richy_B

Any ideas of how you change the lock on the hitch for an ifor williams plant trailer? Bought one recently but there is no key. Its locked in the open position. I've had a brief look but its not completely clear how you'd go about changing it. I know these are very vulnerable locks and only likely to slow someone down for a minute or two but as its on the trailer I'd prefer it worked and you can get a replacement for £12. Any pointers?

Soon to be charcoal I reckon. I was amazed how much they made in Morocco.

Thanks guys. Much appreciated. Assume I know very little about diggers/hydraulics - When you say double acting you mean the hydraulics will move two ways - forward and back for example? Would this not be the case with a 'breaker' piping? Sam, what you have seems to be pretty much what I am looking for although I might go a little larger and with a full canopy (for those wet days). Do you mind if I ask how much that set up cost? Stephen, I did look at at the option of just a thumb but but I really think the rotor aspect would be so much better for me in the long run, manoeuvrability wise. Budget wise I'd like to get a machine and the grab/rotor for £6-7k (ex VAT) which I know is tight but hopefully do-able.

Can anyone offer me some pointers of 'arb diggers'? I am looking at buying something compact for general landscaping but also to assist with shifting logs around the yard etc. I'd go for something in the 1.5-2t range so I can trailer it. i'd like to fit a grab and rotor for ease of use when moving logs. Budget not huge so I would be looking at second hand. How easy is it to fit a grab and rotor? Most diggers I am looking at are pipe for a breaker but I assume I need a second hydraulic service to power either the rotor/grab. I quite like the Takeuchi TB16 and they seem to be in my price range. Any tips?

For any business you really need one thing - paying customers. Have you got any lined up? In my first business I got sidetracked by dozens of other things and lost sight of the this. Keeping focused is the best tip I can offer.

If you've got the knowledge and experience why not just go for the assessments? I think you can get 30/31 done for £150ish. Then after a months work do your 38 then 39 the next month. Call your local college, see if you can tag on to an assessment day.

I've used these guys before and so have 6 colleagues. Not the cheapest but very well done. chainsaw training, woodchipper training, tree felling training, uk

I did my 32 about 5 years ago and found it difficult to get a course. If I remember rightly there were only two of us on it. I think the reality is a lot of guys only bother with 30/31 and 38/39 so they dominate the courses. Limited interest other courses, limited providers and limited assessors. Try looking for a cs33....

I think the 1899 act is just an example of several possible exemptions. I was told before MOL is exempt and there are many woodlands in London that have this designation. They have, as mentioned, recreation at their core and are not there for the purpose of timber production/revenue.

If it is local authority land then it could be worth checking if the sites are designated public open spaces. If so I believe they are covered by the exemption: 'Felling fruit trees, or trees growing in a garden, orchard, churchyard or designated public open space (eg. under the Commons Act 1899).' The local planning team might be worth asking in regard designation.

I know, I'm keeping an eye on them. No harm in inquiring here though, I know quite a few people who steer clear of ebay. Best to cast a wide net!

Hello, I'm in the market for a tipping trailer. Manual or electric, 2700-3500kg, caged/solid sides preferable, not too far from London ideally. Only got £2k(+VAT) in the budget unfortunately. If you one is selling or knows anyone please PM me. Thanks.

Is it worth having logs that 'dry'? 20% MC seems about right to me as most species will burn well/cleanly. At 1-10% I can imagine it would burn far too quickly. Perhaps useful for a pizza ovens etc but you'd be getting through so much wood in a fireplace/stove I'm not sure its viable.

This demonstrates my comment perfectly. Too much is left to interpretation.

I've got a 2007 Ranger king cab. Got it 2 months ago for £5250 with 70k on the clock. Mud terrains and a truckman top. I'd recommend them. Decent for light offroad, comfortable enough to drive about it, pull a decent trailer (3000kg on the plate but I'm not sure how it'd cope) and easy enough to work on maintenance wise.

When I read these threads it annoys me to no end why the govt/vosa cannot just put a clear, concise set of guidelines. IMHO these laws/regulations shouldn't be so open to interpretation/misunderstanding, it should be clear cut. Ignorance is not a defence but when the legislation is complex and often contradictory then what do they anticipate. The whole B+e, C1+e, O license, tacho, CPC area could do with being cleaned up.

I've built one based on the links above. Seeing good results.

Me too and I'd agree with the review. If it helps I just cut and paste this from the recent price list they sent me: Knitted Construction, all with a drawstring: 20) *20 x 27 cm golden yellow, orange or dark green knitted net £74 per 1000 £43 for 500 £11 for 100 1) *27 x 35 cm dark green, orange or yellow knitted net £74 per 1000 £43 for 500 £11 for 100 2) *32 x 48 cm yellow, green or orange knitted net £84 per 1000 £48 for 500 £13 for 100 3) 42 x 52 cm orange knitted net £100 per 1000 £56 for 500 £15 for 100 4) 46 x 57 cm orange (& many other colours) knitted net £104 per 1000 £58 for 500 £15 for 100 19) 46 x 59 cm dark green knitted net . £104 per 1000 £58 for 500 £15 for 100 11) 49 x 69 cm dark green knitted net £140 per 1000 £76 for 500 £20 for 100 7) 53 x 75 cm dark green knitted net £150 per 1000 £81 for 500 £21 for 100 Woven Construction, all with a braided drawstring: 24) 30 x 46 cm yellow woven net "yell daffs" label (can be turned inside-out) £57 per 1,000 £34 for 500 £9 for 100 16) 42 x 58 cm orange woven net £135 per 1000 £76 for 500 £20 for 100 5) 46 x 60 cm orange, red woven net £135 per 1000 £76 for 500 £20 for 100 21) 44 x 68 cm orange woven net 'G.Harvest 12.5kg' label No drawstring £65 per 1000 £38 for 500 £10 for 100 6) 46 x 65 cm dark green woven net £139 per 1000 £78 for 500 £21 for 100 15) 47 x 70 cm light green (W) woven net £150 per 1000 £81 for 500 £21 for 100 8) 48 x 78 cm orange or light green woven net £165 per 1000 £88 for 500 £23 for 100 22) 50 x 80 cm orange heavy duty woven net £215 per 1000 £113 for 500 £30 for 100 9) 52 x 85 cm orange, dark green or red woven net £175 per 1000 £93 for 500 £24 for 100 23) 52 x 85 cm dark green with UV (sunlight) protection £210 per 1000 £113 for 500 £29 for 100 10) 60 x 85 cm orange woven net £185 per 1000 £98 for 500 £26 for 100 Mono Fine Mesh Construction, all with a drawstring: 12) *27 x 35 cm orange, red or yellow mono net £85 per 1000 £48 for 500 £12 for 100 13) 40 x 50 cm red or green mono net £139 per 1000 £76 for 500 £20 for 100 14) 40 x 60 cm green mono net £153 per 1000 £82 for 500 £21 for 100 17) 46 x 63 cm green mono net £165 per 1000 £88 for 500 £23 for 100 All bags are manufactured to a tolerance of +/- 5% on sizes specified.

Hello, anyone got any IBC cages (standard size) they don't want/selling? I need 8 and will collect. Ideally not far from West London. Thanks, Rich B.

I really like these but they are pricey.

Hello, I need a 200 or so bags of kindling (smallish bags, 3kg-ish). Anyone able to supply a couple of pallets worth? PM me please. Thanks, Rich.

In my opinion you just need to get your t&c's straight from the beginning. On all my quotes I state my payment terms (I stick to 15 days terms) and that an invoice will be send/given on the final day of the works. I then write 'after 15 days a stop will be put on your account and no further products or services will be supplied. After 30 days the invoice will be passed to our debt collection agent. All outstanding invoices passed to our debt collection agent will no longer be dealt with by ourselves'. It might sound a bit heavy and can put people off but I think you need to be absolutely straight with customers from the moment you quote. Those are my payments terms, if you do not accept then you are not obligated to use me. Also if they are the type of customer who will mess me around for payment, I'd rather they didn't use me anyway. Debt collection will cost you about 8% of the invoice for commercial customers and a bit more for domestic and will almost certainly end your business relationship but by that point its most likely screwed anyway. If its your 'main' contract etc you obviously need to tread lightly but its an all too common story that small business go bankrupt because larger firms screw them over payment. Who would you rather upset: your main customer or the staff you can't afford to pay at the end of the month and all of your suppliers?

I use quickbooks online version and once I got the hang of it found it very useful. To me the main benefits are: You can access it on any computer provided you have internet access and your log in details - useful if you're office and home aren't the same thing. You can have several users working on the same account. Useful for small businesses with a few staff. You can give you accountant online access. There is the worry about having everything 'on the cloud' but I think everything will be that way within the next few years. I prefer desktop programs rather than 'apps' but I am certainly in the minority.

Hello, anyone got any ideas on the cost involved in getting 3phase electric set up? Moving into a new yard, mains electric supply goes to all the units on the site (some are 3ph already). I need to run cabling about 30 metres long a wall from the metering point and would want probably 4 sockets/points (although only two ever used at one time). Any ball parks on what this might cost? Never dealt with 3ph before.

Hello, my experience of start up funding for a start up business is that it is bloody difficult. I've started two enterprises (one recently) and found it incredibly hard to get funding. I tried all the high street banks and 7 out of the 9 I spoke to said they do not lend to start ups (LTD) without security. The requirement turned out to be whatever capital you need, they want you to put up 50% then you need to provide security for the 50% they lend (secured against a house for example). This is fair enough but can be quite a tall order. The two banks who would lend advised that for start up (or companies trading for under a year) the interest rates were much higher. We were quoted 18%. A crippling interest rate. Essentially all the stuff you hear in the press about banks not liking small businesses seemed to be true in my case. For me I opted for personal loans and put it into the business as a directors loan. Not how I wanted to do it but it go me going. If I could offer any advice (for what is it worth) it would be don't go for as cheap as possible though just to get going. This would seem like daft advice but in my first business I had bugger all money and bought the cheapest old van I could, bought older kit, bought the 'cheaper version' and tried to get by working out of my own home etc. Inevitably I had to repair things a lot, soon out grew my space & kit and needed to upgrade and realistically it ended up costing me a lot more. Fantasy talk but if I had £50K I could have got an excellent set up. Instead you buy then upgrade, then trade in, then replace, etc and to get to that £50k set up after a year or so you have spent £80k. How you get the £50k to start with is the hard bit of course but I hope the jist of what I am saying is clear. Good luck.