Matthew Storrs

the only time iv thrown a paddy with equipment was when i was employed by the same bloke for 4 years and he would send us out with these S'''''T echo long reach hedgetrimmers that would keep cutting out everytime you lifted it up to start cutting. what made me laugh was he used them once and got so fed up with it he threw one out of the hedge, but the next day he was out quoting and i would be sent out again with the very same trimmer- still cutting out, in fact come to think of it it was things like this which made me go alone, no more crap kit.

what lump in my matress?!

We did that a few weeks ago devon to fortwilliam 14 hr drive for 2 weeks, it rained hard the whole time we were up there but the day we climbed Ben nevis the sun came out and it was glorious- flippin freezin at the top tho! gotta love Scotland

small is nice & charge Y! probably the least stressfull for the most amount of money.

I know which one of those options I aim for:thumbup1:

Alot comes down to how much you pay yourself, I try and keep it seperate from what the buisness makes otherwise I find all my personal wage just gets lost in the wash- so to speak. I try and have a base rate of what I need to make a day in order to cover costs comfortably, that includes maintenance costs- small tool (chainsaws etc) replacement, insurance and wages, I don't include large equipment costs unless im actually using it that day, when i do use large equipment (digger/tractor/chipper) I charge it out as if i had had to hire it, and add that to my base rate.

Ha funny, I was discussing this with a customer today, Rowans normally do very well up here on Dartmoor, but I have noticed alot of sickly Rowans, Just that too, 1 foot of wet peat then granite subsoil so probably a lot of waterlogging.

probably 1.5 hrs in reality

For hedgetrimmers all the japanese stuff echo tanaka etc blow stihl out the water, but by far the best hedgetrimmer i have used is the kawasaki, totally bomb proof, same with their blowers mine is 13 years old gets used everyday and has never cost me so much as an air filter. Echo hedgetrimmers we used to use did 2-3 years hard use then theyd start having carb problems but the Kasawaki keeps going. Tanaka- have one of those too, bad starter but generally pretty good once its started although as has been mentioned never seems to cut quite as crisply as the K-wak. Stihl- own one item and thats the ms200, had a hs81 and managed to snap it fairly quickly due to the gimicky plastic framing holding it alltogether.

if you want just 3 saws-ms200, 357xp (or 560 if you must!) and 395 with 24 and 36" bars. If you want 4- ms200, 346xp with15", 576xp with 24" and 395 with 3"6"

i would say its between 2-3 feet above your head depending at what height you set the adjustable bit which determines what height the implent will be held at. i must admit there are times where its just easier not to have it on as its too confined but for the majority of jobs it really helps.

I brought the ELH two weeks ago. It saves no end of armache and I can do tank after tank of fuel without the need to stop, I know its not reccommended to use up a ladder but i have been using it off a small set to trim the top and its ok as long as you are careful going up and down the ladder as it does tend to tip your balance a bit. For long straight runs particularly siding up a hedge i have found it invaluable although it is a bit awkward if you are working in confinded areas as it tends to get hung up on branches and stuff.

If you could PM me your contact details I may be able to offer you a few days if your willing to travel to Princetown, I do tree surgery and countryside management in and around Dartmoor- this could be anything from removing tree tubes, fencing, hedgelaying, woodland work to typical tree work like felling, reductions dismantles etc so you would get to experiance a range of tree related services Have you registered yourself as self employed? Thanks Matt

where abouts in Devon are you?

you could phone superwinch in tavistock- they were very helpful when i fitted mine and even printed of all the manuals free of charge for me.

I fitted one from a TD5 onto a TDi and the td5 one has more UV joints in the shaft as it takes a detour around the sump a bit. so id be careful with regards to the shafting. the drop box should fit straight on tho. also be aware that some drop boxes hang straight down vertically from the transfer box whereas some hang at an angle. the latter is a better design as it is less likely to get hit by a tree stump or something but it may effect the route the shafts take. Most can be 'made' to fit tho and i wouldn't be without mine despite the hassle it was to fit it- infact it saved the day today!

My dad brought oxdale tractor mounted one a few months back, its ok quite a good basic design although we think it would benefit from a bigger splitting head like most other splitters- requires more power obviously but the standard heads seem to break rings up better then oxdales offering. look at the Riko ones, i think i will be buying their portable version with petrol engine.

aah yes so it is. the only time i find it helpful if someone else is there is when straining long (200m plus) strands of barb when theres lots of turns of direction, as that way one person can keep walking the line making sure its not getting hung up on turners and easing it round with a myti bar whilst the other keeps cranking with the monkey strainers. on my own i find i clock up a hell of a lot of mileage a day walking up and down the line.

nice- doesn't get much better then the bryce- I was looking at them at the APF, makes the wrag look a little weedy! no rock spike i see take it the grounds good around you. Out of interest i see your struts arn't in line with the rest of the fence- whats the reasoning behind this?

im afraid i just stick standard mix in and be gentle with it for first 20hrs roughly then just use as normal, all mine seem to run fine despite not having a retune.

The protech p10 is a good little machine but on a mini digger it is rather unsteady unless you have the leg down, look up vector mini digger postdriver, IMO these are the best ones to go on a digger as when you put it on top of the stake the postcap can only travel a few inches up the mast before it stops and therefore transfers the weight of the machine onto the stake making the whole process far more accurate and steady. When im knocking stakes in like this i can just keep hammering whilst making small adjustments. the best bit about the whole setup is that iv got the buckets there too iincase i need to do a bit of grading/digging- which is nearly always the case anyway with my kind of jobs.

your right everyone has there way, the tractor model i use is a wrag commander with a rockspike but for most jobs i use my mini. Its hard to describe but iv modified my postknockers so that the mini digger arm is totally stable so you can make adjustments to the mm. i find it far quicker then the tractor one. on big jobs tho where there are more then say 50 strainers i use the tractor as it is much quicker due to hammer weight mor ethen anything then folllow with the mini knocking all the stakes in.

thats a proper sexy beast- like it!

I do lot of stock fencing with a mini digger 1.6ton, its much quicker at knocking stakes in then a tractor but tractor much better a knocking strainers in. Iv done 3.5km fencing singlehanded this summer with my mini and postknocker and most runs couldn't have been done with a tractor as it was either too wet or you had to reach in amogst bolders and trees etc. track along parrellel to the fence and slew at 90degrees to the trackbase knoccking the stakes in as you go, use the leveling blade to level the machine one way and the bucket curl to get the post straight, it helps to knock the strainers in first then string a wire quite high (2ft) above ground then walk along and place all your posts in making sure that when they touch the wire they are vertical then its just a matter of sitting in a the machine dropping the postknocker over the posts and you know then that when they are touching the wire they are going in straight- no need to get out the cab for every post. Tractor ones are also good (particularly modern knockers) but to be efficient you really need someone else to work the machine otherwise it means getting in and out the cab for every post which is a bit time consuming. I also have a hydraulic auger on the mini, if i know its hard ground I pilot drill all the strainer holes first before knocking them in, i find this works well as at least you know all the strainers will drive full depth and they don't move. I have modified by postknocker so that when i lift in on to a stake all the weight is taken off the machine so that it steadys the boom when knocking also means i can press down on the post with the weight of the machine. Im like you i much prefer fencing on my own as I can just get on with it, whereas when someone else is there due to the linnear nature of fencing there can be a lot of standing around. Does help having someone else there tho when dealing with hi-tensile netting- but i always manage nevertheless. Hope this helps!

haha unfortunatlty top headlights don't work....yet, but the mid lights are aftermarket so they are probably the most reliable. got its first job coming up soon postknocking so i will see how she performs.