LGP Eddie

I believe that there is finally a version of the Amorak that is permanent 4wd? This has always been for me anyway a major drawback of any of the double cab pickups out there? The Ranger was probably my first choice if I were to switch from a Defender, but the Amorak is getting some strong reviews and I'd take a look at one? Eddie.

Obviously you only get out what you put in, but decent blades, 1000 speed pto and just purely round timber from a stack it produces excellent consistent chip. It also takes some feeding in this situation I can tell you, and as you can see from the video has no issues filling trailers or a shed. Worthy of a look if you can get to see one in action. Eddie.

550ZX would be the business! I chose the Farmi 260 purely on price as a whole package, plus the ability of the conveyor to help with feeding awkward gear. It does have it's own Pump/Tank setup to provide feed for the rollers and conveyor. It comes with hand control and also a nice set of foot pedals if you're feeding with a roof mount. As I've said before, we're really careful with kit and I always feed it myself, so blade wear is excellent and apart from one bearing we've had no other issues. Eddie.

Absolutely agree there, the only time that's ever had anything fed by hand is when testing. I place something suitable on the conveyor before the tractor is even started up. It's then easy to feed it in with the controls from a safe distance. Apart from that in normal operation it's a total exclusion zone, with one man in the tractor and one in the excavator. I think the fact that a Vatra Roofmount setup is just so transportable and only one operator makes such a difference. The simple fact however I feel is an even a reasonably small excavator with a decent grab setup (Stephens new CAT is a perfect example) could in reality be so much more of an advantage once actually on many sites over a roofmount setup? The logistics of having to get the excavator to site is another point, but once there it will more than make itself useful, ensure all the material gets into the chipper without the need for manual intervention and perfectly safe. It works brilliantly for us, and a very good friend had just equipped his 3 tonner with a full Engcon Tiltrotator and grab setup, which in reality could begin to provide an excellent complement to the Farmi, which then wouldn't require a roofmount to load it? He has his own truck for transport and not unreasonable day rate, so combined with a Tractor/Chipper plus operator who is also Chainsaw qualified would be a pretty useful package all round once on site. Eddie.

I do have the Farmi 260 with the conveyor and it's been absolutely brilliant. I do however load with an excavator which allows me to be very fussy what goes in and keep an eye on how things progressing. They can suffer from certain things wrapping around the feed roller, but a bit of time loading and knowing the machine soon has sorted. In terms of running the N101 Valtra was absolutely perfect either on 540 or 1000, but we only really chip at 1000 now just to get more through quickly. I'm trying to get down the Valtra roofmount route myself for more versatility, and hopefully it will match perfectly to the 260 with conveyor? If I don't go the Valtra route, the other option for us it to sell it and take a Bandit with engine that we can have as a demount unit for the tracked dumper. This would allow one man to take the chipper virtually anywhere and load himself. The conveyor is a bit more involved to swap over from simple hand feed, as I looked into this at purchase and it required a fair bit of extra kit so I opted to go without. Here she is. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZWshqt9oB4]Moorlands Specialist Excavations Farmi 260HFC Chipper. - YouTube[/ame] Eddie.

The Menzi needs to be followed up by this baby tethered to it? [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlJgw_fc9IQ]Pully Film - YouTube[/ame] I had a little mess about in a Menzi recently, awesome!!! Eddie.

Nothing wrong with the Digga Bara Stephen, they are incredibly versatile and really can be a most useful bit of kit especially for owner drivers. Personally I would simply get a dumper off e bay and cut the skip end off, keep the hydraulic tip and pipe it into the blade ram on a changeover setup with quick release couplers. You'd end up with one at half the price with all the advantages of hydraulic tip too? A set of turf tyres shouldn't cost the earth if something suitable came up on e bay too? Eddie.

I don't know if this has been up before? It got me scratching my head I can tell you? Eddie. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dZ5BV0TvGQ]Russian Log Truck Loading - YouTube[/ame]

Possibly your first post didn't come across clearly, but the point really was surely the onus is on the organisers to provide you with a safe area to work? If it gets breached and someone is at risk, it shouldn't even be a concern of yours that 20,000 people may go home disappointed? Surely the plug gets puled until it's safe? You should have all your costs covered in this instance as its not down to you to make the area secure. Eddie.

I absolutely agree with you, that is a total recipe for disaster there! I've just shown it to my wife who was head of security for the largest theme park in the country for some 5 years, and she's nearly fell off the chair! They obviously put on some massive displays and the firing zone security is always their responsibility? Leave it to your site owners to provide you with a totally secure firing zone, and only press that button when you have the all clear from them and yourselves all is safe to proceed. If they can't provide the safe window for the display to proceed, it's down to them and you should have a good enough contract to ensure all your costs are covered in this instance. Simply running around chasing kids in a zone full of huge display fireworks, and letting them off even with the chance of someone getting in could cost you more than the losses of cancelling? In regard to the actual question of force? It's a total no, unless someone is in actual danger? If you have to stop 20 men working for one idiot, that's how it has to be? Air horn is the obvious one to help prevent them or shock them into moving. But if they're in a clearly marked risk zone, and they should have passed some physical barrier to clearly mark this. Then it's a simple case of ask them to move or you will call the Police immediately as they are preventing essential works. The only circumstance to touch them is if something was actually going to harm them and you physically push them from the danger to prevent injury. In all honesty it should never come to this? Eddie.

That's the one's. The guy doing the scrap project was very switched on as to the odd bit that may be worth salvaging? They very carefully cut the glass nose off them, before I dispatched them. Of everything I've ever broken up Plane wise, these were simply a piece of tissue paper!!! It was anticipated to take a whole day at RAF Scampton to make them ready for the baler that would arrive the following day. It was a lovely summer evening and the guys cut the nose off them to get a good start for morning, I'd got the machine there so said I'd play with the first whilst they cut the nose off the other. I'd completely torn it apart before they'd got the nose off the other in under 20 minutes! Needless to say we had a steady day next day! If your Dad got one anywhere near 60,000ft in one of them tin cans, he deserves a medal I can tell you! Eddie.

That mission was incredible! I had the honour if you can call it that, of breaking up a complete Victor Tanker at RAF Lyneham with a 20 tonne excavator fitted with a grapple. They were huge things, and it was scary the amount of fuel left in tanks, lines etc! The same week I dispatched 5 fully serviceable Phantoms and 2 Canberra bombers, all ripped apart and baled up for scrap. It was pretty heartbreaking at times, and a lot of the ground crew were visibly upset as they towed the Phantoms to their fate. As for the Vulcan, I watched it at the Goodwood festival of speed, I was truly moved by seeing such an awesome machine in action. I hope they keep it flying forever. Eddie.

I think it was probably a scene we couldn't possibly begin to imagine? He obviously continued to utilise his skills after the war and continued into the civilian plant game. He eventually went to college and jumped the fence to surveying, but ended up managing a fleet of large construction plant. There is an image of a Dozer at work in Belsen if you simply google 'Belsen' and look under images. I didn't think it appropriate to post up, but it gives a horrid insight and would be nice to think it turned out to be one of these guys at the controls? I was on Foot and Mouth and those images will remain with me, let alone so many bodies you need a Dozer to move them! Eddie.

What a brilliant thread, I could read these all day! My late Father was an anti aircraft gunner on HMS London, and I'd like to get the new Arctic Star medal that was released as he served on the Atlantic Convoys, but sadly my Mum won't really speak about it. My late brother passed his medals to his son, and I'm still furious about it. I'm my fathers surviving son and they mean an awful lot to me. I also had an Uncle who was always a bit of a hero to me, absolutely huge guy who gained your respect the second he set foot in the room. He was heavily into large construction plant (big Dozers etc) which obviously fascinated me. Sadly he passed away all too soon, but I'd like to find out more of him after being told by my Mum he was a shadow of the lad who went to war. He drove a Dozer in the war and ended up burying bodies at Belsen with one, which obviously had a massive effect on him.

The 1.5 km thing I think you're getting slightly mixed up with is the 'limited use vehicles' category? Eddie.

I spent 3 months commuting daily with a TD5 110 hi cap and Indespension plant trailer loaded with a CAT 302.5 in tow? No real issues, I'd expect you were pretty experienced at towing so should handle it easily and it would pull it better than a 2.4 naturally aspirated Hi Lux could drag a 1.5 tonner? The trailer shown would get you down to legal easily with your Takeuchi, allowing plenty of scope for some bit's and bobs in the hi cap to spread the load better. My point regarding the tractor was aimed at commercial use of a tractor to tow an excavator to projects that may not be classed as agricultural or forestry and all the other questions that could be raised regarding fuel, licence etc etc?? It's a minefield out there and long overdue for some straightforward clarification. Eddie.

In what circumstances would this be legal do you think? Eddie.

Not knowing your exact machine/attachments weights at this point, but this may be possibly the only real alternative trailer option out there at present? Excavator Plant Trailer, Digger Trailer,3.5t Gross (Trailer 500kgs ONLY) | eBay They've been advertised a while and made fairly locally to me? The claim is a 500kg trailer capable of carrying the full 3000kg of machine legally? The 500kg of attachments should fairly easily become ballast in the towing vehicle (you're going to need it) keeping things legal? The days of towing easily are eroding fast I'm certain? You'll need a tacho fitting and once the vehicle has a tacho you'll need to be keeping records of all the journeys and work you're undertaking. Obviously exemptions apply, but don't get caught a yard out of the radius from base, or they'll have you big time. Mot's for trailers is just around the corner I'd assume too? What about a driver CPC is your setup is towing 3500kg commercially? I really don't have the answers myself, it's such a mess it's untrue, with everyone telling a different story with regard to towing these days? I was last led to believe if even if the trailer is empty they can now have you on what the trailer is actually plated to carry plus the gross weight on the plate on the towing vehicle if it exceeds 3500kg? In my own instance hitching a trailer of even 1000kg gross on the plate empty, onto a Defender 90 at 2550kg gross would have me into all the tacho regulations? I've looked at the lightest decent Ifor available at 275kg, then having it plated down to 925kg? this would keep me totally under all regulations, and allow 650kg which is enough for an odd bucket, attachment or Fuel Cube if necessary. Plenty are towing so illegally it's untrue, but the noose is getting tighter and the Insurance companies will wriggle straight out of paying should it all go wrong and found to be an illegal setup? The Jobs on it's arse! Eddie

I thought that was the case? Your machine has the ability to be much better setup than that with all the auxiliaries you have? You really need to look into getting that 'Hammer' circuit to be two way, giving you two double acting auxiliary circuits at the same time. Trust me in all honesty the difference will be night and day? In my own instance, I can be tilting/rotating and closing the grab all at the same time, you really don't want to be changing over functions if necessary and you really are so close to the optimum setup with all the extra circuits you currently have. Did CAT not provide you with a solution for the grab setup? It's a great advert for what a well setup machine can bring to a job? Eddie.

Talk me through how you're controlling that grab now Stephen please? Eddie.

A rake is a really good idea Stephen, the one I've now got that simply fits onto the Selector Grab is awesome! It's so fast to keep raking up at any angle you like and then drop it off in seconds to load the dumper, then straight back on again. A lot better than a round of timber in the grab, and leaves a lovely finish. I had a great trip today to see possibly the best standard 8 tonne machine in the country? A really awesome bit of kit, and the two piece boom gives brilliant geometry. Eddie.

Stephen, I've never seen so many pipes down a machine in this class, a few pounds worth there I can tell you. I really need to see the manual with regard to the two buttons on the levers as they could be a couple of things? From what I can see you obviously have a single way 'Hammer Circuit' (the two closest to the cab) which will be larger bore and should operate from one button only or possibly the pedal? The next pair of smaller hoses will be the auxiliary circuit which is proportional and worked off the rocker type switch. This will also probably have some way of setting the flow to suit attachments better from the dash. The final pair with the taps, very unusually look to be T's into the bucket circuit? This is something you would normally see on high spec european machines, and basically if I'm correct you should simply turn the taps which will lock the bucket ram and activate the circuit? If this is indeed the case, then the machine is perfectly setup for what would be a free swinging grab setup, where your auxiliary circuit would provide rotation via the rocker switch, and you would open/close the grab very intuitively with what would have been the bucket control. In your instance with a fully mounted grab, you need to find out if the other button or possibly another tap turns your Hammer circuit into Two Way operation? I can't quite grasp how it would, but assuming you've an offset pedal it could be possible you end up with Two Way via the pedal? If this is actually the case then the job is sorted from the off? You can have the rotate on the pedal and open/close on the proportional rocker switch, which would be the best setup. Looks a fair bit of kit Stephen, I'll have to get a look at one. Eddie.

Looking good there Stephen, the first scratch is the hardest! Regarding your pipes and grab, basically you have a normal 'Hammer' circuit which will be full flow and free return to tank operated by the single button and the other should be a very nice double acting proportional circuit that is operated by the rocker type switch for two way control. Unfortunately you require a second double acting circuit, because your grab is fixed type not free swinging where you would simply tap into the bucket ram pipework to provide the second double acting circuit. I've had a quick look and there is actually a second double acting circuit option which is pretty trick on this size of machine which would be the perfect setup from CAT. Failing that you have several other options including turning your hammer circuit into two way or even changing over the offset boom to provide the two way you require. I'd look at the first option from CAT as it would be absolutely fantastic with the two double acting circuits on the sticks from the start. The second circuit will most likely not be proportional, just two buttons and generally you would use this which will have less control for the rotate. It'll be good to see how it goes, and she'll be capable of a fair bit of work in a shift especially with the grab. Eddie.

Yes that's the beast. I've hopefully got the deal done on it's replacement now so it'll have to go at some point after xmas. Eddie.

Still got her, it's a really tidy Patu. There's a video here of us having a play. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mY-MzBecdUQ]VIDEO0054.mp4 - YouTube[/ame] Eddie.