Big J

Harold Taylor, in Insch. He does nearly all my timber haulage for me now. Has run about 10 loads for me already this year and is presently on his way back from Yorkshire with Cedar for me. Outstanding fellow, and has a wagon and drag, meaning he can get into some tight spots. PM if you cannot find his number. J

That one has been up many times and is indeed a scam. Isle of Wight last time, if I recall correctly.

I hired a 6 inch capacity tracked Timberwolf from Akro in November. I'd recommend them.

I believe that it's up to 100km now?

Don't mill reclaimed timber. Not worth the risk to your machine and blades. I won't touch it.

Howling winds, pissing rain, Forth Road Bridge open only to cars at the moment, but has been closed to all traffic for much of the day. Stupid miserable weather. 1 metre of rain in the past three months - so many fields flooded. Seem to spend half my time fixing things at the yard that the weather broke.

We pay more, but we don't really get paid much more, especially when you factor out East Germany (again, just using Germany as an example due to familiarity). In the UK, you just seem to spend all your time working to earn money to pay for overpriced housing and equipment, whilst paying more than anyone else in Europe for diesel (diesel in Bavaria was 70 pence a litre), working with a public that has no understanding of silviculture, a society that takes all the worst aspects of health and safety to the nth degree (just toured a trailer factory employing over 100 people, forklifts buzzing around everywhere, hoists, overhead cranes, robotic welders - no unnecessary H&S signage or anyone wearing PPE they didn't need) and all the time in a climate that has to be the worst in Europe. Couple that with some of the worst new (and old) housing in the Europe, a burgeoning class of people who have no interest in real work and for whom thieving from the hard working is acceptable, dreadful overcrowding, a creaking transport network that sees no new investment and did I mention the truly awful weather?!! I bloody hate the UK sometimes. I wonder why on earth anyone wants to come here.

Definitely rip off Britain. Literally everything is more expensive here - houses, vehicles, fuel, food, alcohol, equipment, firewood, holiday accommodation. The list goes on. That's just a comparison with Germany (only country I know well). Only things I can think are more expensive are electricity and heating oil. Taxes are pretty similar.

I think sustainable business growth comes from two main areas. Firstly, you have to chase work. Don't be afraid to be persistent. It's worth working hard to get a big contract as those big blocks of work will keep you busy whilst everyone else is scratching for work. Secondly, focus on efficiency. If you can do the same job (or better) for a lower price, you'll always be busy. My sawmill is as orderly and tidy as it's possible to be and within the constraints of a site that I didn't design, it is as efficient as I can be. The upshot is that I can undercut just about everyone and I have 4 months of solid work booked to take me into summer.

I know you don't like the French trucks but I've had 20000 very comfortable and trouble free miles out of my Citroen Relay in the last year. Like it so much that I ordered a new one with all the options ticked (well everything apart from automatic climate, or near enough). On a long wheelbase van it was £18k plus VAT. They do tippers and you see a lot of them (or rather the Fiat version) in Germany.

I'm just the same. When times are tight, my mood deteriorates dreadfully. Times are good at the moment, but I need to restrain myself on spending on equipment. The difficulty is that there is literally no limit to the variety of useful kit you can have in a sawmill. Outstanding new truck Ty

Exactly the same. I went away for three days to Germany having left my wheel barrow empty at the back door. I get back and there is 5 inches of water in it. I'd be alright if I had a massive barn that I never had to leave. It's the going outside that sucks!

That is a very valid point. I love the fact that as a company they even went to the effort of designing it and building it. By their own admission they only sell a couple of them a year. If you are interested, I can start the ball rolling and try to haggle a bit more of a discount!

Perhaps a gradual reduction over a period of 5 or more years? The hedge is clearly an asset to the village and it would be a shame to remove it. Any work undertaken as prescribed by the council would be worse than removing it. If it was trimmed twice a year for 5 years removing a little over an inch each time, it would be brought back a foot without detriment to it.

Well in the Eifel mountains, not too far from the Belgian border, you get this for £120k: TOP-Gepflegte Immobilie im Landhausstil mit Nebengebäude + schöner Garten inkl. Teich + Kamin + Garage u.v.m. Einfamilienhaus Daun (27BPJ4Y) That gets you 4 bedrooms, a couple of living rooms, 2 bathrooms, several cellar rooms, a couple of balconies, a large plot, a small lake/very large pond and a sauna! Came back from lovely winter weather in Bavaria to howling wind and rain. Part of the roof in my office had collapsed when a leak filled the void between the roof and the plasterboard. Part of the tin sheeting on one of my barns had peeled back. It never stops raining or blowing a gale here. A continental climate certainly appeals!

It's not cheap! We did have a play with it in the factory and it's a cracking bit of kit. Fully independent hydraulic power pack, everything hydraulic on it including the support legs. I'll PM you the price.

Excellent! Look forward to the review

Right, back from Germany (from glorious blue skies to miserable driving rain and greyness). I'll respond to individual requests for quotes shortly, but we were extremely impressed with the entire experience at Unsinn's factory. Their production process is clinical, their quality outstanding and their value for money excellent. Their trailers are also extremely customisable and they offer a much broader range than anything you'd find here. I'm ordering myself a heavy duty 3500kg triaxle 14x6ft 8". My local haulier is likely to be taking a 20ft trailer specifically designed to take 20ft shipping containers, twist locks and all. A chap that works for me is taking a 9ft cage sided tipper. Give us a bit of time to get set up, but full details will be made available soon. In the mean time, have a look at Unsinn's online catalogue and get in touch.

Received a couple of sir clips in the post from Andrew free of charge and without asking - I did need them though, so I am grateful! Thank you sir!

Very happy with mine - gutsy, torquey saw and I'd recommend it.

I shall report back! A friend in Edinburgh has ordered one of the 2600kg high sided 3 way tippers, but I've not explored the 3500kg one yet.

Well I'm in Bavaria at the moment and the weather is ruddy lovely. It's not wet either. It's just crappy British maritime weather. I suggest emigrating!

Hi all, We're in Germany this week going to visit the Unsinn trailer factory. We'll be importing them shortly (get your orders in - first batch much cheaper than later batches to get them out there). Anyway, I was thinking on the flight over that perhaps a bolstered trailer (basically a forwarding trailer, minus the crane and with heavy duty road axles) might be something that was useful to some of you. Is this the case? Would the ability to transport 2.8-3t of logs be handy? Unsinn make a lot of specialised trailers and manufacturing something like this might be in their remit. Might not even be a very expensive trailer as there isn't much to a logging trailer. Something like this I suppose, minus the crane and a bit smaller: Google-Ergebnis für http://www.baileysonline.com/productImages/image.axd/i.RFR%2B05/a.8/w.1000/h.1000/x._AZ/Road%2BLog%2BTrailer%2B5.0%2BTon_L.jpg Any interest to anyone?

Sorry for the massive photo by the way!

The machine is in and put straight to work extracting bags of sawdust from the far side of the sawmill (need the telescopic reach for it). Also, played around in the top yard seeing what it would lift. Not sure of measured weight on this but it's hoppus calculation weight is 3.37t, but I suspect it's closer to 3.5-3.6t as it doesn't account for the greater diameter at the fork, nor the fact that I milled the first length of this tree and it was about the heaviest elm I've ever cut. Probably not too far from capacity though as the rear wheels felt a touch light.