Dan Curtis

Isn't your gvw the max permissible weight though? so you need a vehicle with a lower gvw than 3500kg, regardless of what you put into it? As I read it it's basically saying that towing with a 3.5 tonner is out unless you have b+e licence. Doesn't make any difference to me, I have b+e but just curious.

So, if someone with a b licence wants to tow a sub 750kgs trailer, they can no longer do so behind say a 3500kgs transit? Gonna mess up a lot of the transit crew!

Cougar over velocity any day for the uni. I have 50m with a ring spliced into one end for various anchor setups.

Keep an eye on the uktt page mate, it's in the pipeline, we're all extremely busy at the moment Not sure, Ed will have to answer that one

Wind your neck in. I said the fuel was going stale as in it was doing that whilst left alone. Something I was keen to avoid was stale fuel. The other saw part was an aside. That's an experience with stale fuel I've had recently. It was an 07S so not one that will be coming to work any time soon

I managed to get down to this as I'd finished another job a day early. Made a change from the norm... A few pics are here; Cheers Ed

It's not a case of I've had bad fuel, I'm just keen to avoid the situation. I got given a saw not long ago that had been used "recently", I decided to check the fuel before running it and the smell was unbelievable. Stale petrol is foul, I'm sure no good for me and sure it's no good for saws. There's been enough postings of places to find info on fuel life expectancy so I won't go into those.

Based on my averages, it takes about 3 and a half weeks to burn a 5l mix. Obviously this varies and I've burned 7l of Aspen in one day recently. So, if I mix 5l of two stroke, do a fortnight with a handsaw, then start burning the fuel that's a 5 and a half week old mix before it's finished. If I get a lot of silky work together the mix just keeps getting older without being used. See where I'm coming from? Obviously you needn't mix 5l at a time, you can do less but it's still Imo a hassle to faff about with fuels in my situation

I'm now a year down the line from getting my first batch of Aspen. I'm probably not the biggest consumer out there as it's only running in my saws, which only I use. As a freelancer, I have always run my own fuel to avoid the hazards of other people's mixes. The problem I had with pump fuel was that if I spent a fortnight doing silky reductions, my fuel was going stale. If I was running low on one mix, I had to mix a separate can up. Aspen's storage life and guaranteed mix solved these problems for me. I have had to paint big red A's on my fuel tanks to stop people filling them up with their own mix though! I've been through about 110 litres in the last 12 months, over that time I've spent an average of £1.40 per working day on Aspen. Hardly a bank breaking amount! The saws are all running nicely, I haven't needed to change any fuel filters as there's no gunk or crap going into them. I'm not getting 2 stroke induced headaches or feeling groggy at the end of a long day and the truck doesn't fill up with petrol fumes on a hot day. I make no extra trips to the filling station, I go to get fuel once every eight or nine weeks. Nor do I need to mess about mixing or checking levels, or worrying about which 2 stroke oil is the best. The only issue I've had is what to do with empty cans. I've now found a (nationwide) company that will recycle them for me, so I'm sending them off when I've got enough to warrant a collection. I can't see myself going back to pump fuel now, for me the future's orange (cans)

Good point. I had wondered that. I doubt it'll remain as it is for that long, but there are very few targets/hazards nearby so it'll be an interesting project to run with and see what happens

Yep. Had a good look inside, can't find anything desicated though

Once again I bow to your superior knowledge good sir! It was a rather quick id, rain induced. Thanks (again) for the info!

Target wise there's a hedge, other young trees and a bit of crop in the field. Habitat conservation is a high ranking aim here

Haha, a keen eye! It's a Fendt, g reg I believe. Not sure on the model

Now you've made me doubt the fung I.d. I don't currently have any more photos, it was raining quite hard when I was finishing up so I snapped the few here and got back in the truck! I'll endeavour to get some more. As I said I'd never noted any fb externally, desiccated or otherwise. The stem is hollow down to ground level and now the immediate risk is dealt with, I'll get in and investigate. So off the top of my head, I'd be looking at a 25 year phase. Very interesting David, thanks for the link

Last Friday night, it came down. Today I cleared it up. Luckily the hedge hasn't sustained too much damage and the brash from the tree has been dead hedged. The stem was severely decayed, brown rot galore! Lots of little Fistulina all over the piece that came down, with Inonotus dryadeus fruiting on the inside of the hollow trunk. The lowest section of the stem, approximately 12ft long and 5ft wide at the bigger end, has been left in the woods adjacent to the tree for it's habitat value. Some of the larger wood will be milled in time, the remainder of the cord will be fire wood. A sad series of events for me but at least the tree still stands. It had been my intention to halo the smaller trees within the woodland so as to give a lateral a chance to get some growth on and leave plenty for the tree to retrench to. I've never before seen anything fruiting on this tree externally, though now I've been able to see inside and find the fruit bodies, I'm not so sure about that course of action! The lateral limb is probably getting on for a failure due to minimal attachment with a fair length and end weight, not to mention severe decay within. Of the two remaining leaders, there is plenty of deadwood habitat, and little overextension/overweighting due to its own retrenchment process. It lacks however, much growth internally, so as it's bringing itself into a more compact size, it's seemingly running out of photosynthetic material, and hollowing as it is, much meristematic tissue. So, courses of action to sustain this tree..... Leave it and see Retrench it with the intention of creating more internal, lower growth Or the one from a rather enthusiastic Hatfield Forest veteran-tree worker "Get some sledgehammers up there, create some exposed cambium!" Any thoughts?

As time progressed I made regular visits to see if it had cracked further or failed completely. Gradually the crack widened and became visible from both sides of the stem. A gap appeared in the canopy, making it just a matter of time before the limb would fail. To give some scale, I last measured it at 1.97m dbh

A month or so ago, I noticed a rather worrying crack in a veteran Oak pollard that is well known to me. The tree has stood for at least a couple of centuries, and I'm lucky enough to have seen various photographs of it, and the changes in it's surroundings over the last fifty years or so. I have filmed a short climbing video in the canopy, on a day where temperatures dropped to -6! I have more than once been chased from the tree by resident stinging insects, more than once involving falling from it's lower crown! Recreational free climbing is always tempting on it! The tree has quite a drawing power upon me, and it holds quite a place in the arboreal section of my heart. At the time I was debating what course of action to take; Leave it to fail naturally and just tidy up whatever is on the floor Get up there, reduce some weight and hope like hell... Have the whole leader down (approx 1/4 of the canopy) and attempt to create as good a natural fracture as possible, so as to protect the hedgeline from a full failure Fell the tree, sod the ecological value My personal preference was always the first, though the owner was keen to minimise any damage to the hedgerow, if at all possible. I wasn't too keen on climbing and shifting it's natural weight, and MEWP hire wasn't an option readily available, so it was left as a case of watch, wait and see what happens. Thankfully this was an option as the tree stands on private land, with the few people who go near it well aware of what was occuring. .

Inonotus dryadeus and Fistulina hepatica fruiting together on Q. robur. Both fruiting around the crown break/bolling on a veteran pollard. The beefsteak was fruiting throughout most of the leader which failed. Brown and white rot together.....mmmmm

No, ignore that. The leaf says Pyrus salicifolia but the fruit is wrong:confused1:

Prunus salicifolia?

How are you planning on running? Self employed or on the books for someone? That's the first thing you need to figure out before buying anything, as most PAYE positions will provide everything you will need. The krabs, if rock climbing, I assume are screw gates? Not really used in arb, be better off with some 3 way lockers

Nasty one Andy. I've had a forearm arterial bleed myself, pretty scary stuff! Mine was from the most pathetic looking puncture wound, but was gushing so hard I daren't let go of it to get of my dressing which was reachable in my knee pocket with either hand. Luckily the guys I was with were on the ball and had the FA kit out ready as soon as I got to them and sorted it out for me. Heal quick mate, if it's anything like mine, you'll have a dead arm for a week or so.

Only non standard maintenance issue I knew of in 2+ years of using one daily was the throttle cable froze in its sheath and some heavy handed fool snapped it.

Very good machine mate. The roller setup is soooo much better than the equivalent tw, so much more crushing power. Ime it will easily out perform the 150