jose

ive got one of those echos a few months back. Very nice machine. Ive never been a stihl fan ever since using the combi hedge cutters. I found it was the engine that let it down. I still have a mid lenght unit ( not a combi unit) and although it works fine the echo is a much better machine to hold and use. My kit does tend to last but by no means has a easy life so if it survives then its a good machine and id buy it again. I also had a couple of Cobras ( i believe) with the Kawasaki engine. Again a good machines that 5 yrs on still come out occasionally. Just dont die.

Hi all I have a isuzu dmax but toying with changing it to a transit connect. I no longer have use of the field i used to store logs etc , now drop on hard standings so my regular 3.5 tonner never gets stuck. Dont do country work so its all driveways. Rare occasions i need 4x4 ( max once a yr i can hire one). I do all the pricing and the new connects are a lot more efficient than a dmax, not to mention driving if a lot more comfy. I do have a family and they hate my dmax ( its a extended cab one so jump seats in the back). So im looking at a double cab connect which in my mind fits all bills. i would still have it sign written up for work. Has storage in the back for kit as and when needed and can also accommodate the family when needed too. Get a tow bar fitted for the trailer so got extra load capacity. After any feedback / advice before i jump in and make a (another ) expensive mistake. cheers

I drop at a yard in Berkshire. Would you collect from there? Currently has logs and chip collected ( we load) which they pay for but they dont take the brash/ rakings. This is disposed else where at a cost. how would this work out with your setup? Cheers

That looks good. Could it be the solution for legally carrying more weight without going past the 3.5 tonne license?

just caught the end of this and tbh i cant be ar~~ed to read the lat 11 pgs. but to the last point about walls. there already is a big wall built, by Obama and before him too. Trump just wants to extend it. And also its funny i was watching a tv report from mexico where the Mexicans have followed the US and have started building their own wall.... to keep out the other south american migrant coming to mexico. Isnt it funny how nobody makes a squeak about it when they do it.

Yep i had my new transit nicked this way. It was only after that i learned about it. If i had known i could have taken steps that amount to a few hundred quid or so that would greatly reduce the risk ( at least make it harder). Far cheaper that the insurance excess alone, let alone the premium rise the following year. Dont get me started on the incompetence of the police afterwards! Ford can go take a leap, left me so open to protect their reputation its disgraceful. If i had the time/ money inclination i would love to bring a lawsuit against them for basically turning a blind eye while the hard working man gets royally done over! That may just be enough of a poke to actually give a damn.

SOC what a joke My truck body was recovered from a gypsie camp, they had sand blasted it to remove the signwriting. From 10ft away you could still read the company name and our phone number. SOC guys said no way to find owners and it was scrap. its over 4K to have built! took the recovery firm man not 5 minutes and 2 phone calls to find me. So i wouldnt hold your breath. sometimes i wonder if there isnt a greater conspiracy going on. the gov gets a massive amount or revenue via tax. manufactures make a large profit on sales , especially spare parts. the Victim gets nothing but an increase in premiums for years for been a victim! Rob a post office or such for the same value and you get plenty of time in jail. they say crime doesnt pay. i disagree it pays damn well, secret is not to get caught then it pays very well indeed. im just too stupid to be a good criminal

does look the dogs for a small unit! i had a cs100 and was always really impressed by what it could do for its size. dont get me wrong i prefer a bigger unit but it really could eat the branches!

i did do it with my brother for 8 yrs before he passed away. never had any of the bother or expense. not saying they are not of any value but they are expensive and often a lot of hassle and their rights far out weigh mine. why is it people always blame the boss? i am very easy going and dont belive in scrimping of kit etc. if we need anything its there the next day. from what i read im almost too soft. but yeah i guess it must be me....

my old landy door was easy to bend enough to get the keys out. how about unternal clamps that pull it closed from inside , i guess like the boarding they use on empty properties so u have to get inside to defeat it. and then the one door left ( if you cant go from the front that is has dead locks in say 4 places ( each corner). surely cant be that hard to retrofit vs the ball ache of getting all your tools pinched. crazy one of my neighbours i was talking to just last week was telling me a gut 20 yrds from his house has had his tools nicked twice in the last year and half, hes never lost any. but he had over 4k of tools he leaves in there, one costs £2500 by itself! i sweat leaving an old wet jumper in mine lol.

I know what you mean. In over 15 yrs i can count on 1 hand the days ive had off sick. this chap is unpredictable, he can goes months without a day and then randomly do it. Ive given up of saturdays though as that is a 90% failure rate at least! In hindsight i would never of become an employer. I would take on 2 subbies, 2 days a week each and take the 5 off! would save huge amounts of worry and costs! all i ever seem to do is pay to have employees! they dont make me any more money, its not like i can pass on the extra costs to the customer. i only have a couple of guys and it costs me easy 10 k a year more as employees what with holidays, ppe taxes training etc. but i cant charge any more so in affect my profits dropped by 10 k. could have taken 4 months off for that kind of money! and my god does the law protect them to a fault! not going to go into it but lets just say i was in a position where employee safety was put second to employee rights and i couldnt do a thing about it. hands up there were issues with my employment contract at the time due to ignorance ( no excuse? personally i think if you really dont know certain things even exits how are you to deal with them!) i am a simple man all i want to do is earn a fair wage for a days work. gov is forcing it so far down the employers throat it makes me really want to pack it in and be a bum council scrounger. i see them all the time and not one of them ever looks stressed. but thats another rant for another day!

It's was a text message. Was told He would contact me asap but nothing until 5pm saying he would be in the next day. I have to be careful with him in terms of him looking for a excuse to try and claim unfair treatment even though there isn't any. The feeling I have is he wants to leave but is looking for a way to claim unfair treatment so he can try and sue. Irony is he's a friend and vital to the team as we r a small team so I don't k ow why / what he thinks he can claim! The last thing I want is him leaving as I would either have to find a replacement or work even harder to take up the slack ( and I'm getting too old for that!) I do keep a list of all days off. Problem with contract is it more interested in giving plenty of written and verbal warnings but clear on this point. Sent from my iPhone using Arbtalk

Quick question. As a employer are you allowed to enquire/ ask generally about it? Got a message at 6am saying can't come in for personal reasons. Not heard anything since. Does a employer have any rights or do they just have to accept it at face value? Coincidentally a rugby fan the day after a big game claims a personal day. Anyone know the rules? Cheers Sent from my iPhone using Arbtalk

Awesome! No negatives then. Thanks for the response

Looking to get a pole saw , going through my options. as the years go by i find myself liking Stihl less and less. Which opens me up to trying different brands. That said i did take the plunge on a small electric saw (MSA 160 T). So far its been a good little saw but its Not a 201 or 540 in power. Its more a ms150 or small Echo equivalent. But i do Love not pull starting it ( yes im getting old! ), its quiet so no need for ear protection and no fumes. So although i dont love stihl i already have batteries and a charger. I havent had a pole saw for a few years now ( hated my old 4mix combi one ihad) but find i occasionally could do with one. And ive got a job coming up where i think it could be really handy ( any pole saw, not just the electric one). The other main contenders is the Echo or Husky. Not interested in the Stihl 131 tbh. Any one got experience specifically of the HTA 85? Many thanks

While a lot of what has been said is true if you need your machine out everyday to make the numbers work you have gone wrong somewhere in your planning. You know you are going to lose days to weather and breakdowns. How you go about managing a long period of time is another matter though dont agree at all with this. We are all here to make profit, not work to cover costs of living and thats it, nothing left over. Its the profit that allows things like toys, holidays or what ever else we strive for. If you employ people and they dont work/ cover their wages then any profit is very quickly lost. So unless you dont employ people your gonna lose out. If we could all add on loads of extra money on every job to cover days off great but there is a lot of competition for work and it doesnt allow the job price to be loaded up in our favour! Breakdowns happen yes, but i invest a lot into my equipment ( mainly keeping it as new as is reasonably possible). I cannot remember the last time i had to not work due to kit failing. literally years. In 15 yrs i can count one 1 hand days not worked due to weather. it sucks but thats the pros with the cons of working outside! Dont get me wrong i hate it but life can suck sometimes.

Sounds like a decent place to work, I had a job and knock policy if it was a large specimen. Nothing worse than finishing a three day job at 12 on the 3rd day and the starting another large job immediately, everyone just drags their feet. Yes i used to work for a firm where it was job and knock but when the new boss took over ( who was a good friend) we would knock the work out then then an 'emergency' job would come in. after this started happening every time we all got peed off as we were not busting our ass and then getting just more work. Wouldn't mind if a bit of love was spread around ( if i get my guys doing extra above and beyond i tend to chuck them an extra £20 each) but all we got was more work for working hard. We all ended up slowing down as there was no benefit to us. I dont want that situation in my work place.

Unless I'm catching up on some work that over ran I do job and knock. If it's early they still get paid. I could make them Do extra work but I know from my days of working for someone it's nice to see an end of the day come sooner if u knuckle down. I know some will say u should be working every hr but we don't stop for breaks, MAC we take is 10 minutes throw a quick a sandwich down and off again. If I put more work on they would slow right down and take longer breaks, which they are entitled to but personally I find it drags the day out and u end up getting cold. I'm a believer of treating people fair( hopefully my guys would agree).

Im in Berkshire, south east england. It is an expensive part of the country. I must say that there are a lot of the travelling community in my area, though technically the are settled as they dont actually travel. They come out doing tree work mainly in the summer, seem to disappear in the winter months. Not actually sure where they go. easy to work for less when you dont buy the kit in the first place. ( and i know ive suffered at there exact hands). Throw in they dont pay tax and its easy to see why they all roll around in brand new vehicles. No such thing as a poor one round here. Throw in the next generation of tree surgeons that are coming through that have had enough of working for someone else that come in sooo keen on the price and it does seem to limit the top price people pay. I definitely find big trees dont pay at all. can make as much doing small trees without breaking a sweat as i do with with 1 big tree with all the headaches it brings ( cranes road closures timber etc). very basic maths i pay around £15 per hr ( but i have 2 employees) but they get all the benefits ( holiday sick pension contributions etc). We do a standard 8 hr day but can knock off once the job is done. not into forcing more work on top. I really dont think they know how much it costs just to keep things insured and running tbh. Sometimes i envy there lack of responsibility! Though got to say France sounds terrible!

i find that there is a limit on how much we can charge in my area. As soon as you go over it the work stops coming in. If thats the case then it keeps the wages lower as running costs are not cheap. it does annoy me as id love to be able to pay my guys a better wage. But im not going to pay them all the profit, when i got the expenses to pay ( new truck chippers etc). thats just stupid. cant see a way around it tbh. Fair play if you can get $500 a day and cover a months rent in 2 days! explains why so many rent in the states.

Thanks i will let you know. It would be a different story if that flail hit the rear, that would reduce the overhang and weight massively.

now that is an option. Question is can i hire it? dont want to be buying one for a one off job.

that looks wicked! thing is its not the cutting thats the hard bit, its getting it out to the chipper. the side im working from is neat and tidy, easy access to the trees, its getting it out when its tangled up after growing that way for years thats the issue. Its on Wokingham, Berks so any local to that way that may be interested in subbing in or hiring a machine please let me know.

"Get a digger with hedge cutter attachment to smear the thinner stuff. Cut the thick bits with a pole saw. Use the digger with bucket to pile it up and burn it. Most important part is to price it sky high and be relieved if you don't get the job. i think thats the best bit of advise lol! i can have a big burn up pile unfortunately, going to chip it . its just getting it out onto the road thats that ball ache.

Hi guys Got a horrible established Hawthorn hedge the owner wants reducing from 20ft to 6ft. Been sided up the road side for yrs but left to grow out into the field on the rear side in places up to 15ft. some parts have brambles and wild rose mixed in too. Was thinking would a digger ( 3 ton perhaps or bigger?) with a timber grab be a good way to do it? it is working from a tarmac road, no ditch in the way either. Have man cut the limbs and the digger grab them and drag it out. Its a long hedge and i reckon its 5-6 days with a 3 man team getting spiked stabbed scratched and generally pi~~ed off! its too thick for a flail ( some trunks are 6-10 inches thick). i really would prefer to work smart than hard. Already got tennis elbow and react to spiky stuff these days. any advise or recommendations greatly appreciated Many thanks