Matthew Storrs

If you take a bog standard 8 tonner, what kind of job and cost would be in involved equipping it with wide tracks like you had on your Kubota, and would you say the machine also had its limitations simply because of the tracks. For example, working on rough rocky ground is it easy to damage the tracks? Thanks

This is interesting what you say about springs or lack of in peat. When digging the open ditches I'd keep opening up pockets of stinking water which would gush out down the trench, 12 months on many of them are still running (albeit reduced in flow) despite dry months. The trenches were dug down to the hard stuff so I think they are springs? Funny thing is though I can put a land drain in deep with a good mass of drainage stone and pipe in Terran. But if there is a 'spring' 1 meter to one side of the drain it still remains localised boggy. The peat has almost zero permeability. In one are next to a bridge crossing it was all so boggy I dug out all the peat down to the hard growan, put in a surface of 1ft drainage stone over which also incorporated pipes, sandwiched in Terram than replaced half the Peat. Just did that 2 days ago so will be interesting to see it on a few weeks...

That looks fantastic Eddie. Like the 'name' too! equipped with an arsenal of speacialist attachments no doubt? Won't you struggle without your LGP Kubota on the moorlands?

Yes, I'd prefer the bar and shuvholer approach. A 7ft rabbiting spade is my tool of choice for manual Holes. Saves yer back leaning over and gives good leaverage

What are the ford F series trucks like to get parts? Love an F250, it would piss the 3.5t!

Funnily enough the gorse was confined to the few localised dry areas, it's been a pig of a job but I've learnt a lot about draining peat ground. I dug big open ditches when I started to just get rid of the water bogs but customer wanted them buried so had to resort to land drains which I dug 4ft down to catch the springs coming up through the bed roc/growan. Had machine bogged several times, every bucketful making the ground wobble for about a 6meter circle. Generally lay several sleepers ahead of me when digging the drains. Could have done with Eddie and his LGP machine:thumbup:

My two on a job. The nearer one is my new (to me) digger and was a real find. 10 years old but literally as near as new condition as you could get. stored in some blokes barn and only used on the odd job![ATTACH]222522[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]222523[/ATTACH] The job they are on is a land improvement project I started a year ago- it used to be the most boggy ground (deep peat) you could imagine and covered with willow and gorse. Slowly getting there putting in land drains etc

I use a Landrover defender 110 hi cap pickup for exactly the same application. I can carry a 2.8t digger on trailer plus have a load of tools/digger attachments or whatever in the pickup bed too. The pickup bed takes upto 200 meters of fencing materials- posts wire etc. I've been using this setup like this for 8 years now and Landy has had suprisingly few breaksdowns despite towing that kind of weight regularly, and the hills round here are dreadful! I'd quite like a land cruiser simply for the 4.2l engine but £££ and defender parts are easy to get hold of over here and easy to fix.

I was in a defender that was doing exactly this the other day- also a 2.4 engine. It belonged to the National park. I'm sure he said it was a split hose that was the cause- not sure what hose he meant though sorry!

Wander. Not wonder!

Concreted in 9" deep? What's the application for that out of interest? Reference auger size- the hole invariably end up being slightly wider than the auger. A lot depends on ground conditions- in good firm ground an 8" auger would be fine- if its softer perhaps up to 12". I use a 12 " most of the time for post and rail- having the hole a little bigger allows for leeway if the posts need to be precisely placed. Augers can "wonder' on rocks causing a big hole. Sorry not hugely helpful- if they do a 10" that would probably be good for most scenarios.

0.45p is not going to cover costs. It'll cover diesel but that's about it. Tyre wear/ extra servicing costs and wear and tear will all come out of your own pocket. I pay someone £1 a mile when he uses his own truck to tow a trailer to the job sometimes. So for a job 15 miles away I'd pay £30 extra. I'd feel cheeky paying any less then that to be honest as I know he would ultimately making up the short fall in the long run. A truck should be the same as any other machine hired out to do a job in my opinion- you cover the costs and make a bit extra on top for profit.

As in using your own truck to help someone else out at work? Don't think 45p a mile would cover any more than diesel if that- certainly not if towing

Isuzu grafter tows 3.5t too- I'm told it does it well too...

I get odd ringing in my ears every now and again- comes and goes but generally only lasts a few seconds at a time. Iv started wearing ear muffs when I'm doing road journeys in the tractor now. im only 29 but going to be pretty careful from now on I think. Smashing rocks with crowbars always hurts my ears.

Double acting is a cylinder which will push and pull using hydraulic power both ways- e.g. A log splitter ram. A single acting ram pushes one way only and allows gravity of the implement to push the cylinder shut again- like a tipping trailer. If you are working a single cylinder you need to use a single acting circuit so that the oil can flow unrestricted back to the tank when the cylinder closes- if you used a double acting circuit you would hear the pump straining as it try's to force fluid into a ram which is countering with oil being tried to flow back On the Tak tb016 there is a tap/lever outside on the front of the cab next to the king post/ switching this will change from a single acting circuit to a double acting. I hope I have explained the above ok!? Eddies right though- I think you might find it a faff coupling a hose every time you want to tip and then having to have the standard 12v system for your truck anyway.

I haven't even read his final thread, but il stick up for Jon- iv met him on several occasions and helped out with a job he had on etc- top bloke and very honest which is all you can ask of anyone. It's a shame with Internet forums- as generally you don't really know anyone until you have met them.

If the auxiliaries were set to single acting- I don't why there would be a problem with pressure relief or dead ending. It'd work just like the post rammer I use on mine. I think!

That's disgraceful if true. Talk about taking advantage of the atrocity. As bad as the lawyers who will no doubt be rubbing their hands in glee.

Thanks Axel. I notice my local dealer has started stocking it- I'm going to get a bottle and see how we go. I don't actually use a huge amount of 2 stroke these days but still a lot of stop start work which always seem to make the saw fume more on each start up.

That price doesn't include Vat and you have to but your own pipes and doesn't look like tungsten tipped bit either- I wouldn't say it was a great price TBH Last unit I bought (admittedly 3 years ago) was an x2500 with cradle hitch 12" and 6" auger with tungsten tips- pipes and everything except flat face couplings for little more than £1600 all in- straight from Augertorque. Edit- sorry they do have tungsten tips on that link- might be worth phong Augertorque direct even so..

Sorry Richy- I should have mentioned about the cradle hitch to you before you bought, as you say a must. Glad it's serving you well though. Keith your tb230 will probably take the x3000 if you are after big holes 12" plus- augertorque know their stuff though so will advise better.

Augertorque all day long mate. Iv had 2 on different machines and both have been faultless in tough ground they get used in. I have the x2500 model which I run with a 12" auger. Reasonably priced too

It's like all these things- eye protection, sun cream, mask, if really only takes a minute to apply and probably well worth it. I'm a little bit hot on this kind of thing this evening having just come back from a job slightly sunburnt and (most likely) creosote dust in my eyes!

Iv literally just ordered a draper twin filter mask of amazon. It gets good reviews and not bad at £26.99. I did think about full face mask but have ordered goggles seperatly so I don't always have to wear them. Been cutting a few telegraph poles up today and no proper mask until customer lent me one. Will always keep on in truck now for these kind of occasions.