william127
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Everything posted by william127
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That really is a week of it! I was just looking through some of my photos and it feels like I've only been doing mechanicals for the last month! In no particular order: New bushes, anti roll bars, drive flanges, calipers, pads and discs on defender. Front prop, power steering pipe, mot on discovery 200tdi engine and mk3 gearbox out of the hilux tipper, mk4 engine and gear box to go in! Stump grinder, lots of tightening up and adjusting. Various small tool repairs. Service digger. Various repairs on mates defenders. Obviously the list is nowhere near done! And I need to get the quad bike fired up tomorrow, for the first time in a year!!
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Yes I'd be interested to know that. I've only ever milled 1 tree, an ash, and I thought I was giving myself an easy start??
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Quad bike and trailer can be surprisingly efficient. Using my old p6e ifor Williams, loading with 750ish kg of hornbeam with the 1.5 ton digger in the woods, drag quad bike and loaded trailer 50 yards onto decent track with the digger, then a 500 yard blast to the barn. Unload by hand, using the 1 in 5 slope of the barn floor to assist, piled as rough as anything to stack with the digger later. Our quickest round trip was 22 minutes, 25 was average. A third man staying in the barn to assist with dragging off and save opening/closing doors and gates would probably saved 5 minutes a trip. I don't think a tipper suitable for a quad bike would have saved us much time as it would have reduced our payload and probably been physically smaller as well as more delicate than my stripped and reinforced P6e!
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I have the same machine badged as a Hyundai, works very nicely, cost less than a grand and has done some good work so far. The cables have all been trouble as they come loose and stretch, but noting that can't be sorted. I'm pleased with it. Its now in need of a sharpen, which I will have a go at, but I'd also be interested in a good source of spare teeth?thanks?
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c ,Another successful day for the little Kubota! Digging out what turned out to be a monster of a cherry tree stump, took me far far longer than I was expecting but that's what happens when the customer has had the tree cut flush with the ground! Shame I didn't get more pictures but I was in a rush all day. And its another success for the 1.5 ton digger + stump grinder + stump + hedge cuttings all fitting on one trailer load. A good first (on site) day at work for the year?
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If you are looking for a loader tractor, industrial tractors are well worth considering. They have much more hydraulic flow than an agricultural version, are no more complicated, have a nice easy to use joystick for the loader- and they are cheap! This one cost me £1700 and to get a normal tractor with this loading power would be far more than that! the downside? No 3pl or spools on mine, but some do! Your budget would let you be a little bit more selective. an old backhoe like an mf50 could be had on your budget, forks on the front, some kind of grab where a back bucket would be? Not something I have any experience with but the look like a lot of machine for the money?
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Another vote for the portek. I bought mine for a nasty job cutting sub 6 inch coppice poles up for a customer, changed what would have been a totally horrible job into a pleasant, efficient process. I've often thought about buying another one and bolting then together so that I can put much longer/heavier timber in it. I can get a wheelbarrow under it but they fill up far too quickly. I might experiment with a trimmed down IBC crate when I've sorted front forks for my loader. Well worth the money!
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Time off at Xmas -- How much are you taking
william127 replied to forestboy1978's topic in The Lounge
I will work all the time I can arrange it for over the christmas period! Which might be every day between boxing day and new years day, or none of them! Either way is fine by me! I have one offroad play day booked in between Christmas and new year, if I can get two in like last year- well that will be worth two days off! I do sometimes wish I had a job where I could apply to work overtime over Christmas day etc for a massive amount of overtime! -
I have loads of stuff to tinker with in dry sheds with the radio going but days I have set aside for that can be my least motivated?? And these are the things I'm supposed to enjoy! But last Wednesday I had to litter pick a blackthorn thicket that I couldn't walk through to 5 meters deep from the edge, using a hook on a pole!! It was pissing down, I had been on a big job all the weekend before and was shattered Tuesday night, I should have finished the litter picking on the first day on site but didn't so I was technically working for nothing- all the conditions to make you completely demotivated!!! But I was there at 7 in the morning, happily picking by torchlight and by the time the small skip arrived at 8:30 I was 3/4s done! There's just no rhyme or reason to it as they say!!?
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I'm considering putting a PTO pump on my 20 ton hydraulic splitter so I can run it on the tractor I already have. These pumps from flowfit look good value and there's lots of choice! From the spec sheets below what model would people recommended? I would like the splitter to run at a decent speed but still be able to split reasonably difficult timber and not rev the nuts off the tractor! If there's more information needed please ask me and hopefully one of you hydraulic gurus can help me out! Thanks!
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I find it can be very hard getting going when I'm working in my yard or close by. I like a reasonable drive to work in the morning, 20minutes or so minimum. Its hard when you work on your own too, especially doing things like firewood or maintenance in the yard as you don't have to meet a client or colleague at a certain time so you get sidetracked or dawdle! Writing lists and ticking stuff off helps or doing things for set amounts of time- do an hour on the chainsaw or 30 minitues sweeping type thing- is a good way of getting into a rhythm and achieving things. Listening to some kind of music, podcasts, plays, comedys, on head phones is really important to me. Being completley shattered after work is also a nice feeling! And at the end of the day money is a great motivator!
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Maybe! They are in the post as we speak so we will see on Friday!
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Has anyone tried these bucket teeth for moving wood with a thumb? I'm wondering if they would give a better grip on wood at more angles than the ripper tooth, which is quite smooth? I might order a set as I have a small bucket they would be pretty good on and its not going to break the bank a £20 or so!
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A good start to the morning, taking out a good sized apple tree stump. Less than an hours digging?
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That looks brilliant! Proper lights, nice guard, bum protection and a neat attachment! Hope its working well for you. And its a great colour!??
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Tractor spot lights / work lights.... go for LED??
william127 replied to swinny's topic in Large equipment
I put this light bar on the front and a pair of the square lights on the back. They are completly independent on their own switches, the original lights are all still there but as these are much more powerful and I had them all lying around it didn't seem worth fiddling to try and make the originals work. And it only cost about £35 for all 3! -
I have a muck truck. Very handy, simple piece of kit. I've done 2 jobs with it where it moved about 15 tons a day. The skip is big enough for soil and I have high sides for logs and chippings. I'd rather have a skip loading tracked dumper but the muck truck was only £750 used, rather than £3000!
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Very, lots of uses, good and strong. Really can destroy roots to get stumps out. The only problem is it comes with a welded on stud and nut to hold the pins in, which is a rubbish idea for a soil engaging tool! I've replaced them with a more normal pin and r clip arrangement, would be worth specifying when ordering. But its a great tool. I have often used it to tear up ground before digging it up with a bulk bucket, rather than having to use the 2ft toothed bucket. I've also dug planting trenches with virtually no soil disturbance. I've pilot holed gate posts with it, ripped out sheets of concrete, handled tons of timber. I wouldn't be without it.
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A Kubota kx36-3 like mine and an RSL thumb or a fixed grab can definitely be had for less than 7k, probably 5.5-6k if you don't mind a bit of a scruff. A 1.5 ton will lift 200kgs easily, all day long and push god knows how much brush in one go. At this size you can get into loads of places, especially as the canopy only has a handful of bolts and 2 people can do it comfortably in minutes. You can also carry other stuff on the trailer with it legally- mini dumper, stump grinder, small chipper, logs I could even put my 3/4 ton digger on as well if I needed to.
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I have had exactly the same thoughts about my Hyundai, which also looks exactly the same. So that spout in the link could be very useful, thanks! For me not being able to swivel the spout is a real pain, there's nothing worse than having to manhandle the branches around the whole machine in a tight space.
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I have always been self employed in landscaping and we generally started on site between 7:30 and 8, so between 6:45 and 7:55 at the yard depending on the job and site! For the last 9 years I have been subbying odd days here and there to an acoustic/generator engineer who works all over the country and often has to work outside office hours(due to noise or the need to shut down live systems). A standard start used to be meet at his workshop or a handy service station (both about 30 miles from me)between 6 and 6:30. As the traffic has got worse and worse we will meet between 4:30 and 5 if we are going into London. We often meet 150 or more miles away and if its a 7am meeting then I set my alarm accordingly! Its been really good for me to work like this as its shown me that there are 24 hours in the day and you can use whichever slice of it you want!
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Finished fitting proper lights front and back Friday, needed them last night. The front light bars angle was the only one I could get it in at and looks all wrong but from the drivers seat the light angle is absolutely perfect!
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I've got or have had a lot of the saws mentioned and my choice would also be the stihl 461. I don't know about the 462 but people seem to be very keen on them and if they are an improved 461 then they should be brilliant. A stihl 391 is definitely not whats needed, too small, too thirsty, far too slow. A husqvarna 365 would also be a good choice, plenty of power and if someone who knows how takes a dremel to it you have a 372 but for less money. I have all 3 of those saws so that is my personal experience. I wouldn't even consider a stihl 441- same weight and less than £100 cheaper than a 461 but less powerful so why bother! A stihl 661 would cut better than any of those but is noticeably heavier. I considered it when I got my 461 but the weight difference felt far more than it is on paper?? I also have the husqvarna 435 and it is a great little saw, probably used more than all my more exciting saws! Happy shopping!
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Absolutely right, I should of course had said turn over! Still, even at worst case I reckon that was £600 profit day, absolutely worst case, probably more like £950. 1 of them a week would take the pressure off!
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A few years ago, only going to the house up the road so I did £1000 worth in 1 tipper and 1 trailer load. This was also my best earning day ever, £1200 of logs to just 2 customers, in July!
