Matthew Storrs

Here they are, this was a job I did for a local tree surgeon, getting all the timber out to the edge of the woods whilst trying to keep mess to a minimum. Pic 3 shows the extraction route which was about 100meters in total and that big sycamore stem was about 2ft diameter freshly felled- she was on the limit with that one! my new digger is basically a beefed up version of the one in the pics with longer reach and more lift. For me the versatility and legalness of moving it with the 4x4 outweighs the pros of a 3 ton.

Stephen- I, going to put a picture up of my old takeuchi Tb016 (which I sold yesterday to a fellow arbtalk member:crying: ) to show what sort of size timber it can lift and also some pics of it in the woods. I think you will be impressed for the size of machine- let me just fire up the laptop.

Seems like your set on the 3 tonner? Its a bit of an annoying size I find, like Tom said, its too big to be conveniant and nip behind a 4x4, yet for the hassle of hauling you must as well move a bigger (within reason) machine. This is a dilemma iv been in for for a while now and when looking at used machines the 5tonners work out much better value than 3. Ended going for a new 2 ton which I can move myself and will eventually get a 5 tonner too which someone else can move for me!

Stephen, what are you planning on towing it with?

I like Alder, burns lovely when dry- which is just as well as I have a big stack of it.

Had to Google Fiat 500 to see what it was, I wouldn't even sack him- just kill him outright!

Would I be right in thinking there is less margin for error pricing your way though Tom. Surely you,ve got to estimate the timescale of the job down to the nearest hour. If you price jobs as either half day or full day your unlikely to underestimate the job by that much time.

I'all openly admit I'm not a very good buisnessman, it just doesn't run in my blood somehow, it doesn't stop me doing a high standard of work and enjoying my lifestyle.

Which is fine if you can affordto be picky. Or if there is enough work to choose the jobs you want to do.

I used to think the same, must be doing something right, I have 50k worth of machinery BUT as mark Bolam said, its dividing between personal and business expenses, in my case a lot of my machinery was paid for by me , not by my business. I know that makes no sense at all to the more business savvy amongst you!

But in the same sense so often several small jobs in a day can turn out to be far more profitable then 1 day job.

That's the attitude to have I think, I'm sure we're not starving! Personally I find living in a beautifull area a richer existence then earning top wedge.

My tree setup used to be 2 blokes, tracked chipper, landy and trailer, usually around £350 for that. More than that and I'd lose the work, believe me I tried plenty. I can make that with my tractor and postbanger doing a good days fencing price per meter, hence why not undertaking tree work much anymore.

A basic climbing kit is a grand, top and ground saw £1200, rigging kit basic one £600, ppe for climber £500, that's 3k right of.

It always seems from posts on Arbtalk, Devon and Cornwall = crap money!

I took the cat off my landy, when fitting my PTO winch the CAT got in the way of the shafts, never had a problem with MOT.

The problem as I see it is, a lot of the time its not an essential trade, a tree can always wait a few more years (dangerous trees excepted) to be taken down or pruned, so really having your trees done is a luxury, if the price is too high then sod it "we will wait another year". Right on top of this, to do domestic tree surgery, you can buy a van, a few saws and climbing kit and your off, there is no set standard of qualifications really, anyone can have a crack at it and many do, again forcing the price down for companies who run 50k worth of kit, yard rentals, insurance , etc etc. Perhaps its not really an industry taken seriously or even valued by a lot. For the record I make far more money doing agricultural fencing and digger work than I ever did when I was offering tree surgery in a bigger way. People can't compete with me doing the fencing work unless they have the tractor and post knocker and digger and therefore the increased investment. However many people can offer tree services often with minimal kit or overheads.

Tension in my calf muscles is the first sign for me, the feeling of needing to stretch them. It took me a while to realise it was me stressing over things that caused it. Think I'm pretty much on top of dealing with it, other people have far bigger problems.

Ask luss campsite, they may have a use for wood chip and logs!

As said, a huge amount of dust is created, but the trick I found with the grinder/flap disc was just be light handed with it using circular motions as if polishing a table.

Iv just done my whole stair case with an angle grinder, with a flap disc- did a brilliant job and much quicker then the belt sander. If you wanted a really fine finish you may need to just rub it down with sandpaper or a light duty sander, but I think the angle grinder did fine. I had quite a bit of paint on the stair two strips either side which the belt sander wouldn't do as it would clog up the sheets, so angle grinder was better for this as it is more aggressive.

Surely you must have driven a jcb at some point? I have been appaled by my experiance of jcbs in both the 1.5t and 3t, the 3t was the worse, it was so gutless you'd struggle to bring the dipper in and lift the boom at the same time if there was any weight in the bucket and the engine would appear to almost stall with the effort. I'm inclined to believe there was something wrong with it until I read other forums saying the same thing. I

Do schaeff still make machines or is it badged as Terex now? If been trying to do some comparisons with various makes but it seems takeuchis information is all over the place. You said you saw the dig depth of the tb219 at 2.27 but taks website says 2.52m Max dig depth. I'm curious to find the best spec machine per weight, your one at 1.5(?) Ton certainly seems very well endowed but doesn't seem like the 2 ton version seems as good- in relative to its weight increase. I'm not even going to look at Jcbs website because their mini diggers are about as much use as a fart in a thunderstorm from my experiance.

Yes, my understanding is that the 219 has nearly 40cm extra reach over the 016. When you stand next to the two models the 219 boom is considerably beefier than the 016. Not sure why but the takeuchis seen to have quite small engines compared to other makes, yet doesn't seem to struggle on power, never tried the tb014 tho. Schaeff have a reputation for being strong, quite big rams too aren't they? I'll get some pics when mine arrives from Japan:thumbup1:

Its not hard to see why the TB016 has such a following, mine is faultless in every way (apart from the fuel guage!!) and a real joy to operate, but the extra reach and bigger pump on the tb219 was too hard to resist. I'll be sure to give it a review on here once iv put it through its paces.