richy_B

Got it and replied.

Good suggestion - £452 with a 12" bar. About an hours drive from me but would be worth it for that kind of saving.

Ealing, dealer I visited was gayways.

Sounds like it was a bit pricey then. I did have a brief look at Capel Manor last week but I was was on a course so only had 30 mins to 'shop'. A guy on the husky stand said an updated version of the 338 was coming out in late summer/autumn so I might just hang on and see what thats like.

Hello all, was at the local Stihl dealers the other day and was talking to the owner about replacing my top handled saw and he offered me a 200T for £530 inc VAT. This didn't sound like the deal of the century so I queried it and he said stihl had put the prices up a far bit this year. Am I just being tight or does it sound like there quite a dealers mark up on it?

I had a similar conversation during my 32. The guy said trying to find someone to do the assessment was difficult and trying to find enough CS33 sized trees to practise on was even more difficult.

As some one said, you are best to go for the highest straight off the mark. I looked into C1+E then foun that for an extra £250 I could do the full C+E. Full HGV is really an asset in arb and forestry work.

I think there is a big difference between waste and arisings. I only generate waste when dealing with invasive species spraying like knotweed not arb work. Woodchip, firewood logs and millable logs all have value. Most companies sell off this stuff or at worst give it away for free. I don't think you'll be able to charge for it. If I had a large yard available I'd make it very secure and let the space out. Maybe fill it with containers and offer lets on them.

Is that Reading uni you are at? I was told they are one of the biggest landowners in berks. They must have a good selection of fun trees.

I do a bit of rec climbing. West London is limited, plenty of nice trees but all in prominant places like parks or verges that will attract a lot of attention and you'll be asked to stop in no time. Where do you go currently? Engelfield estate near reading is huge and has loads of big oaks.

I'd avoid anything muddy. Most are 4X2 and have road tyres so are not going to be much use. You'll get away with it most of the time but when you do get stuck you'll really know about it. Not only would a fully loaded 7.5t with a chipper on the back be a pig to get moving you're also going to churn the site up in the process. Not great from the customers perspective.

The industry is full of amateurs and cowboys. Too often I see a wally wearing a track suit up a ladder with a b&q chainsaw. The kind of person who looks to make a quick buck and will no doubt be flytipping all the arisings into the closest alley. Even if they get caught out they will just start trading under a new name. Its a hard problem to stop.

Cat C is rigid bodies vehicle upto 32 tonnes. If you get that with +E you get the full on artic 44 tonnes HGV license. For 7.5t you want C1. with +E you get 12t combined (so 5.5t trailer). C1 will cover you for the smaller MOGs as far as I'm aware. Running a 7.5t tipper towing a chipper isn't very expensive in my experience. Around town I was still getting decent enough MPG and servicing was not a lot different to a transit. Above 3.5t you've got to be aware of tachographs and the various implications.

Shakey ground to be treading in my opinion. I don't really like lending out saws let alone a chipper so would be very reluctant. Insurance implications aswell.

In my opinion all arisings belong to you unless specified in your quote.

I think its well worth doing some climbing prior to spending a lot of money on courses. I also don't think there is any harm in taking it slow either. Lots of people rush to do 39 straight after 38 but I think there is some benefit to just concentrating on getting your climbing upto a professional standard. 30,31,38 are simple but from there on it you need to be competent and confident in your own abilities. I don't know about your driving entitlements (probably pre 1997) but its well worth having c1+e. A lot of companies want this as a minimum and C+E would be a real advantage. Good luck.

Do anyone know any UK suppliers of plastic stickers for stickering an air dried pile? Any links welcomed. Thanks.

Really appreciate everyone taking the time to comment. I'm from a countryside management and urban arboricultural background and know very little about commercial forestry so its all helpful. My plan is to move towards small sustainable forestry in the long term. The immediate plan is/was to take on something small that could be financially supported by my current business (hence not needing to make profit) that I could learn from. Hopefully something on a small scale would give you some insight into the pitfalls and difficulties of the industry. Despite the numbers not adding up I am still keen to give it a go. Again, thanks very much for the advice. I'm going to stick around on the forestry forum as its an aladdins cave of good info.

Sounds good but I think the 7.5t road will be an issue here. Going to look into it. Thanks.

I did think about this. Clearfelling and replanting with mixed native broadleaf and conifers. My background is in nature conservation so from experience I know that there is a lot of funding for restoration of native woodlands and habitat creation. I am going to keep doing my research on this. Thanks for the suggestions.

Cheers for all this, I've passed the links on to her.

A girl in my team is about to do her 30/31 and needs to get the PPE. Problem is she's a 3 1/2 shoe. Anyone got any links to a UK supplier for this size. 4 1/2 is the best I've found. Thanks.

Hello again, been doing some research on all the suggestions and unfortunately its been mainly negative. I am not completely giving up on it yet. My hope was to clearfell about 6 acres over the course of a few months and do it all on a small scale basis. As I assume in most cases doing the work isn't the problem its the logistics. The site is ok and I could work on it but the main problem I've found is access. The only access possible to the site is via a 7.5t limit road. Now I don't know much about forestry but I think its fairly obvious this is a major problem. Would this rule out any kind of economic forestry? I am not looking to make money necessarily but don't want to make a loss. What I am wondering is: If you turned up at a chip board processor/similar with 4T of average quality lodgepole pine on a timber trailer what would a fair price be? In honesty I have no idea. My hope is £15-£20/ton. Less than that and it would be curtains for this plan. Any more advice much appreciated. Please feel free to tell me to give it up if what I am asking is madness. Its just a good way for me to get involved with an industry I would like to move towards. Again not looking to financially profit from it but can't take a huge hit on it either. Thanks.

Quite far North of London. It just something I've been looking at as a bit of a area to develop into.

I'm going to look into all the stuff you said muldonach. Really appreciate the information.