spuddog0507

Thanks again to all who replied, some good points pointed out, some of you may think it strange that the hardwood stand i mentioned was planted at 3-31/2 ft apart rows are about 6ft but i can stand there with my arms out and nearly get a hand round a tree on either side of me,trees i would estimate at 45ft + very straight and hardly any canopy on them it looks a fairly easy job to me (been on a lot worse) thanks again.

hi thanks to you all who replied with info on rates,i have a good solid foundation to work on now,the hardwood thining is approx 30 yr old and average 10-15" all striat with very little canopy as they where originally planted a 3-31/2 ft apart and the softwood is clearfell approx 10 yr old 6-10" bothe on fairly flat ground, i was thinking in the region of 12 - 15 tonne per day per man. thanks again for the replys.

hi all, is there any one out there who can help and point me in the right direction,as in a previous post i stated that i had just the job of thining some hardwood and felling some softwood stands on a local estate,i have got a small team together 3 of us and none of us know what to charge ?, is there any one who could help me on this subject ? and wether it be on a tonnage or day rate any help would be greatly appriecated.thanks for reading,

hi you mentioned peugeot 406 estate, i have one a hdi 90 and had it nearly 4 years now and i have put 68k on it,it has not been nursed if i am on the mway its doing 80-90 mph,i flat the seats down and get 15 bags of logs in it,tow a 19ft orkney boat with it and a 9x5 trailer loaded with logs,its not been 100% reliable but what is ?. had a clutch in it £230,discs n pads all round £110,exhaust £90 and a small elec problem wire touching metal and worn through 20p of insulation tape but these are all wear n tear but not at all expensive when you consider what i use it for, and it still averages 42.3 to the gallon

Hi the 070 looks a very good copy,it says new but there looks to be a few scratchs on it and if it was an original 1960s stihl 070 new old stock bought with it original bar it would say made in west germany on the bar and not just germany.

hi, shoot nearly all year round but try to leave june july and august out if i can but if some one wants me to shoot on a fallen crop then i will,current guns are a lincoln premmier o/u 20g that i use for all most every thing fron rats through to decoying geese,othere guns a zabala 12g s/s 3" , s/s 16g and the one i have had so much fun with of late is a airarms s410 pre charge with 10 shot mag, been shooting rats and jackdaws on a local beef farm and i have been very immpressed with its performance,

hi h/wood s/wood or a mixture or any thing in particular ? got some oak and chestnut cut in to rings and some 8ft lengths of larch and d/fir just north of preston

Hi all, just landed on my feet for a change, i have just secured a deal with a fairly local estate for a supply of both h/w & s/w cord wood, the deal is they are getting a harvesting co in to remove all the big saw log timber on 2 clearfell sites of h/w and then i go in fell and remove whats left which i would est to be approx 150-200 tonne of firewood,this can be stored on site for as long as i need and just pay per tonne as i lift it,there is allso 5 smallish sites that i have to thin as and when i have time in the next 3 yrs and est would yeild approx 50-60 tonne each, only problem is old ,narrow, weak bridges (bridges built for horse and cart) i was thinking of a small ATV forwarder with 3.2 mtr crane and power pack has any body got one used one as i have looked on youtube and there seems to be several out there to choose from,all comments good and bad on problems,build quality,stabbilaty, wheel size etc would be appreciated. i have cleared a site befor on this estate with atv and small timber trailer and got 47 tonne in 5 days to hardstanding but that was all handballed then 2 days to get it home with tractor and trailer i paid them £10 a tonne, first load over weighbridge at 5 tonne then just guesd the rest does this sound a good or bad deal.?

seems a bit on the expensive side to me at £880 but you get 3 extra chains @ what £23 each x3 = £69 so £880 - £69 = £811 and you can buy a brand spanker unmarked for £747.60 with full warranty makes the ebay one look very dear. got a quote of a local stihl dealer for 2 ms441 @ £675 each ebay £925 no thanks.

Hi all just spent best part of an hour reading all the posts on this thread, and it seems all one sided to me i.e what i want to earn,what i need to earn and what i should be earning,but you all seem to be missing a very important point ? none of you have mentioned any thing about the economic climate that we are in and thats not just the u.k but most of the countries in the world, times are HARD for people (thats your customers) they have had wage cuts,there working hours cut and the cost of bassic living keeps going up so there for that = less surppless money in the average house hold, one of my sayings is all ways look at things in life from all angles and that means going 2,3,4,5 years from now and look back at what you do today and how it will affect you in 2,3,4,5 years from now and where do you want to be in 5 years ??. try and charge sensibly and you will still be here in 5 years charge the earth and you proberbly wont ?,we are going in to a tripple dip in the recestion with a forth forcast for the end of the year so its going to be hard for a few years yet (someone mentioned all ready).When i set up in buissness 1n 1984 the mortgage rate was 17.25% yes 17.25% and some of you will have experianced the same, today its .5% so its pretty good compared to the 80s,and another point i will make is one of my customers is the environment agency the guy i deal with is a great bloke very open with what he says his budget to spend in 2010/2011 was £250K 2011/2012 was £125k 2012/2013 was £75k and he recons his 2013/2014 budget will be £40/50 k thats a 80% reduction in 4 years ,em, so guys charge what you feel is right,and lets see who survives i have been here 30 years in march, got 4 monthes work in the book and its only mid feb, theres a few tree ladds round me goe to the wall recently all had nice new shiny kit, do you really need all that,??????? as pat ferrett said just get on with it and quit your moaning and i wish you all the best but only the srongest will survive.

i know what i would do first take a shed load of photos from all angles with date on ,cut tree up and chuck it back over the fence where it came from,its next doors tree so why shoud,nt they pay to have there rubish removed,if i emptyed my bin over into next doors and said it was a act of god could i get away with it ????,dought it,or if there kids kicked there ball over they would want it back,,,Good luck

transits ? i had an old 190 for a number of years (the first ford i had ever bought)go to it any weather and it would start no probs after 7 years body was starting to look tatty so sold it with 247000 on clock (used it for delivery work preston to hull every day) so bought a newer one 350 125 47000 miles nice to drive went well, after about 3mths it seemed to get slower or was it me that had just got used to it ? mot time came £600 brakes discs drums etc 58000 seened even slower and no pull up hill,on a log delivery one day it would not even set off on a 1 in 5 hill with 1 cube of logs in a 6x4 trailer behind it ? morning after wouldnt start so towed it got it going and in to the garage heater plugs knacked so change, all broke off ,so cylinder head off, £1800 later had a van that would start then 4 mths later fuel pump was playing up then fixed it self then heater plug relay then fuel pump again,so decided to get rid as i had spent more on repairs than i paid for the van and lets face it if we buy a van/truck we buy them to use not to sit in a garage being repaired day in day out,so the transit went and i can honestly say it was the biggest load of rubbish i have ever bought, i now run a cabstar tipper its better on fuel,its cheaper on insurance and it pulls like a train but most of all, up to now has been very very reliable,this is just my experiance with transits,others will tell you different. my cousen is on his last transit after having 7 of them in 31 years last 2 have been more trouble than the other 5 put together merc next for him.

hi more than likely going in to shotton paper mill near mold,flintshire,northwales, i once went there with a company i worked for and the amount of timber in there was un real thousands of tonnes and i am struggling to get hold of 25 tonne emh,my yard is only about 400 yds from the main westcoast line and i see 3 or 4 trains a week with timber, normally a diesel loco with about 40 wagons behind it,i just stand and watch them trundle by and think i will be ok for timber when one comes of the rails.

hi just had a rat infestation my self on the farm and had a few nights with the air rifle with limited results,untill i dicovered nuttella spread thinned down with cooking oil and poured on to some small sheets of ply worked a treat as the rats had to lap the fluid up so giving time for a clear shot,we where allso putting bait down with no effect (40 tonne of barley in shed next to log shed) so i decided to pour the nuttella over the bait and after 3 days every bait station was getting cleaned out every night for about 12-14 days bait not moving so fast at the moment but not as many rats either keep finding dead ones all around the farm, give the nuttella a go you wont be disapointed, take about 3 spoon full out of the jar warm nuttella till runny and add cooking oil let it cool and it shoud be the consistancy of paint, good luck,

Hi all i to wont get much only 25th, shooting 26th, back to it on 27th for a few days,in bed on 1st jan will be ill that day, then delivering logs as and when in jan but will either be shooting or beating the most of it then feb out on the foreshore then start work about 25 feb, what a bummer,:

personally i tend to shoot the same gun for every thing now adays, i had a 10g and 3 12g once and some days would shoot with 3 different guns my shooting went down hill fast, i then decided that i would buy myself a 20g (ladies gun) had the stock altered to suit and shot with it for the last 7 years with a vast improvment of shots to kills,shoot pigeons, duck, partrige, phesents and geese yes geese and its the most swingable gun i have ever had and i have had a few, on a driven day not long ago the first bird i shot was about 60 yds (not rat size, gerbal size) folded stone dead,with 24grm the shoot captain was on next peg up and shouted if your going to do that all day you can have your money back,on the same shoot last sat i stood next to my cousin who shoots a 28g with great success so him drop 3 birds that would be 45-50 yds, so 28s do kill in the right hands you just have a tighter pattern and the same with the 20g over a 12g,the 28 (ceaser gurrini)was not much lighter than my 20 (lincoln premiure)and if i was you i would buy 1 or the other that suits your needs best and forget the 12g as after 12 monthes with a smaller more sporting gun you will pick the 12g up and think did i really shoot with that heavey lump, all the best in your search.

hi just gone through all this, i know where you are coming from with the cycle times and pressure i had a mate sort it out for me told him the ram diemensions and the cycle time i needed 5/6 secs, got the pump he told me to get put it all together fired it up 6 secs down and back to top and thats powered by a 7hp petter single cylinder £1 a day on cherry. the best addvice i can give you is think long and hard at what need this machine to do for you,5 months on the drawing board mine but it just does nt split logs it does other things that took a lot of working out to incorporate all together,hope this is of some help if you need any more just ask.

hi comming back from fishing at staithes last friday spoted about 2-300 ton of what looked like mixed hard & softwood in a revene on the lefthand side of the A19 while heading south somewhere about northallerton,ish Blink and you will miss it as quite well hidden.

hi i once had a problem very much the same and it turned out to be the stop solinoid on the pump,the way to test is very simple remove the wire from the top of the solinoid unscrew the solinoid and remove the plastic plunger replace top and try WONT STOP on the key you will have to stall it good look.

hi all first ever post on here, so will explain my situation as best as i can in words, basically i have a chance to buy a 8 acre (roughly) plantation of standing timber most of it,but some wind blown oppox 1.5 acre ish,most of the trees are soft wood i.e stitka larch and norweigin or there abouts there is some large douglas and scotts pine in one section along with some hardwood sycamore ash and beech.i had a meeting with the owner last sat and due to a shoot in progress we where only allowed in a small section of the plantation, while there i mesured the girth of 15 trees at brest hight and the average was 36 inch roughly 12 inch diameter so it is only fit for firewood really. its not a rush job can take 2 3 4 5 years to clear all. it is what i would call good access with a hard road nearlly all the way to it the ground in the plantation is good and well drained to get the timber back to roadside is about 600yds to a area where you could load an arctic. so if any one could point me in the right dierection of a price per tonne that i should be offering for the stitka,larch & norweigen for me to extract, thank you