Billy

I replaced a gx390 recently, if you can do without electric start I found one for £585 inc VAT on eBay. The Chinese engines were around half that, I wouldn't bother with them personally.

Make yourself the 'extra man' rather than a key part of the team. Then you can go off and do a few quotes through the day and give the lads a hand or fix something etc when needed. This is what I do currently with a view to getting a team together who do not need me at all, quoting exclusively through the day where possible and getting somewhere near a normal working day in the next few years.

That is awesome!!

If you pay the willing workers or those with more qualifications more money it should motivate the lower paid to make more effort. If they don't make more effort they are happy to swan along and have no reason to bitch.

If only it were that simple !

Hi Roger. Sorry, missed your pm have just replied.

At my place I'm the only one PAYE. I earn 85 quid a day, I climb, drag, trim, rake up, chip whatever.

There is another climber who is self employed on 100 a day as soon as his feet are off the ground.

 

I don't agree with the wages as such, I mean Fridays 1st job was knocking a limb off encroaching on a building that took around 2 hours. He climbed.

 

The rest of the day I spent knocking 14 Connies down to 8ft from 40 in a 3 tier garden with green houses and part rotten wooden retaining walls underneath. 85 quid.

 

The whole wage balance between ground/climb is awkward. You could break it down again, imagine a massive takedown with a 10ft drag to the chipper, and groundies are expecting mega pay? Or a small tree removal with a nightmare drag? Climbers expecting top cash? It's really awkward to find a nice wage imo

 

 

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Id rather have 85 as an employee than 100 self employed for similar roles. I would imagine you earn more when all is said and done at end of year.

Good Morning

I had seen a previous post about refurbishing a 935I Vermeer but the poster did not list who.

 

Who can inspect refurbish and paint a 935I Vermeer chipper in the UK?

Contact details appreciated.

 

What would be considered a fair price for a unit with say 1900 hrs..

Have sent you a PM with my phone number, give me a call

It is but at the moment we don't need a wagon, this suits us well as things stand, maybe if the arb side expands it would be worth while.

 

My old transit that cost me £5.500 did almost 300 grands worth of work before I retired it. They aren't perfect for tree work but they do the job.

Not a lot you can't do with a wagon better than you can a class 7, even the little isuzu 7.5t with same footprint (more or less ) as that would have huge benefits for legal payload and last longer. Still a nice shiny truck though...

That is a vast amount to spend on a truck that's not really for for purpose. The lorry you could have built for that or even with change would have been amazing!

I can see eggs point of view I.e the rate is the rate- a top notch experienced climber who will almost always be a skilled experienced all round exemplary tree worker isn't going to come and out for £80 a day. However even on the ground they are worth their rate as they'll no doubt be excellent at felling and able to organise the site and keep things running how they should. But few guys actually have all these skills, most have no mechanical sense/ knowledge, poor sequencing and generally need to be prodded or advised on how to proceed....can't reverse a trailer etc etc where as in my experience the guys on a good rate can do all this and are conversant or have a good aptitude for most equipment you may come across in tree work.

However, I think the rates the OP is talking about are right for your usual average groundy, who should definitely have aspirations of becoming the above as it's highly valued by employers, but not for someone at the top of their game working on the ground for a day...Furthermore it wouldn't be realistic to run a three man team and have a £450 wage bill so the whole rate is the rate thing isn't very realistic all things considered.

Yes grease in though bolt at back on my second picture

Hang on a minute, I priced the job at a fair price for both me and the client, he wants to try and recoup some of his costs selling timber. There are several people lined up to buy it, however trying to get them all to the site at the same time when finishing job won't happen. Easiest for me to clear it all and leave a tidy site and recoup the dosh over a couple of weeks. I won't lose any money. The job is tidier and customer happy. What's the problem

Imo if the customer wants to sell it then he can have it sat on his land and deal with all the processes of selling. It can't be too easy to get it back to your yard if it will cost £600 and then need moving again when sold.

It seems strange that you selling it as an 'agent' and having it on your property should be exposed to the risk of speculation on price and incurring the cost of removing it from site, this should all be charged for then the seller is exposed to the risk of breaking even or possibly profiting depending on the sale of and price attained for their commodity.

If you do replace the clutch get one from Iveco. I had loads of problems with a non genuine part, and then it turned out the Iveco part was no more expensive.

 

Got pretty good at driving at it without a clutch though.

Out of curiosity, how much does the fitting of a new clutch cost ? Fortunately mine feels nice and light, does drag a little though.

How's the war linkage, mainly the linkage near the back of the rocket cover at the base of the telescopic tube which extends out when you tip the cab. If this isn't adequately greased gear selection suffers hugely, did mine recently and its transformed the feel of the gears. You have to remove it to grease it as the bolt you need to remove to grease it is obstructed by the other part of the linkage, easy job though.

I'd give the small machines a miss and look at the 25hp ish pedestrian machines like the dan equip and dosko etc they are 24" with little wheels and are very effective machines, hard work still, but they cut considerably faster than the smaller pedestrian machines.

I've a fleet policy with Onesure they will do it from 3 vehicles and it cut my insurance costs in half specially on the lorry, now anyone over 25 across the board no questions asked.

I am fairly busy at the moment, and getting busier, hence why I feel I'm ready to take the next step and buy a machine, at the same time still nervous at the investment and looking at ways to utilise that bit of kit :-)

Buy a used machine +750kg they go for peanuts and will generally our chip the 'best' new little machines

That is a bang on statement. Very much appreciated sir 👍🏾

But if you're busy on price work, compromise isn't needed, I know I am glad of any brief breaks in work to get on long term maintenance of the kit etc. I value that way higher than working for a pittance of a day rate in the same time

£145+ sharps and VAT from Coppard for a 7-8" machine.

Really! Where do you get these figures from?

 

Just to put things in perspective I hired a bloke with a mini digger on Tuesday, Cost me £180...... £500+VAT........ I ask ya.

 

If you can get it, good luck.

People running a digger and operator for that are on a hiding to nothing, probably due to being unable to price.

Two points to put it perspective,

1. I had an extension built a little while back. general builders day rate was £200, just a van and tools and this rate is not particularly high. So how can someone seriously consider coming out with a mini digger for less?

2. I did a day on a 1.5t recently £375+VAT the digger was £80 including haulage and I topped it up with 10l or so of diesel before they took it back nothing left site. I don't feel this was a remarkable job.

That figure is based on a solid days chipping with a 9" Bandit I.e a 4 man crew flat out producing stuff to chip or a huge pile to work through and taking a load away. Regardless of chipper size would you really want to do such a horrid job all day for less, when you could get £300 ish for a simple mornings work, why charge less...anyone who needs the service is probably between a rock and a hard place anyway

Chip on price only, as you'll regret 8 hours solid chipping for £150, or even £250. Imo a whole day chipping no questions asked would need to be £500+VAT

I guess they need to sort it out and absorb any fines etc. Unless they forwarded it to you to verify all information was correct as they usually do....

As an aside why is your quarter March to May ? I presumed everyone's ran the same Jan-March May-June and so on

No way does it carry 10t my 18t lorry only has a payload of 9t

and an 8 wheeler grab will take about 16.

Unless its got a bit of age about it and the bolts don't want to come out and then there are all the elderly electrical connections that start playing up.

....And your probably charged 4 hours labour for that hours work.