Stephen Blair

Able

Spud use your positive attitude to encourage others, not to explain yourself. The good ones are watching and appreciating you.

This site is about all things related to Arb, if the site was mostly about bills to pay, there would be a dedicated forum for that. I got into tree cutting because my dad did firewood to heat our house. The deal was, the farmer gave him the tractor and trailer and he got the blown down trees. He did this with every farmer in our area, he also shot their foxes, they gave him bullets and a lamb for the freezer and bags of potatoes and anything else he needed. We got the pigeon shooting and I was allowed to play on my motorbike in their fields but I also had to help round up the sheep when asked. We helped with the hay and silage , money was never exchanged, but labour and gratitude and the feeling of community was always there. When I wanted to get into Arb, the same farmers I helped as a kid helped me, a place to have a bonfire, a loan of a tractor and I always repaid them with tree cutting and anything else I could as they got older. I learned how to climb and fell by asking a farmer if I could fell the dead elms on his land for practice and he offered me his tractor and trailer to lift the firewood. I limbed up all round the fields to practice climbing, the guys I gave the firewood to for free helped Chuck the branches back into the woods. The same farmer gave me an old prefab to rent for peanuts, I helped him with the sheep and helped out where I could. Rarely a good gesture doesn’t get repaid along the way. Some will take advantage but that’s the minority.

Great idea Tom, I’ve had these types of deals with guys over the years and still do. Yesterday my friend was out with his winch and he passed me up a big chain, it was his cousins that he lost over 20 years ago! It’s a part of him that keeps his memory going! I hope you manage to find some peace in using your brothers tools doing something he must of loved and involving your son in the process. There’s so much more to log processing with your family than saving money.

Today

I have the beak on the forks for the Avant, it’s excellent for lifting multiple irregular lengths and if you can only get in to lift 1 side due to ltd access. When it comes to brash it’s as good as you can imagine. 1 bolt and it lifts off.

Nice 1 Mick! I put mine in today for additional Aux and auto hitch! I bought mine a wee friend last week! This is my village Big Rig 😂

Middle bits not that important mate! Good job Climber chimp!😂😎

The 250 was twice the machine of the 200, the 280 should be an animal. It was mostly conifer I did when I had them.

Ran TP's for years, simple, well built and reliable!

When it comes right down to it and you are ever sitting across from a Tax investigator, that’s who you have to convince. If they say no, you will have to pay back the tax that that offset saved you plus the interest .

Proper job!

Good news!

Dave stole my pillow!

Devils in the details!

Pictures of the ground conditions, access and the size of the stumps would help.

What's your budget? what volume of chip do you predict to be moving daily? do you plan on moving timber in lengths or hand load with the same vehicle? what's your daily work radius? do you need 4wd? how many passengers?

Going to mock up some ramps with planks to get the length righ and then buy alloy ones.

I've been there over the years with scaffold boards and near disasters! 😂 blocks will be under front of trailer and ramps fixed to vehicle. It will just be the chipper.

I wouldn't hang on tail gate, it be attaching onto the rear body .

Cheers guys, I would fix the vehicle end and have the trailer end free to move.