doobin

Sorry Mike but am a bit far away in sunny Sussex. Last year would have been cool but since moving in with my woman I no longer have a bachelor pad or a spare room

I use walky talkies with an aux out lead that connects to the aux in on our ear defenders (plenty about but Howard Leight/Bilsom are the best). Microphone clipped onto your collar. Walky talky in top overall pocket, so minimum of cable tangle (could be an issue up a tree, but fine on the ground) Total cost about £60 a head including the ear defenders. This setup will also work with your mobil phone and microphone/headphone lead if only need it once in a while. HTH

This is a really good idea. Simon, do you mind if I thread hijack slightly? Might be better to have one thread that folk keen for experience can keep checking back to. I'd like to offer some experience of a different kind (felling, machine operating etc) to someone local to me.

Only good until your hit, then it gets too expensive. Best security is to think clever, simple ideas that make it too much hassle so they go for an easier target. I have remote alarms and trackers. Locked gates and floodlights up high in cages- they hate light as it alerts all and sundry to something going on. If you have a tracker fitted get a vibration sensor fitted as well to give you early warning of them crawling over it. Never understood all the companies pushing trackers as the soloution to all theft- by the time it exits the yard it's too late as its on a trailer and moving fast. Prevention is better than a somewhat unpredicatable cure. HTH

Possibly an old tine for a haybob or similar?

Can't agree, sorry. I can put a nice angle strut up morticed in as tight as you like. But a box strainer is longer lasting as there is much more to rot before it can give. It's not critical where the netting is, so long as there's a pull on the top of the post it will pass that to the second post and back to it's bottom via the wire. Only if the posts are not set properly will they move. Recently I've been using wire tension strainers to 40mm angle iron in the ground on some really steep hills. Much better than wooden struts- as the posts rot slowly you just tighten the tence up and also the tension strainers. Also, if you run the tension strainer wires to the top and bottom of posts, it will still be standing when the posts rot off at the bottom. Plus you don't need to dig deep holes and compact well on tricky ground. Once tensioned correctly there is not a hint of post wobble, and the posts were like loose teeth to begin with.

£5.1k!!!! The dumper bit is worth approx 1.5k judging from the running gear. That values the crane and conversion at 3.6k. Seems steep to me?

Soon as peoples lawns need cutting in your local town/village, start knocking on doors. I price it at a pound a minute, and you can do a lot with a decent brushcutter in 5 minutes. Have a blower handy to blow the clippings about a bit an bob's your uncle. A fiver/tenner to do back and front of your average terraced house sounds like a bargain. When you can do it in five minutes and you've got ten on the same street then your onto something.

Buy yourself a decent brushcutter and start hawking yourself out. Very profitable. If I wanted to I could run an FS460 all day, every day over the summer and make £130-£160 a day for about a tenner's worth of fuel just in the local area. I sometimes wonder why I don't, and get rid of the hassle of bigger machinery. Farm driveways, small gardens @ £20 a time, nature reserve work, there's so much work out there that if you price it right can be very profitable for so little outlay. You only need an old car to drive around in too. Radio ear defenders are a must! HTH

I just can't stand the amount of wasted cord. I also can't stand not using a machine to it's full potential, ie. with the cord a bit short. Which is why when I used flexiblade it went in a bump feed head. A sharp shredder blade will give a much cleaner finish on brambles and especially whips, which can be tough. Have to say, if the application is on the borderline between blade and cord, then the Stihl 4-way head with red cord in provides a good balance of acceleration and durability. Oh, and value for money on the cord compared to flexiblade...

The Stihl brush knife is cack- the shredder blade is where it's at- this is the one with the little downturned wings. Much longer than a normal brush knife. Note to all- always buy the largest shredder knife. it's momentum that works these bad boy and and FS400 is more than man enough for the blade meant for the FS550. Mounting hole diameter is the same. They can also be used on smaller machines such as the FS130 by flipping the mounting plate over the drive head. Also make sure your operators know to use that momentum, and rev it when neccessary. Not flat out all the time. If you must insist upon using the Flexi blade, then the medium stuff will feed from a bump feed head if you drill the insert hole out slightly. I can't see the point in that bloody stupid Oregon head- you're either throwing most of it away and reloading when it gets a bit short, or your letting it run even shorter and not utilising the machine to it's full extent If you think you need the thickest FlexiBlade, then your wrong. You actually need a real blade. Hope this helps!

Do you run the proper Stihl shredder knife guard? It's designed to give you a lot more protection especially when mulching bushes from the top down. I've never had a problem using mine, touch wood.

Unless you have a lot of ongoing works for such a specialist vehicle then I would say you'd be more cost efective to hire a tracked dumper and a little digger with a grab to load- you can always unload by tipping, which is what I do with my setup. Don't underestimate how slow these things are- when loaded unless it's downhill or perfectly flat and not soft underfoot you'll be in 2nd all the time, which is less than walking speed.

What the last two said. Smaller bars can run at a thinner kerf too. 13" .325 on a MS361 or equivalent is a lot quicker than an 18" 3/8. A large part of this is because .325 runs on a 9 tooth sproket as opposed to 3/8 which is by default 7 tooth. On a smaller 3/8 bar you could always pop an 8 tooth sprocket on for extra zip. For fairly soft sub 12" timbers, I always find a 3/8P 12" 1.1mm guage bar and chain on an MS250 a good lightweight combo that packs a serious punch. The only downside I find is the extra bending down when snedding. This is lessened by the lighteer weight of the MS250 but was certainly an issue with a 13" on the MS360. Hope this helps.

Very slow (12HP 2 cyl), and you will get fed up of the lack of visibility (mechanical drive so not easy to turn seat and controls round) If the undercarriage is OK then it's viable. The sprockets don't look the best and the tracks are clearly not tensioned properly. Hard to get spares for. It's based upon a Kuboto RC20, and I can't find much information about them on the net. However, with the value of the crane and the fact that it looks to be a half decent conversion I'd say it was worth at least 3k and would not be surprised to see it fetch more.

Don't forget the guard for the shredder knife. Pricey but could save a lot of pain! As an aside, how are you getting on with the 490? I have a pair of 460s and the engines are superb but the driveshaft is the weak point. Doesn't break but develops vibration.

First thing you need is a holding number from Defra Get friendly with your local baker and greengrocer, take their waste and food is free. This is however illegal so don't get caught.

Love my LDV. X-reg pre duratorq 2.4 turbo, good puller. Cab interior agricultural at best but the paint is excellent, it doesn't rust like a transit.

There was a thread recently with someone running a third saw on a mini mill to reprocess cut blocks more quickly. Seemed like a good system.

That's an American site.

Hodge, can you please clarify exactly how many litres you buy at a time? Any for how much? Can't make head or tail of your first post. I can't still be drunk?!

That's £7.33 a litre. You must have mis quoted? If RRP for 5l is £18.16, then it's £3.63 a litre and for the health benefits I could possibly justify it.

I don't even climb but if I did this would be first on my list of wants. Work smart, not hard.

] New outfits? Just like they were you mean? Nothing wrong with one man bands or lawn mowing companies that dabble in small tree work. Can be a profitable buisiness model. It certainly worked for me when I was getting started. Just because you can use a chainsaw doesn't mean you're special. Particularly with the huge amount of college leavers with their CS courses under their belt. I'm with those who mentioned the cost of living. Thats the real issue. The fact that this country is screwed. You can't tell me that the current generation has the same opportunities (as things stand, it may get better but I doubt it) as the generation that went before. I blame the baby boomers and the banks. *closes cat box quietly, exit dovecote stage left...*

Make sure you change the track drive oil regularly. Same as a digger. I learnt from my old boss- I remember the mechanic telling him that if he'd changed the oil in the tracks, the £2.5k repair wouldn't be neccessary! That stuck with me and I always do mine every 150 hours as I do a lot of tracking. I wouldn't use it unless I had to, not built for it.