openspaceman

Good point but the same is not true of golf courses or university campuses where I see herbicides used excessively, nitwork rail seem fairly liberal too.

That is the UK rules page and for most people this will not apply, if you follow the flow chart on page 11 you will see all commercial vehicles over 3.5 tonnes MAM have to comply with EU rules unless they come under one of the exemptions or derogations. The exemptions for class of vehicles will not apply to most of us but if you scan on down to page 15 we have: "Vehicles or combinations of vehicles with a maximum permissible mass not exceeding 7.5 tonnes that are used: by universal service providers as defined in Article 2(13) of Directive 96/67/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 December 1997 on common rules for the development of the internal market of community postal services and the improvement of quality service to deliver items as part of the universal service; or for carrying materials, equipment or machinery for the driver’s use in the course of his work. These vehicles shall be used only within a 50 km radius of the base of the undertaking and on the condition that driving the vehicle does not constitute the driver’s main activity." The 4 hour limit mentioned in UK rules has gone. so one could drive 4 hours to work, take a break and cut a tree and drive 4 hours home and still not need to use the tacho if you are within 50km of base and the MAM is less than 7.5 tonnes. Not that my boss believes me

That was my understanding, so it's alright to compost stumps in situ? We've lost many herbicides for use in forestry because the market is relatively small and not worth the suppliers pursuing a licence. Others like the residual ones went because they were found in groundwater/aquifers. The bracken control group appear to have successfully fought a rearguard action to continue using asulam for the time being

From the soft texture of the fruit I was thinking viburnum but the obovate leaves aren't right for common ones

So the MAM was more than 7.5 tonnes because the weight of the trailer is added to the gross weight of the truck. The derogation for carrying tools for the driver's use is only for a MAM of less than 7.5 tonnes. I have taken this to mean that as soon as I couple our 750kg chipper to the 7.5 tonne I must use the tachograph.

I'd agree, also I think he is confused about esters as I think you would be up into pyrolysis temperatures for organic compounds to crack this far, I thing he means Volatile Organic Compounds which are driven off before any pyrolysis starts, these can be a bit nasty but their calorific value is pretty insignificant and we didn't notice much even at 150C.

Kerb weight of 35C is slightly more than transit chassis cab at 1925kg for the 3450mm wheelbase but is mostly scores on towing capacity 3500kg on paper, I've driven plenty of ldv, transit, lt35s but not an Iveco. I'd go down this route with a tacho for those jobs a bit further from home and avoid the O licence.

Safest to ask the local FC private woodlands bod, they tend to be reasonable about licences in my area. When I have discussed it in the past the criteria were if there were any fences/hedges between the woodland and the house, was the woodland maintained as a garden, with paths and mown rides. The legislation mentions within the curtilage of the dwelling, to qualify the garden has to be enjoyed by the inhabitants. Mind there are precious few successful prosecutions of felling licence offences.

Me too, big mistake You're not wrong IMO as that is what I believe happened

I used to load an old Dosko this way and it was a bit hairy it got better with the magnetic clutch conversion.

I seem to recall an article in the RFS journal a year or so back which supported the idea for root development. I also have an Indian acquaintance, Dr. A D Karve, who is a proponent of using green leaves and sugar for manuring in the India. No experience myself.

I wondered if our local car park oaks had succumbed to a disease with the regular tar spots all over the stems, then I walked up and saw the bleeds close up and realised a utility arb team had been at work and gaffed the lot.

Me, 15 quid down and then 8 minutes in a smelly cabin sitting next to sweaty oiks listening to some saddo remonstrating with invigilator You won't get onto a civils site without one and nowadays that includes many house builders. Also you cannot get into cpcs qualifications without having sat one in the last 2 years and the big boys often don't recognise other awarding bodies for things like driving tractors, dumpers telehandlers etc,

Pardon

I asked about one on show at the woodfair with a chip box and the salesman said the kerb weight was 2.7 tonnes.

Touché I'm not sure which picture you are referring to when you say that. Anyway that was my question, was something lost in translation? The only image I saw on the site of the same picture but with other language seemed to be in Japanese

Hard to say, the original Botex cranes were drawn up by Gordon Hoy, in Exeter, he used to say he could draught a plan from a photograph. The thing was though they worked and had good lift they never quite hackled right, the relationship between the actions of the rams never flowed quite as well as the cranab. The early spool blocks he used were similarly awkward, spring pressures too high and the high pressure carry over didn't seem right. The production run was probably too low to benefit from experience that the scandinavian kit had evolved through. This was back in 87 so things must have moved on a lot since then.

Are they exempt from felling licence ( e.g. within the curtilage of a dwelling)?

Semantics but because of the low occupancy and the fact it is still standing it's a low risk. That is a different beast though, a shear crack, where the fibres at the meeting of the compression side and the tension side have dislocated in shear. Still a good example though.

If you look at http://www.mattheck.de/english/vtabook1.jpg you will see he labels the crack in the buttress as a hazard beam too. I can accept beam being a long horizontal branch and that if it gets too long for its own strength it presents a hazard but...

I'll try and have another look when I'm next near London. In the meanwhile here is another on a red oak and I think an associated earth ball but the gardeners knocked it off before it developed. This tree is likely to date from when the house was built in 1860, has been shedding deadwood from the tips of the crown for the 5 years I have known it and I think is dying, a neighbouring Horse-chestnut succumbed to honey fungus 3 years ago. The buttresses are sound and well developed so the fruiting bodies may just indicate the redundant central root is being consumed. and the now missing one I'm thinking the old fruiting bodies are a ganoderma and the white new growth below them plus the white growth in a gap between the same butters below grown may also be a ganoderma? Just as bad as the gardeners as I was walking around the stem I kicked over what turned out to be a colourful mushroom near the root. A boletus I assume

I think "hazard beam crack" is understood in this industry but was something lost in the translation from German? Anyway this is where the glue holding bundles of fibres together tears along wood's weakest plane, the reason why cleaving works. Two pictures below of a tree I have passed for 30 odd years since it resisted the storm in 1987 or 91, I don't recall it at the actual time. You will see how the lateral root attached to the buttress has held as an anchor as the tree has bent in the wind, the stress has caused the hazard beam crack from Mattheck's book and as the buttress has straightened to take the strain the lateral force has cause the fibre separation and the tree has survived. Looking round the opposite side you can see how two columns of reaction wood have formed on the compression side ( it is expected in a pine) to compensate for the increase stress in bending the crack has caused to the remaining original stem These columns do not reach the ground so only reinforce the stem above ground but there doesn't seem to be much compensatory growth of the now separate buttress.

First time I've seen that term, if it means what I think then I get to see plenty of these , say cut at 5 metres and now 12 metres and growing vigorously. The lever arm worries me. Since reading this thread I realise how poor my fungal fruiting body recognition is so here's a picture from a couple of weeks back. Host is a lombardy poplar with signs of stress and reaction. I thought rigidoporous ulmaria?? Also a previously pollarded tree. Sorry for poor angle but it was hidden in a bramble.

The requirement under health and safety at work 1974 and later the Provision and Use of Working Equipment regs is that you should be trained and competent to do the work. In my day the industry standard for proof of this was the NPTC Forest Machinery Operator Certification scheme and for a agri tractor based forwarding unit you would need units 1.3 and then unit 3.4 or 3.5 depending on where the grapple loader was mounted and 4.1 for line skidding using a winch on the same sort of tractor. Things then get different if the tractor is articulated. If it's still the same then it is still an overly complicated and expensive assessment system but has nothing on CPCS

I think you are wrong because it's the taxation class and disc that entitles the use of the fuel for a self propelled vehicle unless you are moving between land in your own occupation. This is why tractors doing contract hedge cutting or snow clearance are required to use DERV. As I said I cannot imagine being pulled up for this, I have driven a number of mulchers, tractors, diggers and chippers along the road for short distances. I did always display a tax disc on my tractors even though it cost nothing as this is the only thing that entitles a self propelled vehicle to use rebated diesel on the road. As you are probably aware HM customs have the power to seize vehicles wrongly using rebated fuel. If you know I'm wrong I'd be interested in any pointers to the law on this. I do know of one instance where an agricultural tractor using red diesel was impounded ( temporarily) for a non agricultural use even though it carried the appropriate tax disc, that was when the NFU used it to pull a trailer with a banner outside a labour conference. (I'm not camped on this forum full time, just diving in when I get bored with typing up my hand written notes, 30 minutes per page, 40 pages to go )