richy_B

No disrespect intended but there is 'the grass is always greener' can be a dangerous thing. As PAYE you might feel under paid and perhaps you are but with 6 years employment you have reasonable job security, stat sick pay, paternity cover, demonstratable wage for mortgages, loans or credit should you need them. You go self employed for a bit more money and you have no job security, he (or anyone else) could drop you with no notice at all. You have no sick, no paternity, no redundancy, no holiday pay. Often overlooked is the impact of self employed on your ability to get a mortgage. £95 A day puts you at £24,700 per year PAYE with all the benefits listed. £120 self employed is £31,200 if you worked 5 days a week 52 weeks of the year. Take off 20 days for normal level of holiday and it's £28,800. Take off some fees for tax returns. Take off the cost of supplying your own equipment and LOLER. Then consider you may not fill everyday you want to work. If I were your employer and you asked for this arrangement I'd gladly take you up on it as it takes away loads of admin, hassle and risk for virtually no money difference. I would suggest you need to looking at £150 self employed or you'd be better trying to get to £105 PAYE.

Sounds sensible. Would a small logging trailer help at all? I have a small ATV logging trailer from tcf. I think it was around £700 quid. You could load tow it with the digger easy enough.

It is smaller than the competition but I've got on well with it. A larger grab could see me on my side I fear! When grabbing piles of brash a bigger grapple would be advantageous though. I mainly used it for grabbing rings when I was processing arb waste. I could sort through a big pile of rings into rough sizes or I'd chainsaw it into smaller lengths whilst in the jaws. You can lift them onto a strong table for someone to then split as well. Only 40-60kg rings but an absolute treat compared to lugging them by hand. Getting them from ground to the splitter table height was a back breaker.

A bit of it does but it's pretty minor. It has 3 settings on it. It is mainly for how far away you want to grab. Ie the grab is right above the log say 2 metres away, 1 metre away or right up close.

Not the best picture of the grapple. Super useful bit of kit.

You can get a 'thumb' for the excavator pretty cheaply. Or a fixed grab is very good. I have a fixed grab from digbits on my 1.7t komatsu. You could put a round strop when skidding the logs up a bank then use the grapple to load a trailer. Saves a whole lot of back ache! I can lift 200kg bits of log not bother.

No offense but you are overthinking this and will tie yourself in knots. You don't need to be itemized unless you have thousands of customers. Work out your standard day cost ie 2 men, tipper and chipper. Don't mention to a customer but have a day rate and half day rate. My half day rate is 60% of a full day. Charge them one or the other. What were you costs last year? Divide that by 200 and you have a good base figure. All the chip and logs are yours unless agreed otherwise.

Arb trader

A quick Google brought this up : http://extendmyseat.com/about-us/ This German company seems to do exactly this as well. Advertised for taller drivers. gmbh.de/en/traffic/aftermarket-seats/vario.html

I used a defender 110 for a while and it was hugely uncomfortable and I'm only 6'2. I doubt any vehicles are going to suit you as they of course build for the average user, which for men is something like 5'10. They probably have leeway of 6" either way but wont help the very large or very small. Is there a way of perhaps getting a custom seat/playing with the seat base etc to suit you? Not for this instant but having seen recaros being fitted in a track 330i the seat height drop considerably. If you could do that and perhaps move the base 50mm back it might work?

FFS!

Mine as we're all having a looksie.

I think this is the most unfair aspect of it. All under 3500kg GVW should be exempt in my opinion. There are a lot of rules and exemptions that can confuse.

I am sure I read something about grand Cherokees and tow bar issues. Something about a fuel tank rupture in rear end crashes. Ignore that. It was ones built pre 2000.

I think you are falling between two stools. My experience of a CRM system is that it will store contacts, detail orders, flag up or analyse sales, schedule follow up sales in line with previous orders or repeat orders etc. It normally feeds into an order system though, it isn't one as such itself. They tend to be geared to medium to large businesses though with several thousand customers to potentially millions of customers. Do you use any accountancy software for you business already? As Ash said something like QB could work for you. You have customer details, you can create orders, invoices and receipts. You can easily see what customers have ordered in the past. I use it for my accountancy and you can get it cloud based so you are covered for data protection. I find it is fine for a few hundred customers. It does lack the 'sales support' aspect though. Ie automated follow up communication if you have not heard from the customer in a defined period of time.

With my L200 king cab I have around 600kg payload with me (100kg) in it. Mine has a steel body but it is just dropsides not an 'arb' body. I reckon if I switch it to a new ally arb body I'd get another 100kg or so overall. Should be good for 2 cubes of chip legally although tools and a 2nd guy would eat into that. I don't chip into mine. Its used to carry implements for my MO or for landscaping jobs in parks, allotments or cemeteries. Personally speaking I think it's difficult to get a vehicle that is a good family vehicle as well as a decent working vehicle. The requirements are quite different. Your overall costs are going to be higher but a double cab pickup and a transit tipper style vehicle are a good combo for a smaller outfit. Having a backup vehicle is a godsend as well.

I agree. They are good looking machines but for £46k you could have a nearly new double cab pickup and 7.5t canter tipper then a decent used tractor.

Just looked it up on there. £46k plus VAT !?!?!? For a 3.5t tipper.

I have a king cab L200 tipper. Rear 'seats' are tiny. You couldn't get a kiddie seat in there and by time they are out of them they'll be too big for the back. Kits, coats, lunch go on our back seats. A double cab tipper is going to have the weight very far back and you'll overload the rear axle easily.

Nice selection of implements there. Someone would be set up with this.

I've used NHBS but they have cocked up my orders several times (admittedly buying hundreds of boxes though). A company close to me that I have bought from are Habi Sabi. Made in London from sustainable and I think nearly all recycled materials. https://www.habi-sabi.com/products/bat-box

Quick question that an owner will know. How long is the grinder in transport mode? Jo beau just says 1900mm but I don't know if that working or transport length.

What have you got so far?

Got several jobs coming up in Spring that involve removing old fencing posts. Any thoughts of the best use of the MO? Nothing huge/strainer, 75mm post mainly. Previously I'd wiggle then with the mini digger bucket then pull out with a strop. Could do something similar with an round strop and the pallet forks but there are a lot to do so I'd trying to 'innovate' . Jumping in and out 200 times isn't very appealing... A front grapple like the tree shear could work. Anyone know if the fixed blade can be removed? Kanga do a forward facing grapple that rotates 90 degrees or so allowing you to pickup, turn and position a post. http://www.kangaloader.co.uk/shop/i-1-27-kanga-rotating-grab--5--6--7---8-series-/

We've not been badly hit by the snow but the MO sure beats shovelling by hand! Scrapped 250 metres of pathway in no time.