Timbermcpherson

19 minutes ago, Mark J said:

In other news....
By 2019 all firefighters will carry jerrycans of accelerant. It is hoped that fighting fire with fire will lessen the damage caused from the original fire. Sadly, simply putting the fire out has proved to be too logical and cost effective

In fighting forest, brush or desperate big urban fires they do, its called back burning and its a crucial tool

But to do the same in a school shooting I guess it would mean shooting all the kids so the shooter had no more targets, probably not the best way, so probably what a government would implement.

I lived in the US, there is no easy fix to this problem

All my clients get a month to pay, some get longer but thats organised and agreed to before work commences. 

The NPS 4wd series are great, I love my old 250, that smaller NLS is a lightweight and doesnt have a low range (its awd) or LSD.

That depends on the company, your quals, experience and skill levels, which city its in etc.

For climbers your looking at between 20 and 30 an hour, although some could pay more. Groundies would be between 17 and 23 I guess

Was a balmy 24c during the day, but its cooled down and having an evening of very welcome rain

I didnt know the santa cuts the heads off people who dont get there trees done before he arrives, its the only explanation for the annual panic over treework.

Typical call I had today

"Hi Timber, I know your probably really busy, but you could fit in a job for us before xmas right?"

"Oh certainly, what do you need doing?"

(at this point I let them ramble for a while then interrupt)

"oh you COULDNT have meant THIS xmas did you? because thats just crazy talk"

They usually laugh, but I pick who I say it to!

So your saying, stuff safety, take the big gamble with life, limb and finances, it will pay off.

Right.

The scorpros are made in NZ, not sure if the export them. I hate ladders and dont trust them, got a collection of them that have not been used since getting the scorpro. 

The ground slopes pretty bad making the hedge taller from the ground (base of the trees are 2m below what you can see) and the hedge gets thin, sure its possible to do it by rope if you put a ladder on the edge and roped down, but that would be another days work to do, and not comfortable.

The scorpro Adjustable foot is 700mm wide and makes it more stable than anything else I have come across,  it doesnt flex like ladders do and is very comfortable to stand on, but if you have something better, love to see it!

You would think, with im guessing at least 90% of stump work being carried out in the urban environment, being able to get over those little day to day obstacles so they can actually do the job would be a serious consideration in design.

Great footage of it going through forest so effortlessly though! We shall see I guess

My set up is pretty much identical to that, works really well

with a drill, grinder and diamond wheel, takes about 2 minutes to sharpen a greenteeth tooth, I can sharpen the teeth from 3 grinders faster than I can remove them.

40 U1700's the nz army is disposing of, some going cheap

https://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/SearchResults.aspx?&cid=1260&searchType=&searchString=unimog&x=0&y=0&type=Search&sort_order=&redirectFromAll=False&rptpath=1-&user_region=100&user_district=0&generalSearch_keypresses=69&generalSearch_suggested=0&generalSearch_suggestedCategory=

for sale

Trucks, chippers, stump grinders, saws, trimmers, climbing and rigging gear

Going cheap, owner sees not future as the Jaw saw is coming

Ported they are epic saws, standard they are one of the best husky made. 

will the bandit 1844 with those tracks climb stairs?

without tripod (how we usually use it)

The best ladder I have ever come across is the scorpro systems.

Its got an adjustable foot and can be put on nearly any ground

its got curved rungs and 3 uprights, which makes it much more comfortable under foot and very strong 

because its curved, it fits against tree trunks, poles etc very well

Nothing else comes close  

ours with the tripod fitted

we run 22s as standard on our 361's, 440's, 460's 660's and 661's (I hate carrying alot of different size chains)  

Its a common size here for forestry. run 8 pin in the 66's and 7's in the rest. 

Good size

Echo and Shindaiwa backpack blowers do well, ours have given no trouble aside from when one of my guys tried to chip one of them. sigh.

Dont make me choose between my children!!!!!!!!

Bright side, stihl finally brought out the accessory that should have been standard with the first of the ms201t's, and in the true spirit of it, they are 30 bucks

We have been running 4 echo 360T's for 2 years. No problems. only parts required have been clutch springs and a couple bars as the originals are so damn hard they cant be dressed on the job site.

Less breakages and trouble than we had with the stihl top handles and half the cost

I love my huskys and stihls, but wont be going to back to there top handles until they lift there game

Another fun time, this time dealing with a fallen macrocarpa that had uprooted and fallen downhill and  was poised over downhill neighbours house. Required some fishing for limbs.

ended up in quite a pile

Chainsaw winching some pines down a hillside, love that machine!

Superglue is great to stop holes and rips getting worse in chainsaw pants, fights the fraying and tearing fast

Standardize. try to run the same bar chain combos with as many saws, its much easier to keep spares and swap things around on the job should things go wrong. we run 22's on our 361, 44's,460's and 66/661's of which we have about a dozen of, one spare chain in truck covers them all. having a mix of 050 058 and 063 bars and chains is just to painful and mistakes worse. 

Use file guides if more than one guys sharpening the same saws. No 2 guys sharpen the same, guides mean no guessing and your chains will last longer as your not filing away the other guys method to get it how you like it. And it protects the file from damage in the toobox

If mixing fuel on the job, put the oil in last, if you make a mistake and overfill or have a spillage, it wont affect the oil ratio and you can correct it.

if you cant remember if you have put oil in fuel, dip paper in it and and another piece of paper in either fuel you know has oil in it or you know doesnt, once the fuel drys from the paper you should be able to tell by comparison if its got oil or not as oil tends to darken the paper

A long zip tie of the right thickness can be great for checking your chippers blade clearance

Long strong zip ties put on the side of your feed roller control bar and make good backing flags that you can see if your chippers a little hard to see out your side mirrors due to it being narrow, and they wont damage or catch on anything

Get the biggest blower you can, it will save so much time in a year over a handheld and do a better job, and most backpacks can fit in a chipper hopper. (or modified to)

Be nice to your competition. The Treeworld is a small and tough enough industry without us hurting each other. He might have gear you can rent, you might be able to team up on big jobs, you might be able to share dump sites, staff, storage and best of all, a beer and kind word at the end of a hard week.