Big J

It's not. ? It's the photo that's wonky (if you look at the trees in the background).

If you're worried about sap on your saw, you're in the wrong trade! This is my cutter's 372XP which at the point that the photo taken was 2 weeks old. He'd been cutting sitka.

The thing is, I've not actually heard anything from anyone that wants HS2 except for politicians. It's appears to just be a massive vanity project for egotistical buffoons.

I agree. My brother is an engineer and has been working on HS2 related projects for ages. I don't object to investing that quantity of money in public transport, but this represents extremely poor value for money.

One thousand times that. Approximately £3257 for every working age person (excluding the unemployed) in the UK.

What a collasal waste of money. At a cost of £200,000 per metre, it's the most expensive high speed line in the world by a massive margin. This article from the Telegraph uses a lower estimate of £42 billion for the construction cost, and given that it's now expected to cost over £100 billion, you can extrapolate that our HS line is costing 25 times as much per kilometre as in Europe: Revealed: HS2 'abysmal value for money' at 10 times the cost of high-speed rail in Europe WWW.TELEGRAPH.CO.UK HS2 is the most expensive high speed project in existence, according to new analysis undertaken by The Telegraph. And I'd bet my left nut that the £106 billion figure won't stand. They'll get to that point, with the project 50% complete and demand the same again to finish it, throwing good money after bad. I realise we have compulsory purchases to pay for, but how does it cost 25 times as much? The French can build TGV for a fraction. In fact the new TGV Méditerranée line cost £11630 per metre and includes huge viaducts and tunnels: Where exactly does the extra £188370 per metre go on HS2?

What he said

That's made my day with the swamped Masserati! Anyone who buys a poser-mobile like that and expects to be able to ford floods deserves what they get!

Outstanding! I love brown oak

I'm only relaying what I was told. I haven't verified the price.

I checked with SV Tech. It's only the rear axle assembly that's required. It is infact only the internals of the diff, but it's generally cheaper to get a new rear axle. A new one is £800-1000 plus labour, less for a second hand one.

Chipwood makes pretty good money at the moment. I was asking about location as it'll influence the price a bit. If you were local, we might be able to help with the harvesting or point you in the direction of customers. Larch makes superb firewood, but getting firewood customers to take it is the issue. There would be sawlog material from the stand too.

That is a ridiculous condition, and I don't know anyone commercially planting larch. To do so is madness with the endemic status of phytophthora ramorum. Anyway, if the site is to be mulched, ground impact isn't going to be an issue. I'd just get a harvester in and clear it out in a few days. It's going to be the most economical way of doing it. Whereabouts is the stand?

Just speak to SV Tech. They'll be able to tell you. Infact, I'll give them a call today and I'll let you know

I don't know. Best to speak to SV tech about it. You looking to tow around a 2.7t machine?

Not quite. It's uprated to tow 3000kg, but I couldn't go to 3500kg without changing the rear diff, which wasn't economical. I think that the trailer/forwarder combo runs at about 3100-3150kg, and it handled that fine, though the hills (1 in 4) around here are tough going with 160hp. It's got a lot more power than a stock 313.

Incase anyone is interested, my very lovely 2012 4x4 Sprinter is on eBay now. I'm just not using it, so it's for sale. You'll not find a better example, and studies have shown that such a vehicle makes you at least 34% more manly ?

Exactly. I'm not doing any more for this house. Now that I'm running a forestry business it makes no sense at all. It's better to sell it at roadside and fill the oil tank. I'm completely sick of stoking fires, to be honest.

24 loose cube of ash so far this winter (16 stacked cube). It's burned quicker than the softwood from the previous winter. 20kw Woodwarm and badly insulated house.

Superb!

That wouldn't be possible as the UK imports 80% of all it's timber. We are second only to China in how little of our own timber we utilise. Firewood is however almost the worst thing you could import. Usually from smaller individual supplies in sometimes sketchy locations, felling questionably ethical trees and then very hard to adequately inspect for biosecurity. Finally, it's distributed widely in a broad swath of areas within the UK, further increasing the biosecurity issues. Alycidon - you think the availability of timber is bad now? Just wait until the ash is gone. 3-4 years, the UK firewood industry is going to be fall off a cliff. Given that there are now fewer and fewer open fires, the only option is to educate customers about softwood. I'm endless surprised and disappointed how few of the firewood retailers I supply are able to sell softwood. I only have one that has educated customers. He only does mixed loads. That being said, after the 1980s, the Commission stopped pushing softwood planting and a lot of plantation was cleared and then replaced with bloody native broadleaf. So expect to see a substantial drop in the availability of softwood too.

Not only from North America, but eucalyptus chip from New Zealand too ?

I had exactly the same experience with Citroen Relays. Some years ago, I bought an ex demo L3H2, about 8 months old. I think it was £14k or just a bit more, plus the VAT. Enterprise spec, so a some kit, but not everything. It was only about 6 months later when I looked at the price list for new that I realised that it was a mistake. £18.5k got me a brand new L3H2, with loads of really useful extras. 16 options I think it was, with the highest power output engine (160ps) being the most useful one, alongside the long range fuel tank, heavy duty suspension, underbody guarding, doors both sides, heavy duty rear door hinges, reversing camera and others I can't remember. New vehicles are cheaper than you'd think.

Just word of mouth. On the site we're presently working, if I see someone from the village looking at what we're up to, I always hop out of the machine to take 5-10 minutes to chat to them. Forestry work is pretty disruptive, and I try to address their concerns and explain what we're doing, why were doing it and what will be planting in it's place. People are usually a lot more receptive to a clearfell when you tell them how many houses are going to be built from the timber (we're cutting long length larch at the moment, so timber framing will make up part of the timber's use). Those chats with the locals often lead to more work, so I've found that I get clusters of work in small areas where one job leads to another.

I think on balance, the cost of vehicle ownership is fairly consistent. You buy a new truck, you lose your money on depreciation. You buy an old one, you lose it on repairs and downtime. Personally, I prefer the comfort, convenience and reliability of a new vehicle so I have a Berlingo as my main work vehicle, which I bought in May. I'll probably do 18-20k miles a year in it, the service package cost me a total of £299 for the three year period I'll own it for (which is rolled into the finance) and it's financed over 3 years. It costs about £490 a month and I'll sell it at 3 years old and replace it. It'll always be in warranty, and compared to an older van, it's extremely quick, comfortable, with excellent (voice activated) handsfree telephony, which is worth it's weight in gold. On the flip side, I've got a 4x4 Sprinter that I'm selling (mainly because I hardly use it) which has cost me about £250-300 a month in maintenance and repairs over the 20 months I've had it. It's only a 12 plate and it's very well cared for, but in order to keep it working well, it's required money to be spent on it. I've now got a V10 Touareg for towing, but there is always that slight fear when out in it that if something goes wrong, it's me that's going to have to pick up the bill!