WorcsWuss

Sorry Gerrit, I didn't realise! How did both the town council and the tree surgeons who did the work manage to get it so obviously wrong? I'm not an expert by any stretch of the imagination but if I spotted it, surely anyone could?! Simon

I have now got a lad coming to help me burning up, but if anyone else wants to come along to do a bit of cutting there's always room for more! Thanks

Definitely should, hit the bright lights of Tenbury... you can share some of your wisdom too, maybe I'll be able to get over my irrational / incompatible fear of heights! I didn't realise you went to Myerscough. I quite like the look of the Harkie harness. Big bucks though.... For now though I reckon the tree hopper will do me just fine.

You've left a lot of long limbs in place on both of those Willows Gerrit. Presumably there is no damage to any of that structure which would show as a weakspot when new growth surges out at the higher levels? I have not really seen Willows pollarded in that way, I have only ever done them at the fork, even Weeping Willows. Was that a specific request of the client or is this a more common method of pollarding than I realised?

This is my current LR [after a 1959 S2 V8, 1966 S2a, 1993 RR, 1995 Tdi Disco & 2001 TD5 Disco]. It's all things to all jobs and the whole family loves it [except my wife who thinks it's a bit wayward to drive and unecessarily thirsty...] 1995 3.9i ES Disco...

Might turn up as a box of bits yet!!! Ordinarily I wouldn't grey import, it doesn't help our floundering economy... but in this instance I can't justify the cost of buying one over here. The used saws in my price bracket look like they've had a bit of a hammering, the new ones seem a bit cheap and nasty. I used to have an MS200T which I sold when I left the trade. Given the choice I'd have had another one of them without question, but sadly I can't capitalise it over a work period. I'll let you know how the little Tanaka goes though!

I think so, yes. I haven't found that exact saw for sale in this country but the re-badged version, available here through a very reputable supplier, is about £270 ex VAT / £325 inc. With all the charges this comes out at about £185 ex / £220 with, so yes, it's saved me a hundred quid. HOWEVER, there is the whole grey import / warranty thing to be aware of.. if it packs up I guess I'm on my own. As a light user I don't see this being a major issue though...

I'm getting quite excited now... I ordered a Tanaka TCS3301PFS top handled saw from the States and it's nearly here! It's currently residing about 10 minutes from my mother in law's house at the UK customs hub in Coventry awaiting clearance.... Parcel Force tell me it will be in their depot overnight tonight.... Just for those who don't know, I bought it on eBay.com but what they didn't state, and I didn't realise, is that the paying out doesn't stop there.... There is a good explanation of it here... HM Revenue & Customs But, in a nutshell, you get charged VAT @ 20% on everything, including postage & packaging [which seems a bit of a stunt to me...] Also, you might get charged customs duty, which is something I cannot fathom... Finally, if they need to inspect the contents, your get charged a packing fee by Parcel Force / Royal Mail, who handle the package once it gets into this country. Parcel Force / Royal Mail pay the fees and they then deliver a card to you with what you have to pay on it, in my case this will be about 45 quid, plus another £12 because I want them to do a next day delivery for me on Saturday... I can expedite this process [ie cut out the card delivery & couple of days wait] by keeping an eye on the Parcel Force tracking site and as soon as it says 'in depot' or 'cleared customs' I can phone them up and pay the charges, it will then go out for delivery. So even though those extra fees came as a bit of a disappointing surprise to me... it hasn't taken the shine off completely...!

Who has drawn up the spec for this? Presumably you can present a method statement to them for approval before you start? No arguments then...

I left my phone on the top of the combine wheel... but obviously by the time I realised it was flattened. And I had new lenses fitted in my raybans this summer and put them on the mudguard of the tractor while unloading a bale trailer a week later... got two hundred yards up the field and remembered... spent AGES looking for them, found them on the top step, I'd reversed under a low branch which slid them all the way over & they dropped off the front... couldn't believe my luck!

Wow... like that....! [bow to the floor....] I lurked for a while just reading the boards [it comes up in google A LOT!] and on the whole it does seem to be a very strong resource, hence I joined up. But the unavoidable fact is that anything out in the internet is going to suffer from either: Visitors who feel that sitting at a keyboard typing out a conversation gives them an excuse to chip in with comments they might normally not make, or idly misinterpreting others' posts for the sake of it. Or: Users who maybe lack the typing skills or patience to adequately get a point across without it being misinterpreted and threads descending into a bitch fight... Of course some folks just aren't nice....!

It's not just here... I have used a couple of other forums in the past which I stopped using in the end, they seemed to get cliquey and users would snipe at others' posts for seemingly no good reason. I often wondered whether these people were miserable nasty gits in real life or just vented it on the internet.... Simon

Have you suffered from a bit of mid-30's spread yet Drew? You were like a racing snake last time I saw you.... I think if I tried a different harness now I would very quickly see more of the Hopper's shortcomings... The back pad isn't very supportive and the low attachment point makes that a bigger deal than it could have been. And I find the buckles impossible to slacken off in gloves.... Simon

Maybe it's all the news about overpaid under worked public sector employees going on strike because they feel hard done by....? That's one of the things yanking my chain at the moment... And the swampy 'occupy movement'... get off your backsides and get a job. And that woman on the one show the other week who has to have a food parcel.... because otherwise she can't afford to feed her 3 illegitemate children, boxer dog, budgie AND pay the Sky+ bill and keep the kids in X Box games.... And... so many other things... but mostly just anyone who feels they deserve more than they work towards.... What was the question again.....? Simon

Bumpety bump, just in case anyone knows anyone who might be keen to come along! Many thanks! Simon

I think that they strop onto the limbs with the winch and then just fell them where they land and winch them out... doesn't seem to be a particularly precision operation. The bank opposite our house has been done recently...

All the firms which do this work round here seem to have shiny new John Deeres with loaders on the front & winches on the back, colour coded too no less... it's obviously lucrative! [Or they don't know their costs, which is equally plausible....]

That's what I have found, feels like doing sit ups on your lower back.... It's very easy to get up the tree though... I'm not big on thrusting all the way up, I'm a bit out of shape, but on the odd occasion that I do [when I can't be arsed to stick the foot loop back on] it does allow nice free movement in that motion. The last tree I bodythrust all the way up [into!] was an old oak to take the lower limbs off, I'm pretty sure that for someone who doesn't sit at a desk all day long it would have been even easier...! 50th post....

Purely out of curiosity, does anyone else climb in one of these? I bought one a while ago as it seemed 'cheap and cheerful' and quite compact [i'm not a big bloke at 5'10" & 'athletically built', although my wife keeps telling me I'm larger round the 'girth' than I would have myself believe these days - and I don't think she's massaging my ego either] and, as I don't live in it, I wouldn't even have considered a Treemotion or similar. Can't say I'm disappointed, it's pretty comfy, although I do have to slacken off the leg straps to go to the pub..... otherwise it forces me to walk like I've done a 30 minute 1 to 1 study session with the chaplain at my old boarding school.... Seems nicely made although the fixed central attachment point would limit lifespan somewhat for a more intensive user than me.... I do find it a bit tiring when hanging from it though, it's nice to climb & branch walk in but after a few minutes of hanging the effort required to keep myself upright gets a bit trying... the compactness at the front has bitten it on the backside a bit there... So I guess the point of this pointless rambling is that if you're buying, a Hopper is good harness if you're short and slim and spend most of your work time footed in the tree. If you do a lot of hanging around then your back's going to suffer. Anyone else have opinions on this harness...? Based on fact obviously.... Peace out... Simon

No, do not modify the shell of a helmet. If the Stein ones are screwed it's because they have been designed and manufactured as such. In some instances you're not even supposed to put stickers on a helmet, so drilling holes could seriously impair structural integrity. HTH!

Hi all. I've got a few trees to take out along the side of our wood this Sunday and if there are any new entrants / groundies looking for a day's experience please let me know. Unfortunately I can't pay you, it's just some work I have to do round home, but if anyone would like to come along and get a few hours experience under their belt they're more than welcome. Additionally, if you have climbing gear and would like a bit of practice that's fine too [no chainsaw work though, just climbing], but I cannot be held responsible for any of your actions and I AM NOT CS38 TICKETED so technically there is no one on hand for aerial rescue if you have a problem. [Not saying I can't get you down, but I'm not going to let total novices come and get stuck up my trees...!] [if this offer falls outside what the forum is comfortable with please feel free to edit that bit out] I'll be starting mid morning, probably around 10am and working on til dark. You will need your own PPE [i have lent all my spare stuff to a friend who is away]. Experience in operating tractor & loader would be useful, CS30 & 31 would be ace but not essential [would save me a bit of work on the ground]. There will be a bit of speedlining, clearing brash & possibly stopping traffic [ie moving the vehicles onto the lane]. If you are able then 'cross cut & stack' too...

Delete this one!

Just read through this sorry saga, good result! Must be a massive weight off you. I took the top off a garden wall with a power harrow many moons ago. Right outside the front door of the local police station. When the local finest finally found me a few days later [?!] I went back to take a look and the wall was clearly in pretty poor shape originally. I cleaned the mess up and laid the bricks back on the wall in the same codged up manner they had been previously and that was the end of it. Essentially the same outcome as your wall but without the cheque. Quite often the outcome is not nearly as terrifying as you first think it will be!

I'm not passing judgement but perhaps a better way of doing this would be rather than having lots of topics with one sentence questions, one all encompassing topic with some background information would be received more warmly. What course are you doing Abigail? And what exactly is the assignment / module etc? So, example. Hi, I'm Abigail, I'm 19 and studying for ?? at ?? and I was hoping that I could canvass experienced professionals for their opinions on your industry as part of my research for my assignments. I am currently working on a business management assignment, we have to produce a business plan for a SME sized tree surgery business. I need to analyse the benefits of offering a single or multi discipline service with a view to establishing whether it is more viable to specialise on one particular area [ie aerial work] or cover the whole range of trades within the sector [ie extraction, firewood, stump grinding etc] in relation to capital investment. I hope it's OK if I use this topic as a discussion point where I can ask some different questions and get feedback and discuss ideas with you all. This is just one direction my research has taken, I have also approached the local Chamber of Commerce for information on business types and sizes within a given area and I am contacting local companies directly to carry out a survey, both arboricultural companies and equipment suppliers. Thanks in advance for all your valuable input, it's much appreciated! [Lay it on real thick about how much you value our opinion, we like that!] Now I don't know you, that may be exactly what you meant in the first place but just didn't write it down....

Your question is perfectly valid. If I were in your position I would do the following: 1. Quote the job. 2. If you win it, ask your client who surveyed the trees and if they have a copy of any necessary consents and the original survey. Get the surveyors contact details if they still have a working arrangement. 3. Speak to the original sureyor, ask them if all necessary consents have been granted and whether there were any consents not yet granted. 4. Speak to the local TO and confirm you will be carrying out the works as scheduled in the relevant consent, or that they have received a notification - you may need to do that as contractor. If at any point anyone says that something is missing then you know not to start. Good luck with it, sounds like an interesting little job!