openspaceman

Danarm 110 dda was my first chainsaw in 1970 and had 59ac .404 chain.

I've been through Xmas and a birthday, shared with my eldest granddaughter, yet still haven't been given a copy!

On heathland restoration we would cut it and leave it to dry, then set fire in November, leaving stumps wasn't a problem but regrowth was, sheep, goats and highland cattle would nibble the regrowth while it was soft. On one estate there was a 2 ha plantation still known as furzefied, apparently it was managed as gorse coppice, the gorse bundles being passed through a bruiser to crush the spines and then fed as forage, should be good for protein., the sticks being bundled into faggots and used in brick ovens. It was a chert sandstone which overlay atherfield clay and the spring line between the two formed a carr, we recoppiced this some 65 years after the last coup, you could still see the furrows from the steam winch and the wire cuts on the beech trees on the edges. The estate also had records of sphagnum being taken in the same period for dressing wounds. As both these gorse and alder are legumes you can understand it was also nitrogen deficient. The other thing is gorse seems to germinate well after a fire.

That might explain it, surprising it continued to work at all. Surely if its just the flywheel side crankcase it's worth hanging on to until another saw comes up cheap.

I keep a sharp hatchet for trimming things but found a sharp splitting axe no great advantage and it tended to jam in the cut worse. My theory, which is only mine apparently, was that a slightly dull axe crushed the fibres as it initiated the split, whereas a sharp axe just parted them, sank deeper and the friction on the sides caused it to stick worse.

Last year my firewood was mostly 30 year felled yew tops and a load of off cuts of the same after they had been sculpted. Gave some of the bigger bits to a mate who had bought a 6 tonne Riko electric splitter. He gave up on them, not because they wouldn't split but for fear of breaking the windows at the front of his hose.

dunnage was the grade we sold for milling into blocks for securing loads in ship's holds ballast tended to be stone or metal

Why does the impossibility of that strike me as amusing BTW I don't think much of crewcab trucks, little capacity and less security compared with a crew cab panel van. I'd prefer to send a fiesta van and transit tipper.

Yup that's the one but only done it on a petrol engine

We have about 10 transits, the more recent being the 2.4 tdci engines. Not too many engine problems till after 100k miles but we have had a timing chain snap after that. I'm told this has caused the pistons to hit the valves so the engine was swapped out from a crash damaged one. Our vehicles seem to get written off before they wear out. The biggest problem has been like yours, fuel pumps failing on the tdi engine. The replacement pumps (£700) come without a code and become coded from the ECU when the engine is started for the first time. Pumps from other engines need resetting with the IDS software before they can be coded. I have never done this but a local transit expert pops in for £35/hour. The old mk5 smiley face was the most reliable engine but as we go into London LEZ we only have post 04 transits left. The 90ps one with a steel tipper body is only good for 60mph on the motorway and struggles on hills whereas the 115ps mk 7 transits sail along even when loaded up with a tracked forst. Tippers don't do a high mileage with us but the panel vans are doing over 40k miles/annum The tdci engines should be cheaper on fuel pumps but past experience with the 1.4 tdci engine in fiestas is that a pump failure tends to ruin the injectors. We have just had a 61 plate engine let go at 126k miles, oil pressure problems leading to a run camshaft bearing and burst oil heat exchanger. Engine will be replaced and this will end up over £3k which I suspect is the most expensive repair so far. I find it hard to compare with the LT35 and Canter which I was used to do groundwork for the owner driver, there were no engine problems but servicing was meticulous. Our transits suffer many drivers and servicing tends to be a perfunctory change of oil and filters and check brakes for wear.

Me too! If the tdci engine is anything like the fiesta one don't mess with the crankshaft bolt, there's no key so you must use a stop on the shafts.

Yes I think so Simon. I know a precedent was set near you when a pioneer woodchip fuel enterprise was hauling woodchip into one of the fibrowatt power stations using fastracs, it may have been the operators licence and operating outside 24km rule if that still exists.. He lost and had to use lorries, he said afterwards he wished he'd been stopped early on as the cost of haulage using walking floor artics was a lot less that the wear and tear and wages per tonne of the fastracs even with the difference between DERV and gasoil.

I agree but would still like some clarification. In the old days the only excepted vehicles were agricultural vehicles that carried the correct tax disc so there was a linkage between taxation and use of red. It was similar for digging machines which paid a higher tax (was £400/annum). The problem I have understanding is the interpretation of horse pastures, recreational areas etc not being Agricultural, Forestry or Horticulture. Now it's in black and white on the gov.uk website FAQ "I have a gardening business. I use my tractor to cut and treat the grass, get rid of weeds, cut hedges and perform tree surgery. I take my tractor on the public road to travel to and from where it will be used and I also go on the public road to reach the outer parts of the trees and hedges. Can I use red diesel on the public road? Yes, cultivating and managing gardens is horticulture and so your tractor would be on the public road for a purpose relating to horticulture." As I said in a previous post the chance of being caught going to a football pitch, supermarket car park or equestrian unit to cut trees are small and there are other available exceptions (mobile crane is a possibility?) The danger of using DERV only becomes a problem when you are hauling any goods and a chip box would be questionable as to whether it was hauling (away) items necessary for the work. I'd say this was dodgy. Then the use of an agricultural tractor is unlawful in itself. The other thing I cannot understand is in the last year or so a farmer was fined for cutting grass on a village green used as a football pitch. He did not cross a public road to do the work but the offence was that the land was open to the public and hence it was land to which the road traffic act applied, so came under the jurisdiction of the excise laws. As would supermarket and other car parks. Yet the HM revenue definition of a public road is one that is maintained at public expense, which does not apply to most commercial car parks. I hope he appeals because without a successful appeal the precedent is set, so you would not be allowed to operate a tractor on red in an area open to the public, even if you low loaded it. As I pointed out in a long ago post, I often track a chipper (an excepted vehicle in the agricultural context and allowed to run on red) across private car parks without an L plate.

I had the drop side body off Jose's movano when he fitted a dedicated chip body, replaced the rotten steel body on a mk6 transit with only needing new pivot bushes welding on, smart job. I too hope his venture is going well since the loss of his brother

Oddly enough the police in non farming towns don't understand agricultural vehicles, so the chances of being stopped are low if all else is in order. I see a number of tractors around surrey hauling diggers to and from building sites with apparent impunity. One guy I know has been doing it for over 40 years without being stopped, not even by HM excise. The only time I got pulled was in Chiselhurst in 1981 and that was for not displaying a number plate, got off that one but wasn't allowed to proceed as the tractor lights weren't working (an offence in itself) and it was near dusk.

Yes, as I said they have their place and severely damaged chain is one. I remember having all the chrome on the teeth folded over when I hit a bottle embedded in a tree, the file wouldn't touch it but the bench grinder was good. The fitter then was a bit slap happy so it wasn't unusual to see blue marks on the teeth where he'd got them too hot rushing to take out damage. In those days chain was much more expensive in real terms than now. In those days, 1976, the firm I worked for had a quality bench grinder and the indexing was accurate. Now I have Lidl one at home and there is quite a lot of slop in the indexing pawl so you have to be careful pulling the chain back for each tooth before locking the chain.

Yes our posts crossed, it's the profit and entrepreneurial bit that separates it from domestic.

Forestry, horticulture and agriculture are the same class, what I have a problem with is understanding while a domestic garden is horticulture (and school grounds, playing fields and highways are not) because it isn't a horticultural entrepreneurial activity is may not be covered for deliveries of produce in and out. I would say driving to a domestic property to take down a tree would be lawful use of red diesel, hauling produce away would not be. Driving to a football ground, school or town centre greenspace would not be within the horticultural use. I would like to see a legal precedent on this if anyone has a cite?

Take heed of Treequip and Dinosaw, bench grinders have their place but don't compare with a quick sharpen in the field with a file. Little and often unless you've dinged the chain on a stone. Also you'll burn your way through more chains with a bench grinder

On the rare occasions I have needed help with our small fleet of GM chippers Hazel has been the first point of contact, before speaking with Mac or Jason. Indeed she was able to send me a wiring diagram for an old machine just two days ago. I was unaware of her retirement and wish here well in sunny Cornwall, the coast walk around Mevagissy is one of the best bits.

We use Millers stuff

Actually should never run a wood burner like an oil or gas burner, to do that would be short cycling them because the wood burns in stages and even with a woodchip stoker you are likely to need several kg of wood in the furnace at a time, with the chip stoker you are allowing all these stages of burning to happen continuously in a sequence so the average burn stages are supplied with an averagely right amount of air. With a gas or oil burner you supply all the air to the flame premixed with the fuel. That said there's no need for either logs OR chip, my boiler, which Farmer Rod has seen, will accept 1m cord and there is a chip stoker at the rear. I suspect the reason was that the design was derived from a heater that ran on joinery offcuts. It heats up with a couple of pallets and as long as enough dry stuff is loaded you can stoke fairly wet chips as long as the exhaust temperature stays above 145C. From previous experiments with other burners I found that the wetness of the chip that can be burned with no visible smoke seems to be determined by whether it can reach a combustion chamber exit temperature of above 800C, below that tends to smoke. Because it has its foibles and was over sold to punters when interest in biomass started to increase they were slated in a government review but with sensible use they are no problem though there will be no support for the programmers any more. From experience with several commercial chip burners I decided if the staff aren't enthusiastic about wood burning there will be problems, its not a push button start and forget device.

I've played with this thing for 43 years and it's a balance between deadening the engine and risking the pinking, driving style can avoid much of it. I really should have the head off, reflow it and fit hardened inserts but it hardly ever gets driven, no value other than sentiment.

I doubt it's worth spending much money on, I'll check if the oil holes line up with the husky bar, use a husky bar plate and make a chain to suit and give it a whirl in the new year in case anyone wants it.

Same with wife's mgb, we ran it on 101 octane when it was new, pinks like hell now the few times it gets driven.