njc110381

I've been looking at these things with great interest for a while now. First example I ever seen was on ebay - I thought it was a chipper at first which is what got my attention and since then I've been doing a fair bit of reading about them. I would love to know how well this stuff would burn on a log burner? Regular feeding wouldn't be too much of an issue as I both me and the mrs still fight over who gets to play with it next... There's one on there now listed as "wood chipper branch logger shredder pto". Thought it better put like that as a link will be gone in a few weeks when he relists. He's after £2.5k for them and they will chop up to 4". I get the impression they're made to order.

Mmmmm.... Unimogs! Oh wait, do you mean the MAN KAT? The one that's stuck?! Here's another short clip of one getting stuck (at about 4.00) on a hill that a mog has just fled up without any bother. You'll have to excuse the baby mog not making it, but in it's defense it is less than half the size and the best part of 40 years old...

I was thinking that. Fair play to you lad! I have one of those extension blocks for the tow bar in the shed I think. Not sure it will make a grand amount of difference to be honest but if you want to try it then you're welcome to it if I can find it! As far as chip flying out of the top goes, I'd roof it with expanded metal mesh. I just looked at prices for aluminium and it's about £50 per sheet, and I think you'd need two. So not a bank breaker by any means and a good long term fixed solution.

It's a shame you need to move things on the road. Otherwise I would have said it's the perfect place for a little compact tractor and a timber trailer. You could run a splitter and log saw on the tractor to save work for the chainsaw. I have a little 12.5hp Kubota which I run a log saw with. A fiver of red diesel will keep it going all day and it will tow over a ton on the flat no trouble at all.

I'd love to hear of a place local to me who will take it for that sort of money. Our two local places want £70+vat per ton as a minimum charge. Try getting a ton into a crew cab pickup! It's a challenge even with heavy chip.

A few years ago I was in a similar position to you. I spent about £1400 on a used Entec Trukloder, which is the older version of the Timberwolf TW100G. To be fair to it, it's a great little machine and has more than earned it's keep. It's frustrating when you feed it tangled thinnings like hawthorn, pyracantha etc but for most jobs it's ok. It doesn't like stones, so you have to change your hedge cutting tactics a little on driveways. I cut onto large sheets. Hedge clippings don't seem to mulch down that well. The best you will do is making the pieces smaller so things like privet will compost faster. How much space do you have at home and how much waste do you produce per week? I'm lucky that my garden is a decent size and I have room for a few large composting bays. I manage to chip and compost most of the waste I produce, which I can then sell back to the customer as mulch. This of course won't work if you have no space or produce waste in bulk on a very regular basis, but if you use a turner (stir it regularly) you can get most things to a salable state in about two months.

I know the answer kind of seems obvious, but can this thing still eat 6" solid logs? It must have some serious hammers in there to do that. Any chance of a picture of the chip it produces at some point when it's convenient? I assume the chip isn't as neat or fine as it would be from a chipper? The reason for all the questions is that I do a similar job myself, and quite often the stuff the needs to be fed through the machine is too fine for a chipper to deal with easily. I usually end up having to burn a lot of it but that can be a real pain especially in the summer. I've had absolutely no experience with a large shredder to judge it by so your opinion would be really handy.

Tell me more!

Well, for a start thanks Mull29 - if it was genuine your reply could have been very handy. I called the chap today. He had a very hard job understanding me although he knew where I was heading. He was quite happy for me to back out of the sale and couldn't have been more understanding. I think after my initial messages he knew he wasn't getting anywhere and didn't want to make an issue of it. Had he have seemed even remotely legit I was going to head down the route of send it and then invoice me, and I'd provide trade references. After all, him sending his chipper without payment in hand is no different to me sending my money without a chipper in hand - but I have 122 positive feedback comments and plenty of suppliers to verify my stance where as he had nothing. At the end of the day it's not the deal of a lifetime, but I've still got my money so I shall continue the search. It's not like I actually need the thing anyway!

That TP is lovely but I can't justify spending the money yet. It's early days for my setup and that sort of outlay is too high for the use I have for it. I think the price may be justified by the seller not looking ideal and the machine not being a popular in the UK make. And going by the guy's text he's either British or very good at writing like a local. I do intend to push things quite a long way before parting with my money. He said it's on his father's farm in Mull. Going by his age when I checked his details that would put his father at an age of around about time to pack up hard work. When I speak to the seller I'm going to want his father's name and address, and will then contact him through a number I find for him rather than the one I'm given. May even speak to the farm next door which will sound a little weird but most folk will be happy to oblige to help a genuine and decent neighbour. The new account and registered contact number not being the one he text from is still very dodgy, so I can't see my cash leaving me until this guy has really made it clear that he's ok. That may well annoy him hugely and if he is a genuine seller I'm going to feel pretty bad for it, but he is new and he looks risky so he's going to have to just deal with the grief or sell it to someone else. Again, most genuine folk would understand that. I know I would.

Just had a text from the seller in perfect English saying I can pick it up if I like... Now I'm confused! I think I need to have a long chat with him to fish for info he's not likely to know if he doesn't know the job/machine?

Well cheers for making a point of it, all of you. I wasn't 100% convinced myself but hearing others make a fuss too made me look at the situation even harder. I always search and find private info for sellers with no feedback and new accounts so I think I would have sussed it myself, but as I say hearing you say it made me look really hard. Now I want to find the address in China and send them a wet doggy truffle via airmail!

Oh right. That's handy for whoever is bidding on the really tidy tractor he's selling! And due to their keeping bidders private I can't even message them!

Just did a bit of fishing about and the seller details are registered from Liverpool. That's a hell of a drive to the yard in the morning! Also managed to pull a mobile number (myself, not from the seller) and when googled it shows up loads of chinese/wigglystuff writing and sites showing how to give a localised number from abroad. Unless Mull is abroad... Sod it! Not looking good. Mind you my money is still firmly planted in my wallet so it's not the end of the world. I will await a response and get someone to view it for me if it comes to it. I have friends up that way who can at least confirm it exists. Where should I go from here? Report/question it with ebay and show them my findings?

I haven't paid at all yet. Want to know a bit more about who I'm paying first and then it won't be by bank transfer. Just looking into the most secure way of doing it as his feedback is 0! It looks like a nice machine if it all works out ok. Although I have to say that having more than one of you bring up my thoughts is a little bit sobering! Cheers guys!

I've taken a punt on a chipper to run with my mog today. Spotted it on ebay and it's not a make I know much about - it's a Vandaele? After a Google search I found a couple of links to Arbtalk and the general opinion seemed good. It's a TV180 which can chip up to 180mm. Plenty big enough for me. I do hope I've done the right thing?! There's a UK distributor so parts shouldn't be too much of a problem and it's not an old machine. It's described as in good condition and very good working order... Lets just hope the fella is honest! It will be arriving on a pallet from the other end of the country but the price seemed very good so I thought I'd take the chance. What are your thoughts on the machine? I've seen that there are a couple of lads here who use/have used them but the topics were very short. It's a bit late to ask, but I'm a bugger for jumping in and asking questions later!

Just a quick update. I got the hedge all done and on the truck in 3.5 hours. I'd priced the job for all day so I'm well pleased. It cut a lot faster than expected and although it was hard work, it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd thought it would be. When I told the old chap I was working for that I had to buy the saw to do the job he wanted to pay for that as well as the extra time I'd quoted. Some customers are plain daft at times! I didn't take him up on his offer of course, but I thought it was a very kind thought. Wish they were all like him.

It arrived today and I have a bit of a play with it in the firewood pile. Cuts like a dream - I don't think these little conifers will stand much chance! I may even have to cut the front out with an axe just to do it proper old school!

Could end up being a bit of a laugh I reckon but I couldn't help myself. I figured that they used to be used to fell trees, so how hard can it be? Probably very!

Ok... You're going to laugh at me for this I expect, but I had a real hippy moment and decided to go out and buy one of these... 3 foot One Man Crosscut Saw, the pefect saw for crosscutting logs. Made by Thomas Flinn & Co., Sheffield, England No doubt it will be a pig to use off of a ladder, weigh a ton and possibly take much longer than a Silky, but how cool does that look?! I keep thinking I need to lose a bit of weight and get a bit fitter so I'm going to do some of my home firewood with it. My grandfather was a part time woodsman and had all this sort of kit but when he died my uncle took most of it and sold it. So I figured as this is a hand made in the UK made product, I needed one! There's even a video about how it's made at the workshop... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRvETo4ThXQ Now most of you will think I'm mental and never speak to me again!

If it was my bird it would be getting used to the chainsaw in record time, but unfortunately that's not an option here. I have to keep them happy and they're willing to pay. I've just phoned him and stuck the price of the big Silky on the bill, he seems happy with that so I'll end up a bit fitter and get a decent saw out of it for my troubles. It's not a huge hedge so shouldn't take me too long. Thanks for the advice... Now all I have to decide is which big Silky to buy:confused1:

The biggest ones are about 9", generally about 6" and with a few even smaller. The bird seems to get flustered just by me being there so I'm a bit worried that the bar noise on an electric saw may wind it up pretty badly too. A good thought though - they are a lot quieter than a high revving two stroke engine! That Silky Sugoi looks like a beast. Not cheap but good kit rarely is. I may have to invest in one of those. Is there anything else I should be looking at? Edit... I've never seen a battery husky! I'll have a look now

A good deed every day is some effort! Fair play to you. I've done a few - towing folk who are stuck, sparing a bit of time to help people out when they can't afford to pay someone to do it etc. I'm not a karma sort of bloke but I do enjoy the feeling you get when you make a difference to someones day. It should be how everyone thinks but it just doesn't seem to be the done thing these days? Everyone is so tied up in their own first world problems. The sad thing, and it's reflected in the posts on here, is that some people have lost the faith that you're not after anything in return and actually want to help. The two women who told one of you to get lost when they were changing their wheel, and the woman who locked herself in her car when she was offered help - well I guess that stems from the media showing so many negatives in the world. For a person to be scared or worried when you try to approach them shows how things have taken a turn for the worse just recently. It's not long ago that I was a kid and it was nothing for me to go straight out from school and not come home until dark. Kids barely leave their parent's sight these days and I find that quite depressing!

Hey guys. I've just come across a job that I could do with some advice for. A customer of mine has a large avery with an owl in it, which is a rescue and she cannot catch! I need to top a conifer hedge next to it and the first sign of a chainsaw send it crazy, so I've been asked if I can hand saw it and charge them the extra. This of course isn't the end of the world, but I've never done it before on this scale. The trunks are about 9" and I have no idea where to start looking for a decent hand saw. I've got a bow saw and a silky pruner, but for this job I think I need the best I can get my hands on. So my question is, what in your experience would that be? The old chap is a regular of mine and a decent bloke so I don't want to charge him any more than I have to. The quicker I can do it the better.

Mine's quite an old one, but is genuine. I passed on buying a new tip and spent an hour with a triangular file going around the cone - it runs as good as new now. I started off running it on a 12.5hp Kubota and it only managed logs that I can do more easily and quickly with a maul. Since the mog arrived with it's 90+hp, well I haven't found anything it won't spit yet. Even really knotty hardwood just falls to pieces - it doesn't stand a chance!