wrsni

Mixing ratio is determined by the oil, not the machine. If you get an oil that mixes at 50:1, then 50:1 it is. If the oil is for mixing at 40:1, then 40:1 it is, etc. If you get an oil that doesn't specify it's ratio, then it's sh1te, don't use it! Whatever posts come after this to confuse you, ignore. Follow the above and you'll be sorted. Personally, I use a good quality full synthetic at 50:1 but there are lots of oils out there well capable of protecting something as basic as a chainsaw.

It's one of the few tractors which would be narrow enough to use between the rows in our woodland yet looks like it could do a bit on the farm as well even if only turning hay or rowing grass. No exhaust to catch on branches, grass tyres would allow us to use it on fine turf but good to hear that grip is still good for other jobs. Would fit in our 10 by 5 plant trailer if necessary, enough oil flow to drive the road brush, same engine as our digger so one less different set of filters to confuse things, it just ticks so many boxes,..........in theory! Big problem is that there is so little of that type of thing over here that I'll probably have to stick my neck out and buy one on the mainland and bring it over so any real life feedback I can get on them first is most welcome. Thanks to both.

You can put an absolutely fearsome amount of stuff in a 40 foot container if you know what you're at. I've had to help unload very well packed ones in the past and when what was in it was strewn out over the factory floor you'd have thought it came out of 6 of them!

Excuse me but who said anything about letting people down, I'll move heaven and earth before I let anybody down, least of all myself! I take great pride in my work, which is why I won't cut corners or comprise on the quality of what I turn out even if some cheap skate customer wants me to. Every job you do is potentially an advert for a future customer, so if you do something in a half-assed way just because somebody who has no idea what they're talking about wants it like that, or some miserable sod wants to save a few quid, what are you going to do. Put a plaque up saying yes it's a bit of a bollocks but I only done it like this because knobhead wanted me to and "THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT!" I've gained a sufficiently good reputation in my profession such that I haven't had to advertise at all for a good number of years now and still manage to keep busy and bring in new customers, always on the strength of a recommendation from someone else. Not risking that for anybody!

Apologies for the slight hijack but tell me more about your little Kubota, hours, reliability, real world lift capacity, etc. I have a serious notion for an ST30!

Irrespective of make or model, I wouldn't have a 70cc saw and a 60, they're too close. 70ish cc saw certainly but you'd pair it up with something in the 40 to 50cc bracket, having done that I reckon you could cope with just about anything.

Nor would I have someone like you working for me, can't be doing with "yes" men! Shows either a terrible lack of confidence in your own ability, a terrible lack of knowledge of your trade, or a "IDGAS, I'm just here for the money" attitude. People pay me to do what they're not capable of or don't know how to, why then should I have to take advice from them how to do it!

If they're paying you for YOUR expertise, why agree with them if they're wrong. Have confidence in your own knowledge and abilities, be polite, be knowledgeable and explain (if they're prepared to listen) without being arrogant and/or condescending, and if they still act as if they know more than you then say that your plainly not needed as they know it all already and walk away. I done the "customer is always right" thing for a couple of years and it was a disaster. Unless of-course you're a pretty poor tradesman with little idea what you're doing and then you've no choice.

Well even if you wanted to take that as being indicative, that's a 25% failure rate. That's pretty poor for ANY piece of machinery, and for something as basic as a chainsaw, very poor form. Again, I'll repeat. I simply didn't see why I should take that degree of risk with a new product when there were/are other alternatives with no such issues for a broadly similar amount of money. To be honest, it only seems like common sense!

With respect mate, but that's a bit disingenuous. Elsewhere there's a 20 plus page thread about loads of hassles with various 560 Husky's in which you are a very frequent poster and I could quote yourself many, many times from that thread in stark contrast to what you say above. Now I don't doubt the fact that it's doing a good job for you now, but why would I want to run the risk of all the hassle you and many others have had when there are other alternatives? A chainsaw is not supposed to be like a french car, .............or at least didn't used to be! Oh, and in the interests of balance, I'd apply the same theory to a new Stihl despite having a dealer for them 5 minutes away!

Unless you're reasonably handy mechanically and know a bit about what you're at, then proceed down the secondhand route with caution. I needed a bigger second saw this autumn and bought a very tidy MS440 and an even cleaner 266xp, even then they both needed a good going over and had a few niggles to sort out (Stihl especially) before I had them 100%. Not a lot of parts required, just little things here and there but they make a big difference and if I'd have had to pay for the work involved then the entire operation would have made no economic sense at all. Longer term I'll give it a year and see how they do, they're both sorted absolutely now so if there's no more bother they'll stay, any hassle and they'll be sold to make way for a new saw. Incidently, that saw will NOT be a new 560 Husqvarna. I came very close to buying one but after ringing the two nearest Husqvarna dealers who both claimed there were no problems with ANY 560's and the autotune was flawless, I wised up and realised there was no way one would be worth the risk. It'll either be another Dolmar or Echo.

Darn, missed it. Just too much stuff under "chainsaw" to trawl through so never search that. Would have been an excellent partner for the 109 too.

That's a good, intelligent post. Some excellent advice there.

Give this outfit a try. Good helpful service and free delivery to Northern Ireland, most of the others quoting "free UK delivery" are actually mainland only.

I dealt with them for the first time a few weeks ago on the basis of a recommendation on here and the service was first class, no issues whatsoever. Ordered a couple of bits elsewhere for the MS440 just over a week ago and it took a week for it to arrive so obviously some postal delays at present. Wouldn't worry.

Bel Ray was the first that made a serious impact in competition motorcycles. I was running Castrol GP at the time as it was supposed to be as good as "R" but without sticking throttle slides in the wet. Both "R" and "GP" were like treacle and you were using it at 25 or even 20 parts to one, then along came this stuff which was as thin as motor oil and yet you were supposed to use half the amount of it. The people who used it were looked on as being either crazy or stupid but that was a sign of what was to come. No, it's not a black and white thing, we have a race kart with a 100cc IAME direct drive engine in it, it revs to 20,000 on a regular basis and we've seen it peaked over 22 on the rev counter. We don't run full synthetic in it, we run Castol A747 in it at 30:1, but the relevance of that to any chainsaw usage is zero and leaving those extremes aside, if you can protect your engine as well with half the volume of oil (which you will with synthetics) then it's a total no-brainer for many reasons, environment included.

I was raised in the 25:1 era but I've altered my view as the oil companies have improved their products. Also bear in mind that a chainsaw engine is a pretty tame two stroke engine by overall standards, they're not going to be that difficult to lubricate properly really.

That is the definitive statement of the entire thread.

Hawthorn is terrific, anything dry is good but Hawthorn probably has the edge. I've some plum to burn and it's been disappointing in that it won't burn quickly enough in the cooker to heat the water sufficiently. Thinking it might do better in the soon to be commissioned stove. Never burned oak yet, but have four (free) loads of it left by to season for next year.

Definately couldn't show that second one over here, "We must warn you, this advert contains scenes that some viewers may find distressing". But personally I thought it was excellent, not to mention very clever advertising.

Nobody needs to know any "new tricks", all they need to do is familiarise themselves with the new "distance selling" regulations which at first glance are so heavily weighted in favor of the buyer that it's ridiculous. These are freely available on various government and consumer web-sites all over the place. They apply to any business NOT carried out face to face, and actually ebay had to change it's policies to conform with them as their existing buyer protection didn't go far enough. Against that, there are also ways within it for a decent trader to protect themselves if they go to the trouble of disecting them properly. We got a mail shot from one of the motorcycle trade organisations detailing what you needed to do to protect yourself and how you could be had if you didn't and it was a serious eye opener.

Turned 53 in October past and been pretty hard on my body most of my life. Have ridden and raced motorcycles since my mid teens, mostly tarmac now but raced motocross when I was younger. Back then Irish championship was 40mins + 2 laps and that was wrestling 500 Maicos and such like around, I've crashed bikes just about every way possible and got some serious beatings. Working life hasn't been much easier, working on farms doing all sorts, crushed with cattle, out in all weathers and at all hours, got some serious soakings and founderings, have suffered from just about every disease that can be transmitted from animals to humans, salmonella, lepto, ringworm, had an attack of farmers lung one winter which nearly killed me. Then after I bought my own place, to help make ends meet I done a bit of contracting along with the farming, road work, landscaping, water mains, building sites, whatever, and that was another foundering session. Anyway, the past 10 years or so things started to get really bad and I found myself reaching for the painkillers on a more regular basis, but of-course didn't realise it at the time. Then things came to a head about 4 years ago, firstly blood pressure went through the roof (headaches, real bad dizziness, sickness) and while that was going on had an attack of sciatica for the first time which just crippled me. Anyway all of this forced me to the GP, medication for stress and high blood pressure, painkillers and steroids for the sciatica, all of which to be fair I DID actually need and helped no end. It was only when I was getting back on my feet again and the main issue became the side effects of the medication that it dawned on me what was happening. I asked the doc what the drill was for stopping all "this stuff" and he just casually said "oh no, you're on all of this for life" and it was only then I caught on where I was heading. So I weaned myself off the medication to see what would happen and actually it was OK. Looked in to the "worn body" thing in a bit of detail and the medical opinion is basically that if you've taken a lot out of yourself then the damage is done and you take medication the rest of your life to mask it. Against that, a good friend of mine is in to martial arts, exercise, herbal stuff and all that and he told me NOT to slow down. If you've been active all your life, stay active, maybe decrease the stress, the weight of the things you lift or whatever but stay active. So that's what I do, keep busy and on the go. The medical people will tell you if you try to do something and it hurts, stop. This is bollocks, it could also be telling you that you need to be doing it more often to keep yourself flexible. I'm not getting any younger and I can't help that but I'm not much worse than maybe 10 years ago and certainly better than 4 or 5 years ago, and no medication. With the exception of the odd twinge the sciatica hasn't returned as yet and I was told it would trouble me the rest of my life. The worst thing for me is a day in the workshop stationary, so I break it up a couple of times by doing something else for 10 or 15 minutes. Change certainly, but don't slow down or stop and either stay of the medication or seek to use it as little as possible. Hope this helps.

Yes, that's a very good reason for dealing "gross" also.

Yes obviously, but that's not the point.

No, you DO have to charge the VAT obviously but if they're not reclaiming it then you don't have to issue a proper VAT invoice detailing it.