Fisherman

Thanks for your comments Sloth but I've got to say I liked both firms that came out and felt they wanted what was best. I've been around trees all my life, cut down hundreds and planted thousands. My own feeling when the branch first dropped was that the tree was doomed but have thought hard about it and may well try to save it. I won't deny that the fact that it's cheaper to try and save it rather that cut the whole tree down is a factor as well.

Second tree surgeon recommended cutting the whole tree down but felt crown reduction/pollarding might work. We haven't decided what we're going to do yet but will keep you posted.

The track is used every day as it's the only access to my house. At the moment I'm leaning towards cutting the whole thing down but have not decided for certain. It's about 50 meters in front of the house and I'm not sure I want to be reminded every day what a stunning tree we used to have. I know it will still have tremendous value to wildlife but we are surrounded by trees. I have a second guy coming out tomorrow for a look and will make a decision after that. Thanks for all your replies so far.

Herefordshire

There is still one large branch over the drive and we can't move the track as on the other side of it is a pond of about a third of an acre. If it wasn't in our garden I wouldn't hesitate to just take some weight off and see what happens. I've just got in touch with another tree surgeon for a second opinion.

Thanks for the replies. Can't really fence it off and it hangs over our driveway.

I do want to save it if I can. Had a tree surgeon out today and he felt it should all come down.

Came down during storm Doris. The crack goes right down into the trunk. Had thought about pollarding it but feel the damage and age of the tree might be against it.

Very true but now we're feeling bad because he's on his own for New Years, even though we know it's not our fault.

Father in law came for 3 days and amongst his gems were, Wife says, " what would you like dad, beef or turkey" He replies, " don't like turkey" Wife says, " so beef then" He replies, " don't like the way you cook your beef i'll have turkey" We walked on eggshells for 3days and then stupidly asked if he d like to stay for new year. His reply " no. Enough is enough I'm going home" Ungrateful grumpy bugger.

I've been trying to remember how I got the ram out. I'm pretty sure I disconnected the hydraulic pipes and removed the splitting box and ram together and then took the ram out of the box. It was a bit of a fiddle and as I remember it was easier to take apart than put together.

I'm sorry yebaws but I don't have the machine anymore so can't take a picture. Once straightened I welded some 8mm plate inside down the whole length and with the flap on the end I welded a plate across the whole back of it to effectively turn it into box section. I didn't find riko any help at all. In fact they just annoyed me by saying I must have dropped a log onto it as that was the only way it could have bent. I never loaded it with the tractor, don't have a crane and everything that went through the processor was picked up by me or the log lift.

Not too bad to take apart as I recall. Once straightened and strengthened it worked fine again. I agree it's a design fault. Mine bent when a log came back with the infeed plate and hit the Y support. With no where to go it bent. Easily done and I kept a sharp eye out not to do it again.

If you go back to page 2 on this thread, you'll see some pictures I posted of my wp36. If yours looks like the first pic, then you may have bent the infeed plate and will need to either replace or straighten and reinforce.

Fiskars x27