Big J

Oh yes. A friend recommended that I give it four episodes as I wasn't too keen on the first. I was completely hooked after 3. Fingers crossed. Universe was such a novel concept.

Sy Fy have decided not to pick up this truly brilliant TV show for a fourth season, so there is a petition to get either Netflix (which distributes it worldwide) or Amazon to renew it. If you've not seen it, it's a fantastic, dystopian take on the future of humanity in our solar system in a couple hundred years time. Try four episodes and you'll be hooked. It's 100% rated on Rotton Tomatoes for the 3rd season. And if you like it, please sign the petition. I've still not recovered from Stargate Universe being cancelled! https://www.change.org/p/amazon-or-netflix-please-buy-the-rights-to-the-expanse-savetheexpanse?utm_medium=email&utm_source=petition_signer_receipt&utm_campaign=triggered&j=319113&sfmc_sub=379681205&l=32_HTML&u=57423153&mid=7233052&jb=358298

Chickened out of Germany. Still very unhappy about Brexit, but it's worse in Scotland (politically) as Scotland didn't vote for it and 40-45% of the population here wants to leave the UK. Simpler in Devon. Our desire to leave Scotland was more of a desire to leave the place than go somewhere else, if that makes sense. Regarding the weather, I love summer heat even if it's sometimes a challenge to work in. Germany would have been much warmer. My uncle near Luxembourg had about 3 weeks of daily highs in the high thirties last year.

Update: We are moving down during the third week of July, so will be available after that for hire. Keen to get stuck in so please get in touch if you think I can be of use. That being said, equally happy to sit on my backside through August and enjoy some summer sun for the first time in years! I'll be down next weekend (26th and 27th) if anyone would like to meet up for a cuppa, or to view a job

75 miles of bumbling around today, collecting a customer from the airport, going into town, looking at some logs, getting stuck in a bit of traffic and then back to the yard and the airport. 37mpg on the trip computer. It's funny that this is the tallest, heaviest, most powerful work truck (Sprinter 4x4) I've ever had and it also uses the least fuel

I'm going to be hauling a 30ft container and a small portable building from near Edinburgh to Cullompton in Devon in July and in order to try to bring the cost down, I'd like to try to find a back load for the return trip. It will be an artic with a massive HIAB and I would guess the return route is subject to some flexibility. Is this of any use to anyone? Would be useful for moving heavy equipment or the like.

28.25mpg

Haha! I've been hanging back taking photos until it's finished, but I shall take some today when up at the sawmill. At this stage, it's just been undersealed, had AT tyres fitted, towbar fitted and remapped. It's still to get additional lights fitted front and back, bonnet resprayed (stone chips that are starting to corrode), nudge bar, snorkel (at my 3 year old daughter's request) and a reversing camera (so handy for long reverses, and hitching up the trailer).

I'm 5/8 the way through my first tank on my 2012 Mercedes Sprinter 4x4. On AT tyres, it's doing in excess of 35mpg (unloaded, and driving fairly sedately). Got 37.5mpg today on a 56 mile return trip. Staggeringly economical for a truck that weighs 2500kg without me in it.

Nor do BF Goodrichs. I liked them for off road work and they were quiet and very hard wearing. They were however pretty poor in snow and on wet roads. It was comical in the Navara how little throttle was required to get the back end out on a damp roundabout. I'm going to be towing a tri axle trailer (lots of brakes) most of the time and I drive extremely slowly. I bought them principally for getting me across fields. Are there any all terrains that don't give away a lot of performance on road in exchange for performance off it?

I just put a set of these AT tyres onto my Sprinter 4x4: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4X-Tyres-225-75-R16-108T-All-Terrain-SUV-OWL-Gripmax-OutLine-Lettering-C-E-73dB/332378044288?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649 They look and feel like a BF Goodrich clone, and at half the price I thought it was worth a punt. First impressions are very good, and studies have shown that they make your van at least 37% more manly.

That does sound useful. I like off the shelf parts. The new Logosol mill is apparently not Norwood. I'm told that Norwood have fallen out with all their distributors over here.

I expect it was light and fluffy powder. I am only repeating what I was told!

I should add as well that I've had a tow bar fitted as it came from a wind turbine engineer who had it from new and never towed with it. Full Mercedes service history too. I'll be getting the towing capacity uprated (on paper) with SV Tech so it will legally be able to tow 2800kg. Literally all it takes is to fit an appropriate tow car and send the receipts to SV Tech and for £260 plus VAT your capacity goes up from 2000kg to 2800kg. A daft paper exercise. Regarding capabilities, I am led to believe that the 4x4 Sprinter is the only van (save for the Delica, which is not quite a commercial van) that is truly capable off road. The ground clearance is immense, and with it being 2wd in normal operation, your MPG doesn't suffer. The chap I bought it from said that one of the last jobs he took it on was visiting a wind farm near Fort William (highest in the country) where is plowed through 3ft of snow easily on road tyres.

I've just bought a 2012 Sprinter 4x4 and first impressions are very good. It's getting prepared for forestry work, so has thus far been remapped to 160bhp (with much more torque for towing), has had AT tyres fitted and been undersealed. Lots more to do, but it'll hopefully make an ideal forestry truck by the time it's done. Seems very economical too (33-34mpg at a guess, driving around unloaded) and remapped, it's brisk now.

Will do! Should be later in summer I'm passing.

Thanks for all of the suggestions chaps. Sort of on principle, I won't buy a Woodmizer. They had a monopoly on bandsaw mills in the UK when I first started and overcharged for everything. They don't have that monopoly any more, and as such their prices have had to come down. Their mills aren't bad, though I don't like their single post design and there are some design features with the hydraulic mills are daft. Like not being able to use the hydraulics unless the headrig is at the drawbar end of the mill. It means you are always having to look under the headrig to see your log being manoeuvred. Also, walking up and down with the headrig for every cut on a higher production mill would drive me absolutely effing nuts. I've milled almost 300 tonnes of roundwood in the past 8 weeks and a lot of it has been smaller diameter softwood. Walking up and down for each cut would have driven me to madness, and it means you are always walking alongside the production of sawdust (not good for lungs or eyes) and wading through it with your feet (some days we are producing 4 cube of sawdust). Kav - I do like the look of the Logosol mill, and I spoke to Willie Dobie (Logosol retailer) the other day about it. His daughter is apparently handling the sawmill sales down in Oxford, so I do need to speak to her about it.

The Timbery mill looks quite nice. I'll investigate. The Trakmets are very solidly built. Mine (TTS-1200 standard) is nearly 4 tonnes of steel and I've not had to take the welder to it too often! It's probably cut me something like 1800 tonnes now in the past 2.5 years, so it's doing well. Hydraulics aren't really necessary as I'll have the forwarder to help move the wood and the low diameter of the timber will mean it can be rolled with a cant hook too.

Not really my cup of tea if I'm honest. I think that they are better suited to larger logs, which I wouldn't be able to load. I also don't need (or want) portability. Mobile milling is hard work and I won't go back to that, and certainly not with a mill without hydraulics. Thanks! I've asked Trak met repeatedly about mills with stand alone power, but they aren't interested. It was the first thing I said when I visited the factory. The Woodland mill is perhaps not quite meaty enough for my liking. Has anyone seen the new range of Logosol bandsaw mills in the flesh?

Thanks John. That's very kind! I'll still be involved in the milling side of things for a while as I'll be supporting my friends to get to speed with my sawmill up here. I'll have a think about the little Trak met. I imported a couple for friends a while back and they are solidly built machines.

I started off with a Woodmizer LT40 (second hand and middle aged with about 3000 hours on the clock) but hated it. Constantly required repair and maintenance and by the time I sold it, I worked out that it cost me £8 per machine hour in repair costs. By comparison, my Trakmet mill is less than a pound an hour. The cantilever head might give you a bit more capacity, but the flex means inaccurate cutting and the throat capacity is so small that you spend all your time shaving larger logs down with a chainsaw. I've had two four post head mills since my Woodmizer and would never go back. There is a reason that every other manufacturer in the world goes with posts on both sides of the headrig! I am glad that your experience with it hasn't been as negative as mine though

5ft diameter spruce will be awful to process to firewood with a small saw. The heartwood will be bone dry and won't rip (ie cutting with the grain) cut well at all. Best to hire in an arborist with a 120cc saw to ring it up and split it for you. You'll save money and your back.

As we are moving 430 miles south in July to Devon, I will be giving up full time sawmilling and moving back to low impact forestry. I'm unable however to not have some sort of sawmill. I've not bought sawn timber for the best part of 10 years now! Anyway, I don't want to spend too much as it will only really be for myself as a hobby. I'll have the forwarder to load it, which will likely not move anything much over 60cm in diameter so capacity doesn't need to be much more than that. All I'm looking for is durability and performance. I've a couple thousand machine hours on sawmills, and I've probably milled 4000 tonnes in the past 7 years, so I need something that isn't rubbish or it will drive me nuts. If anyone can recommend a little bandsaw mill and give me reasons why it's worth considering, I'd be grateful. My experience is with larger, hydraulic mills so this is outside of my area of expertise!

3500kg GVW 24.5kg load capacity!