richy_B

6 months! Thats crazy. What was their excuse? Two week slot seems reasonable but even 3 weeks I'd be looking elswhere.

That impressive. What do you use to ring them up before they go in the fuelwood splitta? With those numbers I assume not some poor sod with a chainsaw!

I've been looking at JCB 926's at auctions for a while. They are pretty capable on ok terrain. Are you looking for something you can tow behind a 4x4, ie 2.5 ton odd?

They way I see it, is there is a lot of us and and we have a relatively small island to live on. For that reason we have to accept some inconvenience/disruption from others. It's all about being reasonable. On a nice Sunday afternoon you may want to lay in your garden and nap but of course someone in ear shot has decided to do some strimming. Nice warm day, you put your washing out, some sod next door thinks it's a nice day for a BBQ! The issue is when its persistant. At my depot we have a burger van and they have a small petrol gennie running all day. It's not that loud but because all the buildings are steel sheet/framed the noise bounces around. Even 100 metres a way you can hear a low level rating sound. Doesn't bother me as I can hear it over my machines! But for the site offices/guys on computer all day it would be annoying. As other have suggested I'd look at a low cost option to try and reduce the noise. Atleast you have then been reasonable. As someone suggested - hay bales. Cheap and I assume pretty sound absorbant. Even debris netting for scaffolding has a dampening affect. You could bang in 6 posts and put three 15 metre runs of debris netting. Should take a lot of sound out of it and it's only about £50.

Found this video of the Hycon. Looks ideal.

It's difficult as once you have embarked down a route you feel invested in it but I can't help feel that solicitor you mentioned was right when he said the court are full of 'men of principles'. Please don't take that as a criticism and good on your for standing up for yourself. My view is spending a bit of money is one thing but days/weeks of your life you can't ever get back. The stress of it all too can take a hefty toll. It took me several 'mistakes/misadventures' to realise I was chasing lost causes. As a business, one of the best thing I learnt was to spot one quickly one and know when to cut my losses. Not necessarily your case though and good to luck you with it.

I appreciate they have to enforce 'the rules' but, as you said, makes no commercial sense. Obviously in the case of criminal court it costs lots of money to the tax payer to bring people to 'justice' and I assume in many cases leads to custodial sentences. The hope is remove wrong doers from society for a bit and hope for a bit of reformation of character. When the case is purely monetary it makes no sense to spend £10,000 to recoup £1k. I doubt these are ground breaking cases and will re-write laws for them making future cases easier. It's just throwing money away in a vain hope of looking 'effeftive'.

You get the odd one! My alpine with the stadium in the background.

Yeah, it can be a nightmare. I only ever use it for parks or woodlands. Verges or pavements would be a toss of the coin everytime. Ntl/virgin/bt are the worst as they barely bury their cabling. I cat and now metal detect everything but you never quite know. You can use a genny but you have to spend ages trying to workout where man holes are and its pricework. It is a good load out. Took me several seasons to work out the best kit. The muck truck maxi was a good buy. For ages i thought it was a waste of money and a wheel barrow would suffice but it saves a lot of energy across a day.

Another 2 bolts at the top may have helped as well.

The further down the greater leverage so makes sense it contributed. How much would be6hard to know. Lucky escape really because your break away cable is attached to the part that would have snapped off. A 3 tonner on a plant trailer would have made a mess at 20mph+

Anyway, as always arbtalk is a fountain of good info.

Sounds good. Its difficult as there is quite a bit of kit available but space is often more restrictive than budget. I have my ifor 3017 caged tipper which is 12 standard trees, 25-40 stakes, mesh cages, planting box of strap nails & ties then wheel barrows. In the tow vehicle we have hand tools and power tools (breaker, cut off saw, small chainsaw). This year i invested in a muck truck maxi. This works well in combo with the mini digger, auger and 3017 tipper. Two of us can get a lot of holes dug.

The digger is great for parks, etc but on streets its too cumbersome. Imagine a busy london street and you are doing 8 trees spread along a few hundred metres and on both sides of the street. Im going to keep an eye for a used knocker for mini digger. To be fair we do enough trees (and replace enough broken stakes) to make it worthwhile to have both.

32 - 40kg. Thats hefty to get above head height.

I saw these in the greentech catalogue originally. They do look handy. How much are they if you don't mind me asking?

Thats pretty much what i was thinking. Anyone used one?

Yes. This is one I'd seen. It'll be what go for if i can't find better.

I did think that but they are 2.4m posts can't see a practical way of getting on top of it.

Hello all, In the 'arb digger' thread there was some discussion about post drivers on mini diggers etc. I don't want to derail that at all do a new thread. Wondering if anyone has any experience of hand held hydraulic post drivers? I do a lot of tree planting, mainly street trees. For this we have a jcb hydraulic power pack and breaker. I was wondering about the availability of a hydraulic post driver for putting in 60-75mm wooden stakes. We don't have to put many in per day (30-60) but if the ground is compacted (as it generally is on pavements) it can be hard work and you really feel it in your wrists and shoulders over the course of the winter. I've been googling but can't seems to find much option for one. I've seen the petrol post driver which looks good but obviously with a hydraulic power pack there it would make sense to utilise it. Any thoughts welcomed.

This sounds like a crazy situation. I often wonder why HMRC can't apply a little common sense and 'pick their battles' more. Ultimately what are they going to achieve with this? What were they were ever hoping to achieve? How much will they have spent in officers time etc to achieve it. A fools errand.

I prefer no cab on a mini digger for arb work. As you're relatively low down and have limited reach you'll find yourself in the thick of it often and its too easy to break windows. Plus quicker to jump in and out. Obviously has some downsides on a rainy day.... Hopefully the breaker circuit is double acting. Gives you a good choice of grabs etc.

The first one is pretty impressive. You want to watch your fingers but it gets the job done!

I'm surprised to hear this. I thought the petrol and pto versions would be very capable on full size cutting. How often do people sharpen their blades? I bought a 2nd one and switch them out fairly regularly.

I have scd600 230v version. Chosen because we work inside and dont have 3ph. I find it very capable. It'll clean cut 10" oak/ beech billets all day. I'd imagine 15hp+ pto versions would be more powerful at the blade and very usable.