doobin

A gold backed BRICs currency (especially with OPEC trading oil in it) would signal the start of a terminal decline for the Western world. Bring it on, I say.

Yup. The more people are allowed to borrow the more they will bid. It’s all gone to shit since. The banks have got people right where they want them on the debt treadmill, with abnormaly low rates pushing up the capital cost higher still. The introduction of buy to let mortgages fuelled prices, and help to buy added £50k straight onto the purchase price of a new build (and Persimons profit per unit) in just two years. These misguided government interventions over just fifteen years have led to a massive divide between those who were born early enough to buy a house at sensible price to earnings ration and all those who come after them. Landlords have skewed this even further, with a few becoming shockingly rich at the expense of future generations. Buy to let mortgages were always an abomination. It never made sense that a landlord could put down ten percent on an interest only mortgage and cream a couple of hundred a month off from the difference between an abnormally low interest rate and the rent. Banks lobbied for these changes. Suddenly anyone could become a landlord even without an income to support the loan, and the artificial increase in property values due to government intervention has saved their bacon from reality. Anyone remember that scene from The Big Short, where the guy is in a strip clubhouse and he realises that a stripper has mortgages on six houses? This country needs a return to house prices as a sensible multiple of income, sensible interest rates that provide a return upon capital, and an economy based upon producing and manufacturing things of substance. Recently we as a country have lived in a dream state- a financial merry-go-round supported by artificially high property values, selling off national assets, importing cheap tat based upon arbitrage of third world labour, and unrealistically low interest rates allowing us to pretend that we are rich. When countries who sell us the things we are totally dependent upon (and that’s oil) start to refuse our currency, people are in for a rude awakening.

I run all types too as per my post with pictures earlier and I love my grapple with hydraulic backstay for the reasons you mention- you can get the weight right back under the dipper. I still don’t like a thumb as they are a bodge to me when it comes to tree work. I’d sooner take a couple of minutes to change attachment to something more suitable. Were I trenching all day and having to frequently remove rocks from the trench, then a thumb would be ideal.

3.5 times the average wage, as it did twenty years ago.

Help to buy? Don’t make me laugh. Help for developer to profit. A fkin scandal.

Yup I’d say that’s a fair assumption. That’s the 2.7t, photos earlier in the thread were the same grab on the 1.9t.

I only work local. Yup, a lot of timber and machines to move.

Scrub clearance is way easier, neater and precise with a fixed rotating grab. Can’t imagine doing this with a thumb and bucket, it would be a nightmare. You’d leave half of it in the ground sheared off, or turn the lot into a ploughed field and have to move tonnes of mud. One hours work.

Missing pics (you’re viewing the job backwards, sorry!)

Crappy on the fly pics, but a two day wind blown oak removal. Processed 12 cube of firewood on site and salvaged 4 ten foot milling butts. Not the best quality but better than firewood. Another three loads of rings back to yard. life much easier with machines. Had all the toys out, gave the 881 a good workout too.

I’ll take that cold in the summer! I always have one in the fridge at the yard when it’s hot.

If you’re ok with meh ground clearance but want exceptional off-road ability in the snow and mud, the fiat panda 4x4 is surprisingly good. I have proper trucks too, but as a commuter I love it. Especially with 60mpg average from the diesel. The traction control is incredible, I’d much rather be in it than a pickup in the snow.

Any instant coffee. I’ve given up accepting unless I know the customer treats coffee with the same respect that I do.

I've never tried a thumb but I'm convinced I'd always prefer to put a proper grab on!

It’s all a compromise. Even if you spend big bucks on a fixed rotating grab, then a little machine will run out of lift height quickly and will also struggle to lift much extra weight- an intermecato grab and rotator will weight in at over 100kg. A fixed grapple or intermecato type grab without a rotator will stack logs as well as you can wish for with a 1.7t. It’s a mini digger not a forwarder. Still beats doing it by hand. I’d start with a quality grab such as Intermecato. Then if you want to add either a fixed or dangle rotator (plus extra aux lines) you’re halfway there. that wsl grab will be utter shit. It’s what they sell on the wanky single cylinder Chinese micros. Won’t even fit a normal digger, don’t waste your money. Get a fixed grapple made up to fit your digger if you want to go down that route.

Option 1- you mean a grapple with a backstay? If you make this backstay hydraulic it becomes surprisingly versatile, allowing you reach right out or bring the weight back right under the boom. You can knock lengths into the right angle to pick them up- I did five years with one and became surprisingly adept at it. Very good at handling lumps of concrete etc. But a basic fixed backstay grapple was £400 ten years ago so not sure where you get that figure of £260 from? Option 2- with a dangle mount rotator, you'll still have the problems of adding a second pair of aux lines that you allude to in option 3. OK for handling timber but limited on a 1.7t. Massively increases the stack height, you won't be able to swing very long lengths about. Momentum will rock a little digger about. Option 3- you will need a 'fixed' rotator- that is to say, one that is axially rated for the load. This will cost you £1200 on its own so I'm not sure where you get the overall figure from? Most versatile, you can grub out things and reach out further with it, subject to the limits of a 1.7t machine. If running a fixed rotator then you need to spend on a decent grab too, Kelfri will just bend as soon as you show it a reasonable load. The stack height is a big issue here too, 1.7t machines just don't have the lift height as they are desined to dig deep as possible. I speeced short dipper on my Bobbcat E19 and it's still a right pain the in arse compared to the same thing on the E27. Option 4, which might be best for you, is something like an Intermecato TG12. Picks up on the quick hitch, you can hold it out in front of you or back under the boom (but with lots more leverage acting on it than a grapple). You can mount it in either plane, tines top and bottom or either side. Easy to share between machines. Can be used to grub out and handle concrete. I run all these types, I'll try to find some pics.

How many hours are you up to on that? Any issues?

Sounds like a needle is the answer here.

A top hitch is the soloution.

I’m sure they are strong enough but I’m just going to change my current grab and rotator combo to s30 and keep using that. No point abusing the engcon when I know the current rotator will take it, plus the grab ports through the tiltrotator are tiny, I reckon it would slow down the grab too much. and then the tiltrotator can be on the e19 when the grab and rotator is on the e27

Currently people are getting away with winging it. Very little enforcement and indeed the law itself isn’t totally clear.

Love dry larch offcuts from my sawmill. Even the spruce is OK.

Somewhat ironic. We had a romantic weekend in Yorkshire in the camper van.... ...because that's where I had to go to collect the tilty!

It’s the cost. They are silly expensive. I went down the route of purchasing mini loaders rather than tiltrotators for my diggers and I reckon that’s made me a lot more profit. If I only did excavations it might be a different story. tilty prices have gone mad in the last few years. At the end of 2019 I had a quote from engcon for an ec02 and top hitches to share between a 2.7t and 1.7t- see pic. Nearly 9k for the unit, two top hitches and three buckets. That would now cost you around £15k. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. after three years of waiting, I’ve finally picked one up second hand. £3k. Great you say. But adding three buckets and a two top hitches is another £4k, and then I’ve got to spend a bit more and a lot of sweat and workshop time converting any ‘standard’ buckets I want to use in the future, as everything needs to be s30 hitch, even if direct mounted to the top hitch. Should have just bought it in 2019! Easy to say that, but 9k in machinery in 2019 seemed a lot more expensive than it does now post covid and inflation. plus that price was for an ‘ss1’ control system, whatever that is. This secondhand tilty I’ve bought is a ‘dumb’ tilty just with four pipes- although it does have the ports through its slew ring for a grab plus it has a hydraulic hitch which is good. I can see why people just buy a new digger on finance with engcon fitted and a bucket set on the finance too! This had better be worth it. I specced both my e27 and e19 to be optimised for both a grab and rotator and possible future tiltrotator when I bought them. Twin auxiliaries with joystick rollers, extra counterweight each and a short dipper on the e19. If anyone is thinking about a new digger but not wanting to commit to a tiltrotator just yet, think about how you spec it would be my advice. At the very least start off with an s-type hitch and buckets. Wish i had! I share an oddball pin centre between all three diggers, if it has been s30 I’d have saved a few k in time and hassle now.