spuddog0507

Price is right , it looks well, but no dealership, no parts back up, Engine, transmission, oil pumps, and every thing else will be of low grade/quality, What could go wrong ??,, Best example of Chinese engineering i have seen was a new Siromer tractor my mate bought for a scraper tractor, he thought it would of done the job for 10yrs, but how wrong he was, 2 years and it was fooked, used oil, rear wheel rims dropping apart, hydraulics about goosed, this is a few years ago now, so he just got rid and bought a old ford 3000 and that does the job and will be still doing it in ten years, There is some mini diggers called Rino and you get a 1,5 tonne digger for 6k ish company who my brother in law works for had one on trial for a week, he said it wasent much faster that a barrow n spade, You get what you pay for in this day n age, best addvise i could give you is go and but a old sanderson fork lift as at least it wont take much fixing if it does go wrong and parts will be available,,,but its your money and your choice how you spend it, china needs another 10 yr yet at least,,,

Him probably !!

This where a decent operator who knows what he is doing on a machine comes in to play, i know of machine operators who claim they are good on a machine but back in the real world they are just a average run of the mill operator, One bloke i know who has just retired at 72 after spending five and a half decades of driving machines for his crust, he worked on the M1 M4 M5 and the M25 on all sorts of machines and this guy i am sure could strike a match with a bucket tooth,

After reading all the above, i am surprised no one has mentioned hiring a 3 tonne digger in either on a self drive basis or with a operator, i think it would be by far the quickest, easiest and the cheapest way to do the task you want, when you get the stumps out just stack em up to dry off for a while and then burn em, personally i think a good man on a decent 3 tonner would have your job done in a day, you would have no out lay, no machine to maintain, no repairs to do and pay for only thing you would have is one payment of £300 ish for machine and operator and you would have to do very little as well,

From a point of view from a keen angler for near on 5 decades, and given the changes i have seen in them 5 decades on my local rivers and there not good changes as most species of fish have declined in numbers from what they where say 30yr ago, I would of thought that the Tweed could possibly be one of the most important rivers in the UK these days, i do know several lads who fish it and from what they say it is in decline but situations like you report do not help any, it sickens me to see what you report as a river will decline a lot faster than it recovers, i would think if you reported it along with many others it would may be, and just may be get sorted a bit quicker,

Its the same where ever you go No one gives a **************** ??, There is hundreds of 1000s of pounds spent every year on trying to educate the public on cutting down on items that pollute our waterways but i for one would of thought that the guys who came to fix it would be trained to a high standard and would not be leaving a job with more chance of pollution than when they started, The photos say it all and if i had done a botch job like that i would be to ashamed to send a invoice, it looks like a couple of 5 yr olds have done it,,

We have a 5 acre block to do this winter with a 35-40% thin, trees could be a bigger than the ones you describe and when I went with the FC guy we estimated approx 80 tonne to come out give or take a bit either way, our woodland is quite tidy and it has been planted very well, it just needs the smaller and defective trees taking out and the better ones leaving to come on more, your on a 50% thin on 3 acre so I would say your volume will be some where about the same as ours,

Sites we work on are good access and forest grown and a wagon and drag load is no problem, but finding a buyer for it round here these days is near on impossible, we can sell it in loads like 2-3-4 tonne to guys doing a bit of wk end milling, but 15yr ago selling beech, ash, oak and elm local was no problem at all, as in a small near by village we had a company called Berrys who ran what we called locally as chipping chair works who i think was linked to Waring & Gillows, they employed about 120 people and it was once over a very busy place but i think most of its operation was moved south, this place would take what ever hardwood we could produce back then, but sadly no more,,,,

Thats something i have never worked out myself, we have tried to sell good clean beech saw logs but with zero results, then they just end up in the firewood stack,,

Had a Alpina top handle back in the late 80s early 90s, back then they where badged as Alpina castor, not the lightest of saws but it stood the test of time with very few problems, its not long since i chucked in a skip 4-5 yr ago,

I am not looking for a way to do it, and the proof of things in the building of houses as long been proved, the house i live in is a old mill cottage circa 1730 and there is property that was built long after mine that have long been demolished and replaced with something that will last for a even shorter length of time, things are just not done like they used to be,,

As above the timber will need to be stress graded like C17 ? if you look at any construction timber you will see a stamp on it with what it has been graded to, you could find some where to get it done at a reasonable cost and still save a fair chunk of cash, it would all so need to be dried as well, OK years ago timber was sawn in a mill from green timber and the day after it was on a house roof, they are still there and in good condition but with how we do things today and all the red tape involved and all the people doing the inspection jobs that have only read books makes life very difficult at times, was there graded pre stressed timber stamped timber about when St Pauls cathederal, Westminster, York Minster where built NO Norman Architecture just got on and did the job with no Bull shit, your spruce will be fine but forget the lodgepole it aint that good, it dont take treatment very well, a mate of mine makes a lot of fence posts and he wont touch any more,

Yes it is set up for tractor spool in photo, but if you look it is several adaptors/fittings, i will be using it at some point this wk to psi on log splitter as i think the pump is on its way out, the gauge in the photo is the 2nd one i bought as first one came off ebay and if i remember it was the 3rd or 4th time i used it it disintegrated and flew over the fence in to the yard next door, Never did find it, that you show off ebay will be fine and just add/buy what you need as and when and it will be fine, but £40 is not the end of the world if it fails,

Not got a fancy box like that, but what I have does the job, just got a pressure clock and a plastic box containing several different couplings and fittings, does the job thou ,

Yep i would have em as well, the 955 would be first choice over the 956, but that County would be sweet but the rarity value puts it out of my reach, I better stick to my Kubota and 780 brown,,

Not mine but came across them on my travels last week, thought they would be of interest to some of us, County 1184 long chassis 1979 on a V plate which I think could be a rare tractor ? Plenty of standard/short 1184 s but not many long ones, second photo International 955 1978 on a T plate, 4wd 6 Potter and had a reputation fir being a good reliable tractor with plenty of grunt,

No boat as we used to do a day or 2 on St Marys then drop back on to Castle loch at Lochmaben and have a night out in the Kings arms and the Bruce arms in the village happy days back then, Diesel about £2 a gallon and Bellhaven heavy about 50p a pint, going back to St Marys i had a nasty encounter with a big Red Stag one morning, i stood up to go and have a p - - s and about 15ft from me was this stag staring and snorting i dont know who was the most worried me or it ? but i think i won that on a i near on crapped myself 😂

We used to go fishing on St Mary,s back in the late 80s early 90s, fantastic place to be early doors when there is no traffic on the road and the only thing you hear is nature, very tranquil place to be,,,

Spruce £90-£95 tonne R/S Larch £105-£120 tonne R/S if you can find any ? Oak i am hearing a lot of different prices but for good quality clean straight stems 5 - 7.5 mtr for beams where at about £375 tonne several wk ago, smaller diameter logs and lengths where much less tho at about £150 tonne R/S. as for standing spruce prices well only addvise i can give you is start as low as you dare as you can only go up and you cant come down once you have said a price, a lot of it depends on the ground, conditions put in place, one job i am working on getting later on this year has some of the best spruce in it that i have seen for some time but the site has plenty of issues for the big machines Its a nature reserve its next to a water catchment stream for a near by Res Only a narrow access and a long haul back to a stacking area all this adds up for me to go in as low as possible and i am 95% sure i will get it but it will be for approx £10-£15 tonne standing,

The Morris oil you bought Mike I would think would be fine as Morris oils are regarded by some as a very good lubricant company that do a very wide range of oils and specialist lubricants and there British company as well,

The Super sexy from northernarb is fine or it was ? i bought 6 25ltr drums about 2yr ago and down to the last one now i dont know if its changed in quality but it will of gone up in price of late, i think i paid about £30 + VAT per drum, The best oil IMO out there is the Exol heavy chain oil, its not the cheapest but it is gooey and sticky as, lasts well as compared to others, one lad who works with us bought some stihl oil and it was like hydraulic oil thin as P - - s i dont think he was impressed with it,,

Just read that tonight about the High court order at the shell garage just down road from me its stuck on the door at eye level so you cant miss it , it reads like they was expecting something from the British public but it all so allows them to put fuel up to what ever they want !!

Then on the other side, i dont mind doing a odd day or two, as you say, in the cold wet snow if it allows me to be on holiday from May till October spending my time doing a bit of fishing, shooting and dog training or in other words doing what i want to do,,

Worked in forestry a few years now and managed with a estate car for many years, then I got offered a cheap L200 pick up, this made a big difference to where we could go and the time and effort it saved carrying stuff was unreal, there has been days during the winter that we have gone working and got up hills on to sites when the forest roads have had several inches of snow on them and we got there in a 4x4 but a 2wd estate or van we would of been going home and not working, I now would not go back to the estate car or 2wd and its as the saying goes , action speaks louder than words, I once asked a old farmer on his views on 2wd tractors v 4wd tractors and is answer was , one of them your going the other you not,,, very true that,

When i was making some walking sticks during last winter some Hazel and Ash sticks that i have had a few years just would not straighten out no matter how hard i tried and its not like there massive as there not at 30-35mm but they would just not have it unlike some other sticks that i have had for 10-12mth which straighten nicely with not much steaming and very little effort, so i will have to agree with Squaredy on this subject after experiencing it first hand myself,,