Gary Prentice

Lombardini engines and they're easy to get parts for. You can get a spanking new one from Italy in 2-3 days if needs must. Pretty easy to work on, once put a brand new engine into one in a clients back garden in an afternoon. I think the company to approach for chipper parts is called Gibsons, over near Nelson or Colne. They took them on after they stopped being 'Kwik-chip' from Fletcher Stewarts. I know of a 222 that was originally a trailed machine, that was then put onto tracks several years ago and is still in pretty regular use. Nothing wrong with them IMO EDIT; Hopefully someone will confirm that Gibsons are the go-to people. I can't find their details but on the couple of occasions that I've rung them they've been exceedingly helpful.

you might have to be a bit more specific. What do you need to know?

I'm not really following the 'bent bracket' bit, and only have experience of the 222 but... On the 222 the engine sits on a plate hinged on one side (parallel to the long axis of the chassis). To engage the cutting wheel you have to lower the plate, on a cam attached to the 'clutch lever' - which then tensions the belts between the cutting wheel and engine. Everything should be reasonably in line. If it's throwing belts it's either out of alignment or the belts are so worn that they have stretched. With the engine OFF you can get an idea of the belt tension - a rule of thumb on most belts is that you shouldn't be able to twist them much more than a half turn at the mid point between pulleys. If the belts are correctly tensioned, then look at alignment. It's a while since I worked on a 222 but IIRC there may be some adjustment between the engine and the hinged plate itself. I think that the plate hinges are fixed in position (non-adjustable) but the engine can be moved around a bit on the plate itself. I think that there may be some adjustment on the 'engagement cam' itself, but just can't remember at the moment. Let us know how you get on.

Oh it most certainly does. When you really start to read coroners reports and the legal cases that occur after a tree death there's always a conclusion of some sort. Luckily the law doesn't expect the average domestic tree owner to employ a qualified consultant to inspect their trees. But once the owners resources increase, then so do their legal obligations. I heard Tony Kirkams under-manager talk about the death at Kew a few years ago. Several hours of police interrogation about their tree inspection regimes, which he assured everyone wasn't a pleasant experience.

My understanding is that it will be looked at to identify the cause of failure. Where it goes from there depends on whether the failure was predictable and could have been prevented, if identified during some sort of regular inspection regime. Have a search for 'Common Sense Risk Management of Trees Guidance on Trees and Public Safety in the UK for Owners, Managers and Advisers', These publications provide a load of information and guidance aimed towards tree owners liabilities and responsibilities - all available as free PDFs.

You certainly can't guarantee how your day's going to end when you leave home in the morning, that's for sure. It is sad, and this family have been so unlucky (lottery odds numbers) The consequences of incidents like this is, once the media get on board portraying trees as 'killers in waiting,' the public respond with totally unwarranted tree removals because they are" too big" and therefore "dangerous". Using the HSEs 'Tolerability of risk triangle', trees are intrinsically safe and no more than is currently being done, countrywide' is necessary to reduce the 'risk of death they create' (landowner/highway inspections).

But there are consequences of trying to set new speed records @kevinjohnsonmbe

You do know that trees account for, on average, six fatalities per year. Compare that that to traffic accidents, falling under tube trains and down stairs.

Not impressed. 16 year old lads are doing close to that... with trailers, round here.

Not surprised at all. Three of us strimmed metre circles in long grass and planted a whip in the centre one spring. Did maybe 800 trees. Three months later the parks lads mowed the lot with a gang mower. Tree manager 'forgot' to tell 'grounds maintenance manager'

Tried that once..... Cut the sides of my mouth to ribbons

I have read that a healthy tree may live in harmony with this for decades Mick. As usual there are loads of ifs and buts. I think that there may even be different colonisation rates even between the red and white side of the genus - nothing is ever straight forward but I don't think that it's one that you need to be evacuating people for as soon as you spot it. "I have made errors before!" Haven't we all?

Now if I did something like that, I'd get caught and end up in court for fly-tipping.

Bit late now, it's on t web

Being a pedant.... Only if you use the appropriate depth of cellweb. Different thickness have different ratings, IIRC 100-150 depth is good for cars and light vans, heavier than that you need the deeper thicknesses. One of their reps did a workshop at my LA a year or two back, worth getting to one if you ever get the chance.

try Cellweb TRP

Depend on his profit margin. It's always about the bottom line.

Only a mechanic who actually looked after and regularly serviced a saw would expect that. The rest of us who operate on the principle that fuelling and sharpening are maintenance tasks, think we're doing well getting 5+ years from a brand new saw

Frustrating isn't it! If an LA consistently exceeds eight weeks I'd advise chucking in an appeal immediately. I know it's more work for you but they'll soon get the idea that you're prepared to go the whole hog when they're tardy. PINS will, I assume. get fed up with a raft of non-determination appeals from that particular authority too. I eventually went to the CEO of one council, within three months the planning officer involved stopped dealing with tree apps and the job got took on by a TO who is just simply marvellous (I tell him so, and his department head, frequently). I actually got a consent on a TPO'd development site within 24 hours a few weeks ago. Tree contractors were being held up from completing after a couple of Ash with chalara were identified (No symptoms last year when I did the survey), so I asked if he could possibly expedite the determination. I wasn't expecting the following day. On the other hand, if he's late on a determination, like you I accept he's workload and defend him to my clients, we're all human. I've never been refused a site meeting pre-app, with any council. I suggest that they'll have to visit eventually but if they'll meet first things like pruning spec's can be agreed and then they don't have to come again. If they don't meet, then they may have to write a refusal and deal with a second application afterwards. No-one wants to potentially create more work than necessary and it's hard to object to my reasoning (None of these LAs currently charge for pre-apps fortunately - that might change in the future)

Whatever floats your boat!

How do you do that? Go back through thirteen months of posts to find what you're looking for? My missus is like that in a disagreement, she'll move heaven and earth, waste endless time and energy, just to prove that she's right or to make a point.

When you say new plugs, do you mean brand new, out of the box new? I've had 3 out of a box that didn't spark at all. Maybe I'm reading it wrong, but are you actually getting a spark? I've had plugs that spark outside the cylinder, when tested, but then didn't appear to spark under compression. For testing I'd always use a plug from a good running saw - just for elimination purposes. Then if it still won't attempt to fire, even to cough the problem's elsewhere. Sheared key or something like that.

If your experience is that 'transportation' damages them, you can't have staff! IME the person paying for tools and equipment seldom damages them. Inexplicably items used by others just seem to fall apart.

I'm assuming that you're not from a arb background, but if I'm teaching my grandmother.. I'm sorry. Most tree roots will be found in the top 300mm of soil. On some soils a single vehicle pass will damage roots due either to shearing stresses or by soil compaction ( compressing/compacting the soil to an extent that inhibits physical root growth and/or the permeation of moisture and air.) I think that the higher the clay content/smaller the soil particle size is, the greater the risk of damage - so on a sandy soil you might be dodging a bullet a bit as to damaging the roots But avoid digging, you will damage the fine 'feeding roots' that these trees rely on. It would be safer to use Cellweb than grids, I'm pretty sure that councils don't accept grids as a satisfactory means of protecting tree roots from traffic, but I stand to be corrected on this, it's just in my experience.

You probably realise that you don't get subsidence with trees on sandy soils? Ergo, no heave if you remove trees, which then allows a desiccated soil to expand i.e. heave. I'm not really following where you're intending to create new parking areas from the photo, but to avoid digging the common way forward to avoid damage to tree roots (no-dig solution) would be Cell TRP. For cars & light vans only, the minimum thickness is 100-150mm - straight on top of the existing soil. Layer of geotextile then permeable surface on top. Cellweb guarantee that it prevents damage to trees, I think that they'll if defend against TPO contravention claims when it's installed properly, so they're pretty confident. I can't remember now but I think I've read about some issues with the geogrid parking grids still causing damage to the underlying tree roots. Don't quote me on that though, just something in the deep dark recesses of my mind.