Big J

Love poplar. Would choose it over almost any other wood (hybrid poplar, I should add, as that's all I've really had). It lights straight from newspaper (no kindling required), puts down a decent bed of embers and burns with an intense, bright flame. Might not last quite as long as oak, but for me I'd rather have the pop.

If anyone has a Lucas mill in the area and fancies milling it for me, I'll have it.

It's OK. Very heavy and grunts on, but it's significantly more expensive than the EA7900 with not much more power, as well as being hugely heavier. Whilst the EA7900 is an outstanding buy compared to the Stihl and Husqvarna equivilents, the 9010 isn't as good as the 395XP or the MS661. I've owned all of them except the 661 (which I've used).

I think it's a double extension (2.4m boom) unless I'm mistake. So around 3.6m of reach?

Very true. My 4x4 Sprinter van is about 2500kg without me or any tools in it. That one on eBay must be 500kg heavier. The nice thing with the rear mounted crane is that with a trailer, you could take something like 12 bulk bags out on a single run and easily be able to offload. 4 on the flatbed and 8 on the trailer.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2012-12-MERCEDES-BENZ-SPRINTER-2-1-313-CDI-4X4-MWB-129-BHP-DROPSIDE-WITH-CRANE-2/263993664270?hash=item3d773fa30e:g:cIMAAOSwb3hbx9rg:rk:3:pf:1 Nice truck and very handy indeed for someone doing firewood deliveries during the winter months. I love my 4x4 Sprinter and would recommend them.

Lawson's cypress. Very strong, dense and super durable. Available in large quantities in the UK and is usually cheap as most sawmills don't know what to do with it. Often planted alongside or in western red cedar stands (much to my previous annoyance, as there would nearly always be some LC in with WRC loads). I hated milling it when I had the sawmill as it's brick hard and very heavy, even when dry. I'd strongly recommend considering it for fence posts.

I have some in Taunton as of the 1st week in November. Too far?

I was wondering if anyone needed to offload woodchip near Cullompton, Devon? I'm in the process of sorting out my firewood processing (domestic, just for us) area at the house and need a floor covering. Could do with a reasonable amount of woodchip - maybe 10 tonnes or so. It can be rough as you like (chipped leylandii for example) but ideally I'd rather not need to pay for it. Obviously, I'm not looking for the kind of chip that can reasonably be sold as biomass. I would return the favour later on once I've got the little sawmill installed with some sawn timber. We're only 5 minutes from the motorway junction and we've got really good access. Thanks in advance.

I've been with Lycetts for years and years and really like them. If I have a query, I have my own account manager who I can reach on the phone in seconds. They are reasonable (though not the cheapest) and very comprehensive. Have my work vehicle with them too.

It isn't a mill I'm a great fan of, but I think your price is right, assuming it's fairly low hours.

Thanks for the replies chaps. Whilst some of the alpines listed are lovely, I think I'm persuaded not to get one on account of the ground clearance. I've got two large jobs coming up where a larger tractor and timber trailer would be called for so I might end up going in that direction.

I bought a used one. They did the recall no bother didn't even ask. Bit of a fanny on but got sorted eventually. Tbh the part they changed seemed totally fine before anyway. But the new price from radmore isn't that much dearer is it? Considerably cheaper if you are VAT registered.

Did you blow the extra 25quid? I did, yes. Fond memories of my old DCS7901 meant I couldn't resist. I'm only really planning to use it for firewood for the house, but better to ring up with 79cc than 50.

Hehe - saw ordered

Well found. I'll give that some thought.

The 79cc is the one Jonathan . Same weight more punch. Like a 440 vs 460 It is a lovely saw, and I used to have two but they stayed with my old business. These days, I take the view that if I'm on the saws cutting, I'm doing something wrong as I ought to be sat on my forwarder watching my ass grow and exhausting my pointing finger ? As such, the slightly more gutless model will do if it's £100 cheaper

I would say that must be a possibility as I have a 435 that I'm borrowing. I started a spruce clearance job with it before getting a 550xp and was felling trees up to 20" at stump without issue. It was slow but useable. A 20cm cut would take about 6-7 seconds at a guess.

https://www.worldofpower.co.uk/makita-ea7300p45e-73cc-petrol-18-45cm-professional-chainsaw.html I will very likely order one shortly. I had one of it's predecessors when I had the sawmill. Very fast and powerful saws, and they give away nothing to their Stihl and Husqvarna counterparts, yet they are £350 cheaper.

Sensible policy. The hill road from Cullompton to Honiton just gets me down to 2nd gear at the top in both directions. It's supposed to be a main road too! I'll get the van booked in with a Mercedes specialist, assuming there is one reasonably locally.

I'm wondering if you lot decrease your service intervals on your arb trucks to account for towing and other heavy work? My 4x4 sprinter now spends at least half it's time towing heavy and despite being upped to 160bhp, I spend a lot of time with my foot stapled to the floor. Devon is very hilly. I've put 7k on it since I bought it, and it was services around a thousand miles before that. I'm getting to the stage of wanting to service it again, despite the computer telling me it's not needed for another 12k. What preventative maintenance do you all do for your tow trucks?

Can anyone share their experiences working with alpine tractors in a forestry setting? There is a fairly large woodland locally with an abundant stock of decent hardwood in it and I am fairly sure that if I offer to thin it for free (ie, in return for the timber) that they will bite my hand off. Access is poor and the extraction route is long. With my little forwarder, an alpine tractor skidding and a cutter felling, you'd be lucky to do 20 tonnes a day. The woodland in question has a good access track right through it, but it slopes quite steeply up from that, and then falls away at the bottom. I had through that a reasonably meaty alpine tractor with a skidding grapple (with a rotator) would work quite well to skid the stems down to the track, where they could be cut to length ready for forwarding. Division of labour would be cutter fells and sneds out, tractor operator skids out and cuts to length and I forward out. What really appeals about the little tractors is the versatility. A reasonable sized winch could be fitted when needed, and there is enough power for a branch logger if I ever get round to scratching that itch. What are your collective experiences, oh wise folk of Arbtalk ??

Aberdeen is pretty miserable actually. Loads of sea mist and perpetual grey skies.

You have to remember that for timber to reach it's ultimate EMC takes quite some time. If firewood retailers waited for EMC to be achieved, they'd all be bankrupt. Additionally, it doesn't take into account regional and local variation. Where we were near the Firth of Forth, the sea mist was a frequent occurrence and as was the drizzle. The climate was markedly drier just a touch further inland. Either way, my experience of EMC is that this year was the driest on record. With my £300+ moisture meter (Delmhorst J-2000 with hammer probe) we had moisture contents down to 13% in the sawn timber piles and also the firewood. Standard MC over winter was always a little over 20%. No sawn timber would ever make it right through winter under 20%.

The reservoir is indeed the chain oil and it's gravity fed. Not sure about the oil holes.