timberonabike

Due to the way the bags bulge they are greater than their stated dimensions. 110 hi-cap would need the tailboard down to fit 2. If not already bagged, you could just greedy board the back to get the volume in. Fairly sure our old hi-cap was a similar length to the tractor bucket. We've only one customer we couldn't get our 130 and 12' trailer into, so borrowed a 90 until they moved. Occasionally have some we have to unhitch trailer to get out. Could be worth bearing in mind whether Scotland will introduce any wood burning standards too as this may influence the volume you want to carry.

Know a farmers son that had the neighbours complain about the overgrown garden at the house he was renovating. He chose to set fire to it [emoji51] They never asked again.

Have found the same with sycamore in winter, not as pliable as when in leaf.

Done loads of against the lean stuff this winter on roadside ash to avoid taking out phone and power lines. Tirfor or tractor winch and slowly reducing a generous hinge. Sideways can also be an option on leaners if there is stuff you want to avoid.

Tried Gareth at GT Jones Contracting? Think he has a big chipper now. Definitely got mulchers.

It's partly so visible because the trees in the busiest locations pose the most consequence as they decline, so people see them being removed.

Burger vans near sawmills is a good start 😂 We mostly find them through contractors, buyers and just seeing them around. You're a bit out of my locality, but know one driver that goes anywhere for big interesting stuff as he has a larger crane.

Bigger. Whatever you build will want to be bigger. Timber wagon drivers are generally pretty creative, if it's a quiet road they can probably just back in off the road through a pair of double 12' gates if you've got 7.5m hedge to hedge available on the road by cutting out the verge. Probably best to find a driver or two and get their opinion. If you only have a small quantity of timber they may also buy it as they tend to have open tickets with the mills as most big mills response to hearing you have timber to sell is how many 100t? 😂

Definitely worth milling and plenty of small sawmills that would @Rough Hewn, but they tend not to want lorry loads which is what a lot of the die-back work is generating. We had some millable stuff from one job, several people said interested but never followed up over the next few weeks so went with a firewood load in days. The guys we regularly work with know that we and others can fell to order for the occasional requests they get. I'm sure that if it was to feature on a couple of 'Grand Designs' the demand would go through the roof like larch and cedar cladding 😃

It's a very under utilised wood as end buyers are so focussed on 'pine' or 'oak' that everything else is dismissed generally. Ash is as strong and clean as any other softwood used internally and for furniture carcassing. If they are amazing sticks, the likes of Whitney sawmill may be interested. More desirable as firewood if processor sized, biomass for everything else. Biomass sets the market base price as there isn't much they won't take.

Cut it at the base, 8 inch gaps everywhere. Wait a bit and it will die off and be easy to pull at. Best method on buildings so you don't pull mortar. Goats and sheep also like it. Got a bit of experience. The back of our house was covered in it when we bought it, along with all of one hedge line and all the trees. 20 cube of it squashed into dumpy bags and removed so far and only a third in. Some was growing along the power line to the house and behind some other ivy we found an outside toilet and coal shed as well as another shed at the end of the garden.

I just put a few of the lengths down as bearers and stack the stuff on top. Got a few sunny glades in the woods we use that are also nice and breezy. No sheeting. Some of the stacks have had stuff that was felled 5+ years ago. If the tree didn't have rot the sticks don't have rot. All goes through the processor lovely and gets a few months to finish in the sheds. The above only applies to ash though, other species vary in their longevity and ease of splitting.

Completely this, we have a few customers with small stoves or the inability to work out how to put logs in at an angle. We should charge more but don't. Not enough noggin offcut pieces in the main bays and the time it takes to find then out isn't much short of just splitting afresh.

Know of a guy near me that has setup a solar panel to some leisure batteries and a selection of old car fans onto his log shed for airflow through it.

For sawlogs or firewood/chip?

Maybe. Might have an end of job mixed load depending how things work out with the lorries, otherwise have another contact you could try. What size spec are you after?

Couldn't get alongside this one, so had to be a bit creative off the back. Not a hope in hell of dead-lift, walked it off without the bolsters. Avoided the weighbridge on the way home.

They look close grown trees, so not a lot of canopy brash in them. Ash breaks up a lot on hitting the floor, even more so if it is dead with chalara. Don't think you'll have much brash, just windrow any up out the way and smash it up. No idea what the site access is, but guess flat and dry compared to Wales, winch in on a few routes to access track and then cross-cut and lift. Looks good firewood processor stuff.

Mostly used Fransgard winches, very robust, easy to work on, spares availability. Hence they've never been changed and I haven't used much else. 4.5t and 6t, only had the 6t close to the limit a handful of times in a decade, only spent a year or so with the 4.5t, but it didn't seem lacking either. All in mixed woodland settings and assisted fells. You do need someone pretty heavy/strong on the clutch rope for heavy pulls to keep the plates tight ?

Another in support of Western Red Cedar. People are looking around more at alternative fencing products as there is so much treated rubbish out there that doesn't last to the end of the agri' schemes that are paying for them. Chestnut is one popular alternative, but maybe wouldn't work long term on the site as you describe it due to coppice nature. WRC has a lot going for it as an external timber and the rotation could be reduced to get a selection of rounds, halves and quarters for fencing. If left to grow on, we've never had trouble finding a buyer and a good price for it when we have it.

Chip buyers are starting at £50/ton roadside for absolutely no quality control, whole tree from base to tip, edge trees, forks, the lot. This determines the bottom of the market really.

Most years for ourselves and the others in the yard. Thing is, you spot the top you want, end up dropping half a dozen trees before you get the one you want, and then realise it's rubbish when you finally get it. With careful selection you can fell one from a cluster for going flush to a wall. Lawson Cypress was quite nice for not scratching you like a bagged cat and not dropping all its needles. On the plus side, helps us squeeze in an extra artic load of logs before the end of the year.

We're currently in the middle of a job with very similar mix of species in a RAWS woodland where we are tackling the thinning of 25-30 year old regen'. Before Chalara, thinning would have very much favoured keeping the ash, especially as the site is well linked historically to ash and they make up the majority of remaining maidens. However, we are now looking at them on a far more equal with the other species. Sweet chestnut isn't that common on the site, so those are left to grow on along with the elm, oak and hornbeam that's also encouraged. Sycamore we don't feel the need to penalise like some do, it will be the species that most likely fills the gap left by ash. Beech is quite a light thief and probably worse for the woodland than the remaining conifers as nothing grows underneath at all, so that is a pretty much default removal. Hazel is all coppiced first so that we can actually see the wood, working on a coup by coup basis. Overall, we're mostly selecting on canopy gaps and haloing our maiden and larger trees and the odd glade from removing big beech clusters and stuff that has been terrorised by squirrels. Not a lot of need to select for market, it's all desirable firewood and all good processor sized stuff, so had buyers lined up before we even thought about starting.

Hi Gabriel, If you have your chainsaw ticket we take on a woods volunteer each year and can provide accommodation and plenty of hands on experience in felling, extraction, planting, fencing and everything that falls into woodland management on an estate. Previous volunteers have done this as part of an apprenticeship from college in Hereford when FC England were funding, not sure if that is still the case, we are Wales based. Most volunteers have gone on to paid work in a related field having picked up the skills and confidence. The ad is now live http://bit.ly/2wlx5h4 Or you can contact me through the office email, [email protected] Cheers, Tim

Possibly too late for you. The new distributor based in N.Yorks is claiming to be a lot better than BSG, which shouldn't be hard, never had anything in stock, all has to be ordered from Italy, factory shuts down in August so no parts available then. Not great on rough ground, we consumed driveshafts, steering ram mounts, wheel swivels, mashed the diff-lock. Some eejit didn't spec PTO or arms, might have been useful otherwise. It now has an easy retirement on a Pembrokeshire farm/campsite. Definitely no Unimog, although maintenance costs probably weren't far off Thought it was pretty rubbish until we got a Grillo, that is just scrap in waiting.