beechwood

I personally like the colour! Glad to hear the beast is working well Regards Neil

I'm guessing that is a 21m? £134 a day is a great price if you got a weeks work. Are all the wheels on independent suspension? Trying to work how it stays level on the rough ground Regards Neil

Fair play

This thread has been interesting and thought provoking for me. I looked into both Ruthmann and Teupen straight stick machines and they sound good but a closer look, highlighted the ranges are limited by weight you can have to the basket. Obviously if you little and skinny a 100kg or even 80kg basket capacity wouldn't worry you but I'm neither! And by the time you add in 3 saws, fuel, climbing kit and rope, maybe some lowering kit and a lunch box I'm guessing most arborists would be over the limit and then they don't have reach they claim to. Our current Teupen has 250kg basket capacity throughout it operating envelope. So when I replace ours it will probably be the Leo24GT I go for but I'm definitely going to look into a truck to carry it so we can use it like a truck mount but still have the versatility of it being on tracks when required. The other thing that the thread makes clear to me is if you own or use the same MEWP regularly, you get used to its capabilities and shortcomings. Then you can make it work well for you and your job, hence people really like the one they have over others they have hire in or only used a couple of times. I think a lot of the resistance or slating of the use MEWPs is down to people having very little experience of using them in treework. Very similar to a few years ago when lots the old school climbers bitched about how much shinny stuff people had hanging off their harnesses. I feel that now that view is only held by the minority and most are embracing new kit and techniques. Although I'm not sure that the dislike of MEWPs will disappear as quickly as they just cost too much for most companies to even consider buying in a industry that on the whole is price driven. MEWPs are not the answer to everything but they are a really useful tool to have. In my view they make the job safer and easier on the operator but like any skill you can't go do a ticket and expect to be brilliant at it straight away. It takes the right attitude, time and practise. Obviously just my view and not meant as a dig at anyone in particular. Regards Neil

Philip Thanks for the post some real good information. I'll contact Ruthmann and enquiry about the new 29m unit. My only hesitation about the straight stick is you don't get as much boom clearance for what your dropping, if that makes sense but I guess you adjust how you work. In terms of it being tracked unit we have found it very useful on a few jobs that we wouldn't have been able to get a truck mount to but I'm not what percentage of jobs that would have been.

Out of interest why does it need to be city and guilds? We went down the Ipaf route and then unit 39 or whatever they call it now, covers you for using saw from mewp basket. Might help in you post area of the country where you are looking to do the training.

Interesting viewpoint. Can you post some photos of yours in action. How much side reach does your 27m have. 27m on a 3.5t truck is big from what I can find on the internet. Straight booms seem to cost more though. In case of Teupen like mine there is a €20k difference between the 24m like mine 25m straight boom. I'd agree that the advantage truck mounts have is set up time. Pull up in truck, legs down, tele boom out, crack on. Our takes 10-15mins to unload from trailer and then 5mins to unfold the booms (for most situations first one needs to be upright). Regards Neil

A couple of times we have had to hire in a larger MEWP and on other occasions resort to climbing the top section of a tree (on reductions you have to do that anyway). I just got a quote for a 40m spider same design as mine not quite €300,000 but not far off. Can you imagine what a 70m+ machine would cost?

Following on from a recent thread about MEWP usage. I'm interested to know what type of MEWP you think is best suited to tree work. As I see its a 2 part question (apart from the people who will rant about MEWPs being no good) 1. What type of boom configuration do you think is best. (My apologies I don't know the exact terminology for boom types) We have a teupen LEO21GT spider which has two telescopic booms. Selected it as it keeps MEWP base away from drop zone. But maybe a straight boom is better. Or maybe you prefer the articulated type with a telescopic section 2. What type of MEWP Spider Truck mounted Trailer mounted Self propelled It's on my mind to replace our MEWP in the near future and I thought this might be opportunity to get some decent opinions/experiences. Regards Neil

Been away from this thread for a while but it's been playing on my mind and I see now that the felling of the original tree is going ahead. Obviously our opinion differs but I'm genuinely interested in your view So let's make it hypothetical. I turn up to quote a job. Mature tree 4m from clients house and well within the zone of influence of the species of tree (if I remember rightly their is a table in Giles Biddles book). Tree is obviously older than the house. Client wants the tree felled. They tell me their garden is on clay soil. They ask me 'will removing the tree cause any problems to our house' I say, as you suggested, it's out of my area of expertise and that they need to seek advise from an appropriate expert. I put them in touch with you, to produce a report for them. How would it work? I assume your proposed report would be sequence of elements, each one dependent on the outcome of the last. If I am right in my assumption, what would the sequence of elements be and (roughly) how much would each cost ? The other thing I'd like ask is Reading your post the following question springs to mind. If as you state 'it is very very difficult to reach firm recommendations that stop short of excavating and exposing most of the foundations' which is fairly obviously impracticable.' If a client commissions a report will the client still not really get a straight answer, as the report will have so many caveats in it? I'm not trying to pick holes in your post, I'm genuinely interested. Regards Neil

It's a minefield the screenshots are from the 'Gov' website. It says it was updated in 2016. They way I read and interpreted it was If your driving a vehicle over 7.5t but for less than 4 hours a day and less than 50km radius you don't need to keep a record, so no tacho required and the 'duty' hours don't apply. If your driving a vehicle up to 7.5t carrying or towing plant under 100km radius and driving is not your main job, no tacho required. Over either of those limits you need to keep record/tacho. My head is starting to hurt, why is our country so complicated? I could of course be totally wrong! Regards Neil

I found this which says if you do less than 4 hours driving length of duty doesn't matter. Then the next bit says you don't need to have a tacho in! But you can't exceed a 50km radius As you say bloody complex! Regards Neil

It may be but I thought tacho rules were very strict about how many hours you can work in week but I really don't know a lot about it just what I've been told and that can never be relied on. The exemption highlighted earlier was for driving 7.5t or less. My point was stick a chipper on a 7.5tonner then your over 7.5t and have to use a tacho. There may of course by an exemption but I was hoping someone would be able to point it out on the government website. Regards Neil

I had some promising enquiries but still happy to talk anyone who thinks they would be suitable. There is the possibility that we could take a couple of people. Regards Neil

My bloody leg! Apparently at my age you should not try to relive your youth by playing rugby!! But you only live once

Oops saw a question and answered it! Does anyone know answer to my question about 7.5t with chipper and working hours?

Do you mean if you go over the 100km? Or O license if you tow plant behind a transit? Where did you read that? Regards Neil

My guys get paid extra, if they drive to and/or from site, in addition to their standard day but they all get paid the same rate hourly rate for driving. Although we only travel long distances for commercial clients and they are very rarely day rate jobs, so if they finish the work to client satisfaction they can leave early. Regards Neil

Thanks for this, interesting reading. Sounds like a good justification for not taking on work outside a 100km radius. In fairness doesn't happen very often but when it does you can always see the lads faces drop at the thought of a 1.5-2hr drive to site, a day's work and a 1.5-2hr drive back. I wonder how driving hours effects those who drive a 7.5t lorry the site, then do a full day's work and then drive back. Will they not be over their tacho hours in 3-4 days? (dependent on the length of day on site) Regards Neil

So if I'm reading this right your saying That towing a trailer with plant on it over 100km radius from your place of business your vehicle needs a tacho? Does this apply to any vehicle pickup transit etc? Does this apply to chippers as well? If it is the case Can anyone post a link to government website that states this? Regards Neil

We brought a 21m Teupen at the end of December 2014. I'm now going to show my OCD side. It's gone out as a 'billed on' item 184 times since we brought it, so roughly 8.5-9 days per month. It also gets used on other jobs just because we have it, I haven't kept a record of these. Basically, because I think this is what you are really trying to figure out, it should repay the capital investment in 3-3.5 years. That said the pound was a lot stronger against the euro when we purchased it and only time will tell what condition it will be in by the time it's paid for its self. We use it on jobs where we consider the tree unsafe to climb, where we can achieve better results from a MEWP and where it makes the work less stressful. Does it make the jobs quicker? Honestly most of the time, probably not. By the time you factor in loading it up, the extra time taken getting to site, unloading it, tracking it into position, tracking it out, loading it up, extra time taken getting home, unloading it. The time saved on the actual job is minimal. But that said it definitely saves stress on the body, certain jobs can be done in half the time, certain jobs you can achieve far better results and for me it's definitely, in most situations, safer than climbing. Overall for us it's a great tool and I wouldn't want to be without it but most of our aerial work is still done from rope and harness, for various reasons. Just my opinion, hope it helps you make the decision. Regards Neil

Happy to answer any questions about the chipper and 360 Post them on here or pm me Regards Neil

Marc I haven't received your CV yet [emoji6] Neil

Your right and there is no getting away from the fact that your making a modification to the ear muffs, all be it a tiny hole which gets fairly well sealed up if you wrap tape around the wire. I've had manufactures/dealers tell me the same thing and that as soon as you put a sticker on a helmet or a ear muff you have voided your warranty. I take the view that using technology like SENAs make our work environment so much safer and means we keep their ear muffs on more as we want to hear our colleagues, therefore reducing our exposure to noise during the day. But I'm a big fan of SENAs so I would say that! Just a different opinion, don't know who's right. Regards Neil

Personal I'd put the battery at the back so you can use the slot to feed the wire through. My point was on the outside of the helmet, not the inside. Probably just being over cautious and just my opinion. Regards Neil