Mr. Squirrel

Yeah £1m for that box, no wonder he's got a sour face.

Climbing helmets are principally rated for top impacts too. UIAA certification, which applies only to climbing helmets, actually requires greater impact absorption for top impacts than the en 12492 or whatever it is. Side protection is a myth in most helmets imo. I'm not sure how the ce certs for ground helmets Vs climbing helmets differ, but I'd guess it's mostly in the chin strap and adjustment? Ie how well it stays on your head. If the climbing helmet can take ear defenders then it's probably safe I'd say.

As said the choke switch doesn't automatically go from full to 1/2 choke. It should jump from 1/2 to on when you blip the throttle though. I'll try and get round to taking a look at mine later and posting a picture of what all those bits should look like.

I had the same issues with my 560. After a few years of hating the thing I took it to my dealer expecting it to go to scrap or cost me a packet. They did a load of software updates, cleaned the carb, replaced filters etc. It runs better than new now and cost me about £100. Totally different saw I know but sometimes these things surprise you...

So I picked up a 572 today. Haven't put it to work yet but first impressions: little monster. I was just looking on the husky site and comparing more of the numbers to the 372 though... And while the power and torque are significantly greater on the 5, the 3 has better figures for fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. I was under the impression that companies were going to great lengths to keep emissions down while keeping saws powerful, which required all this electronic gadgetry. I feel like you could get the same out of a 372 if you said to hell with emissions laws, let's make her rip... And you could work on it yourself if need be. Perhaps I'm totally wrong though. Anyway, got a big partially failed sycamore to dismantle next week and looking forward to getting it out.

Spiderjacks have the adjustable wooden block. But regardless of how you set that up the cam will still stop you, provided you have the right cam in. Closest I could think of.

How about those wee flexible grabbers you get for picking screws out of engine bays and the likes? Our would they not fit in/scratch everything up too much?

That was my thought, it's a safe bet basically. Some of the feedback on the 572 is quite convincing though...

Hey guys, just wanting feedback from anyone who's been using the 572. How are you finding it? I'm torn between getting that or one of the last 372's. I remember being torn between the ms200 and 201 back in '12. Going with the trusty old 200 was the best kit decision I've ever made. 372 isn't quite as big a performer on paper, but you know it's gonna work, and keep working. I'm going to run a 20" bar on whichever one I get.

Surely there are other devices which are adjustable? Seems a bit weak to deny it for that reason...

To be fair I was thinking main climbing line hitch. For things like lanyard, throwing hook, spider leg balancer etc. you aren't using them as you might a main climbing line, bombing out of trees and the likes. Probably be alright for that I'd say... I was remembering someone I met who bought a dynamic climbing rope super cheap to chop up and use for hitch cord. He ended up changing prussiks so often though that he got sick of it, started buying regular hitch cord and never finished the dynamic rope...

That's $2 a foot though, so after postage, taxes etc you're as well just paying £6 a meter to get it from the UK. Assuming the op is in the UK...

Yeah, you might just find yourself getting sick of having to change hitch cord all the time... As said armour pruss, HRC, Ocean polyester, bail out and a load of other cords have really good heat resistance and last ages. I've tried em all and settled on HRC. Well worth the money.

Yeah I watched a review of the ld2 and it actually looks really good. The clamp can obviously be optional, and the back plate being aluminium makes it look a lot less hefty all of a sudden! The fair leads look a bit funny though, can you use it with both of them on?

Yeah the hobbs is definitely a decent device too. As you say simple, and so less to go wrong. Great for less experienced groundies if you're contracting and the likes, or if you're sending the boys off to do a job. If I'm getting a winch I kinda want to go all out and get something that can really winch though, y'know? The ropeclamp bit on the ld1/2 does look pretty handy... I thought the ld2 looked like a pretty huge unit, but then I've only seen them online. How does that compare to the grcs?

After a few too many I phoned someone from under water with my old Sony. I don't remember the call quality being great but that was probably just been the gin...

Hey folks, Looking at getting one of the above. Just wanted to hear of people's personal experiences and thoughts on them. I've used the GRCS loads, both from the ground and the top and really like it. Setup is a 2 man job really but straight forward enough. It's simple to use, and fits to smaller trees easily enough. Only draw back is having the separate lowering bollard. Which I've never actually used. Smart winch - seems like a good idea. I've never used one myself, but had one on a largeish multi stem red oak dismantle for a company once. I had one groundy who'd never even used a portawrap before. I had concerns that it was a little tricky to take wraps off after winching to allow lowering? Certainly it seems less straight forward than unwinding the GRCS. I winched off a big piece of stem and while taking wraps off groundy lost control, all the rope shot off the winch and the piece made a hole in the ground. LD1 - never seen one in person or used one, but it's cheaper and more compact than the other two. Looks like it could be really good, but would rather see it in person first I guess.

Cheers for the input guys. I spoke to my accountant and am putting some of it through this year as capital gains, if I remember correctly? It was such a crap year of business for me that putting much of it against my books this year would've just been shooting myself in the foot for next year. I spoke pretty in depth with the accountant last year about going LTD and being VAT registered but it didn't seem to offer many benefits to my situation to be honest. I don't have any finance etc. so there's no financial risk to my 'company'. The VAT on my van was a bastard, but given I work for a lot of private customers, and contract for a few guys who aren't VAT registered I was willing to take the hit to keep the people happy. And save myself having to do VAT returns... There's a reason I climb trees for a living, I'm bad with numbers, and I don't need extra numbers to play with...

Yeah I'm just doing my balance sheet for that year now (making sense of the bag of receipts). It's all really tidy except for this elephant in the room. AIA varies but was at about £200,000 if I remember correctly, and putting the vehicle through in a single year is perfectly legit from what I remember. It's just how to record it... I'll maybe give the chap a ring and see if he's got time to take a look. Just thought it worth asking you lot first.

Hey guys, I've searched various other forums for advice with this and think I have the answers, just thought I'd run it past arbtalk... I've been self employed for 7 years now, up until our current tax year purely subbing. So books were always dead simple, invoices minus business expenditure, booyah. In the 2017-2018 tax year though I bought a van. My mum died that year and I received £10,000 from her pension, I borrowed a few grand from a family member on top of a grand or so I had so I could get a bombproof vehicle for work. So ended up spending £14,000. As what I borrowed was a private loan with no interest etc. I just paid it back out of my drawings. Seems legit to me. As it's a transit it's undeniably a commercial vehicle. Do I put that in my balance sheets for 2017-2018, but not include it in business expenditure, and then just put it through in my annual investment allowance? It was a poor year for business, as I took the first 6 months off work caring for my mum. So putting the full £14,000 through in one year will see my profits well below the approx £11,000 figure at which you start paying tax. Can I put a portion of it through for 17-18, and spread the rest over the next 4 years or so, aye? Looking ahead I'd almost be tempted get it done with in a single tax year and take the hit on the tax front in subsequent years. It'd mean more realistic profit values and possibly really help with getting a mortgage in a few years time. From April my books will be done through a chartered accountant linked into Sage so I won't be asking tree surgeons for help haha I'd ring him up to chew this one over but I feel wide calling up a couple weeks before tax return is due having a flapper. Cheers for any advice in advance, and please guys, be kind. We aren't all accounting wizards...

I'm 68kg and find it really off and on too. No smoothness. Relegated the zz to a paper weight after a week and went back to my knot.

I ended up in a&e one evening with a bit of crap stuck to my eye ball. Just couldn't get it out myself. The doc had it out no problem, and put in some anaesthetic eye drops. "if you're getting scratched eyes from bits of saw dust then the anaesthetic drops are a lifesaver" he said "we can't even prescribe them, but they do go missing quite often. I'll go fetch you some anti biotic drops, back in 5" Placed a hand full of them on the table and left. I'm now able to buy them. They're amazing.

You'd think with all that money behind them Petzl could come up with something better. They've just ripped off the rope wrench and made it worse, right? Right.

Living in rural Scotland I have a pretty cynical view of the big estates. They aren't all bad of course, and they do do so some valuable work. But they all seem to invest so heavily in pheasant shoots, and that just gets on my tits. I've done some work for game keepers when I was contracting. Smashing big bits out of mature oaks so the birds will fly right out over where the wankers park their range rovers. And then the sheer number of pheasants they inflict on the Scottish countryside. Just nah... They might offer something to the rural economy but it's nowhere near enough to justify the extensive damage they do to the ecology. Vent over. But that's not hunting I suppose. If there's fire arms offences then I hope they get the book thrown at them. Posing with the animal you just shoot is ludicrous and they should get a slap for that regardless and recover their life choices. But otherwise, hunting is an important part of the Scottish countryside and will continue to be.

I was actually thinking about exactly the same thing recently. I don't like the 3 way snap crabs, these 2 way ones are way nicer. I half considered getting one of those wee dmm swivels with the two shackles, but I can't really be arsed with that. You can get honeys own brand fliplines, if they're made in house they might be able to do you one with your current crab on the end? Edit: Or get one of these. I think I might just get one of these... https://www.treekit.com/climbing-equipment/hardware/carabiners/screw-gate/petzl-eashook-open.html