monkeybusiness

Don't know tbh - I guess they aren't really built primarily for road work and they want as little to get ripped off in the woods as possible!

Just do your big drives at the weekend when DVSA are in the pub...

I don’t know anything about the Forst machines tbh - is that the hydraulic tank it’s welded to? From the pic I guessed it was the bottom of the rotor housing (hence my confusion).

How/where is the oil leaking from - surely not out of the crack as it just looks like a support bracket?

I’ve got an 11 tonne KTS with an extendable rear bunk (when shortened it finishes immediately behind rear axle). There hasn’t ever been a situation where I’ve thought it is too big (occasionally wish it was bigger, but wouldn’t want the pay-off in usability tbh), and I use it almost exclusively for arb jobs (drives, lawns, side of houses, basically anywhere we can get it!). Steering drawbar is essential - once you’ve had one you won’t believe how you could ever manage without. As already said, get the widest tyres you can. I’ve only got 2 wheel braking and it’s fine on 99% of what we do, but I have had a couple of scary moments coming downhill loaded in the woods with everything locked up and no sign of slowing down/stopping!... (back on the power and keep it going where pointed - far from ideal and very scary!). I’m not sure if the second axle’s brakes would stop that occurence, but it can’t hurt (I will get 4 wheel braking next time). If using for arb I would suggest getting extra bunks/bolsters (as we don’t tend to deal in uniform pieces, and a short bay would be very useful!), with lift out pins (it’s amazing what you can drag on with a crane!). Get the biggest crane you can afford (reach and lift), and if you aren’t in the production forwarding game don’t worry about speed - it will be fast enough through your spools. My crane can be mounted on the 3pl (and at purchase that was a box ticked) - in reality I doubt it will ever be taken off the trailer though, as it would be a really cumbersome lump and I’m not sure where the spool block would go in that application. Driven axle(s) are the only real upgrade I’d go for on mine - I came very close to swapping for a different make with drive but it had fixed pins and that wouldn’t work for me so the KTS is still here grafting (and is well worth considering IME).

It’s all about the geometry - I’ll bet it’s fine once it gets started? Not really much you can do in terms of raising pump pressure on those 12v power packs AFAIK - all you can really do is move the base or top of the ram’s position to give it better leverage to get things moving (but you will subsequently lose tip angle).

What year/engines/gearboxes? When/have the clutches been replaced? Which spec?

Intentionally or recklessly - let's not forget those words too. I'm sure the best paid lawyer on either side would win if it came to court - (not that the law in this country can be bought off of course).....

I'll give you a goldfish and 4 cans of beer Pete!

Doesn’t look too bad - my lads have brought them back from jobs looking like that apparently without having a crash!...

How long had it been a killer tree, and how many people did it kill?

I did ask but the owner wasn’t keen!!

This was yesterday’s job - 3 trees (including a mature oak) to be removed and one reduced in an immaculate garden with relatively tricky access into the property from the road. Obviously no mess to be left anywhere in the garden/on the drive. There is a stack yard at the property that is rough and ready and is where the logs were to be stacked As ever, first thoughts turn to a crane (this is our second crane job since I was called out as a fibber on this thread, but hey ho!). Where can we safely position a crane? Where are we landing the material? How big a crane can we actually get to the job? All of these questions need answering to be able to understand if a crane can be deployed safely, and a lift plan subsequently drawn up. The only suitable crane pad was the gravel drive - the Indian stone driveway behind the crane wouldn’t have taken the weight (well, it might have but I certainly wasn’t willing to find out definitively one way or the other...). It was possible to position the crane’s slew ring 40m from the centre of the furthest tree (we would need more than that for the far side of the crown) providing the crane was backed in to position and also right over to one of the lawn edges. No problem - bogmats and crane pads on the lawn to allow outrigger deployment on that side. (This crane wouldn’t have reached if centralised on the gravel, but we knew that before the booking was made as the crane specs were referenced during planning). We were limited to this particular 100 tonne Tadano due to its size (it’s only 4 axle and is basically an 80 tonner on steroids) - nothing bigger would have got in the drive. So - we got our site measured up, our lift plan drawn up, the site prepared, the crane positioned and rigged, the trees removed to the stack yard and processed (70m from the furthest tree to the stack yard incidentally - a pretty decent lift) and everything packed down and away, with only minimal sawdust to tidy up from around the trees. Zero mess, zero fuss. And the whole purpose of me telling you this is because we had a decent sized crane working on its absolute limit and not once did the alarm go off (which I put solely down to correct planning and execution). Oh yeah, and there was a helicopter too (which is the real reason I wanted to put this pic up!).

Sorbus are there - I find their prices are as good as anyone’s (and they are a great firm to deal with IME!)

Seriously consider the Takeuchi TB225 if you are purchasing new and want to stay legal weight wise - it isn’t zero but these little diggers don’t have much overhang anyway.

I think you’ll be surprised what the crane won’t lift - the maximum capacity will effectively be so close to the slew ring it is actually within your forwarder so loading anything heavy from alongside/behind will quickly reduce capacity. Also loading height isn’t always great with a forwarding crane at full capacity, particularly if you still have the grab and rotator attached. These cranes are amazing at dragging heavy loads towards/onto themselves - I’m not sure that loading machinery that way will be the best idea though. I’d also second the speed with which you could crane-feed a small chipper. You’ll soon get fed up as it is generally quicker to feed little machines by hand. If you do go down this route then make sure you have visibility of the feed hopper/rollers from wherever you control the crane - if you can’t see what’s going on then it’s difficult to operate the machine effectively IME.

Sunday roasts are very good too (and good value imo).

Try flicking the switch a couple of times. Mine does that sometimes but the second press sees it dropping quicker.

Proper lasers are hard to beat to be honest. I've got a Trupulse from Sorbus - dear but accurate (enough for trees anyway!).

Is it your picus Steve? Aren’t the hammers about a million pounds?!... Sounds like a bad day.

To be fair, I did used to shout about it so I suppose I was fibbing earlier. If you watch that video and listen really really carefully you still won’t hear any alarms going off, even though that 60 tonne Tadano crane was working right on the limit of its straight-rigged radius. The crane was ‘good’ for 2 tonnes at that reach so we halved it in the lift plan and still had 4 trees out for dinner time (2 forwarding trailers of timber plus all the woodchip, so whilst not the biggest they weren’t tiny trees either). On any large dismantle the first thing I look at is getting a crane to it nowadays - they earn me far more money than they cost. Crane jobs have become pretty normal to us here as we use them whenever the job will allow.

Lol!

I would say what you’ve posted here proves why you should go for a contract lift tbh. When you do crane dismantles commercially the client usually insists on a lift plan (ours do anyway). We had done plenty of domestic crane work in the past (and continue to do so now) with a similar old boy who knows his onions and would tell us what we could and couldn’t do. No crabes fell over, everything went smoothly from where I was sat, happy days! However, we had a pretty tricky job for a big commercial customer so I put myself through the crane supervisor qualification and it was a real eye opener! You should never get anywhere near the crane’s rated capacity when applying a suspended load of unknown weight - it’s all well and good having a driver telling you he’s good for 2 tonnes so take a big piece (as in reality he probably wants to get home for tea - it’s basic human nature) but it’s a very different story when a 60 tonne crane working at 35m starts lifting its rear outleggers off the ground with the boom directly over your climber, and nowhere to drop the load... Measure the job out, specify what size crane you need, write a lift plan and stick to it - you shouldn’t here any alarms as long as you don’t play Bertie Big-Bollocks.

That’s all well and good when the load is on the floor - things are a lot different when the load is up in the air already!

I’ve done plenty pal, just don’t tend to shout about it as they are a pretty normal part of our operation.