36” BAR 4. HUSQVARNA 390XP 28” BAR S/N 201410000080 5. HUSQVARNA 372XPG 20” BAR 6. STIHL MS441 20” BAR S/N 171534211 7. HUSQVARNA 560XPG 18” BAR S/N 2012130038 8. HUSQVARNA 560XP 18” BAR 9. HUSQVARNA 346XPG 15” BAR S/N 20114500234 10. HUSQVARNA 346XPG 15” BAR S/N 20120100240 11. HUSQVARNA 346XP 15” BAR 12. HUSQVARNA 550XP 13” BAR S/N 20161300190 13. STIHL 026 15” BAR 14. STIHL 026 15” BAR (plastic “026 tag” missing from the top) 15. STIHL MS200T 14” BAR S/N 170098247 16. STIHL MS200T 12” BAR 17. STIHL MS200T 12” BAR 18. STIHL 020T 14” BAR 19. HUSQVARNA T540XP 12” BAR 20. STIHL MS211 16” BAR 21. STIHL 020AV 16” BAR HEDGECUTTERS AND POLESAWS 22. STIHL HS45 24” BAR 23. STIHL HS81R 30” BAR S/N 175940322 24. STIHL HS81T 30” BAR S/N 176639882 25. STIHL KM131 KOMBI UNIT WITH ANGLED HEDGECUTTER AND STRIMMER ATTACHMENT 26. STIHL HT101 POLESAW S/N 297634206 27. STIHL HT75 POLESAW S/N 67952532 (CHAINSAW HEAD HAD JUBILEE CLIP REPAIR) BLOWERS 28. STIHL BR600 MAGNUM S/N 289778131 29. STIHL BR86 S/N 283523220 30. HUSQVARNA 570BTS (BRAND NEW) They also took a transit tipper which was later found burnt out near Farndon. I would imagine the thieves are working out of the Wrexham/Whitchurch England/Wales border area (but that is largely speculation on my part at present). If anyone has any possible information relating to any of this kit, or more directly to the thieves themselves please contact me in strictest confidence on 07970188050. This type of crime (and those who support it by buying the stolen equipment) destroys people’s livelihoods - those machines belong to a guy who is no different to any of us on here, and have been paid for through years of hard graft. It wasn’t undertaken by amateurs who got lucky - this was a professional crew and we are all at risk from people like them... Please please please let me know if you hear anything!

Fury wouldn’t stand a chance against AJ - he is the most overhyped waste of space out there. He has only ever fought one decent opponent (I’m not sure how he actually got the Klitschko fight tbh) and only won that because his opponent uncharacteristically didn’t turn up on the night. I can only imagine Klitschko didn’t prepare as he expected to easily walk through Fury, but ended up frustrated by TF’s awkward style. The fact that Fury wouldn’t honour a rematch suggests that he knows he wouldn’t stand a chance next time out. Personally it wouldn’t bother me if he didn’t box again, but the reality is he needs to be proven to be nothing more than a hyped up lummox by anyone half-decent to shut him and all of the Tyson Fury fanboys up who will always claim he is the best boxer out there.

It’s a Land Rover - think of the highest number you know, double it and that will be somewhere near the owner’s perceived value.

Parker looks decent but there isn’t anyone around that can beat AJ in my opinion - I can’t see it going the distance.

I wouldn’t personally drive on the road with that chipper on the front links - the tractor and linkage may be capable of lifting 3.5 tonnes but that doesn’t mean it is safe/mechanically sympathetic (the front axle and tyres will take a hammering, and you may not have a great deal of control). You could counter-balance it with something really heavy on the back but it’s always worth remembering that tractors are built up of various components held together with rings of bolts... The other thing to consider is leverage - the chipper is 2 (ish) tonnes centred a long way from the tractor. That’s a lot different to a 2 tonne (or possibly even a 3.5 tonne) weight block close in! If it looks and feels wrong I’d suggest you forget what it says in the manual.

To be fair I didn’t consider the 7.5 tonner. If I was going down that route I’d personally go for a bigger (as in heavier, not necessarily much physically bigger) truck, as they are more capable all round for much the same operating costs.

But why not go a couple of sizes up? If you can get that 3 tonner to it the chances are you can get an even bigger machine in. IME a micro serves a purpose (much better than a spade!), a 1.5 tonner is a really useful tool for restricted access, sub 3 tonners are really only there to offer as much bang for your buck as you can easily get to site (avoiding o-licence etc as much as anything). After that you might as well go 5 tonne upwards in this country, as you can shift those as easily as a 3 tonner but they can do a lot more work.

I can’t get my head around the point of that particular weight category though. Difficult to transport and not enough advantage over something that can be easily towed to site. It looks a great spec, but is at least 2 tonnes too light/small imo.

That is nice, wish I had the money available as that would do me nicely, bet in 6 - 8 months when I hopefully have some funds again these spec machines will be like rocking horse poop again. Get a new Tak 225 as mentioned above when you’re ready to buy - these two machines Eddie has linked to are both really nice but neither will be legally under 3.5 tonnes when on a trailer which really limits their usefulness imo. I think they make a brand new setup at £30k look like a bargain too!

Just order a couple of meters of a few different sizes if you really don’t have the time to get the screwdriver out. It’s only a couple of quid.

Looks ace - keeps you away from the snakes too!!

That £30k ballpark is a cabbed machine and includes the tiltrotator with hydraulic quick hitch and buckets - you could easily spend more than £10k getting a similarly operating set-up onto another machine. The basic machine with manual hitch and 3 buckets straight from Takeuchi is anywhere from £21k upwards if you just want a canopy and single hammer line. These look very competitively priced and as Eddie said, getting hold of one is likely to be the biggest problem!

Apparently the TB225 will be available over here from April, but the first machines will only have a single double acting spool. There are more machines due in August with two double acting proportional spools, and it is possible to order from the factory with the 4 spools but you need to order now if you want one in August. Rough figures are +£1k for the second proportional spool, and + another £1600 for the 3rd and 4th spools. You should be able to get one tilty’d up with a bottom hydraulic quick hitch and a few buckets, and the all important ability to operate a grab for around £30k plus the vat. The Takeuchi spools will not allow tilt and grab at the same time - the second and fourth service latch through the same proportional switch on the right hand joystick. Pretty good value if you ask me - obviously a decent timber grab would be a couple of grand on top of that, and the same again for a trailer to drag it around on but it looks to be a really handy size/weight for easy and legal operation.

Is there anything wrong with the tree? Why is it going to fall down? Did you buy the house with the intention of felling the tree from the outset?

It’s listed on the Takeuchi uk website so I’d assume it is available over here now.

Have you seen this post @Northern Arb Supplies? Have you had any bad batches of chain reported by any chance?

I’m pretty sure it is the chain at fault here. Following my earlier post I took a husky 560 which has a new rototech bar and chain on it to our log pile and it is unusable - pulls hard to the left so much that it binds in the cut. I flipped the bar and it still pulls left. I haven’t bothered sharpening it (it is still as new) and the cutters appear even. We have had other rototech chain in the past and not had these issues so it could be a bad batch to be fair, (it will be the same chain as the OP’s I would have thought) but it is unusable to be honest.

MS360 - brand spanking new from George Carr’s. I was like a dog with two ... It did a lot of work and helped me get my business started but eventually got nicked by some pikey out of my van one night. Replaced with a 361 (which I still have and is still my favourite saw/the best saw ever made by anyone ever!).

I’m not sniping - genuinely interested. Is there anything taught on the ROLO course that an NPTC qualified arb who has passed the CIS health and safety test wouldn’t know before attending, or is it largely a box-ticking exercise?

I cut/undo the hessian once everything is in place and leave in the hole under the tree - if you remove it you will lose more of what soil there is left around the roots. Leave the wire to rust away. I have seen a 20 year old pine fail where the ‘hessian’ (although it obviously wasn’t biodegradable) had been left tied around the root - it ended up strangling/constricting the tree at ground level where it eventually snapped in a storm.

We put a couple of new rotatech bars and chains on a couple of saws I was going to chuck on eBay (but have ended up carrying on using for the time being). They pull all over the place - it is weird to be honest, as they ‘look’ straight but are obviously just dog toffee...

Trailertek used to supply axles to your own spec for reasonable money - not sure if they still do but worth investigating. Spec it heavier than the chipper...

660/661 etc with a 36’’ bar will do just about anything you’ll need in the UK. 880 and equivalent are only necessary for trees big enough to warrant their purchase (you won’t get many of them in this country).