njc110381

Reading that made me chuckle. I just had to add that although I don't own either of these machines, the hopper did indeed snap off of the last TW150 I hired.... Not a good long term review by any means, but worth throwing in here. Still, I have a little Entec and that's been faultless so I shouldn't make fun too much in case it hears me!

After a long search I have finally managed to find myself a little Unimog. Now I could do with some advice regarding running equipment with it as this is something I'm fairly inexperienced with. I have a fairly light weight saw bench made by Balfor, and also a Hycrack splitter. What I want to work out is whether this sort of thing can be run without connecting it to the vehicle? I appreciate the Hycrack would need some serious support... Maybe a heavy bench? And the saw will need securing down somehow too. I guess what I'm wondering is if that is at all possible, or is it a real no go area?! Obviously if the tool isn't held down well the whole lot could start spinning if something jams, but just how heavy would a support need to be to hold it still? I want to make sure I stay safe with this thing. I know the basic rules of use but this is something I've never approached or needed to look in to before. Edit... I should add that this is for private use, not work.

Nice truck. In my experience of single, double and king cab vehicles of several makes the landy is by far the toughest if you plan to work it. The jap stuff is more comfortable and perhaps better on fuel, but that doesn't make them better at their job. I drive a Mk1 Ranger double currently and I curse the stupid thing every time I need low range for shifting heavy trailers on hills etc. The landy is the only vehicle of it's kind (certainly at that age) I know that can select low box without locking the diff, so you can still do tight turns on tarmac with a vast amount of push! If you get to know it well you can even do low to high shifts on the move - again helpful. And the capacity is very good. The double cabs are hopeless for chip - you could move it quicker with a wheelbarrow! It's a shame you don't have the passenger capacity, although if you have the third seat you can usually get by. In my younger days I used to love picking my mrs and her mates up from college in my Defender - I got friendly smiles off of a lot of nice young ladies the first time they experienced me changing to 2nd gear!

What engine did you fit to it?

I agree 100%. If you can provide it with daily work then the bigger investment would most certainly be the way to go. With that work comes an increased income (well it should) and part of that should cover running costs. For me, well I only do small clearance work. I pass on all my serious arb work to a friend who knows what he is doing! I just like mogs and for my business I just couldn't justify the upkeep of a newer machine. For me a round cab offers a much improved off road and load carrying ability to a 4x4 pickup and towed chipper, whilst not costing too much more to run.

I get the impression that the older vehicles don't cost so much to run and maintain. When things go wrong they're not cheap, but there is less to go wrong on the old round cab machines. I'm kicking myself about that £3k U900 on ebay. Would have bought it if I wasn't off on holiday and had no time to deal with it. It was bought unseen by Atkinson Vos, who will probably double their money on it without even touching it!

If that U900 was a bit closer to home I'd have a punt. If all else failed you could pull the cost and more back by breaking it I reckon.

I wondered who snapped that one up so quickly! Yet another nice little U900 that someone else has got... But then you've been looking for 12 years so that beats me! Thanks for posting the pictures. It's great to see an old truck working.

It is a shear pin. Seems a bit silly though that it couldn't be engineered so that the cone pins shear when stressed? Why the need for two lots of pins? Or more importantly, a special PTO shaft?! Fair play to Hycrack though I emailed them last night and have got a reply already. Prices are very fair - a quid plus vat per shear pin and £1.50 each for the cone pins... I think I'll buy half a dozen just in case!

Thanks. I've emailed them as these parts aren't listed on their website. I'm not sure if it's an older model, but the PTO shaft is also connected at the splitter end by a round fitting with a pin through it, rather than a conventional 6 spline type thing. Are these PTO shafts specific to Hycrack kit or do other machines use them too? I've only ever seen kit with a 6 spline fitting?

Thanks chaps. I had a look on the Hycrack site and found the spare tips. I was thinking that if all else fails I can buy one, but if I can get it to sharpen up ok I'll most likely not bother. I quite enjoy messing about with kit like this! I've got as far as getting the tip really sharp - I could easily cut myself on it now where as before it was quite rounded. The lucky part is that the point hadn't been snapped off, as it seems that can be common on well used machines? Now all I need are some roll pins to attach the cone to the shaft. Where it had got a bit rusty (kept outside I think) they sheared off quite easily. Does anyone know the size off hand?

Hi guys. I've just picked up a well used but working Hycrack HC1 to save my back a little this firewood season. All seems well with it but I think the cone is a bit blunt? I've read on here somewhere that one of you sharpens yours with a triangle file so I had a bit of a go at it, but decided I should ask here beofre I get too carried away... I'm copying the original profile of the threads, so a 90 degree step on the pulling face and a taper on the point side of the thread to allow it to pull in more easily and also make a nice sharp edge. Is that right? Even on my little Kubota compact it has already split a few logs that had been thrown to one side because the axe just bounced off of them. I've stalled the tractor a couple of times but only because I've expected too much of it. I'm running just about double figure HP on my little machine.... I need a Unimog!

The last lot I did was larch, around 2' diameter and 15" long. I struggled with the axe, most pieces needing two or three hits to get a piece off of them even working with the rings in the wood and not going straight through the middle. I guess it's all the little knots from all the branches around it? The make I'm looking at do a 10, 14 and 18 ton. The other thing to consider is that I still really want to buy an old Unimog, so in the future I will have more than enough flow rate to run all but the biggest kit. If I use a PTO pump, I assume all I'll need is the pump itself and some kind of oil tank? Can you buy that as a complete kit or would I need to put it together myself?

Hey guys. Now I've got my pto saw sorted and paid for I'm looking towards a hydraulic log splitter. I'm a bit confused by the various ton ratings though. I have a small compact tractor which I think should run a ten ton ram, but is that big enough? I usually get by with a maul but I also get rounds that are a challenge and sometimes need wedges. Would a ten ton split that sort of thing or do I need bigger? I'm worried about ram speed with the flow rate of my little machine.

How little could you reasonably expect to pay for a well used manual winch like these? I quite fancy one but don't do full time woodland work, in fact little at all to justify the cost of a good one. When I do though it would be really handy. I'd be happy with one of the old pull on the rope to engage the drive type things that are a good few years old. As it wouldn't get a lot of use one that's approaching the end of it's days wouldn't be a bad buy - I'd probably only give it the hours you chaps do in a month over the next ten years. At the moment I cord stuff up and carry it - I only process wood for myself in places where I can do a couple of days of free maintenance in exchange for the logs.

Hey guys. I've just been clearing the shed out and have found two new Jonsered guide bars. Not sure how as I've never had a Jonsered saw! I've got... 18" 3/8 68DL Part number 508913368 15" .325 64DL Part number 508912364 I guess I may as well sell them but what are they worth? I've put the serial numbers into Google and can only come up with a load of not english stuff! Are they of any use to anyone here?

That just about sums up the situation for me too. When using tools like these you need to be well awake, paying it your full attention and if you have a helper they need to know the rules. I accept that accidents can happen but generally they are not accidents, they are moments of stupidity by the operator. Common sense says that you don't put your hand on top of a log in a splitter, the same as you don't cross the road without looking.

All the "had it years" comments are pretty well discounted unfortunately. I had an old Husky can for years and it was great, now they're s***! I wish there was a better maker of the Husky style can. The Stihl fillers don't look so good, the Oregon's look super long and for what reason? I'm a fussy bugger...

That's the sort of reply I was looking for! Now tell me, is your Oregon can the one that looks similar to the Husqvarna or the one that looks similar to the Stihl? After looking on Google images they appear to make two types?

Thanks chaps. Something to think about that's for sure. It seems people have trouble with all of them, although there certainly seems to be a majority vote for Stihl. Anyone else use the Oregon cans? They sound interesting. I'm not too fussed about the cost as long as what I'm buying has a good reputation and should last. It seems that just about everybody is cutting corners these days to stay in the market. I wish someone would just come out and say "ok, our cans are twice the price of everone else's but we guarantee they won't break". I'd buy one.

Hey guys. I'm interested to hear which combi cans you use and why? After a recent failure of my Husqvarna can I'll not be buying another! It's a shame really. I had an old Husky can for years and it did really well. After what, ten years it failed on me and I was more than happy with that service so bought another. Well this new one is pants! It's really thin and in the truck the other day it happened to bump into the saw chain which resulted in an empty can by the time I got home. The old can had nicks and scrapes all over it and it worked just fine because it was made to a decent standard... This new thing is paper thin, I guess just a cost cutting exercise? So, what should I buy to replace it? I don't mind paying for decent kit and to a point I can put up with cheap junk. What I can't tolerate though is expensive junk which lines the manufacturers pockets. I'm really quite offended by the s*** Husqvarna have on offer - I expected more from what I consider to be one of the best makers in this field! I've had the can six months and it's already broken a petrol filler and now it's been cut open by what I would consider to be a light scrape. I'm really not pleased!

My favourite method is simply a large gas bottle with the top cut off and some 1/2" holes drilled around the outside at the bottom. You can then hang a stock pot by it's handles on the rim and if you stand it on a tray of sand you can pile it up around the sides to restict the air flow through some of the holes if you want to slow it down. It doesn't look that pretty (you could stove paint it black I suppose?) but it works very well.

I feel a bit daft myself for not having the blade off but having bought it from someone who supplies wood for a living I thought (wrongly) that it would be ok so just did the basic checks of everything looking ok and being tight like I would before I use it every time. I don't know if the seller knew the fault or whether he bought the bench to sell it on? I hope it's the latter because if it is then it's a genuine mistake on his part and I'll not hold that against him. All I'm asking from him is to sort me out with a blade of the correct spec to fit - as the bench was sold as ready for work and in good order I think that's a fair request? I'm not one to go for the what could have happened line - I'm ok so lesson learned and I'll move on. Speaking of falls I once did about twenty feet from a tree and landed on an old bike in a junk pile. I had huge bruises all over my back but was fine. On the other hand a mate of mine at school fell from a branch of a conker tree when we were about 15 - he was five feet from the ground and has been in a wheelchair ever since.

I think I came about as close to getting badly hurt as I ever have today. My old but new to me saw bench came yesterday so today I gave it a basic check over and all looked well. I fitted it to the tractor and fired it up, looked good. Then the blade fell off! I checked it before I started and it was tight, but on closer inspection the seller has fitted a blade with a 38.2mm bore to a 30mm arbor. There's no locking peg in it so when I throttled back the tractor the momentum spun the bolt off and the blade started flying around inside the guard. Luckly I'm a quick thinking chap and it didn't take me long to decide to leg it and come back when everything had stopped making noise! I've emailed the seller and I'm not happy. The saw was well oiled and had clearly been apart fairly recently. He must have known about it and sold it anyway.... We'll be having words I think!

I think I came about as close to getting badly hurt as I ever have today. My old but new to me saw bench came yesterday so today I gave it a basic check over and all looked well. I fitted it to the tractor and fired it up, looked good. Then the blade fell off! I checked it before I started and it was tight, but on closer inspection the seller has fitted a blade with a 38.2mm bore to a 30mm arbor. There's no locking peg in it so when I throttled back the tractor the momentum spun the bolt off and the blade started flying around inside the guard. Luckly I'm a quick thinking chap and it didn't take me long to decide to leg it and come back when everything had stopped making noise! I've emailed the seller and I'm not happy. The saw was well oiled and had clearly been apart fairly recently. He must have known about it and sold it anyway.... We'll be having words I think!