WorcsWuss

Timber will be left in cord! [Not that there's much of it!] Will watch my hinge Dave. Cheers Neil, how's about we swap?!

When I started on a closed hitch I'd been on a self tending blakes hitch so found the 'Hitch Climber' set up to be a bit of a backward step in that respect... however, having found a set up a like [9mm Boa on 11mm Aeris] I'm not overly concerned about self tending, the responsiveness of the hitch counts for a lot more...

I'll be sure to let you know if I meet my end in a horrible fire ball....

Alright Neil! How's tricks mate? No more progress yet I'm afraid! Called in for a look at this Euc this evening... it's only a babba! Bit of an awkward spot, will be a pain in the backside to climb, grown up tight against a conifer, but once above that it's Silky territory practically all the way. Frost is what got it, bark has already started to plate off quite badly, been dead over 12 months so looking at it I'd be surprised if there was any green left in it. Plenty of other trees around to rig off if necessary but in all honesty I think I'll cut & chuck the crown, drop a couple of lumps down to the conifer then straight fell the pole into the gap. I was expecting something big! Couple of hours even for me by myself! Cheers all, will let you know if anything goes wrong!

I gave up very quickly on getting mine to self tend, prefer to have a responsive hitch and pull a bit of slack though than it not grabbing when I need it to. A foot ascender is the solution if you want to avoid tending slack manually after every few pulls.

Anyone seen this before...? Pooktre Tree Shapers Who's going to have a crack at growing a chair?! I'd quite like to have a go... shall we make this a challenge?!

Good luck with it Ben, let us know how you get on.

Those platters are lovely, I'd like some of those!

I shared this on FB and a new user with whom I went to college, and is now a rather off the wall gay abstract artist, and seems to comment on everything, posted the most wonderful observation.... you may even want to use this slogan in the marketing... Catchy don't you think!

They were a pretty clever bit of kit, predecessor to the Fastrac really but lacking the field performance of the later machine. They were also quite short on power as well, sub 100hp 4 pot I think..... Some of the Trantor team I think went onto the Agrover project [110 with portal axles, tipping body & rear linkage - think I saw one on the front of a recent Land Rover mag in the newsagents...] Now there's something I fancy! I think the linkage & PTO are hidden by the winch...

If I do that I could stand on a box to fell it! Thanks for the advice chaps. So, avoid relying on choking onto the trunk for anchors, guess a decent branch beneath at the back of the rope to stop the pulley sliding would do the trick. I've been climbing without spikes recently so hopefully this one will be laid out in such a way that I can do the same here and avoid the risk of gaffing-out. And cut and chuck. Sounds simple. Better go take a look at the tree!

Absolutely no reason at all why you couldn't, front links & PTO fairly common on ag-spec mb tracs, perhaps more so on the continent than here...

Ha, I did nothing! In finding myself my own boss I very rapidly got promoted not a non-exec role and put my feet up. That couldn't last forever so think it was about day 3 I knuckled down and did some work....

So what that means is since your original sarcastic intentions came to zero, there's still some room for some legitimate sarcasm in the thread.... hmmmm, wonder where it will come from....

Not sure why it died yet, will know better when I get there. MEWP access is a no go from memory, their garden's a bit wild! They've asked me as they're a friend & neighbour and I was working down the side of the lane opposite their house. I guess if it's a diddly one I can climb right up into the crown and prune it out with the Silky, cut & chuck like I did an Ash the other day.

Pobably not really worth it then in real terms... Would look smart though.... How about aluminium sheeting riveted onto a hot dip galv'd frame. Would be a way round the distortion issue and get you a bit of bling. Another alternative would be powder coating in the body colour of the vehicle it's going into, that would be slick.... You can have those for free!

I would agree that primary production is your least profitable way of making money out of the site. And selling unprocessed poles for furniture making doesn't seem to be any more lucrative in hard cash terms than firewood at the moment. To put together a scheme for a campsite wouldn't be difficult, tent sites are a whole lot easier than caravans or statics. Without seeing it, I would suggest you do the following: Have a browse round here: Planning and building control | Wiltshire Council to see whether you can find your site on the local development plan, download the forms for pre-application advice, get yourself a map / plan of the site, draw yourself a 1:100 set of plans for a shower block done in timber, show some cleared areas for tent pitches, few gravel paths, small FC style gravel car park at the entrance, and submit it to the council. They'll then come to site, have a look at your plans & the scheme and tell you whether it's feasible. If they say it is, get a proper application knocked together [PM me if you need help] and get it in, or retain someone to do it for you. I think this is an eminently more sensible idea than timber harvesting and could actually become the bones of a decent business. And throw in some nudity and you're onto a definite winner...!

Been asked to take down a dead Euc for someone, been dead a while from what I can gather. It's in their garden so will need rigging down. I've never worked on a Eucalyptus, never mind a dead one, was hoping someone could give me the benefit of their wisdom on things to look out for specific to the breed when selecting decent anchors etc. I know Euc dries out well, does it go particularly brittle or does it get very hard and bendy? How does it compare to dead Ash in terms of strength? Are there any tell tale visible signs which would indicate serious internal rot or cavitation I should look out for? I'm going to pop and take a look at it later today or tomorrow, will let you know what I find. I don't lower big lumps but it's nice to know if I'm on something which could fall over at any time... I wouldn't want to end up sitting on a tree on top of their nice new garage! Cheers, Simon

That's a fantastic piece of equipment, big respect. I will share on Facebook! Have you thought about building them in ali to save a bit of weight / increase the payload? Presumably make them quite a bit more expensive?

I can't believe the penny never drops....!

By the by, I'd be concerned about guarantoring anything for China, I don't trust them one jot!

White unfortunately. No legal way round it. Not that it saves much these days anyway, over £1 a litre now apparently according to my supplier this morning...!

:lol: Pete wins!

When I started I had an old Talbot Express tipper truck, 025, 019T, blower, hedge trimmer and a few other odds & ends... happy days....! Now that I'm just an 'amateur' I have more shiny stuff but I don't have a tipper anymore and just use my old Discovery. I don't do anything with chip, it's all disposed of by my 'clients', and I have a 12' Ifor Williams trailer for moving cord wood.

A small point Arran, do make sure you use an appropriate name. Obviously avoid things like 'Cut & Run' or 'Robin B. Astard' etc, a name can make all the difference in the first instance. We changed our company name last year, only a small part of it, but it made a HUGE difference to how we are perceived and has transformed our enquiry book. So, if you want tree surgery work, include 'Tree Surgery' in the name. If you want to do felling, coppicing, firewood etc, use a more expansive name. These things say different things to potential customers: Turner Tree Services - 'Hmm, stuff to do with trees... maybe everything? Is it a good advert? Let's phone them to see....' Turner Tree Surgey - 'Tree surgery... I need that, I'll call...' Turner Woodland Services - 'Maybe forestry, or perhaps woodland consultancy? Probably not tree surgery, I'll keep looking...' Turner Landscapes - 'Could be lawnmowing, could be groundworks... not what I'm after, I'll phone someone else....' Turner Arboricultural Services - 'What's that mean?' I'd use 'Turner' in whatever you choose, it's a good strong sounding name, sounds established and trustworthy. 'Oh, you're Arran Turner, we got the boss, excellent' As you establish & grow you can abbreviate to simply 'Turner's' Good luck with it buddy, let us know what you choose!