doobin

Based on those pics mate, you should give Astrak a ring first thing Tuesday after the bank holiday! Unbelievable difference so far. I'm off out today to harvest some ash on a steep slope- will get some pics of the steels in action. They add around 170kgs vs rubber tracks. If I wanted to be squeaky clean I'd have to take the grab and rotator off when transporting....

The above points I've found to be very true indeed. As for those wondering how the mini loader can pay its way- see below. This is the second half of a two day job with two men and one loader. The two trees were removed on the first day, the stumps and soil on the second. This job was quoted at a fair market rate allowing for access. After paying my man and the job costs (grab lorry, a bit of diesel), I made £2200 plus VAT. That's £1100 per day for my skills in seeing how the job could be done efficiently- but it simply wouldn't have worked without the loader. One job like that a year and who cares if you only use it once a month? I'm up to 200 hours on my Sherpa, having had it 14 months. So averaging around 14 hours of use per month. At £260 a month finance (i've done it over five years) it's cost me £3640 so far. Much cheaper than labour.

I love my Sherpa 100. There are a couple nearly new on FB currently with attachments. They've been up a while so clearly they need to drop the price- get over there and haggle! The yellow one has electric start and slightly more pushing power (Sherpa 100 Smal). The red one is the basic model (Sherpa 100 Agri) As stated above, whatever model loader you buy, it doesn't need to be out more than one 'right' job a month to more than pay for having it sitting there on finance. One thing I have noticed though, is that those of us who rave about them buy the lower end models (100, as you are considering) and just treat it as a lift and shift labour saver. Those who spend £25-30k on a larger model with some attachments like stump grinders are often underwhelmed- and little wonder, because the performance will never match a larger Avant or MultiOne. The higher HP models are also wider- so what's the point if you can't get it into tight jobs? On the subject of width- get it with wide tyres and narrow tyres. You will use the narrow tyres much less than you might think, but they still come in handy. Here's the definitive thread- some light Sunday reading for you (with pics!) It's an entertaining read- it only started in 2019, and since then it's eye opening how many have jumped on the bandwagon. It pottered along over a few pages until I revived it at the end of 2019 (yes, I'm claiming credit) and then it's off to the races! You'll see me (and others) start with skepticism before becoming curious, enlightened and then finally evangelical bordering upon fanatical. 🤣

Can’t see that they would as it’s still just laying a track. Motors have relief valves if things get too hard, you will probably find it just relieves rather than spins the track due to the extra traction. you want to run them with a fair bit more slack than the rubbers though I’ve found.

On my own (on concrete) it took twenty minutes per side to swap them from rubber to steel. Battery grease gun and 90 degree impact wrench for the nut sped it up a lot I suspect. I'm expecting putting rubber back on to take a little longer. If you are on your own with a rubber track I like to jam the track motor on a little with a block of wood and then ease the track over the sprocket with a long bar. I really think the time taken to swap tracks will be time well spent, plus you can block steel track jobs together on one week to save time. The difference in traction on hills is insane. Call Astrak- the E27Z you have has a slightly shorter track frame, so you might even be under £800 per track. At least you know they will fit the rollers and idler now I've taken the plunge. Also- steel tracks are great for tracking in stone, which I would imagine you have a lot of up in Scotland.

I seem to end up doing a lot of clearance work on fairly steep hills. So ideal for that. Great for wetter jobs too. I will also be able to bolt on steel extensions I will make up to give more flotation, save getting the bog mats out.

Yea, I noticed that too. the fly killer in the yard kitchen claimed it’s first victim today 👍🏻

Started wet, then the sun came out and my goodness was it humid! A momentous occasion this evening as the kitchen window was opened for the first time this year. Bloody lovely.

Not worth the hassle mate. If you want a cheaper machine the sany and luigong are starting to make names for themselves with a pretty good standard spec and good dealer presence. Still more of a gamble than an established brand, but remember that the Jap makes were all regarded the same way when then came over in the seventies. You’d be better off getting a secondhand known make than a new Ouilde IMHO

Got me some steel tracks on mine. £830 a side, easy enough to swap between rubbers and steels for different jobs too. Came from Astrak.

It's a fair bet that the perps were, shall we say, 'ethinic' and that the lamb was destined (possibly when bigger, possibly they were stupid and assumed that was the right size to steal) for 'smokies'

I wasn't impressed with them. Tried to use them for dispensing things like TRF, gave up and bought a caustic rated pump in the end. Way too slow a flow rate and I still got airlocks.

Those logs are for sale then? Otherwise surely you'd just burn slabwood from your mill!

What were you loading them up for? I agree with the sentiment, but you don't want to be cutting saw logs in half!

I photograph the paper receipts and they go into the same folder as the email ones. Back this up to the cloud and you’re good. Agree re cross referencing the bank statement, but I do this last thing. Usually the ones I find are the bloody builders merchants who I constantly have to hound for a vat recipe after them promising to send via email when I place the order on the phone.

How many of your business transactions do you not have a physical paper or email receipt for? Why are you cross-referencing your bank account with phyical receipts that you already have in front of you? Furthermore, if you are VAT registered, a line on the bank statement is not acceptable to HMRC as proof of a valid VAT deductible expense. So OP may as well get in the habit of proper book-keeping from the off IMHO. I do my books every month in just half an hour with a spreadsheet. Physical paper receipts are photographed to preserve for the required six years, email receipts are saved to the same folder.

I'm on the waitlist.

I wouldn't bother opening another account. It's not hard to separate business transactions from personal each month, and most of it you will be doing off email and paper receipts anyhow. If you open another personal account soley for business use, it might be obvious to their algorithms. It will also probably be harder to do a personal loan through a new account. I bought my first machinery with a personal loan, I think at 3.3%! Those were the days! Just tick the box that says 'new kitchen' or some bullshit. If you are getting offered a reasonable rate in the current climate, it's definitely the easiest route. Funny story- I do actually have a business account- opened solely to receive and service a bounceback loan. I don't use it for anything else. NatWest were about to put up their personal overdraft rates to something daft like 30%, so I thought I'd open a business account for a cheaper overdraft. They told me they couldn't consider my banking history of ten plus years running through a personal account, even though I was a sole trader, so they couldn't offer me an overdraft on the business account for a year. Yet in the same breath they suggested I apply for a BBL instead. Five days later, this virgin account had £50k credited to it. So NatWest wouldn't consider my business history in one breath, but were satisfied that I was a genuine business for a BBL? Or.... as soon as it was government backed, no ****************s given! Basically mate, the banks are bent anyhow and so long as you pay it back no questions will be asked.

What’s pointless about my comment? You asked if £4-800 a day was realistic, I told you straight

Same here, despite 5k of finance per month!

Sounds pretty good. I would be looking to underpin the foundations of your business rather than expand, which it sounds like you are. Be ready to weather the storm.

Sounds like you already make pretty good and consistant profit? Out of £2100 per day, how much of that is profit? £1k? Or more like £500? I can feel your pain- you end up thinking, 'Why should I deal with all the stress just for £200 more than a subby?' Perhaps it's time to question whether this is actually scaleble further due to the involvement already required from you. Might it help your mental state to accept this, just for the time being, particularly with the current economic climate? Relax, enjoy the business for the profit it creates you? Possibly invest in some more machinery, so that you can loose a staff member or two if/when needed? Finance payments are considerably less than labour. I'm not sure how mechanised you already or or whether any further machinery would suit your work, so just a suggestion.

£400-800 for what? A man and a chipper? Cloud cuckoo land I’m afraid mate.

We've all done similar mate!

Indeed. Averaged out that suggests there must be a few 10k days in there! I consider myself to be very much on a 'jam' job if I invoice £2.5k for two men and a digger. I usually get one of these a month and it's always down to using machinery to do what would take labour much longer, as well as buying materials by the lorry load and then invoicing them at normal rates. How did you arrive at that figure? I haven't looked back at the numbers posted in the thread, but I know @Clutchyruns a pair of two man teams. £1250 per team per day is more realistic- still very high to do every day but more realistic.