windfall

its over rated You need to read Duffs post in an irish accent.

PTO is behind you to the RHS i think, its a lever next to the 3 point up and down lever. From what i have seen on my IH885 4x4 there is not much to adjust...

yeah that sounded alarm bells for me too, other wise it looks good. Very much like mine :-)

The hydraulics are not great on grey fergies, it was an optional extra and had poor hydraulic flow at best. The PTO isnt that hot either come to think of it. I sold my grey fergy and paid £3500 for an 83 International Harvester 885 XL 4x4, the IHs have great hydraulics so my splitter is really quick and cuts through all but the nottiest wood.

"sprat to catch a mackerel" Take the rough with the smooth... taking one for the team...

Everything burns given a hot enough fire ;-) A lot will depend on how the wood has been stored for the 12 months?

I have looked at some ones from china, the self contained GX160 clone powered ones look ok but the ones i looked at had slow cycle rates. Like 25 seconds or something.. that would do my nut in! That said do you have any info on the one you are buying and does your mate still have any available?

Ear defenders with a built in FM radio.. superb

As i had already managed to get 3 extension cables to reach her i took my electric paint stripper gun thing over and used it to heat the diesel filter, fuel pump, injector lines, inlet manifold and then noticed that it would fit nicely into the airfilter box... so stuck it in there and jumped in the cab. Started instantly! Left her ticking over for ages while i found a lump hammer and chisel to use to knock the core plug back in. Stuck 2.5L of antifreeze in her and will get some more next time i am at the garage. So far so good, took her on a nice run round my fields and no leaks from the core plug or anywhere else thank god. Going to change the alternator, fan belt and top up the hydraulic system next. Thanks for all the suggestions, help and moral support.

Hi, I am on the isle of man, i know co claire well though as i had a holiday home near by. What is the wood? what quantities do you have and is it in builders bags or similar? just want to work out the feasibility of getting a local haulage firm to collect and bring it back via boat. but want to work out the margins. cheers What would the feasibility be

Who is EA? Environment Agency? I have just started using my land for my firewood operation, i have always chopped my own logs on my land so just doing it on a bigger scale now. Built a 'none permanent' log store structure that i can back my tractor mounted spitter into and work out of the rain and wind. So far so good, but i do have a tool a neighbour across the fields so i am expecting the planning officer to drop by at some point for a chat about my none permanent structure.

Went to her today, pulled the increased fuel nob and she fired then nothing, fuel lines frozen. Noticed something red on the snow.. "bugger that looks like a core plug!" I never thought to check the antifreeze level when i serviced it in the summer.. Balls. Oh well enforced break until it thaws out, shame as i have a load of green ash and sycamore arriving later today!

Had my first unhappy client tonight, gutted. Even though when she called i told the woman that the wood was felled 10 months ago and split 3 days ago so will need drying in a well ventilated place for at least 1 or 2 months they have been trying and not succeeding in sustaining a fire with it. I didnt get into anything with her except when she said you dont sound happy reply that i am not delighted, you had the facts that the wood was effectively unseasoned felled 10months ago and split 3 days ago and that i was sorry she was not happy. She had two cubes from me at £55 each, which i lovingly stacked in her old garage for her while she watched Jeremy Kyle. Two cubes of macrocarpa stacked in her garage for £110! So it would seem not everyone understands that you cant put a fire lighter under a log at 30% and have a roaring fire instantly. It takes a bit of effort and thought! Told her that I would drop by in the morning and give her the money back and take the wood away. Put the phone down, and it rang again, ended up selling one of the said 'wet' cubes to a woman for £75 who was more than happy to dry them by and under her stove for a day or so before burning with some other dry wood she already had. Perhaps i should have learnt my lesson but the wood will be in my van... whistling...

Only just joined the forum and just spotted this thread. I ran a recruitment business for 10 years so if you want me to look your CV over pm me for my email.

If you can see water spurting out of the radiator then rad weld is just the ticket as a temporary fix till funds and time allow for a perm fix. If you can not see where the water is going then check the exhaust.. is it is steamy? If so then most likely cause is the engines head gasket. You can also get the coolant system tested by most mechanics, they put the system under pressure and leave it for 5 mins and see if the pressure has dropped, it also means that when pressurised they can spot the leak if any as the water shoots out! good luck

Yeah your spot on, located the heater so ill have a fiddle in the morning. Misfortune indeed!

The farmer who lives down the road, also happens to be a tractor mechanic was just driving by drop some feed to his cows so i had a natter with him about it. He said are you giving it extra fuel for starting.. errr no how do you do that gary? pull the decompressor 2/3 out.. oh.. he said it wont want to start without doing that so thats probably my issue. DOH. school boy error. Also showed me the heater and suggested using the jump leads and connecting the spare battery direct to the starter. So hopefully ill be back in action in the morning.

OK thanks guys some good ideas here. The alternator is knackered i have been bringing it up to my workshop and charging the battery periodically, which is what i was going to do when i went to her yesterday and it didnt play ball. So 3 extension cables later and i have a charger on it.... We have been about -5 at night, it was -1 this morning at 10am. I will bring some watering cans of hot water over with me in the morning and have a play with the half way between on and start to see if i can get glo action! thanks

Hi All, My IH885 tractor has decided that it does not like the cold weather and only turns over for a bit before the battery goes flat. In the cold its taken a bit of cranking before it would start but this current cold weather and snow and the old girl has just dug her boots in and wont go. The battery was new in the summer and has previously been ok, got smoke coming out the stack so she was trying but couldnt crank her enough to get it to fire. I have a large deep cycle battery i am charging and i was thinking of boosting it in the morning with that too. What i am wondering is i dont think the glo plugs are working, i have only just noticed that the decompressor seems to turn to the right and this may be how you make them work? anyone know if this is the case? OR can i just connect the glo plugs wire to the battery directly via a switch so i know that they are working? thanks in advance ps read a thread here where someone said their granddad used to light a fire under the tractor to get her going in the cold.. i am close to dragging the space heater /generator over the field to get the bloody thing going!

Your not wrong, its been a good day today! Sold enough to pay for all the cord wood i bought in and put me back in profit.

Its all very well saying if you have to use an invoice factoring company you must pass this on to your clients, in practice i found that this was not possible as it priced me out of the game. My margins were tight so a 7or8% charge would have meant that it wasnt worth the hassle, i was dealing with the Government so RBS Invoice Factoring would have given me 90% of the invoice as they are AAArated, but they wanted to 'judge' each of my other clients on a client by client basis. They also wanted ALL my invoices from every area of the business through them, i couldnt just put the biggest head aches through them. In the end i remortgaged my house and stuck the money in to the business. From experience, if you are struggling with cashflow you need to look at your terms of business. You are not a bank so dont give people credit. Can you ask for payment up front? can you ask for half paid one week before the job starts and the rest on completion? At the very very least your payment terms should be no more than 7 days! This should be on your invoices, you should also have on the invoice you will charge interest for breach of payment terms. You will also find some people will pay within 7 days, dont ask you dont get.... You also need to have a proper system for debt chasing, if you have a member of staff who can do this great, sit down with them and tell them what you need doing. if not you must set aside time in the week to do this yours,elf I found Thursday or Friday afternoon was a good time to do this. Even though my invoices said 7 days, i did the following, letters/invoice copies for clients at 30 days, calls for clients at 45 ish followed by a letter/invoice copy. IMHO Any letter shouldnt be from you even if it is, i have found Accounts Assistant MyCompany Works and distances you (who is trying to build and maintain a working relationship) from the debt chasing side.

There are a few other guys here (Isle of Man) selling softwood cubes at £55 so i was trying to match them, your right though its a lot of work for £55. I was planning on putting my charge for macro up to £65 next season, already increased my delivery charge and now offering to move and stack a cube for extra £ too. I find that it burns well to, hot and steady. There is a lot of competition here and it would seem some are willing to sell cheap. One of my clients turned down a cube of eucalyptus (19%) i offered him for £85 as he had managed to get a cube of Oak for £65! I sold the cube 2 hours later for £100 delivered... get in.. ill see him at early swimming on sat so ill find out how well it burns.. or not.

I have now ran out of seasoned softwood and only have a few cubes of hardwood left that is reserved for a couple of clients. In the last few days we have had 9 inches of snow and the Isle of Man has ground to a standstill. As a result i have been getting calls from people desperate for logs. So i figured i would just tell them what i have and give them the choice... and bug 'er me if i havent nearly sold all the wood i processed and stacked in stock fence on pallets for seasoning and sale next year! I am telling the people it was only felled/processed 4 weeks ago and is at 33% but they dont care... one guy said "anything is better than nothing at the moment!" So i am not offering discounts and selling a mixed hardwood cube (31-33%) for £85 and a Macrocarpa (33%) for £55 + delivery. Which is what i would be asking for it next season! My only concern is that even though i have been dead straight with these clients they do not come back to me next season as the wood i am giving them is not seasoned properly. What are your thoughts, am i shooting myself in the foot by helping them or should i follow my wallet?!

Note - burning oil produces blue smoke not white. White is either steam which is unlilely on an air cooled motor (!) or quenched combustion. This is not always true, i have had so much white smoke out of one of my GX motors it was like a smoke machine used on a battle ship. Perfect white smoke.. That was engine oil in the bore from tipping the engine on its side.

Yeah the valves will all stay put.. unless they are broken or the collet is broken! ;-) either way you will have found your problem, parts are dirt cheap on line. You may have to wiggle the head to get the con rods to drop out or pull them out with the head. Above all dont be scared the GX series motors are really easy to pull apart and fix. Sounds to me like a valve spring or locating collet may have gone and is allowing oil from the head into the bore. It will also mean there is no compression on that side so if you have a compression tester it will show this.