WorcsWuss

If they have a problem with someone working hard and earning a good living I wouldn't be worried what they think nor would I want to work for them, they clearly need the money more... Puts you a few pegs higher than them in the 'what I made of my life' stakes. One of our plumbing subbies has a couple of RR Sports, motorhome, bikes, boat, you name it. Which says to me he's good at what he does and that reassures me I'm employing the right guys [as I rock up in the clapped out pool car Mondeo!] and the last thing it makes me think is that he's ripping people off, you can only keep that up for so long.... certainly not long enough to achieve what he has...

Silky might be a good idea Pete, at least to reduce the limbs to a handy size. I do a lot of tidying up with the Silky usually anyway, I actually quite enjoy it! And good point ref first aid kit, I got that Buxtons email, meant to get one of them, the Dragon kit wasn't it...?

I thought the transfer boxes were the same.... every chance I'm wrong though... Diffs are quicker in a Disco / RR, that's an easy swap...

Well done Matt, the only way is up..... Good luck with it

There are 2 schools of thought out here Oli, one is that you should be supersafe and get someone experienced to do it for you. The other is that we all had to start somewhere and although this is a dangerous industry, you know your limits and the only way to really learn is to get some real experience under your belt. Watching people who make it look easy and fairying about on easy pruning jobs will only teach you so much. The best way to learn is by doing, just use everything you have learned already, most important of which is that you know you don't know it all, and plan, plan, plan.... then just take your time. The best thing to do is have a plan for if everything goes wrong. What will happen in these scenarios? 1. You get hit by a limb and are knocked unconscious or badly injured, stuck up the tree? 2. You start to drop a limb and it's heading the wrong way toward the road and there is an open topped bus full of orphans coming the other way? Those are the 2 most dangerous things which could happen, taking out the phonelines, boohoo, so someone has to use their mobile for a while, dropping it on a garden shed, it happens, concern yourself with imagining the most unlikely risks to human life and make sure you have a watertight plan to deal with them, even if it's just as simple as someone to stop the traffic while another gets help. Go for it, get a job under your belt, make some money, get some real experience and start to build your business. Calculated risk.

Closet Hi-Lux lover wants one....

Lantra ITA... does this still exist....?!

Yeah... could do that:001_huh: or you could just nail his daughter.... I think we should put it to the vote....

I think he'll do the purple one first... 3 guys, no more than a day. Presume youll be rigging it all down, no cut and chuck...? If what I see is right, the ivy clad tree will be a pain in the backside, make sure that it's growing out of wood and hasn't turned the tree to soil.... I went up a limb a while ago to get a line on and it was barely holding up, when we got it on the floor it was rotten as a pear and the top metre had gone back to nature inside the ivy... Nice little job. Don't forget risk & method!

To answer your original question, NO, it is NOT a legal requirement to produce a risk assessment of any type. The police cannot enter your work site, demand to see your risk assessment and then cart you off to jail for failing to produce one. HOWEVER.... A risk assessment is documentary evidence that you have given appropriate consideration to a task. A risk assessment can just be a 10 minute talk through with your crew before you start, setting out why you will need a clear LZ, where & why the chipper needs to be parked there, first aid point & fuel station, what the weather conditions are like, what kit to use... the conversations and thought processes we all go through, often without realising it, are a risk assessment. Now, should something go wrong, when the HSE come to investigate, if you have a crew of 10 who all give the exact same statement that you all assessed risk together and carried out the works exactly as you agreed and something unforeseen happened, there's a good chance that this will keep everyone as free men and just get a ticking off for management about a paper trail. If however you cannot prove that this took place, and lets face it, they won't be inclined to believe you mostly just because something DID go wrong, then you and your employer would be liable for prosecution under the Health & Safety at Work Act [or whatever it's called now] or any other relevant 'Act'.. So, it's best to keep a sheaf of blank RA & MS forms in the van and when you're having that talk about how you're going to work this job out, write things down. Doesn't have to be complicated but it does need to be able to be held up in court and for you all to say that you followed the correct procedure. You will be AMAZED at how things which you would never have even considered become obvious when you start following a proper process and you'll realise that actually, they can be a bloody good thing and you may just have prevented a major disaster. I have seen that thunderbolt moment in the faces of my site managers when they come up with something blindingly obvious which they only noticed in time by following a proper procedure. Secondary to saving lives is 'paper trai'. Being safe just keeps you alive... a paper trail keeps you free....

Fair point... but... whoah dude, you sound like me when I get on it on Facebook....!

Sounds like everything is in hand....

Auto makes towing a doddle, just a little bit thirstier is all...

Is your friend fit...? Could she repay their debt in kind.....? Just a thought.....

The plot thickens! This does all seem odd, reminds me of the other recent thread about having someone else's tree cut down. If this tree is not within the boundaries of their property and they did not expressly ask for it to be felled then any normal person would not assume it was included. I would politely explain that you aren't expecially comfortable with the situation, offer to knock 50 quid off for prompt and final payment and don't deal with them again...!

Have you told your friend her parents are a bunch of shysters yet...? They might have a habit of doing this and she might get them to pay up.... Alternatively, she might speak to them and find that your 'quote' was misleading and they genuinely believed they were getting the other tree included in which case you need to just get on with it and be more specific in future... I suppose the best outcome would be they accept they perhaps didn't explain things properly, you admit the same and you meet halfway... [i mark all the trees I have to take out with aerosol in the presence of one of my clients because he's known for giving poor instructions and then throwing the dollies.... but then I guess that's the relationship fathers & sons have!]

Yes, entirely legal. You are investing in their work, if they take the tools you have given them for their job and leave without you getting any benefit it's basically the same as theft, just like buying a new saw for them which they decide they can earn more with elsewhere leaving you seeing neither them nor the saw again! If you invest in them you are perfectly within your rights as an employer to contractually oblige your staff to provide you with a return to cover your investment. Obviously you can't take the mick, but I would go with something like up to 1yr 100%, up to 2yrs 50%, after that you take the hit. If you're investing thousands then maybe double the time spans. I would guess you would earn enough out of them in that first year or two to pay off the training and then make some money out of them, seems fair to all involved

That's fairly common practice, get it checked over before you get them to sign it but you should certainly have something like this in place.

Vanished already! Ebay are starting to get quite good at this! Wonder what these a*holes will move onto next now that chippers seem to be a non-starter for them.....?

I have Insa Dakar's on my Disco, brilliant tyres... don't think Insa cater for the size the OP is after though....

Bloody hell Pete, that was a leap of imagination...! Enjoyed it though!

Thanks Craig I'd like to send one over to you really... will discuss that nearer the time!

Brilliant, thanks Paul, will email Mel later. Cheers Simon

55 is just a slightly lower profile, basically 55% of the width rather than 60%... here is a useful bit of 'rithmetic for you... 255 - width of tyre in mm = 255mm 55 - aspect ratio, or height of sidewall as percentage of width, 55% of 255 = 140.25mm 18 - Wheel diameter in inches, or in mm it's times 25.4 = 457.2 Add that lot together, 457.2mm + 140.25mm [x2 for top and bottom of tyre] gives you a diameter of 737.7 diameter [doesn't allow for variations in tread depth & projection, all tyres are different] A 255/60R18 has a sidewall height of 153mm, so 13mm taller than a 55 profile near as makes no difference... That's not a lot but bear in mind you're losing that space beneath your diffs...

Thanks Neil Remains a mystery.... I believe it will but that's something I'll confirm when I try out the first prototype myself My thoughts are it may 'become a climbing system', and one on which climbers could transition between open and closed hitch on without having to learn a whole new set of knots and techniques.... I now feel though that my initial ideas that it would integrate into popular existing systems were, er, misguided .... Beyond that, when I think of it that would have sort of defeated the object of what I was trying to achieve, ie simplification and improving safety. I don't imagine it will ever be as widely revered as the 'Hitch Climber' system but it may become an alternative preferred by a minority.... However, to answer your question: Closed hitch - Yes, I think Open hitch - Yes SRT - Rescue only, not for ascent / descent DdRT with mech ascender [sJ etc]- Bizarrely in theory it could work, although I'm not sure that anyone would, the thought of all that graunching aluminium sends shivers up my neck!