doobin

One bucket, but an hours machining of the backplate will see Sherpa attachments drop on. It's exactly the right size, just needs the tipping pin welded in or a roll in through the clevis rather than the current big fat washer and bolt in order to allow clearance for the two middle hooks. The plate is a mil or two too thick so either grind or do a nice job with a 20mm endmill.

Fk me, just ‘up to five hours operation’ from 28 litres of petrol 🤦‍♂️ are they really that bad on juice?

Yeah, I’m thinking it will be a halfway house between my Sherpa and multione. Will see if it comes in handy for any jobs and if not then move it on.

Nope, sticking to pto for stone burier!🤣

Little Sherpa has a friend! Picked this up cheap at £4k- think I will need to get a pump or motor refurbed as one track is lazy and the pump for it squeals when you push it. It’s not been looked after, so I gave it a a steam off and a service straight away. Amazingly I had the right filters for engine and hydraulic on the shelf. The pins and bushes have no, and I mean no, wear in them- it’s well built. came with one bucket, but with an hour of machining on the headstock and a dab of weld, all my Sherpa attachments will fit straight on! Its a 20hp petrol Kohler- that’s gonna hurt to run, I can tell 🤣 Still, cheap enough to test the concept. It’s an animal in the dirt, really pushes compared to the Sherpa, although the lazy track means I can’t get its full potential from it yet. Apparently it’s got 42l/min flow, so will be a good carrier for the log splitter or maybe even the trencher. Not tested lift capacity properly yet but I’d guesstimate almost double of the Sherpa. what would one of these new cost, £20k?

It’s not on a chipper. Yes, the pulleys have been changed on later chippers to compensate for the lack of power aftwr euro 4 emmisions.

There's no replacement for displacement. The little engines are overly complicated and it's not for youre benefit- it's just to be able to actually pull the skin off a rice pudding whilst meeting emmisions regulations.

Leaving the stumps three foot high just gives you something to rip boom pipework off with. Low stumps and a ripper tooth, easy.

My research suggests they are shimmed.

Not turbo. Naturally aspirated. Pre the latest round of emissions, this engine made 35hp. Now it makes 26hp. It revs the same, so it must be set to use less diesel each stroke? Has anyone successfully adjusted the injection pump to take it back to the pre euro 4 35 horsepower?

Got to be cheaper to just replace the unreliable engine with a nice Honda or an electric motor? Especially as you say you are otherwise happy with the mill.

Probably. Would be interested in how you get on

Agree, put the tractor next to the pile! What are we missing here?

Personally I don't like the 7 finger grabs as not so good for grubbing out.

Just be careful on the hitch. Put it this way, I think he's a lot better at painting machines that god awful black than speccing the right angles on a hitch plate....

I take it that's with a hitch plate? Another company that might be worth a look is A13 Engineering. They have a range of Hardox grabs which are clearly based upon the Intermecatto and the prices are keen. I would have purchased one for my new backhoe but there is a big gap in the range for that size machine. Here's the spec sheet they sent me. A13 Spec Sheet (7).pdf

All well and good, but apparently they couldn't find a big enough bar to fell the trees at ground level.... I'm sticking with dodgy/cowboy.

Try Approved Hydraulics. Did take a few weeks but that was during Covid times. They may offer you a TG16SR5 instead as they tend to keep this as a stock item. If not a zero turn mini, this would be a slightly heavier but still comfortable fit. If you will be doing any amount of grubbing out, consider a TG16 as it has noticeably more closing force. If you are up for a couple hours drive, you can try both plus a smaller one at my yard. Midhurst.

That’s not so much the issue- you could just lay the grab down to pick it up. The issue is that you never need to grab your own boom- but you quite often need to do things like hold a pole out vertically! So optimise the geometry for this. Here’s me when my E27 first arrived- messing about optimising the grab geometry and sorting the bolt pattern prior to welding the hitch. Ah, memories!!

If you’re doing hedge coppice, you deffo want the angled headstock in order to be able to reach out in front of you.. Don’t be fobbed off by a dealer who only makes normal headstocks. Turning it with four bolts is child’s play with an impact wrench.

It’s all a balance, but that’s why it’s important to spend a little more and get the lightest and strongest grab you can. This is the optimum setup for a 1.5-2t machine in my opinion. Intermecatto TG12SR5 with an angled hitch plate that can be turned 90 degrees. Even in the photo below the quality of Intermecatto vs something like JB is evident. You can also get a good look at the angle on the headstock.

As I thought- it’s some guy (although turns out not you) trying to be too much of a big cheese on poxy domestic type jobs. So he employs a load of dross, gets you to quote, and surprise surprise, expectations don’t line up. He was probably only going to make a couple of hundred out of the job anyway. Any local firm with a small machine would make that extra £200 with no hassle in an honest way, without needing to rush around keeping a dozen brain dead morons off the streets/ketamine.

Light but not the right thing for handling concrete or grubbing out. Really that kind of grab is designed to be mounted under a free swinging rotator. I do have one set up fixed for delicate jobs or use on the Sherpa but you have to be careful with it. @woody paul what size machine and what do you want to use it for?

I wouldn’t look at anything other than Intermecatto. Well proven for strength and much less weight than others, in particular the JB one which is very heavy to make up for not being Hardox steel.

And then sack them. I thought exactly like you but that’s an easy job. I take it OP is already making a loss on this job? the problem with jobs like these is that they are really a gardeners job. Any subbie worth their salt would be capable of doing it in a day- for themselves. Can’t be much of a margin in it unless you are leading a team from the front Got to be honest, I know a few people who run companies doing work like this, and my advice to them is always- buy a machine. They have a steady turnover of uninterested losers, and they themselves always seem stressed.