luftwaffe

God you guys work on some flat ground.

Why do people install log burners if the price of wood is on a par with oil or gas? no advantage surely.....unless you have already got one.

Thanks, It seems to me that the contractors are their own worst enemy, because of the huge cost of the machinery on finance they will take on work at any price to service the bank loans, which in turn plays right into the hands of the mills, i guess its the fear factor of having no work which means bancrupcy, god £6.50 my old man was having £ 12 30-40 years ago. and they call it progress.

This also happened to me, we felling on the side of a steep hillside, put the saw down to put the wedge in the back felling cut, turned around to see the saw slipping back and tumbling down the hillside into the small river below whilst the engine was ticking over, ran down, failed to catch the saw in time before it landed in a pool in the river, got the out of the water, poured water out of the exhaust, cleaned and dryed the filter, left the saw to dry for a couple of hours, started after a 5 or 6 pulls, splutered for 10 seconds or so, but no problems there after.

Hi all, first post here, Having spent all my working life as a contractor in commercial forestry, felling, skidding, forwarding, mainly on the steep slopes here in wales i was wondering has any others converted from manual harvesting to mechanised harvesting? to me the costs involved don't add up to run a profitable setup due to high overheads and low working rates, this is my basic calculations. 500 tonnes produced per week at £6.50 per tonne = £3250 running costs 1 £500 per week depreciation on £160.000 outlay on used harvester and forwarder 2, wages for 1 driver £400 per week 3, fuel £1000 per week ? 4, working costs, eg oils, repairs, accountant fees, insurances, van,spare parts, etc etc, £800 total £2700 Profit of £550 per week That is less than what i'm earning now "on the saw" . Is there something i'm missing as the profits seem pretty poor to me for the investment, time, work, and alround hassle involved in the job, what do you guys out there think?