Matthew Storrs

I’m looking to get upgrade my tractor for more power as I’m starting to do a lot more roadwork and heavy off-road towing, and I will be upgrading my post banger to a heavier one too so need a solid tractor to be the boss of it on hills. I like my tractors to be basic but still with good brakes, 40k and in this case I want a non electrickery 6 cylinder. 90s era tractors I’m keen on as they seem to be a good mix of old school basic ness and build quality yet with more modern transmissions/hydraulics/brakes etc. Looking at a Case 5130 as an option as one is for sale fairly near. Anyone have any other reccomendations.

Really? I’m literally about to put an order in for a tilting bucket but dithering over choice- could you possibly PM me with the make,cost and general condition (if it’s not new) itd be for a Takeuchi TB125. cheers Matt

Good point- id better check that.

Hiring can work out well because it’s generally pretty cheap to hire- particularly if you save the jobs up a bit and get the machine in for a week. but the problem I always have with hiring machines is its generally not to hand when you need it, also to get the best out of a mini you invariably end up with a portfolio of attachments to increase its versatility which isn’t easy if you having to hire in with the different hitches/pipework etc. Diggers hold their value like crazy which works both ways. One digger I had ended up costing me something like 80p an hour used in depreciation! I think for the occasional/landowner digger owner- something older with relatively low hours works out the best value. Newer machines with high ex contract rental hours put on them still seem to command a staggering amount of money to buy. Current digger is 10 years old when I bought it last year, it had a mere 1000hrs on it and was in pretty much ex demo condition- had sat in a barn doing very little for the last decade- Very very hard to find stuff like this to be honest.

I take it you hop the digger on and off that trailer! Bent back end lip etc.

Iv done a fair bit of river bank revetment work in the past using alder trunks (which last well in water) I drove down timber poles a good 5ft into the riverbed and then secured the Alder trunks behind. I then used HI tensile wire to bind the trunks to the poles so they didn’t float away come high water. Worked well and backfilled behind with soil and willow so the willow would grow in and take binding the bank together.

Plus if you encounter any drifting the ifor will soon bog you down with little chance of backing out due to auto reverse brakes etc.

Cheers! That one went straight over my head!

? Sorry not sure what you mean!

word spreads fast! Yeah nearly had to abandon Landy going up from Dousland cos of the drifts. Got to go back in the morning with my tractor to pull a freelancer out of the ditch! some serious drifting on the open moor!

It will never be temporary ownership Beau- once you have one you’ll find yourself creating jobs for it. Circa 3 tonner will handle most stuff and still get into tight working areas- but generally hold their value as very desirable because they can be towed, you’ll get more machine for you money the bigger you go. if you want any help looking at any give me a ring-

Basically the auxiliary (hammer) lines on my digger are operated on buttons on the left hand joystick- there is no proportional control. The boom swing control is operated by a pedal which I also find a little awkward- I find myself using the boom swing a lot and find the pedal clumsy. Can I just swap the hoses over on the main valve block so that the boom swing is controlled by the buttons on the joystick and auxiliaries are on the pedal? Or is it not as simple as this... different flow rates etc? i run a post knocker of the digger and am about to buy a tilting bucket which I’d prefer to have proportional control over- hence pedal.

I don’t claim to be an expert on this, but from my experience a flail will leave a better finish and less likely to get bogged down by thick long growth- they are more expensive though. a chain swipe is great for bracken and little self seeders etc but think flail would be the better tool for brambles-rushes.

Yep biting wind as Beau says, but I’ll take that anyway over rain- I love the fact that the ground is turning dusty now due to no rain for a week or more. Abominable winter we have had, can’t stand the thought of any more rain and looking forwards to some good long spells of Spring sunshine. Yes?!

For me as I work mainly on my own. The biggest hassle at MOT time is getting the truck there and then either getting home/ to work and then repeat when the truck is ready- I do a fair bit of repair work to my Landy when it’s needed but when it comes to MOT, I don’t want it back untill it’s passed.

Just aske my swedish wife- says it means forestworker!

Some things can be overgreased though, slew bearing on a digger for example- too much grease will push out the seals causing dirt ingress etc, bucket pins and the like, more grease is good as it pushes out any dirt. i like that grease gun though- the problem I always have with manual ones is when changing over a cartridge I always seem to struggle to get grease to come out for a while- possibly air locked or something- does that dewalt make it easy?

http://ricoeurope.com/ i get mine from these chaps- always get there nice and quick and easy to order- can also get them from them through Amazon.

You sound like you run your buisness in a very similar model to myself, I also do mainly Agri fencing and digger based works. Work mainly on my own through choice as i sooner put my investments into better machinery than staff- I’m also just under the VAT threshold, although I may put an end to that this year as I think I will be better of registered. I tend to price reasonably competitively but price directly reflects whether I like the job/customer or not! If I get hagglers, they generally get put to the back of my priority list- I’m lucky enough that I have enough decent customers without wasting time with this sort of thing. I have no problem discussing pricing and alternatives solutions to reduce costs if that’s what they want- but I’d never reduce my price just to get a job or because so and so is cheaper as I generally only put in a quote which I thing is acceptable enough to do a good job and not have to rush like a fool.

Carfull, that ride hand doors hinge pins have nearly worked their way out- always doing it on our Stovax.

Up in the Cotswolds Gloucestershire at the mo but didn’t feel a thing!

Fawtly towers and the office are my two fave British comedies so far, inbetweeners was good too. i don’t generally like US comedies- can’t stand the laughter track for one thing, but the humour is a bit obvious and basic compared to the British stuff. Although used to love King of Queens.

Cheques do my head in. I live 20 mins from the nearest bank, it costs a couple of quid to park, that is if I manage to find anywhere, v rarely go into town anyway. Really if people want to pay by cheque I should add on 2 hours of my time to cash it- time lost! Most folk seem to pay Bacs though thank God. I wait about 14 days before I start hassling them for payment. Had a few Jokers who have managed to drag it out for months, one was for £4K and only way I could get payment was to accept in instalments and caused me some stress at the time. This kind of agro is the kind that makes me want to cease trading and the associated hassle.

Hope you’ve got good eyesight Eddie- can barely see the log out there! Superb.