Spruce Pirate

I know the Land-Cruiser has a good reputation in Oz, the Middle-East and Africa, but does anyone know how well they hold up to our Maritime climate? I always liked the old style Land-Cruiser, but they were pretty utilitarian, are the new ones any better in terms of comfort? If they are, are they still reliable? £45k seems an awful lot of money to me, it would take an awful lot to persuade me they're that much better than the competition.

Always has open fires. Like you say, sparky wood is best avoided, keep the lum swept and don't forget to put the guard in front before you go out or to bed. Other than that enjoy, I always prefer an open fire to a stove.

Are you extracting, or is it to waste?

Did a job for Go Ape a wee while ago taking a couple of branches off trees as they were beginning to get close to peoples ankles going down the zip line. Accessed the trees from the zip line, tying my system into their pulley system. Good fun (free go on zip line), and certainly easier to access the top of the tree from above than climbing. The zip line flexes though, so difficult to climb back up, twice the effort of normal climbing.

I find them a bit uncomfortable on long trips, wouldn't want to be doing long journeys all the time in them, but I can put up with them when I need to easily enough. My brother-in-law, gets out groaning and moaning if he has to do a long trip with me, he's not driving, so I think different people find them easier or harder to bear. Maybe just depends if you're a Landy person or not.

I've done days when its been 150 - 200 mile round trip in the Land-Rover, and while it can do it, I find it pretty uncomfortable on a long journey. I prefer to use it locally and use the Disco if there's anything far away to do. MPG for defenders can vary hugely depending on 90/110/130, specs and what you're carrying/towing.

Sorry, but I don't see how you're able to get the work if you don't know what you're charging - most folk I know won't give you work unless they know what they're being charged. If you need a loan for the chipper you should be working out what to charge based on the cost of the loan, plus your other day to day operating costs. Work out all you costs, then you can figure what you need to charge. Once you know that you can figure out what you can actually charge, this should tell you whether it's a viable business option.

Go for the 560 if you're looking for something like a 357. I loved the 560 before it got nicked.

Ben Lomond and Loch Lomond about 20 minutes away. Wallace Monument and Stirling Castle about the same in the other direction. Can only see the Ben from the house though.

They're not a 346, I'll grant you that, but they're not that bad, in my opinion.

I like the 353, had one years ago when it was part of the XP range and it was a good saw. Got a newer one now and still like them. Doesn't rev up quite the same as a 346, but for a ground saw next to the chipper I'd say it would be fine.

Not likely to stop any time soon either as the infection seems to keep spreading.

It's either that or leave it to rot in the wood. It won't just be FC either, everyone will be felling, extracting and selling their infected larch.

Hence the reason I'm perpetuating it

I thought the rule came into place after the fuel strikes in 2000, or 2001, don't recall the year now. Some half-wit supposedly burnt his garage or house down after storing petrol in wheely bins in his garage. Don't know if he was filling the wheely bins up at a petrol station or filling cans then filling the bins at home. Anyway, as a result, only approved containers can be filled now and only up to 10L. Could be just an urban myth.

Today was DEFINITELY the last day I'm going out cutting in the pouring rain and coming home soaked to the skin and manky! Oh, no, my mistake, I'll be doing that again tomorrow.

While I do think there is some merit to refresher training, I do also, to a degree, agree with this sentiment. The introduction of refresher, however, does pacify HSE and get them off our back, as "we" (the forest industry) are seen to be addressing the issue ourselves. In my opinion this is preferable to HSE stepping in and legislating, which appears to be the other option. If, in 5 or 10 years time, refresher has not made the slightest little bit of difference to the accident rate we will have to look for other ways to improve our safety. I'm sure we all have ideas how to do that.

Hi Paul, I understand what you mean, but my original post was written some months ago when information on this was scarce, and was in reference to someone being told that they had to re-sit all their existing tickets. I actually do think there is some merit in refresher training, even if it is foisted upon us. I will reserve judgement on whether the refresher being offered by FISA has any merit until I've done it. At least it is only one day per unit, and reasonably cheap (at least by training standards), but it is the content that counts. The traffic light system they are employing does seem to have some merit, but we'll see how the whole thing pans out. I still think that if you roll up to an assessment, without the training, and pass it you are fine. I appreciate you might miss out on a few of the modern thoughts picked up on a course, but fundamentally if you can pass the assessment you are deemed to be competent to use a saw. Willing to discuss further, but don't want to turn this into too much of a rant.

I tend to believe that things come and go around, so, he's done you a good turn on the planks - if they're old as he says it probably gets rid of them quickly and easily for him. If you've ever done anyone a good turn, then treat this as a bit of payment for that, or the next time you do someone a favour think of that as a bit of payment. Also, have the good grace to accept his generosity, without being suspicious of him wanting something directly back in return. It makes for a very cynical and nasty world if everyone's always looking over their shoulder wondering what other's motives are.

I spoke to FISA at length about it the yesterday. It seems it is only mandatory to have a refresher every 5 years if you work for a FISA member on the timber harvesting front. At the moment they are not concerned about arb or utilities work (so I was told). Presently you must provided evidence of training (refresher or otherwise) or register for refresher training before 1st October (there is another thread on here) to continue cutting commercially on ground managed by FISA members. Other aspects of training will of course be covered by the HSE recommended 5 year refresher, but no one is currently enforcing this - as far as I'm aware, no doubt someone will correct me if I'm wrong? I'd be interested to know how it's causing you problems (don't mean that in any snide way, genuinely would like to know what problems its causing).

This thread is hilarious and ridiculous in equal measure - I can't believe it's rumbled on for so long! Someone once told me they stopped selling logs by the ton because a customer weighed each log over their bathroom scales () then phoned up complaining that the load was underweight! I never quite believed them until this thread came along.

Try Robert T on here Johnny, he does a fair bit of stump grinding.

It still surprises me how easily I'm amused sometimes.

Yes, you can. My brother-in-law's got one.

Nice big bits. Switchback Road?