hawthornheavyhorses

Good work that man! I know one person who will order one right away, I'll let them know they've landed. Also let me know when your ads are ready for the BHL website!

You can parbuckle logs on with ramps and a winch, we sometimes do this to get large logs onto forwarders (with horses rather than winches!).

Slightly depends on your horses, some are fine with barbed wire, others will scratch themselves sore on it and young horses can injure themselves badly on it. Barbed wire is also much more of a risk if your horses were ever to spook through/into a fence or be forced into a fence by another horse. Personally I wouldn't use barbed wire, I'd use proper horse anti-climb netting with posts at 3m, and then a strand of electric fencing on top to stop them scratching/pushing it over. Agree with 1.2m high. If you want to use post and rail same height applies, put the rails on the inside of the field as it is much stronger that way, and a strand of electric along each rail. Electric can be run off a car battery, no need for mains really. Hope that helps.

Indeed! Have spaces on 12th and 13th June in Essex. Details can be found here: http://goo.gl/tvnyr5 Pm me if you have any questions or would like to book!

Sounds good, look forward to seeing it progress!!

I've always greased the needle bearing on my ms260 when the clutch is off for weekly maintenance which I am sure it says to in the manual and I was also taught to on my CS30 many moons ago! I grease my husqy through the crankshaft hole when the side cover is off. I figure it's better to grease than not, I know of husqy's that have developed a rattle if not greased and worked hard, which goes as soon as a bit of grease is applied. I know they only come into play when idling, but prevention is always better than cure. I'd like to grease the MS150 too, but don't want to have to take the clutch off every week! There is a hole in the crankshaft so the question is whether it goes to the bearing or not. If not a bit of light oil it is spud!

Hi All, I bought a MS150 CE for the Mrs as she's just passed her CS30, it's a great little saw for her to carry about when she's horse logging with me. I've read through the manual and I can't find any reference to greasing the clutch bearing. It's an outboard clutch, and I assume I can just pump grease into the central hole like I do with my 560xp, but thought I'd check here before trying it! Anyone have any experience of these? Cheers, Matt

Thanks for the interest, I'll put it to the Client and see what they say. Will PM you if they are going to sell to more than 1 buyer.

If you want a lightweight and durable forwarder without a crane I have heard nothing but good things from Osterby Smedja in Sweden: Österby Smedja They have started selling to the UK market and I know 2 people who have one on order. There is a second hand forwarder available on the BHL website at the moment which seems good value, and they are offering to deliver too: BHL British Horse Loggers, Woodland Management. I don't know of anyone manufacturing them in the UK now, sadly Doug Joiner of Heavyhorses.net died last month and he was the only UK manufacturer as far as I know. In terms of Swedish style logging arches, it's generally accepted that the Ulvins arch from Norway is still the best, as is usually available through Maggie Braunton in North Wales (01492 580291) but they expensive for what they are I think, but then there isn't much competition so they can get away with it! They do make a small forwarder (Kombi-Drag) although it is very small. I don't know of anyone else making arches at the moment, there does seem to be a bit of a gap in the market! I get quite a bit of my kit made-up to my own design now, I just find that is easier as there are always changes that I would make to others designs to make it suitable for how I use it, and also how I transport things. My forwarder looks like this, designed for a single horse to be as narrow as possible to allow us to get into small spaces. Movable axle to be able to take various lengths of timber from 1.5m to 5m, and up to 2m3. It breaks down small enough to go into one side of a horse trailer so I can transport Horse and Forwarder in one go. Photo is of a student driving, he was moving the reins from one side to the other which looks a bit odd but is a good view of the forwarder! I love it and it does exactly what I want for the way I work, but it may not suit others. Would certainly be worth considering getting your own made if you know what features you want.

Done!

I'll ask the client if they are willing to to split the sale, but suspect they'll want someone to take the lot. Will PM you if they are willing to.

Hi All, I have a contract to cut and extract around 150-200t of Oak and Sycamore this winter on the Essex/London borders and part of a conservation thinning programme. It will be 3-15inch diameters. The client will be marketing the timber, which will be in 3m lengths and will be stacked roadside with reasonable access, we got an 8 wheeler in last January with no problems. If you would be interested then the client is asking for "expressions of interest" from buyers now with a price you would be willing to pay per ton (subject to viewing the timber once roadside). If you would like to express interest please PM me and I will pass you all the details. Cheers, Matt

Didn't see your edit before my last post, hopefully that works then, as I say my kit had more in than that but you may not need them if it's a proper Stihl kit.

No sorry. The issue is that as I understand it the kit covers a range of WT carbs you can end up with quite a few spares. I had 2 gaskets that I didn't use plus a few other bits IIRC, so it's a case of knowing which bits in the kit are the right ones for your particular WT carb I just bought the kit and then matched the parts according to what I took off, and as mine was a WT 503, so probably slightly different to yours.

You should just be able to use a K10-WTE carb kit which I think covers all the WT carbs. Barrie (GardenKit) supplied mine when I rebuilt it last a couple of years back.

Hi David, I looked at your arches a couple of years back but ended up going for a custom made option in the end. I like to use a pole arch to completely suspend saw-logs so that we can keep them clean. This is much better than using a horse-drawn forwarder in my opinion for big timber as it avoids loading issues. I have used them for a single horse in combination with a Scandinavian timber arch, and with a pair with a swingletree. It allows us to move large timber with very little ground damage through tight sites. Generally something that can lift a little over 30 inch (75cm) diameter is about right for our horses, we don't often handle bigger timber than that. I'd want something that could handle 2000kg+, which would allow us to move a 6m Oak log with a 75cm mid-diameter. Having said that we generally tend to work small tight woodlands, SSSI's, steep and wet sites, and generally use single horses as a result, so need something that is also light and manoeuvrable enough for a single too when necessary, and can be put into final position over the log by and single person, and as narrow as possible. In an ideal world it would also incorporate some sort of braking system, so that it would be possible to help slow the log during a decent so the horse does not take all the weight or risk being rear-ended by it. This could be as simple as a block that rubs on the tyres, or even better drum brakes with the ability to partially set them (slowing rather than locking the wheels). It would also be able to break-down into small enough sections that it could be loaded into the back of a flat-bed pick up so it can be transported in the towing vehicle with the horses in the trailer. That's how we work anyway, although I am sure that others will do things differently!! If you do get something made up and need it testing then let me know, we're only down the road!

Thought I'd post some pictures of the Horse Logging course I ran this week at Norsey Wood SSSI in Billericay. Using Roy our 5 year old Suffolk, I had two participants who learnt to snig with a swingletree, use and arch and have a go at a small forwarder. A good couple of days and we even managed to stay fairly dry! Eagle-eyed Arbtalkers may recognise a regular contributor!

That's exactly what we did, a Balfor self-powered billeter and saw bench to cope will multiple sized timber, and having spent 3 days at APF this year looking at shiny processors I still wouldn't change it. They easy to use, cheap to maintain and can cope with anything. We stack the billets to the yard and season them, and then use the saw bench to cut into IBC's or throw them directly into the truck for delivery. Our saw bench is 3 phase so no fumes, low vibes and relatively quiet. I used to use a chainsaw but will never go back! I would like a conveyor but we don't really do the volume to justify the cost. Of course if you want the really eco-friendly version you could get one of these https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvQVwR8DKU8

Great to hear you have horses again, look forward to seeing some pics! Have they worked before or are you training them from green?

Love it!!

One place remaining on this course!

1 place remaining on this course!

3 places left - first space taken by Arbtalk Member

Hi All, I'm running a horse-logging course in Essex on 10th/11th October. More details can be found on the training forum here: http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/training-education/76046-horse-logging-training-essex-10th-11th-october-2014-a.html Cheers, Matt

Hi All, I am going to run another 2-day Horse Logging course at Norsey Wood SSSI in October. Suitable for an aspiring horse-logger, a contractor who would like to find out what horses are capable of, or anyone who might simply want a fun and interesting couple of days in one of Essex's finest woodlands. Initially you will learn about harness and harness fitting and have a chance to harness the horse for work. You will then be introduced to long-reining, and then observe different types of extraction methods. Finally you will be able to have a go at extracting timber for yourself using a variety of methods, and learn which application is best for different scenarios. During the Course you will experience: Preparing and harnessing heavy horses for work. Long-Gears extraction (swingletree and chains) Timber Arch extraction Use of forwarding trailer for extracting timber For more information you can download the details here: http://goo.gl/vnKHyE Please ask if you have any questions! Matt