richy_B

Cheers Pete. I did look at one of these. Bit of a frankenstein of a machine!

Hello, anyone owned or had a lot of use of these? Only been about a few years and I heard from my local dealer, they are no longer being produced. I'm dealing with lots of lime basal growth prunings and I am looking at a new option for managing it. Chipping it is ok but it tangles around the rollers frequently. You cant bundle a bit armful in either in a 125/150 - it needs to be fed in. As the material is scooped off the floor there is risk of a bit of rubbish getting in hence chipper over shredder preference. I've used the bigger s426 several times but might be over kill amd I budget won't stretch to a nearly new version (and second hands are rare). I like the 'sharp hammers' the sx200 is said to have, sounds ideal. Is an option on the s426 as well. Any reviews?

I think it'll be hard to find in London. Space is expensive so rarely do people have it un-used. Think outside the norm - try scout huts/organisations. They are only used part of the week and may have space or a shed out the back you can use. If not container units can be rented, although not for the budget you mentioned.

I bought long reach hl95 in the last year and wish i didn't because of the weight. Too heavy for a proper session. Also underpowered once you have used the 82 + versions. Unfair to compare them but you do. It really depends on what you want to achieve. I have used lots of hedge trimmers, which generally are of the 'T' version principle - lots of teeth and a fast speed. I tried out the R as I was dealing with small branches 10-20mm more than your traditional hedge size. The R has noticably less and more spaced out teeth and the speed is considerably slower. I find it chews through overgrown material rather than cuts. It can achieve a level finish but the hedge will have a 'flail' look to it.

I have a couple of stihl 82r 30" bar. Good for getting material off, not neat. The T version would be better for neat.

You have a single cab presumably? I'm no expert but I understand dual purpose vehicles under 3500kg are class 4 but 'goods' vehicles over 3000kg are class 7. I think super and double cabs fall into one, single cabs in the other.

I have a rule of notice x3 of the time off requested. You need a day off give me 3 notice, a week off 3 weeks notice and so on. Works well for me. There is no legal rule, it is all 'reasonable'.....

Agreed. £150-300 for a tree pit to be established on a hard surface. Stone edging, etc. £150-200 for a tree. £50-80 planting fee. Maybe fancy root ball anchoring and watering £30-40. First year watering contact £30. Not sure about £1k but a reasonable investment. I do loads of highways planting and get called into to replant projects that have failed in previous years. You hear a range of reasons why they think they have died (some projects are planted mid summer for example, trees were put in by the tarmacing team who haven't planted before...) but in the vast majority of cases it is clear the trees have not been watered. Most of the time it is this exact set up - Trees in the verge of a busy highway. Sometimes contractors just dont care but often not a lot of consideration is given to the practicality of watering. You have 29 trees spread along a busy road. I would suggest these trees need to be watered weekly from May to end of August. Doesn't seem feasible to water from a bowser as it's the middle lanes of an A road so you have guys parking up on the hard shoulder running back and forth with water cans, trying to get 50l of water on each tree. What's the spacing of these trees? 150m+ along the carriageway? Having to move the van every few trees. They guys out doing the watering are rarely the most skilled or experienced - the are newbies given a list of locations and a watering can. Often a tight schedule as well. It isnt an excyse for someone doing a bad job but you put trees in hard to water locations, don't be surprised by high failure rates. I really like to have trees in urban environments but it needs a lot of thought about appropriateness. Sandwiching in trees into large highways develops 'to tick the green box' isn't good idea. Use the money to plant up in a local parks, woodlands, edges of playing fields, etc.

That's ridiculous. I have never (perhaps nievely) even considered companies did this. I would have thought an assessor would have some method of checking employment status of the teams, how long they have worked their etc. It's like bringing someone in to sit your driving test for you! No ethics at all.

Splitting rings feels terrible when you have a processor on site. Its disappointingly slow in comparison and i find myself getting annoyed. What I'd like to achieve is a workable one man set up as i often find myself with a few hours solo. The biggest annoyance is having jump in and out of the excavator 20 times an hour. In another thread i saw a 'deck saw' and wondered if something could be made up on a smaller scale with a remote so you could ring up without getting out of the digger. Just a thought at this stage...... What does work well for me is having a ibc full of rings on the forklift and my thor magik vertical splitter. As mentioned earlier, no bending over, everything kept at the right height. I have to push the ibc onto its side when half full. I have a rsj table that fits under the splitter so there is a gap of about 30cm for a 25cm (ish!?!). In this respect I prefer vertical splitters as you can get a good rhythm up.

Sorry, half asleep. Switch vertical and horizontal over in my earlier post! On a side note where is the edit button go on the App?

Pretty similar set up to me. As i see it, your options are: - Mini digger, chainsaw, horizontal splitter. Mini digger and grab is sifting through pile pulling out logs, rotates round to someone on a saw who rings it up. What you are doing in your picture. The only thing I'd do is have the rings falling into an IBC cage or tipping skip or loader bucket etc. You want to avoid all that bending over to grab rings as that is what will kill your back. As we all know, the more you have to touch the logs the less profitable it becomes. You could also dry the logs as rings then split as you need. In my opinion a pretty good set up and maybe 10-14 cube a day is possible. Downside is that is will still be quite physical and is a 2 man set up. - Mini digger, chainsaw, vertical splitter, processor. Mini digger is grabbing lengths, chainsaw cutting is cutting to maximum length of splitter (1m i expect). Mini digger then loads vertical splitter and with a 4 way blade you reduce it to 4 billets small enough for a processor. The through the processor. What i like about this set up is there is far less physical labour involved and the mini digger is doing all the lifting and loading. Probably best approach a day at a time, ie spend a whole day making metres logs, whole day billeting then run it through the processor as required. Ultimately i am not sure if you'll get a significant jump in production but its a lot less physical effort so you maybe able to work longer. If you mainly have lengths you could get a cone splitter for the mini digger so you can billet and load this processor in one go. Eliminates the need for chainsawing. £3-4k investment. If you mainly have rings something like the tempest/splitfire type splitter could work well.

Its quite a price jump from the 200 to 300. I've had the 200 working all summer on small prunings ands its a very capable little unit.

I have a Ms660 with a 25" and it seems about right to me. In fairness most saws with the grunt to run 25" are going to be heavy. Perhaps hard to do in reality but I'm a firm believer in getting the lightest saw and shortest bar that can do the job. Your body will thank you and less teeth to sharpen.

Not to knock you but how do you ever make money at £220 a day with two operators? Fuel, oils, chains will take that £20 off. Then the cost of owning and maintaining the processor, owning, taxing, insuring and using the tow vehicle. Good luck if it works for you but must be slim pickings. Appreciate it's regional but near me in SE it'd be £350 a day.

I think you're spot on. Shoukd have been : Climbed and dismantled, dismantled by MEWP, get a crane in work with MEWP, then if the first three were for some reason not possible close off the road and attempt the fell. Looks like a classic bodge to try and save time.

I can see why someone would want the video deleted - ridiculous scenario. You see how close the tree lands to the old fella on the pavement. Why would you ever fell something with anyone within a a tree length in any direction? I would have thought this would have or should be looked at by the HSE. Very serious near miss.

Very hard to price and quantify demand. Agreed with what has been said, £170 a day with operator (and I presume blades and fuel) is great value and I'd have you in 20 days a winter. I'd also have you in for 20 days a winter at £250 a day.... The mog is far more specialist. Depends on how much you need the income? If you can afford to stick to you price and do a couple of days a month then great. If it needs to be earning I'd put it at £450, workin a 50 mile radius and I'd imagine you'd get several days a week. Obviously I don't know you situation but if you closed your business I'd sell the mog and just keep the tracked unit to work, as you have said, as a standalone.

Victorian botanist are how we got these 'interesting' plant species in the UK. Growing GH is reckless as there is always the risk of people (particularly children) snapping it and getting the sap on them. I've had plenty of minor burns over the years (mainly on wrists where your glove/sleeve). It's not overly painful but it leaves nasty looking scarring. If a child got this on their face it could be pretty major incident. In regards JK, I'd never remove from site. It needs to be in sealed containers, taken to specifically licensed waste centres amd generally costs a fortune. Herbicide treatment twice a year for as long as it keeps returning. 3 clear years in a row is a good sign. It is acceptable to chop it back over winter to create access but I'd tried to 'thresh' it where it was and let it decompose in the infested area.

Depends on the rest of your kit. If you have very little equipment I'd say a vertical is more practical as you can man handle most sizes of logs under and break it up. If you have a something with forks, grab on a excavator, timber crane a horizontal would probably be a better option. The first option is definitely the more labour intensive

That's a fairly hefty price tag. I have a m200 and obviously smaller unit but less than half that prices from Global.

Certainly hard to find reliable staff, ground or climbers. London and paying good money - lots of let downs.

You'll have his address details as soon as you won the auction. Just go on the website rather an app. Regrettably it wont get you anywhere. Its annoying and right now you're annoyed but wasting more time and effort on it will just compound the annoyance.

Sounds like a much better system. I am sure there are loads of <£1500 trailers trading hands in the UK that are nicked. I had an ifor seized that turned out to have been stolen 15 years before and had 6 different owners before me!

I looked at a CHP unit and they are great but one hell of a price tag!