richy_B

5 hours ago, spuddog0507 said:

Its basically based on emissions now a days, for me its time it was put back to what it was years ago when cars n small vans where all the same bigger vans a bit more then trucks went up in each weight category, 

i read a report last week that basically said our roads are about f - - - - -d and if nothing is done soon 80% of our road network will be virtually unusable with in 15yrs, personally i think the down fall started when taxation started to be based on emissions and not what was called a road fund licence or road tax that was in between the later 2,,

 But the emissions from my 2015 4.5 litres Iveco 75 is considerably higher than my 1.9 litre 2023 grafter? My 1.3 corsa van is also £335 I believe and it is very low emission comparatively. 

I can't work out the logic behind it.

How do they work out road tax - This month I have paid for another year on 2 vehicles - Iveco 75 7.5t tipper @£165 and Isuzu Grafter 3.5t tipper @£335. How does anyone work out that the 3.5t van twice the 7.5t tipper??? 

I ran a S426 for about 5 years. They aren't chippers and much slower on large timber but if you are stuff through pruning (we do a lot of lime repollards) they were amazing. Thirsty on diesel though, would use full tank in a hard day of shredding.

5 years of no blade changes is also a massive cost saving - currently on a Forst ST8D we change the blades weekly at a cost of £60/week. Over 5 years that's significant.

We've got quite a few pto machines that we run off various tractors - I've been wondering about trying to buy/build some donkey engines which we could use to keep the tractors free. Has anyone done this?

Not huge power demands, probably 25-30 hp each. Preferably all diesels.

On 07/02/2024 at 18:02, Treewolf said:

Be thankful it's a Transit not a Land-Rover! 

 

"We are unable to renew your insurance" is becoming fairly common, and for some models I've heard of premiums increasing from a few hundred to £16,000 per annum. The latter tends to be for the pointless "school delivery system" models like the RR, Velar, etc, but to the insurance computers unfortunately the proper Land-Rovers are all the same. 

 

The future does not look very promising!

A friend had to sell their discovery as they existing insurer declined to renew cover and the comparison sites were bring up £8k upwards. Sensible 40 year old in a rural village.. Anything LR is a no go now as they are being pinched left, right and centre in cities. 

As Dan said you get some used for taking logs away once it is down but they've not really got the reach for grapple saw work. 8 or 9metres is your limit.

Should be able to get a better deal on a used 6 wheeler compared to an 8 as they are less popular then just switch the clamshell to a forestry grab. Could probably add 400mm additions to the sides as well to increase the volume. A 6 wheeler should hold 12t odd which is a lot of tree.

We looked at it last year but it was going to be £40k for the lorry, about £3k estimate for servicing and mot the £4k a year insurance. Didn't think we'd ever make our money back. Plus finding C class drivers is much harder to do.

I'm a fan of basic tractors but I've not had much experience of the mew zetor range. Anyone used their larger horsepower models? Forterra HSX 140 for example. I'd ideally like to run one with a botex hook loader trailer for mixed usage (flatbed with bolsters, 20m3 chip/log bin). 

That helps a lot as I can atleast start getting an idea on what's available. 

My Dmax came with Geolandar Road tyres which I want to swop over to mud terrains. I just can't work out the wheel size - it's missing a measurement.

I've got 205R16C but usually you'd have 205/55 R16 for example. Am I missing something obvious?  

27 minutes ago, parkertrees said:

Nice truck that, did you end up parting it? hard to find SWB 7.5 tonners, i was looking for a euro 6 chassis to drop my DAF LFs arb body onto a few months ago, but gave up. 

Still have it, never got round to advertising it with the run upto Xmas and all that.

Yeah for urban work it has been handy. It's only half a metre longer than a transit t350. They are heavy compared to a Isuzu n75 but for me carrying 3 ton and towing 3.5t was fine. 

I was looking at a 18t hookloader to replace it but have decided to go for a 12t hookloader as they have a very small footprint. 

How do people transport larger (5-8t) arb diggers?  Can you use an agri tractor and plant trailer if you are mainly doing tree shear work / vegetation work? 

I'm on my 2nd multione now. 

Pallet forks are a must obviously.

By far our most used attachment is the XL high tip bucket for woodchip. Quick way to lift and shift a lot of chip. Can load 3.5m high vehicles or 40 yard skips no bother.

The 4 in one bucket with teeth is dead handy.

I have an x2500 augertorque head with 150/300/450/600mm flights. 

Cement mixing bowl is very useful on certain jobs where we can't get our truck/materials close to where we need the concrete. You can fill the bowl and it mixes whilst you drive over to where you need saving massive amount of wheelbarrow time.

Log grab for loading bigger timber. Our 9.6 can lift 1.5t log sections on a 7.5t truck without any drama.

On 14/11/2023 at 08:41, GA Groundcare said:

We have a 1.9 Dmax, bought new in 2021 and has done 50 odd k now without a fault.

 

We tow wood chippers and can be pulling in the region of 3T when towing a tracked one with a plant trailer. Our salesman said it felt a little under powered on some of the hills when heavy towing. But to be honest I expect most pick ups do being under 200hp.

 

On the last service we had the approved Isuzu remap done by the Isuzu dealership. MPG is a little better however I think we have only towed road tows up to around 1tonne since.

 

Same on our 4x4 single cab. The remap is  very beneficial - I don't know why it isn't widely publicised and offered as standard option at purchase.

We added the airbag suspension to increase it from 3100kg to 3500kg as well. Makes it a brilliant allround package. 

We've got some large roadside removals coming up and I was looking to hire someone in to support. Large London plane stems up to crown break of 6-8 metres. We'll get all the limbs off just looking for someone with either an arb grab lorry or perhaps hook loader and crane who can lift them down in bigger sections to save us having to chog them down. 

Very local tip site so can drop them off straight after. Probably 3 days worth of work. 

Ideally in November. 

Richard 078 254 111 97.

I am going to be parting with one of our arbtrucks. 2016 Iveco 75 tipper Euro6. Built the body myself. Been a good truck for the 4 years we've had it. 4.5t empty though so gives 3 ton / 10-12m3 of chip.

We do highways work primarily so having thespadce for road barriers was the handiest addition.  PX against an 18t hook loader most likely as I'm not sure there will be a lot of interest as 7.5t drivers are rare now. 

Sorry to jump in late. It's a shame there isn't much on offer in the UK. We ran a S426 for 6 years and really liked it. It just got old so we sold it on and they don't make them anymore.

Never as fast as a chipper on large timber but for pruning and brashy stuff it was great. Plus it saved a fortune when you consider there aren't weekly blade changes at £50 a go. 

Thought I'd post this. Couple of days ago I fitted air suspension to our 71 plate single cab Dmax. Pretty straight easy to do. Need to redo the air valve mount (didn't realise the kit didn't come with anything soke mad something from some scrap).

Paperwork gone off to DVLA and it'll be replaced from 3100kg to 3500kg. 

Thanks for the numbers. Gives me a bit of a idea. I was budgeting £15-20 a metre ex so not wildly off. 

It is a nursery area for young trees I'm growing in pots so not too keen on letting the deer come and go as please - it's basically an all you can eat buffet.

It is a straight, clear, level run. I've run the seppi over all the fence lines so nothing but open ground. 

Looking to enclose a small field. 

2m high. 70 metre straight run, 40 metre straight run and a 50 metre straight run (rest of area has existing high fencing. 

South Oxfordshire. 

Any ideas on rough cost fully supplied and installed. 

I used to make charcoal using an Exeter retort kiln. For me it is was really interesting and I enjoyed it but I could never make it even slightly financially viable. If you were a country park/National Trust property with a somewhat captive audience then maybe.

52 minutes ago, GarethM said:

Did you check the person on that companies house listing ?.

 

3677 company appointments and 80 currently active as a director!.

Most likely a company formation accountant etc.

Anyways I'm going to go with 'too good to be true' and spend me hard earnt elsewhere. 

9 hours ago, Stargate said:

 

Likewise their prices appear too good to be true. Interested to hear if it’s a legitimate business.

To good to be true indeed!  Could be legit but I can't find anything on company house,  VAT, no one I have spoken to has used them before, the website isnt secure (like youd expect a shopfront to be) and they don't seem to have anything physically at that address.  More than a few alarms bells.  

46 minutes ago, doobin said:

Lovely. What do you use it for?

All sorts. With those wheels it's not brilliant in winter mud but tiltrotator and a dozen different buckets, grading beam, flail, tree shear, pallet forks, it is a handy but of kit to have. Takes a some getting used to but I really like them. 

7 hours ago, doobin said:

PICS!!! What a machine, you kept that quiet. Either that or I'm not very observant.

On my Mec MTX 12 we have telescopic legs at the front and locking axles. You have transport mode and working mode. It 100% sounds like you are in transport mode. 

Trace the rams back to the engine valve block and see what's connected up. Might be worth marking those cylinders when dead straight then when laden leaning over the edge to see how much difference there is. Cheap fix if you aren't transporting much would be to make up some collars that bolt around the ramp when it is at its highest.