nick channer

the tensioning arms and bush's etc inc all belts were replaced a yr or so ago. and the water pump was also replaced couple yrs ago when it had a previous over heating problem. my fitter and couple others are pretty clued up on lorry/plant etc and it was them that advised these changes... its a mystery to them also... thinking about it it still raises the temp considerably when the chippers not been used and its towing a big trailer..

i get 3 loads at time on my transit and thatsa tipper. i too have cages all round and have 2 cages in the middle to act as a petition. the cages are hinged at the top and have a a sprung loaded shoot bolt either side at bottom of partition. open back up, tip first load, let body down, release shoot bolts, tip 2nd load, release shoot bolts tip 3rd load..if i do a double load i release bolts first before loading, that way 2 loads come out at once... i just bought a new shape transit and having cages made to take 4 loads.. its best thing i've ever done, takin 3 loads at time.. 15 loads day i was takin out 7 days week averagin 200 miles a day.. that mileage woulda doubled takin one load at a time.

i didnt think it would or should.. even if the oil gets red hot it shouldn't make diff to the water temperature.. the chipper must be producing more dust than the old one cos by keepin rad blown out does seem to cure it..

tried that. year or so ago. didnt make any difference.. i've spent over a grand in past few yrs and got no where. should of had the pump etc fitted on chipper when i bought it. i just thought it would be one less thing that could go wrong if it wasnt fitted and thought mog spool valves would be up to the job..

my 1600 has done that for past 3yrs. seems it only started doing that when i fitted the new 550 on the front. the new one runs off the mogs hydraulics, whereas the old one had its own pump. i've had several people look at it and none can get to the bottom of it. i had the rad recored and made no diff... i have to blow the rad out at least twice a day to keep temperature below 80. i think its summin to do with the spool valve runnin all day, cos i never used to blow rad out from one month to next with the old chipper.. i no it was bit smaller but that shouldnt make a diff. i would willingly pay a £1000 to sort that problem out..

i have an old 02 plate transit i paid £3000 for over 2 and half years ago. it costs me £500 on average to get it through mot each year and someone offered me 3 grand for it a week ago with short mot. i just bought a 56 plate and couldnt see the point in sellin the old one. it took over 600 loads logs out this winter without missing a beat. just hope the newer one is as good.

lad who worked for me drove mine soon as he passed his car test at 17. another who had his tractor license at 16 also drove it and had very minor scrape in it and insurance delt with it with no problems

costs me £40 for 3 blades. around 14inchs long.. there normally pretty wrecked and they have there work cut out gettin em like a razor again

my 3155 fastrac with hookloader and a 40 yard bin of scrap comes in at over 30 ton somedays..

i sold a solid wood rayburn to mate mine.. my dad had it put in and only used it for few years untill he had central heating put in .. i think he still has it and wants to sell it cos it wouldnt fit where he wanted it to.. i'll find out

yea i guess it does depend on area. down here we have a lot of chimmney pots to supply. through winter every other truck you pass on road has logs on back.

i bought a large amount of cord wood in last year, think it was 16 artic loads. and sold the lot and more besides.. over 600 truck loads from this time last year till now. most of which was done in the month before xmas. but since march every little bit wood that i can get my hands on is split. havin a 12/14 inch chipper doesnt help as its very easy to put big lumps cord through chipper. now anything over 4 inch is kept. takes longer to do tree work but i just remember that every ton costs me £50+ so a transit load is £100'sworth.. also i go out now to other peoples jobs and pick there wood up. takes no time to go out with 2 trucks and i have a 30 yd hookloader bin that goes behind fastrac, i take that to other peoples jobs and leave it there. so far i reckon i got over 250 loads wood in shed all split and dryin nicely and they cost me peanuts.. my 2 lads that split them normaly split at the end of the day for few hours as and when they can so labour is basicaly nil. i plan on havin at least 600 loads in shed by september all split and ready to go out.. so if i was a one man band and could live on £1000 a week and i had stamina to sit on processor and splitter all summer i could spend all winter delivering and obviously carry on sawin/splittin in spare time. i also no someone who does 3 loads a day 6 days week with little petrol splitter through winter and he lives comfortably off that and collects lot wood in summer in his spare time. so yes i think you can live off just firewood..

i sold nearly £50.000's worth of firewood from september till march time.. admitadly lot of that wood was bought in but i've thought to myself what nice job that would be if thats all i did and could live off that money. i'd spend all summer collecting wood from other tree surgeons, sawin and splitting it, then should have enough split to just spend the winter months mostly in the warm delivering the firewood and still be out collecting wood for the next season.

land rover pick ups are good and i've used both but think you'l miss your transit..

thanks to everyone. much appreciated. prepared ourselves for worst now. not only was he born at 28 weeks which is bad enough but he had difficult birth and faye had to have emergency c section [you wouldnt believe how many doctors there were in one room in matter of secs] which resulted in doctors takin 15 mins to get his heart going.. no oxygen to brain for 15 mins is very grim news leading to very high chance of brain damage.. all his vital organs are workin fine at mo but if they stop we've taken decision to not intervene and let him go to sleep peacefully.. [hence fayes courage]

`my gorgeous 10 month old boy in my avatar and my beautiful 2 day old boy whos sleepin in intensive care tonight fighting for his life after being born on monday {my birthday} at only 28 weeks and more importantly my amazin partner faye who has shown more courage and guts in the last few days than i've shown in a life time.. she truly is an amazin and brave 25 yr old.

if you have quick look on my web site theres few of my swb 1600. wwwchilterntreecare.co.uk

hi there. mate mine in farnham has a lovely artic outfit call rob on 07836 364165

hi dave. be happy to have a look and give you a reasonable quote. 07767480117

i'd be interested. on a price though rather than day rate. i'd be happy to have a look any time.

pm sent

my cousin does bit of processing for other people. he charges £40 hour for 2 men a 1.5 ton digger with log grab on to load processor and usualy uses the customers tractor.. if he used his own you supply diesel.

what ever you do dont buy one from john lewis. biggest load of rubbish i have ever seen and not cheap at £400 either. sent it back and had full refund and £50's worth of vouchers too..

i just replace as and when needed. some wear quicker than others so i just replace the ones that need doing. i bought one of those sharpening discs long time ago. complete waste of money and time trying to sharpen them.

my scania lorry does exactly the same. i'm told the fuel is running back into the tank. when the tank is over half full it starts no problem. less than half and it turns over for ages. non return valve is needed i'm told