Matthew Storrs

Hats off to anyone who can handle a micro digger- got to be the hardest of all surely?? I hired one a while back and was fairly embarrising on it to start with:blushing: i think its the lack of wristrests or something!

Best way, i always think trying to communicate with others where to position the stone/dumper/whatever over the noise of machinery slows things down if anything, you get into a zone when your on your own and in pactise jumping from one machine to the other takes seconds anyway.

Sounds good and nice to just turn up on an ongoing job with the machine all ready and waiting for you everyday- no bother. Going to take the plunge this year, sell my tractor and fund an 8 tonner, there is the liklihood that it will sit idle at times but will open up quite a few doors for me and will be nice to leave it on big jobs whilst i whizz around with the three tonner doing bread and butter jobs.

Have you still got your 8 tonner Stephen- and if so do you use ut as much as you thought yopu would when you brought it? I'm similar to you by the sounds of it- in that alot of my stuff could be done with backhoe rather than carting 2 other machines to the job. i bet its tough though this time of year keeping a backhoe busy its so flipping wet everywhere:laugh1:

I have seen a few volvo BL70s around at reasonably realistic money- I get tempted every now and again purely for portable power and mainly to assist with larger stone walling projects i get- but to be honest the contractors i mentioned earlier have pretty much got the local market nailed for backhoe work and for good reason- their work is bang on. so gonna keep the 3 tonner and get an 8 ton 360 for the longer term projects- every one needs to findtheir niche.

Interestingly- i don't really find this the case, i pretty much run my buisness off a 3 ton digger towed by 4x4. However local contractors to me run a pair of Cat/JCB Backhoes, they can turn up with one machine with out any of the hassle of loading/unloading, finding somewhere to put the truck and trailer and then having the loader on the front allows them to do even small earth shifting tasks which would normally mean i have to get a dumper in. Id say for small jobs in particular the JCB is still king especially given the considerable extra digging depth/power they have compared to sub 3 ton (towable) minis. Access permitable of course and i wouldn't fancy taking a 3cx accross a steep clay hillside:laugh1:

Iv got a few small cartilagey lumps in my knuckles as a result of hawthorn/blackthorn stabs years ago. scar tissue i guess. I once had to o to the docs in the midlle of the night cos my thumb had gone a kind of greenish colour under the nail- proper painful and they had to drill throuh the nail to release all the green stuff- yuk, i hate dealing with blackthorn these days.

This isn't entirely true- you can have a TV in the physical sense but must prove you have no means of recieving or recording broadcasted televeison.

Do you have the equipment ie aerial etc to recieve TV, If so them im afraid you require a license. We didn't have TV for 5 years (pure bliss) and had no aerial just watched DVDs. they kept threating to come round to check but never did- usually they send a few reminder letters first.

My colleague runs a TD5 discovery- it doesn't pull my digger any better than my 300tdi. Its not re-mapped though. The beauty of the landrover is at least you can travel on the road in Low box without the diffs being locked- youy will certainly need it for hill starts!

I pull my 2.8ton Takeuchi with my 300tdi hicap allt the time- i,m on Dartmoor and it does puff going up the hills- but slow and steady wins the race- interstingly i have had very few breakdowns as a result and have had this digger for a few years now. I usually have around 300-500kg of buckets and attachments in the pickup bed- i find this provides usefull ballast and helps traction if it gets a bit gritty or wet leaves etc. I would crack on if i were you - they won't pull it fast but are more than cappable of doing so but good trailer brakes are a must.

Nowt wrong with quantock- many contractors run them round here and they are well built.Congrats on your purchase Philip- let us know how you get on with it, a tracked machine has got to be the ultimate machine really if you are fencing alot. Protech are good value for money- I have one of there digger mounted one and is good for the money- but got to say the Wrag on on my tractor is much better built- just small things like tidier welds and good paint job etc.

Have to agree- i could never understand why the defender wasn't built as standard with a galv chassis- I always imagined they secretly wanted them to rust out otherwise who would buy a new one. Then again people still buy new ifor trailers...

RIP indeed- sad day for BBC radio. For those who live in the Devon area- Tony Beard from BBC radio Devon (and generally legendary Devonian)- has also passed away at a similar age.

Nothing stopping you anymore than me moving to southern France or somwhere:thumbup1:

Different people, different approaches dependingly ultimately what your long term goal is. There is and will always be an elemant of risk with expanding a buisness (eg your need currently to upgrade to a larger chipper/ taking on staff etc). I would say if you can make do with your current setup and see how it goes for the time being- I have brought big kit 'for a job' in the past with the hope of it generating more work- the right work never came along and the machine sat in the yard whilst i was ticking along with the old setup- for which there is a lot to be said- less stress being the main thing, perhaps being able to pick and choose work a bit more as you don't have the same financial burden. Iv been running my fencing buisness for 7 years now and have been lucky that i have had regular work and customers- all my spare cash has been piled back to by new kit etc, i'm not a pushy type and I don't have much desire to be much bigger (in terms of investments/kit) than i am now and personally i am quite happy with that.

Well done Paul, A big move no doubt but how exciting- Out of interest do you speak Swedish and if not do you think that will hinder you getting work? Is your girlfriend Swedish I ask as my wife is from Norrkopping, 1.5 hours west of Stockholm or so, we would like to move back to Sweden, and I'd love to but do worry about getting work as i don't speak a word of Swedish really. Anyway, best of luck with it all.

Just moving off the moors would be a start- so often its pishing down and misty up in Princetown but drive 7 miles away in any direction off the moor and its a different world, we often consider moving to the south hams, kingsbridge/totnes or somewhere, better weather, better terrain and for me fencing no doubt more profitable

The thing is- i wouldn't mind sitting out Nov/Dec/Jan and just doing enough to keep ticking over if i knew we would be in for a good spring/summer where there was lengths of decent weather bathing in warm sunshine and the ground dried but even that thought is an unknown quantity and we could easily face ongoing rains well into summer. Iv got to agree- you can be as positive as you like and no doubt thats good for your mental health if anything but it doesn't help with the practicalities of earning a living, I'd like to emigrate but likely the grass is always greener springs to mind. Quite honestly i don't even mind ongoing bad weather too much if it didn't effect my work/living- so don't know what folk in offices have to moan about- not that i'd swap places with them:laugh1:

Good idea Jon- perhaps we should start a hovercraft hiring buisness:thumbup1: the future i reckon lookingg at the forecast

Starting to get a bit fed up with the weather too- can just about get into fields to do fencing jobs but usually by the time the job is done its looking like a quagmire:thumbdown: Not only that but everything takes so much longer when your working in welly deep mud most of the time. Always thinking of other ways to earn money with out having to rely on te weather.....

Don't compete with them then, you are not a handyman are you?? I think a professional laid out invoice with payment details and a basic set of T&Cs does wonders to make your buisness like a decent going concern:thumbup1: I invoice (via email) usually within a week of job completion, usually get paid within a week from domestic- commercial up to 6 weeks.

It the end of an era for sure and i for one am sad about it. I speak as i find and my Landrover (300tdi hicap) has been like my rock for the past 7 years having seen other machines and vehicles come and go. How many Jap vehicles are still tugging a 3 ton digger around regularly at nearly 20 years of age with minimal downtime.

yes, impressive on a small tractor.