clueless

no inline filter the line just goes from the tank straight to the engine. interestingly enough it doesnt have a bowl under the filter its a different type. there is a lift pump that has a 'plunger' on it which feeds to a normal filter housing with a screw on fuel filter. i pulled all the housing off and cleaned it up (not much in there some sediment) and blew the lines through with air but my next step is probably to look at the pump but to be honest i doubt its worth it with the value of the machine. which is a big blow as i was looking at shifting it very soon.

very interesting comments guys thanks. still looking for a silver lining!

yeah a fair bit really plus put all the diesel through a filter mesh and that showed a lot of stuff. was surprised to see the outlet from the tank only about 8mm above the base of the tank too and not gauze or owt on it. unfortunately though it doesnt seem to have fixed the problem 100% so i'm a bit cheesed off at the moment.

i'm in the same boat i have a komatsu pc100 (which is pretty much a 120 but a little shorter.) which i am looking to shift for a 5 ton zero swing but everything is so bloody expensive still because of the export market (expecially round your way). 7tonners seem to be better value for money but they are a bit more difficult to shift than 5 tonners. zero swing is the big thing for me especially in coppiced areas. a couple of good (i use that term loosely!) videos on youtube i found one day after thinking what a great idea i had, someone had already done it. This is only with a 3ton machine though it looks like, which i would say would be a bit small. but at least with a 3 tonner you can stil get a bit of hire work with it. [ame] [/ame]

yeah i know what you mean about mates rates. we're all farmers round here though so theres plenty of back scratching going on! ooh arr! when i was doing a lot of plant hire work i used to do mates rates a fair bit but its too much hassle like you said. treework is something i'm just playing at so to do a few bits and bobs for the boys is as good for me as it is them at the moment its not about the money with them just the chance to do a bit elsewhere. If i could earn a living out of it then things may be different, but thats what the day job is for unfortunately. i was mainly looking at if there was any opportunities in going in to arb yards and processing arb waste (i.e. not for the domestic customer) rather than actually taking trees down, as thats what you guys do day in day out. I suppose kind of like a real stripped down version of the guys that go in with beasts or while tree chippers, to produce chip. However, many people dont produce enough gear to warrant making and selling chip, hence they look to firewood. i thought get a decent enough set up and i could go to them offering a m3 rate, which from a business point of view would be more appealing than an hourly rate. they would then be able to work out their margin for selling on, plus i would know my production rates could cope as i would have got some decent kit on the go. risky for me i know, but if i was in their shoes i wouldnt pay someone an hourly rate to do something i could get a labourer to do with a cheap splitter and an axe when the work was quiet. at least you know you have Xm3 of timber in your yard which you can sell for £Y/m3 if split. If it costs you £Z/m3 to split it and you know it will be done in one hit, or at least quickly (as me the log splitting contractor extraordinaire, for example, would be going flat out to make it pay) then its less risk for you as the end retailer. what you reckon? PS all this assumes Y is greater than Z

yeah sorry mate wasnt being flippant. keen to hear if anyone is actually making it stack up though as i can imagine the labour costs must be the killer if your kit isnt 110% productive

yeah thats the obvious thing to do its just whether the tank we have can 'do it'.

ebay isnt quite the font of knowledge that this site is though to be honest

sorry to hijack this but i was wondering if something like a posch 30t splitter is worth it? (theres one at wilsons for 6250.) if i bought that i could split pretty much anything i have and a few other arb companies i know. the extra cost would surely be re obtainable by hireing it out based on its capabilities. also at the moment i was thinking that as there isnt much construction work going on, a lot of big stuff may now get split into logs rather than milled into boards? there just seems to be too much choice at the bottom end of the scale with these splitters and i wouldnt want to spend a chunk of money on something that a)isnt too different from anything else on offer and b)doesnt have the beans to cope with meaty stuff. spending that bit extra seems to make more sense? any comments?

morning all i've had a couple of friends ask me lately if i can go and process some windblown trees for them into firewood. This has led me to wonder if anyone actually does log production 'contracting' or hire of processing kit? is there much call for it as i thought it could be a bit of pocket money outside of work. if you are doing it what are the pros and cons and what kit are you running? cheers

in the end i managed to take the tank off, flip it upside down on the front of the loader and jet washed it for a while over 2 days then put a heat lamp in it to dry it out. seems to have worked although i am still stinking of diesel from the washout. and the dog is as she was helping!

yeah i did think about doing something like that but a) i dont know anyone running lpg and b) whilst i'm usually up for a bit of bodging, i think gas is something best left to someone in the know. wouldnt imagine this tank has a dip tube on it either...

random i know, but i am hopeing someone may have some experience of this.... my old man has a 1400 litre domestic lpg tank which is 85% full. we have no need for the gas anymore and want rid of the tank. i rang flo gas and they reckon they do not discharge tanks or buy back gas and that it will need to be used some way or another before they can decommission the tank. but they will waiver the lifting fee as we do not have a formal contract (couldnt quite understand that but didnt moan as it saves a few hunderd quid). is this just the way of flo gas because my old man was under the impression that he could sell it back (when i think it was british gas anyway) to the supplier when he needed to. otherwise we'll have to spend a fair couple of quid on a gas fire that the old girl likes and have it on flat out for a year or so to get rid of all the gas. anyone have any advice? cheers

i've got a knapsack sprayer, or a 3000psi cold washer. if i dislodge the crap and flush it with the cold wash then rinse down with kero in the knapsack will that work?

this may be a little off topic for this place but i'm sure there are some of you who will hopefully be able to recommend something. i have a 1992 komatsu 12ton digger and she's starting to struggle a bit under load. i think that there is some crap in the bottom of the tank that may have been stirred up (a lad up the road had her on hire for a couple of weeks so i dont know if he ran her too close to empty (fuel gauge doesnt work see) and this crap has obviously silted up the lines etc. i need to wash the tank out. the tank seems difficult to remove but there is an outlet at the base of it with a tap on. usually i would just take the tank off and spend a few hours on the yard messing about with it but i may have to do this one insitu. my plan at the moment is to drain the tank and then just wash it a few time with the pressure washer, kind of until theres no more minging stuff coming out of it. what i wanted to know was if there are any detergents that can assist me with this and also if there is a substance (something like acetone) that would need to be swilled in the tank after cleaning to remove any water. any help greatly appreciated - cheers

are there many like that on the second hand market these days? maybe looking for something like that (i.e. small enough to run a splitter/processor economically, but big enough to do a days work) that ideally needs a bit of work, as i see decent ones fetch a fair bit of cash.

chris - why would you say different to alpine tractors? the guy i bought my winch off has a holder on his yard just with a processor on the back. wouldnt sell it for the world he said.

seems strange that i cant find one anywhere. you would have thought that if they were at least 20 years old there may be one or two lying about somewhere needing some tlc

are they not in production any more then?

whats the deal with holder tractors? i have been told by a few people that they are brilliant for small scale forestry work, and having looked at one or two on the net they do seem alright however there is very little information on them on the net and they also dont seem to get mentioned much on here? anyone used them or have anything on them?

hi lee yeah i was looking at one from riko but found this one locally. i too wanted a 5 ton minimum but getting the 3.5 was pure economics. i had the cash at the time so got it to get me going. i think it should suit what we are doing but can see that there will be a bit of a knack to getting tricky stuff out. but thats probably winching in general

hi guys i ended up buying a 3.5t fransguard winch thats pretty much as new and should do me for the moment. can you tell me if the following problem is down to my inexperience with winching, lack of lubrication of the components (the winch has been sat in a barn for some time), or a fault with the machine please; sometimes when i am pulling the cable out to meet the trees it doesnt let me pull it all the way out, like as if it is jammed. when i finally get it out there are what i would call small kinks in the wire, although these are not permanently engrained in the cable. i am not quite sure what is happening but obviously the cable isnt gathering on the spool correctly (maybe due to lack of tension when winching in?) its like as if its wound the wrong way round or something, if that makes sense. i havent gone back to the guy i bought it from as i didnt want to make a fuss if it was something that i was doing wrong during operation. thanks for your comments

different person i think. this guy goes as europlant maintenance. he did a lot of work for me last year. good at thinking outside the box he is.

swb i know a good fitter in west kilbride who could sort you out doing that grab probably

would a 3.5 ton winch be too small for a new holland 6635 (85hp) or would it be ok to get on with? i think 3.5 is big enough for what i need, its just whether the combination will 'work' given the size of the tractor....