doobin

Any grab can be made with a hitch plate that allows you to pick it up in either orientation. However, be aware that you won’t be able to have the pins set to reach out in front with the grab if you do that, which will limit you for certain applications. personally I’d get a hitch plate made up with an angle on the pins, and be prepared to take a couple of minutes with an impact gun to turn it 90 degrees. ok so this pic has a rotator but you see what I mean about the hitch.

Ten foot mature blackthorn? You utter sadist! I bet fetish clubs put on special nights just for people like you.

This, or at the very least have a digger and grab on site to stuff it into the truck. I won't touch the stuff by hand, it's not worth the time off with an infected stab. Wouldn't ask my blokes to either.

Not an Arb digger, but I will get round to fitting a grab one day. Just wants a few pins and bushes doing first.

We found an old panel saw to be a help in freeing it also, as well as a thin SDS bit. Also look underneath the ram box, especially if it's not returning alll the way home.

I would imagine shitloads was left on site given that they couldn’t even find a contractor with a big enough bar to fell the tree properly. So they cut it off 6ft high? sounds like an absolute cowboy job to me.

Are you sure the two spare holes aren't threaded, and are there to assist in separating the flange from it's mount when disassembling?

Miles away from you on the South Coast I'm afraid!

Would be far too slow for repetitive use and would also exceed the motor duty cycle and battery capacity very quickly.

I was thinking more Sherpa than Avant.

Anything that makes life easier and saves manual labour is a winner for me. But for £15k I would just buy a mini loader and then you've got something to load the trailer and drag the logs round from the back garden!

I've got the exact same hitch as you. They don't play nicely with grapples as you rightly expect- the stack height means that the opening mechanism is very snappy with little grip. Taking it off and fitting a rotating grab would be the best thing you could do for timber work. Grapples are OK, and yes, you can load with them, but a the difference between them and a rotating grab is night and day. I run both rotating grabs, fixed grabs and grapples so hopefuly an unbiased opinion. If a small machine I'd go for a fixed rotator on the grab too- that's to say, one that is axially rated. Not only is it great for helping push over trees when felling but it gets around the problem of dangle rotator on a small machine- that's to say that you can only handle short lengths, as long lengths hit the boom as you swing them. With a fixed rotator you just angle it away from you a bit as required. If that's a 3t machine then you'd be looking at around £3500 for a decent grab and rotator, and the only one you should really consider is an Intermecatto Tigergrip with a Balfors rotator. For rotation, a quick and dirty tee into the offset pipework and extra pipes clipped to the boom is the easiest way.

This. When our Jappa has the same issue it's due to crud in the slot at the end of the ram stroke.

I want a real time tracker in everything. The automatrics are the insurance on the most expensive ones, plus can be moved between machines if one is to be left overnight away from the yard.

That aligns with my research. What I've done is this- I've ordered a Teltonica FMC920 at £52 inc VAT. That appears to be the most basic one that is also 4g, therefore futureproof. A GiffGaff sim on PAYG should run that at minimal cost for the data. For tracking services, gps-server.net is what provides white label tracking services to most of the companies out there. Tracking for ten objects for a year is £110, or 5 objects for £60. Basically, all the little tracking companies out there are just buying a cheap tracker, programming it to their white label tracking platform, adding a cheap data card and then adding profit. Maybe OK for one machine, I'm not doing it for a dozen. And who knows how long their trackers will last? This way I have control of the whole process.

Playing ‘parts bingo’!

I feel like I haven't lived!

Jesus, reads straight like the judging from our local horticultural show.

To be fair, I wouldn't have fancied it on those hills in 2wd even on those Cross Climates, which are simply an incredible tyre for the snow- or wet. You can go flat out through deep puddles and not feel a thing at the steering wheel. The Panda is incredible. It will do 65mpg if I absoloutely baby it, but will also go anywhere that ground clearance permits. The Defender driver with all terrain tyres couldn't hold a candle to it- simple fact is it was an extra ton of vehicle on a very similar tyre footprint. I got back up the hill, he didn't. People can bang on about a Defender 'with the right tyres and driver' being able to go anywhere- but I don't think that's the case. The electric traction control in the Panda is amazing. On sheet ice in a slight incline it went up OK, but scrabbling badly. Press the button that says ELD and I might as well have been on a dry road- straight up with no spinning. Technology and physics (light weight, snow tyres) for the win here, like it or not. And no, I'm afraid you wouldn't fit. Headroom is the limiting factor unfortunately!

For fencing products it’s all hand cut. You can’t get acceptable quality with a harvester, despite what people unable to find cutters might tell you until they realise people don’t buy from them twice! to be fair, a lot just goes for biomass now which is a shame.

Both of those above are just rebranded Chinese shit and a white label tracking platform. I'm not buying a dozen of them only to have them hike the monthly cost or simply go bust. Anyone used Teltonika trackers? Seem to be about the only EU made ones.

Harting hill was fun when it snowed. I popped down in the panda to laugh at idiots and left a red faced defender driver spinning trying to get back up. I took the scenic route to the yard. Notice the tracks in the second photo where someone tried to come up Treyford Down the other way and gave up 🤣

Decent hand cutters are always in short supply!

I already run quite a few Automatrics trackers on the expensive gear so aware of those particular benefits. However, I'm seeking recommendations for: 1. Wired trackers that I can self fit and self manage. Something with backup and ongoing availability rather than a Chinese special. I don't want anything with ongoing management/tracking fees- they only use a white label version of the same tracking platform I can use anyhow. 2. A sim provider for those trackers. Someone was telling me about a roaming sim for £5 a month but I can't find anything.

Work is about to drop off a cliff. You only have to look at the huge uptick in companies advertising on FB to see that. I had a guy call me and come round to my yard yesterday looking for work. Seems multi skilled and fed up of working for a bricklayer who apparently couldn't run a bath. Gave him a try on the loader, digger and welder and he passed with flying colours, as well as seeming to be the right type- quiet lad, early thirties, baby on the way. I first met him on a job where I was with the loader, and he sought me out by asking the client for my details six months later. So I'm not sure what happened but I said he could start Monday 😗 He sort of talked me in to it. I hope he's going to be as good at talking customers in to extras! Seriously, work is looking very precarious. I'm not worried personally as I'm exceptionally diverse and multi skilled. This new guy had better be the same. At the end of the day, he's got more chance of staying busy working with me in the coming recession than a brickie I guess. So if anyone needs machinery or trailer servicing or welding/fabrication in the Sussex/Surrey/Hants area, get in touch! There we are, I've joined the ranks of the desperate companies advertising everywhere. Now to get the missus to spam every local FB group sign up to Bark and I'll truely be scraping the barrel 🤣