Matthew Storrs

I was well impressed with the Timber wolf, loved the 4 big roller springs and the wide hopper. I think it willbe a big hit. Well done TW!

No, unfortunately could only really spare the one day. Shame really as I found myself skimping past some of it through lack of time.

We went up in the car, its good grass and as losing as it doesn't rain I can't see there being a problem.

Oops, forgive me, for some reason I thought treeshirtz was a seperate company in its own right.

Call me blind, but I was at the timber wolf stand at 20 past 1 and could see no sign of an arbtalk stand? I saw the timber wolf cabin and the treeshirtz one on the otherside... Also anyone else get invited into the Biber tent- get given a free beer and nibbles and then left to go on your way without the slightest attempt at a sales pitch from them? I woukd buy one of their chippers just for that:lol: Good beer it was too.

Yes, I agree, sure it was a lovely truck but really 46k +vat? I don't care how good they may be you could buy 2 new landies and still have change or it would buy a lot of unimog too. Crazy price.

Lovely digger Steve, just like my old one, really hankering after another one. No doubt Doobin is right, some wheels would probably be a sensible option- even one wheel under neath like a giant castor wheel would relieve the digger of some weight, but when I used to think what my digger was put through it never seemed to die. Great machines! I really like the trailer that Eddie posted a while back, the blue Swedish one with a hardox body- great combo for a three toner I reckon!

I wonder what sort of undue strain you put on a mini diggers track motors by towing, anyone know? I probably tow up to 1.5-2t with my 3 tonner, used to tow about a ton with the TB016, you could hear the hydraulic pump groaning a bit more than just doing regular operations, so I do try to minimize the strain when towing.

Yes, I'm ashamed to admit, in my haste to bolt my tow ball on, I knackered a 16mm drillbit in the process, it started off quite quick (it was a brand new bit) by the second hole it was painfully slow- in fact I drained a battery on one hole! I think keeping it cool is probably the trick?

Well my ball is mounted high up on the doze blade, if I need to pull a truck I choke a sling/strop round the trunk then put it on the ball and lift the blade, does OK, but I only use it for that ocassionly, I use it far more for shunting trailers around, mainly setting out fencing stakes around a field, I lift a bundle of 80 fencing stakes on to the trailer and just shuttle around the field knocking n the stakes with the post rammer on the digger as I pull the trailer behind, works well!

Iv got a ball bolted straight on to the dozer blade, 16mm holes took some drilling with a cordless drill! I thought about having a ball and pin type too but just went for ball as I can't see the pin doing much that you can't do with a ball, takes up less space on the blade and was quite a bit cheaper to buy.

Iv used car filler (the type you mix with hardener) to fix gate hangings into a granite gatepost, Mega strong and a 12ft wooden gate is still hanging of it a few years later, hole was drilled about 2-3 inches deep, filled it with filler, put in the hanger and pack round with more filler, leave 20 mins to harden- job done. It works out much cheeper than these other branded chemical anchors I have found and is much the same thing.

The thing with track chippers is they totally change the way you work a lot of the time, so many jobs I used to do with mine would nvolve taking the hopper of, go through a 3ft gate, getting the machine next to the tree and chip on site- worked out considerably cheaper for the customer and far less ball ache for us. When it came to taking chip away, well, you just work with it, landy would happily tow the loaded chipper on a trailer with a full load of chip, if it was a big job, tow the chipper to the job in a trailer, chip into trailer go and empty and come back for the machine later. I also got plenty of jobs in woodlands- clearing scrub etc where you just couldn't get a tow behind, or at least not without a lot of hassle. Definiatly not suggesting its the perfect machine for everyone but for my kind of work it was spot on, I'm currently hiring a tow behind chipper s and when I need it and truth be told I find it a little irritating having been used to a tracked machine for the last 3 years. Hope that helps Swinny!

I do my tractor (insured at 20k) through trust, very helpful and costs me £630 3rd party fire and theft, it would be a lot cheaper if it was just 3rd party, I tried lycetts but they weren't at all helpful and said they couldn't insure it.

Ha ha so true, I always find someone trying to assist in reversing procedures a bit chuckle brothers.

That's sounds crazy, I bet people who can do work to such a high standard with skills which must have taken years to acquire are probably far and few between. I'd have thought you'd be worth 3x that, its sad really if that isn't the case. Still if your enjoying the firewood and you get your main/regular income with that you could try being a bit bolder with your pricing on the furniture making side?

I used to have a tracked timberwolf- miss it so much on a lot of jobs, you just don't have the versatility with a tow behind, trying to reverse a tow behind up a rutted woodland track is a nightmare no matter how good you are, the smallest root or rut throughs it off course. The only problem I had with the tracked setup was you had to find somewhere else to put the trailer on jobs- which could be a pain in certain situations but the pros far outweighed the cons. Didn't even find the extra weight too much of a problem to tow around with the land and a full load of chip.

The last few jobs we've done, its been so tight for space that we have to unhitch it (on fairly rough ground) just to be able to turn the vehicles around. 2 of us just managed to move a timber wolf 150 around on the rough but not sure we'd have managed a bigger one. I often find this is the case with jobs, also sometimes its just quicker to unhitch the chipper and wheel it back into its position rather than trying to reverse it- particularly with the chip box on. Or maybe I'm just crap at reversing:lol: a 16ft I for is so much easier than a little chipper.

Me? Yes I do, and there is a lot going for the 750kg chipper, ease of manhandling, cheaper to buy, and if you keep everything thicker than 3-4" for logs then you may not benefit form an 8" chipper as much. My above post meant that if your business would actually benefit from having a bigger chipper- why would you let a simple trailer test stand in the way. You'll soon forget the cost of doing it and reap the benefits of being able to utilize it. Of course the problem with having a bigger chipper is you can only fill up your truck just as much as a smaller one would, so in essense a 750kg makes a very good partnership with a 3.5t tipper anyway.

I can't understand anyone who would buy a 750kg chipper just because they don't have a trailer license. For the sake of 600 quid and a few days, you will have the option to be more productive with a bigger chipper for years to come, also what about towing a trailer load of rings.... IMO anyone doing tree work should consider +E as essential as your cs tickets. I used to run the risk towing without my trailer license but I feel soo much better now I have it and also have no limits up to 3.5kg trailers.

Some landies are rated at 3500kg (most 130s and some 110s) which gives you a fair bit more payload compared to most pickups which are usually rated at around 3000kg. When you say truck do you mean Japanese pickup or the transit type tippers? Landys have obvious offroading advantages over both but particularly transits which are non existent of road. Landies are narrower than transits and a 3500kg one will probably have a greater legal payload. On the other hand they are pretty limited for tool space unless you make provisions for it, ie roof box or some sort of toolbox mounted on the tipper bed. All comes down to what sort of work you get really.

Its all luck of the draw- particularly at that sort of money, that is exactly how much my landy cost me and it has been 100% reliable for 6 years now. On the other hand you can buy a shiny pickup for that sort of money and it ends up being a right money pit.

Sorry Beau, it does indeed look finished, I looked at it a second time and realised but I had posted by then! How many hours do you reckon it took you to do that?

Wow- that's some serious skills you've got there, love the grain too, what will it get finished with varnish?

On the subject of making the most of hardwood whilst its around I can't understand why more isn't being planted. Last week I went into one of Dartmoors main 'managed' forests where a recently felled large stand of softwood had been replanted and guarded with a large number of Rowans!! Couldn't believe it, what a waste of time and resources particularly given Rowan would have self seeded quite happily anyway amongst any 'usefull' species they may have planted. No deer fencing either so can't see many of those trees lasting either, IMO very poor management from the FC.