Pedroski

Can you walk along the pavement in a straight line on a windy day?

What worries me is the speed that they manage to nick things at. Ours is always hitch-locked on to the truck and it's easy to assume that because you're nearby working, and it's locked on, that it won't suddenly go walkies. So many times on jobs though we see dodgy looking drop-side Transits doing slow drive-bys. Couple of times we've approached them. A few months back I jumped in my 4x4 and followed one. We try to make our presence known as much as possible and hope that's enough to deter them. Scumbags!

Just make sure it's a tipping trailer. Makes a massive difference when emptying it. Also it's ideal for delivery of loads of mulch and compost.

Just bought a ticket and made donation - wish I could buy more but I need to be careful at the moment!

Silky Zubat here - love it. And for cutting ivy off walls and fences and trees the Silky Pocketboy I find is the perfect tool as the blade folds back a notch.

:blushing:Dunno how I missed this thread when I posted my "what's the weather like..." one. Rough as anything here!

We had a huge bonfire of the stuff, green it was, straight off the tree - burnt proper good with very little smoke once heat built up in the centre.

crap in Brighton. I was going to go out today and do a private job - hard prune on couple of neglected fruit trees. But it's lashing down with storm force winds. Instead I'm going to get a harness and some other bits for my daughter. How about you?

We use 3.5t tipper truck with an enclosed back, single cab with tool storage. Can only hold about 500kg on top of bodies and tools before hitting the limit. It is an ex-council "cage" truck - we took the mesh out the cage, took the gates and drop sides off as they weighed a ton, made up higher sides using alloy planking and all the proper fittings, then had a cover made up that properly fits over the whole lot, has a back that rolls up and a front panel that rolls up to fit long ladders through. This was made up by a bloke who makes curtainsides for lorries. Proper fantastic it is. Used to use 7.5t but instead of going back that route we invested in a proper big 3 way tipping trailer. So much easier for loading stuff into, and if we need chipper on the job then we just tow that separately behind my 4x4 and chip into the trailer. It's ideal really. It also means we keep the back of the truck pretty clear which makes it useful for fencing materials, plants. And we're even thinking about going back to a high roof van and towing with that.

Just to make it easier to relocate TIP when the climber is in the tree. Unclip krab, move it. No need to retie anything. It's a better alternative than choking the limb with a krab as there's no cross loading, and it's easier that the running bowline if you've got a massive long rope and want to choke it midway.

The police and VOSA and EA have been pretty active around these parts. If someone who is carrying waste does not have a WCL then the authorities at least have reasonable cause to prosecute. While it won't stop flytipping (as most is done by people who done give a stuff anyway), it can help to reduce it and better awareness of stuff like WCL means homeowners might be a bit more thoughtful about who they have taking their waste away. HOWEVER, the biggest problem is that the local authorities make it an absolute nightmare for people to access waste disposal/recycling facilities. I've got a trailer load of my own stuff sitting on my drive at the moment. It's only approx 300kg of stuff from the extension I'm building on back of my house. My local domestic tip won't let me in at all with a trailer even though the amount in it is small, my next nearest tip state no trailers over 4ft long, and mine is just over 6 feet long, and the commercial facility want £60/ton with minimum charge for 1ton! My easiest bet would be to drive along the road with the back down!

It's that bit about "non construction and demolition waste" where I have trouble. Most of our stuff is just garden waste, but then that doesn't include old fencing and concrete posts and bricks from taking down old wall and cement bags and scrap metal pulled out of gardens and stuff like that. If work involves transport of solely green stuff then it would be well handy. You've still got to be careful though if taking stuff to a yard though in terms of it possibly being seen as a "waste transfer station" or some such malarkey and EA don't like piles of woodchip etc near watercourses.

That would be wicked. I'd be more than happy to pay £20+ for a sports one. Cotton brilliant for lounging and weekends though! Merino, lush....but then even more dough!

A guy round here who used to work with us in the past then went off solo got busted back in the summer. Small truck and small trailer, carrying green waste. There is a bit of land that he has permission from landowner to use for composting. He attracted attention to himself though my burning green waste every few weeks (the thicker stuff that was no good for composting, and it wasn't chipped as he doesn't have a chipper). He got a letter threatening prosecution from the EA, and then shortly after also got pulled over carrying green waste - they asked him where he was taking it and he said "to my yard". So there's then another problem with the yard being used as a waste transfer station. He should have said he was going to the composting facility! We do have a WCL. As yet, we haven't been pulled over and asked to show it, and we haven't been asked to show it at the composting facility. The only times, so far, that we've had to produce it is at the waste recycling centre when we've taken old fencing, plastic cement bags, and all sorts of non-compostable waste from landscaping in there. It's definitely worth having - yeah, I know it can be seen as an extra tax, but at £150 for 3 years, then £100 to renew, it's far better than the stress of wondering whether you're going to get pulled over with that big heap of stuff in the trailer and in the truck. And it also puts the customer at rest when you can show that you're a licensed waste carrier. There have been cases around here in Brighton area where homeowners have been prosecuted and fined £5k for fly-tipping even though they'd paid "Mick" to take the rubbish away - the homeowner is responsible for that waste still, and if "Mick" dumps it in a layby then it comes back to the the customer.

They look fantastic. BUT, I bet they're cotton...and I sweat like a pig in cotton and the end up cold and damp. Any chance of them being based on that polyester mix that is used for active clothing (same as work and sport tops I wear)?

But PTFE is slippery init? The heatshrink stuff would probably grip the rope better without it. The heatshrink I've used over my west-country whipped ends doesn't budge at all, and that's not glued. And with your spliced eyes, the heatshrink won't slip over the eye as the eye is bigger that what it's shrunk down to, and it won't slip along the rope away from the eye as there aren't any forces there to make it do so.

Scrap treated timber isn't a product. It's classified as a hazardous waste. There's a directive that requires that waste from CCA class 3 (which is the stuff we use here) timber "shall be treated as hazardous by an authorised undertaking".

And attach split tail. Then all set for DdRT through the tree.

Big Fell, loving the Finnish idea with the log. I've got an Army No.2 petrol stove which is well handy. But proper burning wood is the best.

Very very sad. Two days before Christmas it happened. Leaves behind a wife and 14 yr old daughter He was going to be lending the saw to a friend, but wanted to start it and check all ok before doing so.

Illegal and immoral. It's ok to burn in a high temp enclosed incinerator, but no an open fire or log burner. Will check EA web site for more info and post here asap.

Stihl do ONE decent helmet, and that's the Vent Climbers helmet. The only reason that's decent is that it's a Petzl Vertex Vent helmet. The other helmets are pants, with pants adjustment systems. I was using a Husky one all the time - very comfy, nice slim ear defenders with plenty of adjustment, nice visor attachment. But then I started using my Petzl Vertex with Peltor ear defenders, and find the whole thing so much more comfortable - the adjustment is much better, and having a strap means it doesn't fall off when I look up with the defenders off, or when I smack myself round the head with a branch when dragging stuff to the chipper or standing up under a tree. After the first wear I don't even notice the strap. Mate takes the mick out of me saying I look like I've got special needs, but I don't care. He's the one who'll end up with special needs when he looks up, his helmet falls off and he gets a lump of wood dropped on him. Or when I knock his helmet off before smacking him one with fencing spade....

We do free quotes, and usually get the work. On times we don't get the work then the fuel costs are just another business expense that is covered by the good stuff. One of the pitfalls of pricing so low that you only just cover the cost of the wages is that every other expense, like fuel for quoting on jobs, seems unbearable as the money isn't in the bank to cover it. Then you end up with a business that isn't economically viable as you're dipping into your own pocket to go and quote. Only jobs we would charge to quote are those where we had been specifically asked to travel a long distance (we'd talk to the potential customer about this beforehand) and/or where technical drawings are required for landscaping schemes. It's crap when drawings are done to support a quote, the quote isn't accepted, and the drawings are then given by the customer to a friend or another firm to do the work. I think it's fair, in these cases, that the drawings should be paid for by the customer.

5 or 6mm works well with the loop. I can imagine anything fatter being too stiff like as you say.

And I thought Corrie was dramatic