doobin

Why didn't you just stick the spreader behind the tractor?

I was contemplating Echo in the local dealers yesterday. The 680 on paper is the opposite number to the Stihl 362. 3.3KW and £599 best price from dealer. Does that sound about the right money? If it is, then it's no contest I'm afraid. That's the same money as a Stihl MS362 from FR Jones, and I know which will be worth the most in three years time! The Stihl is also 0.1KW more powerful and 0.6kg lighter. Shame, as I have fond memories of my Echo 660EVL.

Seconded. Couldn't believe it when my new boots turned up the next day, six days from Chirstmas, and with FREE POSTAGE! Good job.

Best place is the firewood pile. Theoretically I'm sitting on a fortune in yew, but nobody wants to offer decent money. I think it was gensetsteve on here who said he likes to play a game with wood turners, stuffing yew and blackthorn into the processor and watching them try desperately to yank it back out!

Do as I did and do it for the community. Always useful to keep in your local police forces good books also- may well turn out to save you a lot more money than charging for the job would have made...

In that case you had the wrong staff. They sound like freeloaders, and without being too critical of your judge of character, I'm surprised you hadn't sussed him after 2 years. However, decent staff are very hard to find. Had you found a guy who realised that you were being fair to him, and was grateful for the free ticket, he would probably still have left you, but after a further year and to start his own business. It's finding that diamond in the rough, who's grateful for the experience and skills, then wants to stay employed Basically, it seems that anyone who is any good with any sort of morals ends up running their own show. I'm sure many of us here can relate to that, as it was once ourselves! I don't thrash my guys, and we run a flexible sort of work day. Get to the yard, have a look through the calendar and decide what we fancy, over a hearty breakfast and two pots of tea and coffee. Mind you, we are often gardeners doing lots of small jobs, and I imagine my staff are cheaper than tree staff When we have bigger projects on, particularly conservation and clearance jobs, we run a much tighter ship and I'm in the yard at 5:30 each morning to make sure everything is ready.

Balance isn't brilliant but a shorter bar will sort that. It feels plastiky, but no worse than a Husky tbh! I will post a review once I get it. I don't blame anyone else for refusing to take a chance on it, but I won't be relying upon it and I trust my local dealer.

These guys are helpful and cheap, I use them for wire for my Lewis winch. I'd get a 40m length and cut it down, then you've got a spare! Ormiston Wire | Specialist Wire Manufacturers & Suppliers in the UK

You must need the Tirfor to hoist your staff back up the tree after that!

For what you're doing the biggest Mitox might fit the bill. 3 KW, 20" bar, £250 and two years warranty. Worth a look if you have a dealer nearby I would think. Gardenkit on here rates them. They're no Stihl but the price is right and with a two year warranty you have none of the worries of s/h kit breaking. I will be putting my money where my mouth is next week and buying the little top handle for £150! I need one once every few months for hedge reductions etc, plus I want to try the brand.

This. And link the alarm to both your mobile and a local security firm. More chance of them getting there first than Plod, and they often also have direct radio contact with the local officers.

The daft thing is I bet the police have got far better things to do than process notices of intent to move a power harrow three hundred yards down the road to the next field...

Why are we all so cagey over the price of wood?? Everyone is happy enough to say 'I charge £X for a two man team with chipper'. Yet nobody ever posts prices when advertising cordwood.

Another classic. Also- indicating right to turn into the field. As you start to turn the wheel, the same BMW flies past you, having overtaken from five cars back. I had a beauty on the A27 once. I was driving a telehandler down to Fareham, and some old duffer (presumably with 'grandpa rights' to tow a trailer) pulled in in front of me with the caravan. I braked so hard that I hit the windscreen. I should have just let the forks open the bloody thing up. It's funny at first, then it starts to get to you. That same season some dozy bint found herself coming up way to fast behind a tractor and bale trailer, complete with beacon at rear of trailer. Panicked, went to swing out into the outer lane, but didn't quite make it. Unfortunately her friend was in the passenger seat, which went under the trailer. She ruined untold lives that night- killed her best friend, and the pigman (who was only driving the tractor because the weather was catching us) ended up in therapy for two years. If the boss hadn't pretty much forced him to keep his job for his mental wellbeing then I don't like to think what he might have done to himself.

Nice one! I just got given an old MTD chipper/shredder. A quick oil change and sharpen the blades, and it's saved at least a day's money for a labourer on a row of garden clearances above a sunken lane with nowhere to park. It chips up to 3', so in reality about 1.5-2" allowing for unions. Still amazingly effective on garden jobs with poor access.

If you're that scared of it, maybe ask your boss to find you another job? I drove 50-300HP tractors from age 17 to 19. Anyone who has driven a tractor will tell you of the horror of seeing the car coming towards you turn it's lights onto full beam. It's 30 yards away from you, and suddenly a car flies past your offside door and in front of you, missing the oncoming car by an inch. It's crazy. Simply crazy. I can almost guarantee the above scenario if I take my old tractor out along the nearest stretch of straight A road. The vast, vast majority of the time, car drivers are at fault. Most idots in cars couldn't handle a 500KG Halfords trailer, let alone a dolly trailer. Yes, a few young lads in tractors have been stupid. These are the same young lads who will be stupid in their Vaxhaull Corsa. If idiots make up 5% of the young tractor drivers, then I bet idiots make up 30% of the young men with cars. By and large young farmers are more responsible and mature members of society. That said, the use of red diesel and cheap young drivers to haul the harvest, despite farmers always wingeing about an un-level playing field re Europe, is a perk denied to some EU member states. Technically speaking, if the crop is hauled by anyone other than the grower, back to his home base, then normal haulier rules should apply. Massive can of worms.

If it's too much then just swap to a smaller sprocket when you put a bigger bar on. Simples.

MS 362 would be the pro Stihl equivalent if weight is an issue.

Really? I had no trouble picking up 5 for £20 each from a scrappy, with very good tyres on them. Can't imagine them being worth FA to nick. As for the cat, yes, get rid. MOT emmissions test is far less strict than the modern EU emission laws as it applies to a much wider age spectrum of vehicles. So most of the time the car will fly through anyway if everything else is in order.

Fully agree. I have a very tight grip on log costs, and don't mind telling you that a 0.65m3 bag costs me £38.66 to produce, and that's with timber costed at £40 a ton in the yard (cheap). Therefore I need to sell at £70 within 4 miles to make £30 clear profit. That's clear profit without me personally doing anything other than answer the phone.

As I said, it still felt a bit wrong. However had I refused, would someone else have done it? Dead straight 2' diameter ash, tiny crown. Down and loaded in an hour. As the customer saved money, he was happy to part with money for extra work. Win win for us both. Happy customer = recommendations. As for devaluing the industry, that old chestnut always pops up. The figures either stack up or they don't, and whether they do or not is very dependant upon personal circumstances. Which is the reason I never moan about being undercut. If it doesn't make money I'll just find something else that does. We do not operate as a cartel!

If you can cut it down and get it to your yard for significantly less than the cost of timber you would otherwise buy in then refusing to do it cheaply/free is cutting off your nose to spite your face. I appreciate the majority of jobs do not fit this description. But I've had a few that did- ie. a mile from the yard, drive right up to them with the tractor, burn the brash on site. Still felt wrong 'giving the customer a freeby'! But the figures stacked up, and I also managed to sell him some hedgecutting.

If you're buying new then the Ifor will hold it's value better.

Get an alarm.

A grapple is the same money as that hydraulic thumb. Vemac Engineering if you're wondering. Mine still going strong after three years of abuse. A compromise would be to have a special bucket made which is basically the top half of a grapple, and have the thumb made curved. Then crowd the 'bucket' and move the thumb at the same time. If you're putting a proper grapple onto a quick hitch, it only takes thirty seconds to change over anyway (make sure the geometry is right though, you might want a curved brace bar). Even with no quick hitch, it's still quicker to change over to the right tool for the job if you're doing any amount of grab work. Thumbs do the job but are not as dexterous as a grapple. You wouldn't keep a 12" bucket on for grading. Same principle, most efficient tool for the job. A couple of minutes to change the attachment is nothing in the scheme of things.