Matthew Storrs
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Everything posted by Matthew Storrs
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Yes I’d agree. I always say Dartmoor isn’t wilderness but it is wild country. Not really sure of the correct term for wilderness but in my mind certainly not somewhere you can walk across in a day, I love Dartmoor though for its desolation- on the north moor it may not have the mountains and fells of other places in the uk but I always get the feeling of solitary that I don’t feel in other national parks- generally the masses stick to honeypots and even on a busy bank holiday you can walk for hours-all day without barely seeing a soul. just watching Ray Mears how the West was one in the Mohave desert- that’s wilderness to me, Alaska, Australia
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I was lazy and just bolted a towball to the blade- it works but hinders bucket to blade clean up operations. I think the best way would be to cut a square out of the blade then weld a bit of box section behind the blade so that it’s flush at the front- then have a smaller bit of box with the ball on that can slide into the blade secured with a drop pin in the back- if that makes any sense!
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Works well towing a trailer with mini digger. I often put a 10ft Ifor behind my 3tonner and stack it up with timber as I go- not for gardens but was just the job on a old railway line I cleared of timber.
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Wish I hadn’t sold it- curse myself all the time! Apparently it got nicked of that estate- a chap (your old boss?) phoned me asking for serial numbers?
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Yes, there’s a world of difference between jobs that generally tend to be in rural areas- large accessible gardens and grounds and generally more tolerable of a bit of scuffing on the grass etc. IMO most machines of real capabilities tend to be aimed more at this market- parks, estates and big gardens. Finding a machine that is going to be useful in a small back garden with a manicured lawn is a tall order and myself I’d be looking at something small, light and cheapish-such as a muck truck/tracked barrow. for the bigger areas seeing as you already have the tractor setup a digger will add another dimension of use over any of the articulated loaders etc. Handy in the yard too.
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What about 1.7ton digger- much cheaper to buy over a 2.5(particularly if buying new) and will lift 300kg (200 at full reach). But perhaps the best bit for you is that with expanding tracks you can get the thing to under a meter wide. Can feed chippers. You could add a small tracked dumper /barrow if required and tow it all on the same trailer- keeping it under 2.5. i used to have the Takeuchi TB016 and this was a belting machine- regularly used to clear up massive wind blown Beeches with it. picking up 4ft rings etc. not as much loading height as bigger kit but depends what your loading into- Ifors are ideal.
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I have absolutely no idea what any of you are on about! I must be leading a very sheltered life as iv never heard or bitcoin or Crptcoin. Google here I come.!
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Oh yes, most definitely! Actually I once phoned up VOSA and asked exactly what would I have to do to run my tractor all above board as a contractor, basically it would have to be reregisterd non Ag then treated much like running a 7.5t on a restricted operators license. Iv never heard of anyone actually doing this mind but I think running on white is probably safest bet and also keep maintenance records to prove you are keeping your tractor in a roadworthy condition. None of this is really enforced until you have an incident of some kind then it all may come crashing down around you!
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It’s a fair point- I know that tractors and backhoes have drawbacks in terms of speed- but just playing devils advocate here as recently I have been giving this a bit of thought, a loaded truck and trailer isn’t exactly quick either, on top of this you have to load it all up at the yard, unload it at site, risk not getting truck and trailer across a wet field then find somewhere to put truck, plus all over again at the end of the day. A tractor whilst slower on the road will probably make up the time through saving the faffing around with unloading etc. Its always that thing of trying to find a machine that has as many uses as possible, particularly in this game as jobs and sites vary so much from day to day
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Did you see the price of the 1cxt? I’m fairly sure they are well north of £40k
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There is a lot to be said for sticking with conventional tractor or compact if space is limiting. every now and again I get myself all excited about getting one of these ‘specialist’ machines- alpine tractor, avant or whatever but by the time I have bought it, got all the scaled down attachments and then factored in having to tow it about with a truck and trailer I’m better of with a smallish 4x4 standard tractor that can get itself to the job with attachments leaving truck freed up for other things. Micro machines (nice as they are)are really only worth having if you are on micro sites a lot.
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Yes size and probably more likely weight would be an issue. They weigh best part of 10 ton on relatively small front wheels, so best kept to hard ground to avoid mess and ruts. I reckon they’d make a great yard machine though. Proper good at loader work and pushing into stuff again because of the weight behind them. i always keep a loose eye on the market- I reckon if a 4cx or equivalent with equal wheels came up locally I’d take a good look at it- that’s for my stonewalling work I do- still grab work.
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Iv often thought a wheeled digger could make a good tool for site tree work- loader on front for chip, brash over distance. Arm on the back with rotator for timber work-chipper feeding. A good operator could make very efficient use of one.
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Definitely digger with rotating grab then- uv got 360 degree in the grab and 360 on the machine- means a lot less moving around- if your on more sensitive sights you can track in straight lines and let the rotating bits do all the work to save the ground a bit. The loaders will lift more undoubtedly for their size, but IMO they look pretty numb for feeding chippers etc. theyre also good at doing site work,levelling chip and pulling trees over, with the blade down they make a nice controlled ‘winch’, plucking smaller stumps out etc etc. 2.6ton is ideal if it’s more sites than gardens and can still tow behind truck.
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Using for what? Spinning timber around from a to b, brash handling/bonfires etc, digging I’d say mini digger. If it’s moving larger timbers over distance and more subtle on lawns than a loader may be better option... All I will say is I pretty much run my buisness of the back of a 3 ton digger due to its versatility with various attachments for my countryside services buisness. I can use it to clear scrub load fires with its grab. I run augers and post knockers of it for fencing and get loads of ditch cleaning work, landscaping projects too. So for me it is the ultimate Swiss Army knife. I’d like a loader, but I don’t consider them heavy duty enough for a lot of the terrain and application I would require them for so find a traditional agri tractor better suited- perhaps better value too? but like I say depends what you want to do with it.
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Mini digger cone splitters for oversized roundwood
Matthew Storrs replied to SamWhiting12's topic in Firewood forum
It’s like the stump planers that Augertorque do- to me they look quite impressive for a minimal outlay- spoke to them about it and the chap said 8 ton machine would be the minimum but surely if my auger has the power to grind a 12” hole though a 5 inch concrete pad it would have no problem shaving a stump down with the knives it has? I see that they say it will fit any machine 1-5 ton so perhaps the bloke on the phone got it wrong.... -
Mini digger cone splitters for oversized roundwood
Matthew Storrs replied to SamWhiting12's topic in Firewood forum
Hi Richy. No I have never seen one in action or video. Obviously there are plenty of dedicated cone splitters which seem to work well even on smaller machines- I can’t see why the augertorque ‘conversion’ would be any different as essentially they are all just hydraulic motors powering the cone which of course is exactly what an auger is- with gearing etc . I’m tempted too mainly as another service I could offer with my machine. I don’t think they are big money if you already have the auger drive. -
Mini digger cone splitters for oversized roundwood
Matthew Storrs replied to SamWhiting12's topic in Firewood forum
Plenty of videos on you tube- should give you an idea of their capabilities. Admittedly most seem to be on 2.5t plus machines. Have you looked at Augertorque. They make auger drives where you can replace the auger flight for a cone splitter. Could be a way of getting 2 machines in one if you have any need for a hole auger too (planting fencing etc) -
Agree- I hate doing anything by the hour myself- too easy for the customer to start quibbling over things- tea breaks, time doing something to a machine etc. what they don’t often realise is the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes before you even do the job.
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Yes, when I was still doing tree work I think in 6 years I got asked as many times if I could deal with the stump! I do understand that they are machines with perhaps a limited life span compared with other kit and it’s not easy on the machine but just surprised how much people seem happy to pay to get rid of a stump. Im always thinking of machines where you could command a premium- but generelly if you can charge very good money then likely its either a scarcity job or an unpleasant one. If it’s scarcity then surely your going to have to be chasing around trying to find enough work. I don’t really agree with the idea that you’d have to charge more to cover machine cost simply because the machine is sat in the yard a lot of the time rather than out earning its keep- you either have the work for it or not.
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I always says fair play if you can get it- and obviously people seem to, but even at £450 it works out at about £55 an hour for a full day which is more than I recently paid for a lorry and grab on a job carting granite for £52 per hour. It was a new 130k lorry with overheads to boot, the bloke was running several lorries and knew his buisness. I felt like i got good value for the work achieved. But the profit mark up on stump grinding must surely be huge?
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I have next to no experience with stump grinders so I ask these questions out of genuine curiosity. From some of the prices quoted on this thread I’m wondering what it is that makes a stump grinding so expensive. £600/£800 for a days work with one bloke and a machine? How much do these machines cost in the first place and what is their useful service lifespan? Im guessing a scarcity value for the top of the range machine and I get that teeth need replacing but seems quite high compared to say a bloke with a 13 tonner costing £70k and generally between 3-400 a day or myself with a 3 ton machine a lot less again.. same with a tracked chipper- itd have to be some bit of kit- thinking crane fed job to be getting north of £600 a day with one bloke....
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Hi Josh. Nothing to do with Brexit but Out of interest how did you go about learning Swedish, did you move there already knowing some or did you pick it up once you moved there? We are considering moving to Sweden, my wife is Swedish but I can speak very little, feel like every time I visit I pick it up quite quickly when I’m there..
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Lastly Corn snake called ‘Snakey’
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And Matilda the Boa.
