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Mark Bolam

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Everything posted by Mark Bolam

  1. Mark Bolam
    Drenaline and Tach have too much bounce for SRT. I’ve found none-CE Donaghys Cougar Blue to be great for both. Nod at Treeworker can usually get it. Mine is 50m. There’s probably loads of new stuff out now that is as good or better. I also use the Jet Step, teamed up with a HAAS Velox 2.0.
  2. Mark Bolam
    That’s alright mate, I have a loader….
  3. Mark Bolam
    Slight derail on the attachment/welding stuff, but does anyone have experience of working on ground protection mats with mini loaders? We have a few jobs I could tow the chipper in with, but there’s lots of moving brash and timber (albeit staying on site) and the shift from the drop zone to the landing would look like The Somme if we do it now. Piss wet through heavy clay. Might be able to borrow some mats from a civils contact.
  4. Mark Bolam
    Tyres can make a big difference on 2WD’s. I chucked some cheapo Fedima AT’s on the (twin) rears on the Transit a few years ago. They are basically BFG AT copies. Made a huge difference on wet grass, slippy gateways etc. Couldn’t source them in skinny tyre size last time, in this country at least, (185/75/r16), so went for something less aggressive, and have regretted it. If you’re wallowing in mud, forget it, but the extra traction in a lot of situations can really help.
  5. Mark Bolam
    @Joe Newton f**k off before you start.
  6. Mark Bolam
    That’s the kiddy I meant. My mate Von who I am in a loose partnership has one, and it’s a beast of a machine. Worlds apart from a 150. Don’t know how the new smaller engined version compares, but that Kubota will probably still be chucking out the horses when most of us are dribbling cocoa in a care home.
  7. Mark Bolam
    Nice one Mick. Is it the full fat 37hp version?
  8. Mark Bolam
    You’re way off here Pleasant. If a customer expects ‘a full day of work’ they have misunderstood my quoted and accepted price. If we can be out of there in a morning, believe me, we will be. I haven’t improved my skills, surrounded myself with a top team of grafters and invested tens of thousands of pounds worth of kit to be held to account by some retired suit who thinks we have to work until exactly 5.30pm. That is someone else’s customer.
  9. Mark Bolam
    Can you imagine a lass at one of those 1970’s swinging ‘car key’ parties you used to hear about? If she pulled out the average arb’s key ring she’d think she was going home with a jailer!
  10. Mark Bolam
    Perfect timing Alex!
  11. Mark Bolam
    Why have you got my key ring Will? I bloody knew I’d left it somewhere!
  12. Mark Bolam
    Missed this Mick, sorry. Merry Christmas mate.
  13. Mark Bolam
    That’s easy. When you die.
  14. Mark Bolam
    Meant calm!
  15. Mark Bolam
    He’s pretty cam isn’t he? Most un-American!
  16. Mark Bolam
    It did bloody well yesterday shifting the chipper around in those ground conditions. Timber shifting (although it’s all staying on site) will have to wait until it dries out a bit. It was like the Somme when we’d finished. Just going to wash the machines down now, they got put to bed dirty after a diversion to The Woolpack for a couple of festive Peronis.
  17. Mark Bolam
    Finished the year yesterday with some Biblically wet connie killing.
  18. Mark Bolam
    £25k? My postie mates earn a bit more than that taking on extras, but it’s not so much about the money as about screwing around with contracts. Say you sign up for £25k on a 5 day week. Then a new contract is put in front of you, 6 day week for £25k. Would you take it? In tree terms it’s like a twat customer who you’ve taken 5 trees down for the agreed £2000. He now wants the 6th taken down for nothing. What do you do? Do it for nothing because you want to keep working? Or ‘go on strike’, ie tell him it will be an extra £400 or he can whistle?
  19. Mark Bolam
    I’ll start. Yes.
  20. Mark Bolam
    Whilst I agree ‘Diversity Managers’ etc. on £200k deserve sod all, as Gareth has said where do you draw the line? If you chucked a lump sum of say £10k at everyone, it would make a huge difference to the front line staff who are really struggling, and a pittance of a percentage rise to the fat cats, who don’t need it anyway. It could work.
  21. Mark Bolam
    It’s no surprise @Big J moved to Sweden really.
  22. Mark Bolam
    Fair point.
  23. Mark Bolam
    Anything over 3.5 requires ‘O’ licence and another set of bollocks I can’t be arsed to deal with. I’ve been running over for decades, and will continue to do so until they sort the shite laws out. Plating trucks capable of 5.5 down to 3.5 is a joke. Pikeys do what they want, with utterly no recourse, me running a bit over makes sod all difference. A couple of copper mates thought I could carry 3.5t in my Transit. The system is FUBAR’d.
  24. Mark Bolam
    And before anyone starts bleating on about brakes, remember the truck is plated for 6225 GTW, so they can handle a bit of extra chip before I fail to stop and wipe out a busload of orphans. I don’t take the piss, but 1500kg of chip locally wouldn’t be uncommon.
  25. Mark Bolam
    That’s the way it is. I’m also legally obliged to have a ‘NO SMOKING ALLOWED IN THIS VEHICLE’ sign clearly visible on the dash at all times, or be susceptible to a £100 fine. I haven’t got one, it would get hidden behind Danny Mac’s Golden Virginia pouches and Rizla boxes. My vehicle, my rules. These fuckwits seem to have forgotten who pays their wages.

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