Matthew Storrs
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Everything posted by Matthew Storrs
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Looking good, and love the owl, not sure about the dragon at the front- perhaps a little penis shaped for a tea room?? apologies- that sounded like i was being rude- it is no doubt work in progress. Will follow with interest
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I'm so so sorry to hear this news, Paul regularly sent me emails often going out of his way to help with queries I had both on this forum and another fencing forum. I never met him unfortunately but he was undoubtedly a conscientious chap always happy to help others as you say. I'm sure you and your family have many happy memories to hold onto and once again very sorry for your loss. Matt
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Good to hear. What is the 3rd line for- most screening buckets seem like they run off standard double circuit?
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That really is a formidable looking machine Eddie- seeing the shear next to the van puts it in perspective how big it is. Scraggs- i assume you have now taken delivery of your TB230 then? How are your first impressions?
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Couldn't have happened to a nicer chap. Always had really good advice/tips from Goaty- so heal quick mate and hope to meet you in person one day:thumbup1:
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Depending on your definition of poorly. I'd reckon a 2 man team (inc owner as climber) with a transit and chipper working 220 days a year at £350 per day could pay the groundie somewhere between £20-25k and climber/business owner taking home around £35k a year after business expenses Yeah ok your not going to be rich but even so not a bad living wage surely? Less staff& less kit=less hassle so again just depends on folks expectations from a buisness
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This is true- but it can work out just as badly for a tractor on the same scenario you describe. I believe you need to hold records of maintenance done or proof that you have kept it in a roadworthy condition. I bet most don't and run more on the basis of when it breaks it gets fixed. Tractors are also not cheep torunning on the road, you can easily lose £3-4K plus on a set of tyres, and even if running on red you'd be lucky to be doing better than 8mpg (MOgs may differ?) £3k to change a wet clutch etc etc. Basically in answer to the OP there is no ideal setup, just work with what you have until you get a better idea of what your work requires then go from there because everyone probably thinks their setup is the best!
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Sizing is all NATO so can be tricky to determine online. I go for 180 height and 100 chest. I think you are similar size to me? It's probably a little on the roomy size but not overly so and leaves nice amount of room for a jumper in winter. Another good thing about them is the hood will come right over you helmet and earmuffs which saves a cold trickle down the back of your neck. I think they are really good jackets epeacially at that price
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I've had that same jacket for over 5 years. Absolutely brilliant- always dry and is tough. We get over 2000mm rain a year here so I wear it a lot! It just bought the RAF one (cos I don't like camo if I can help it) which is longer but no hood-
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It's tricky because once you go down the route of big jobs. You generally price yourself out of the smaller ones. Using Tom as an example. His Valtra won't fit down an alleyway, so he either has to also have a narrow access outfit (which in turn needs to have the regular work) or he doesn't entertain the job and let's the smaller outfits do what they do best. I speak from slightly bitter experience in that I have in the past bought bigger kit because I had a lot of work for it at the time, all was great and then a turn in different kind of jobs rendered the machine sitting in the yard for a few months at a time. That was in part laziness on my part as cos I had work I didn't push for machine specific jobs which I guess you should do really.
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Your preaching to the choir mate:001_smile: I probably have invested about £100k worth of kit, some jobs I can beast others I can't, I have equipped myself according to my workload I'm a big believer in having the right gear for the job- no point struggling with inferior equipment, but I also believe that every setup has its place. My point though was that not everyone's aspirations are the same. Some are happy pottering around with a fairly modest setup with modest jobs lots of tea breaks and early finishes. On the other hand you can have the mega bucks kit, but if you don't have the right kind of jobs it's not going to pay for itself let alone turn a decent profit. I bet there's blokes out there who are making more profit with truck and cs100 per outlay than the big tree eating machines.
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its only worth having a big chipper if you have the right jobs for it. In the example that Kevin posted, yes a bigger chipper may have meant an earlier finish but if you only have that job booked for the day and you are still earning the money the benefit of the larger chipper is lost. It's not always easy to fit another job in at 3pm. What I'm saying is what is the best combination for one business maybe completely inappropriate for another. A 7.5lorry or tow behind chipper would not be my personal choice id sooner a go anywhere outfit and get jobs to suit.
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Growan is what we refer to here on Dartmoor as the decomposing granite. Basically a broken down granite silt which tends to lie under the Peat here. I use Growan to dress national park footpaths as it's a local product so blends in well but also once the clay type particles are washed out of it (usually after a few rain falls) it makes a very good all in one substrate for footpaths and tracks that naturally compacts well. I'm sure other granite areas of the country call it by a different name?
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Doubt you'll be short of volunteers Eddie! Let the bidding commence! I too look forwards to video footage if poss:thumbup:
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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
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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...
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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?
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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
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What are the ford F series trucks like to get parts? Love an F250, it would piss the 3.5t!
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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:
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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
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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.
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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!
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Wander. Not wonder!
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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.
