doobin

None of them will split the point properly and thin the web until you get to the £2k plus models. Fine for drilling wood, for metals you’re often better off learning to do it on a wheel. I can’t recommend a CBN wheel enough.

No Brit is going to want to plant trees, so if you don't want to get rich and Brexit goes ahead you should be sorted!

Where was the job? The 6ft strainer would be basically a heavy full round post for a slight change of direction I should think. 5'6" if they're going down the West country, they can't get them in any fuirther on the granite!

Every bit of handling comes off your bottom line. I can't see how this on such a small scale would be viable. Also, cord won't dry that well (not sure if this was what you meant)- it really needs to be cut and split.

Looks a pukka bit of kit.

That looks a horrendously inneficient and expensive way to move a few twigs. Would be cheaper (on most terrain) to have a wheeled forwarding setup following behind.

I have a Intermecatto Tigergrip TR16 SR5 with rotator on a 2.7t Bobcat. It's a different league. Being able to rotate is a total gamechanger. Had a reccomendation for the Tigergrip from Eddie on here- they're not expensive (certainly cheaper any of the alternatives!) Think I paid 2.5k plus VAT for the grab and rotator from Approved Hydraulics. Had other quotes of 4k plus. Daft. I still run a grapple on the 1.7t and the micro digger, but that's with a hydraulic stay to give more flexibility. I appreciate the grapple for being twenty times better than a thumb, and a thousand times better than a bucket, but the only reason I still run it is because those machines aren't big enough to handle a grab and rotator. Although I have a second hitch plate I made so that they can run the Tigergrip sans rotator if needed. As you have a large enough machine to handle the rotator as well, I'd make the jump in a heartbeat. The only problem will be controlling it. If I were you, I'd plumb a divertor into the slew, so you could use the rotator and the grab at the same time. I have twin auxillaries, and I wouldn't fancy using it with just a button type divertor on a single service- too clumsy.

Punting it as a balance to climate change is just kicking the can down the road. What are they going to do in forty years time when they're all chopped down for firewood? This election takes the cake for bullshit promises and pie in the sky policies, it really does.

The Multione/Avant type loaders have the potential to be a lot of things. With a lot more hydraulic flow than a similar sized digger, they can be a decent flail mower carrier, for example. Trouble is, the attachments are mega bucks too. Its horses for courses. If you need to lift and carry, nothing beats a mini loader. For digging or drilling holes, collecting and loading brash a short distance onto a fire, stacking timber, knocking in posts, flail mowing on a bank, a digger can be a cost effective tool carrier too. When I first set up, I was all set to get an Avant. I didn't get the job that would have almost paid for it, and I got offered a digger on finance from mentor. The rest is history- I went down the digger route, and now I have micro to 2.7t, with every attachment under the sun. I love the look of the mini loaders, but I really can't think of a job I do where they would be much of a help, certainly not £30k plus worth of help. But that's my business model, and everyone's is different.

That makes three of us. Great minds think alike

You run a 3/4 step down too? Best of both worlds

That’s just as well, I hear most stores have hygiene rules against returning ‘female power tools’...

Joke all you want, that’s where my air spade/jackhammer thing came from and it’s brilliant ?

Drills are generally faster but an impact driver uses impact to prevent cam out as I mentioned earlier. So best tool for the job there. Also tend to be much more compact.

You have to know what to buy and from where. There’s no one supplier that’s best for everything. Toolstation I like because there’s only £10 minimum order for free next day delivery.

I use tool station 95 percent of the time, but the turbo coach screws are a product I have used for years and can recommend. Along with the easydrive concrete screws.

I can only surmise that neither of you have a big enough tool...? I have a Makita 285 impact wrench and the top end brushless dril- 482 I think. Drill wins every time. If you're ripping the top off the screw, that proves my point about the drill having more sustained torque- try Turbo Coach Screws from Screwfix, they're really good.

For coach screws, you want sustained torque. Use a drill and 1/2" adaptor. Impact wrenches provide jolts of torque. Great for breaking loose rusted fittings with jolts of more torque than a drill can provide, and not snapping your arm off. Impact drivers use the same principle to prevent cam-out when driving PZ screws. Try a drill- it's twice as quick, honestly. The big Makita drills come with a massive left hand brace, which is ace for driving coach screws or mixing cement in buckets.

How do you rate the Makita gun? Does it ever give trouble? Can you tell if grease is going in the fitting or whether it's airlocked?

Honestly mate, in your situation I'd get a small lorry or have a V8 jeep and leave it coupled to your trailer. That's what we do for transport. Has gas conversion so actually surprisingly cheap to run. Fleet policy means insurance is negligable and running costs are only as much as you use it. It's the simplest way get 250HP+ in the UK.

Can be more faff than you think. I gave up, kept popping off in awkward spots.

Pickups are always juicy. My 1.3 diesel Corsa van pays for it's insurance cost each year just in fuel savings. Running costs are small and the flexibility and convenience of having multiple vehicles (five actually!) pays for that. Big J, eventually you're going to just have to accept that you can't get a pickup that goes as fast with a trailer as it does without. Sounds like that would be dangerous anyway, in those 'narrow Devon lanes'...

I have the top models of most Makita ranges. Any questions fire away.

6x1 treated edging boards and 1" site pegs are peanuts to buy and save any messing around. Will also last longer than a year in the ground, unlike hazel or pallet wood.

The same thing is happening with diggers. Can't get a 2.8t machine with a 4 cylinder lump in anymore. Plenty of manufacturers use the same engine in models tons apart. When I bought my 2.7 tonner, there were a few manufacturers with 'premium' machines in the range with engines around 18/19kw. There were also lots with only 14/15kw for a similar weight, and I'm sure I remember one with only 13kw. 18-19kw seems to be used also for most 3.5t machines- my Bobcat E27 has the same power engine as an E35. I'd imagine there is a break in the emmissions-weight class around there, because power ballons on a 4.5t machine, to 30.2KW on an E45, With diggers, recent technological advances such as the widespread adoption of variable displacement piston pumps have made the same or more out of less power. You'll often hear people remark how a modern 1.8t digs like an old school 2.5t, and they're not wrong. I fail to see how a woodchipper with exactly the same working mechanism, chipping the exact same timber, can make the same, let alone more, from less power. Way less power.