difflock

And again:thumbup: Visions of Lazers etc, milling about in my heid!

Glad I am not the only one!!

Any idae WHY the bottom has dropped out of the Mog market? My first guess would be the average modern tractor has much better off road capabilities, with pretty std front and rear linkage and PTO, with only the disadvantage of slighty lower road speeds(regardless of legal exactitudes) And simpler to maintain.

Rightly or wrongly i bought the wee Crawler, quite recently, for accessing the trees in the Moss, she is nicely matched to the 5tonne Kerpan winch. And can squeeze through narrow gaps and turn in very confined spaces (important since I am not clearfelling) Which leave the nicely over-shod DB1490 for the log trailer The crawler is a somewhat bone jarring ride over the stumps mind. My next project is to mount the crane, from the trailer, on the DB tractor's 3-point linkage(it is set up for this application) And then close couple the splitter behind. Questionable how happy the old girl will be lifting this combo, but even I only drag it about the yard, much neater that two tractors and a log trailer stuck in the middle. PS All I now need is a willing man with a strong back and good work ethics to operate the combo!

A couple of pertinent photos. (i) Logpile lies to the Sun (ii) Weigh of a 0.5m3 billet bundel when fresh split. Same bundles weighed 160 to 165 when at 12 or 15% moisure

Iffen I had of stuck the probe in the obviously wet/wetter outer rings of a few, i would easily have been in the 40's. Indeed one particular log cross-section was startling, in the the visibly wet outer rings of growth, mostly to one side, were mid 40's and the clearly dry inner rings were in the mid 20's. essentially seperated by a single annual growth ring. I would have liked to have spent more time logging and photographing, but was trying to stay focussed on splitting. so very very variable data is available, all from one logpile. Statistics, dammned statistics an lies folks.

Yes All were nominal 5.0m lengths, cut into 1.0m lengths to split. end grain was tested at random after the splitter had squeezed a little extra:001_tt2: %age out! As I commented, i was surprised, I ud ha bin expecting 30ish%ages cheers Marcus

Since I spent the last week cutting lodgepole Pine, cut in March- April this year, and left in an uncovered pile since then. So 6 months uncoverd weathering. And, discounting/ignoring the poles in contact with the ground, which I passed over for now(because obviously seepling wet.) I was getting figures in the low to middle twenties, which quite surprised me. Marcus

Cardboard coffins(and a very very sound idea btw) are actually more expensive that a bog standard wooden/fake Oak one. Wicker work is even more expensive again. From a conversation with the friendly local Funeral Director. A strange bloody world we live in.

^wot e said^

erm, well, oh, um, far far too simple an straightforward an idea to ever work:blushing: Seriously though, I would have probably thought that getting the bundles OFF the spike ud be the difficulty. I definately need a better way of (i) measuring an marking my 1.0m lengths (ii) having the logs presented at waist height for ease of cutting. Hence my plans for a log deck I suppose. I will end up with some kind of Heath-Robinson firewood processer set-up:lol: before I am finished:lol:. I, on reflection, Should prob have spent wot I spent on the 3PH Baker sawmill on a store-bought firewood processor and simply reckoned the too-good to cut up for firewood Sitka Spruce . . . were actually the perfect feed-stock for a store bought firewood processor. And the product thereof easily saleabe for cash. SIGH!!

Are you working in Australia? Cos silly as it sounds that background does not look Austrailian, more north European. Or where else was the photo taken? m

Logs had been sitting "in the round" from early Spring cutting, readings were in the middle 20's mostly, with the obviously wet ones in the bottom in the 40's. Giving my wet=250kg figure. PS "Crane scales" simply was the term I found used to describe a set of scales suspended from a crane, when internet searching for such an item. Surprisingly expensive, especially for the higher tonnage ones. The set I purchased goes up to 500kg if I recall. PPS Yes to grip the billet bundles "end on" so as to minimize distortion from the grapple squeezing/distorting the round. So unless I buy or fabricate a better/more suitable grapple, since the small one I am using is not particularly good at gripping the bundles as they can relatively easily squash and distort off the round and therefore fall out. Therefore better to grip "end on" = no distortion. An old block grab might actually suit, Hmmmm?

erm, At that sorta money for a LHD Toyota, ow much ud a 461 "Worker" spec "G" Wagen imported from Germany be? I also wonder if MB will ever offer the Aussie Mil-spec 6*6 "G" Wagen for straight commercial sales. Now they are sexy kit. see linky G Wagon - Australian Army Another aside, the 6*6 seen driving through the mud in the wee video clip, very very much reminds me of the famous American WW2 "Duce and a half", Marcus

( I) Tractor bes a 1984 vintage 1490 (ii)Sappie? my fearsome homemade tool is essentially a pick-up or reach out tool, especially handy for wet wood. I have finally got a few billet bundles stacked in the shed. So plan is: (i)Process into billet bundles and stack mechanically, and I can stack 5 or 6 rows high, which minimizes the storage area covered and also the amount of tarp required to cover, the rounded profile is also kinder on the cover. (ii) When dry mechanically transport to shed and stack 3 or 4 high. (iii) ONLY When required cut to desired length with the wee PTO cross cut saw, and either into a wheelbarrow, to go to the boiler, or up the elevator into a trailer, for delivery. Am getting there. My creaky 55 year old back is a great motivator for minimizing manual handling. Next purchase needs to be a tractor loader or preferably an Avant type tool for the mechanical handling aspect, the tractor forklift is WAY too clumsy. cheers m

Depends, One customer buys the bundles, the brother prefers to run them through my tractor PTO cross-cut saw. Not really in commercial sales mode yet, still testing the water, and busy other directions forby. Currently studying up fabricating a 1.0m long hydraulic clamp to grip end on. oops dinner "is up" back later Marcus

Since I bought the crane scales, I have weighed a few 0.5m3 billet bundles. When wet 250kg (single representitive sample only) When dry 165kg at 12.5 to 15% max (average of 10 bundles) So at 4KwHr per kg= 660KwHr each = equivalent to burning a 30Kw oil boiler for 22Hrs. I actually find that hard to comprehend. My bloody Solarbayer must be well inefficient. cheers m

regardless of the fuel, I would suggest burning any stove inside a vehicle is potentially sucidial, especially if pissing with rain and windows wound up? m

Our back field of rough natural years old grasses an rushs is stonking full o it. I noticed cos I was towing a tarp round to clean it, the nice clean Sitka pole I was using for a spreader bar turned orange, as did the blue rope. m

Idea as posted ud be a non-starter due to stumps fouling the pick-up and stones being fed into the chipper. However at the last APF J Deere had a brash Baler, working on the demo circuit. An ungainly cumbersome looking machine, from my recall, and fed with a standard grapple on a forestry crane(again from recall) Marcus

Quite a few of those wee beasties in the Lodgepole Pine I was cutting n splitting yesterday. Also intended to ask re which creature left the 4mm 5mm 6mm dia holes in a Sitka Butt. Must be quite an impressive beastie. . . a Beetle larve presumably?

I only took a look at this thread out of idle curiosity, my only relatively inexperienced (but recent experience) would be that rubber tracks are VERY limited in respect of their traction/flotation capabilities. Having had an 8 tonne rubber track Hitachi on hire recently. Quite perplexing how much worse they are than the equivalent steel tracks. Working in peat mind, not really wet peat, but wet enough to be slippery though. And recalling the oh-so-nearly badly bogged 10 tonner on rubber tracks that came back to the same site in v similar weather about a year later on steel tracks instead, and performed like a different digger entirely. Same professional operator in both cases btw. marcus

A guid feed o hot Vodka. Bound to have the same effect as a feed o hot whisky/whiskey

Are the Trimax flails not murderous heavy? Simply Cos they are so well built. I had a notion one of the "stander" type zero turn machines (all American built as far as I recall) were a very tidy easy to transport(cos so short overall) for a owner operator/one man band. Step off to lift litter and step on again. V good practise for downhill skiers too. All fuel guzzling petrols when I was looking, but it may not be practical to fit a small enough diesel. I still have time for Kubota diesel engines, but had formed the opinion, that since the days of the virtually indestructible G1700/G1900's they had gotten lighter built and flimsier, some of the so call Kubota decks for the Euro/UK market were subbed out/built down to a price. That said we bough 2 Kubotas this spring, because they were the only compact ride-on diesel hydrostatic available. I considered the JD petrol engined equivalent but quailed at the predictded extra fuel costs. The Kubotas will have paid for themselves inside of 3 years running on red diesel. Double the fuel at double the price sure adds up! PS The 3060 outfront Kubota is still "Oldskool" engineered.

Sniff! Do i see concrete posts mentioned in here:lol: "Oh sorry sir i forgot about them, and btw, how much will that new tyre cost for your Fendt 930?":lol: