aspenarb

I think it depends whether you are long term busy or short term busy. If you are only looking short term the subby turns up with his own wheels and tools, gets the job done and leaves. You pay for the privelage but dont have the headaches or costs of employment,tooling or transport. Long term though its going to be cheaper to take on your own staff but with it comes the rest of the grief. To test the water I would go with subbys and see how long it takes to go from busy to scratching about. Bob

I sent in a painted landrover chassis and the just dipped it, galv and sent it back. £135. That was wessex galvanizing. As for cost they weigh the job before it goes in and weigh it again when complete and you pay for whats used, if you look at those frames there are drain holes in them to drain out excess. You pay for the weight of material used not the weight of the job. Bob

I have had lots of stuff galvanized over the years and it works out a fraction of the cost of paint. Take the prep and painting time into consideration over and above the cost of the paint and galv look s very cheap. They dunk stuff into a hot vat of acid that kills rust and makes paint just fall off then straight into the vat. The only thing you have to watch out for is distortion, if the guys that string the bits up prior to dunking them dont take a little care the job can distort. Bob These frames cost me about £80 each to galv, no prep needed they deal with the whole job. Can you imagine trying to rub down into all those nooks and crannies with sand paper, then trying to get paint to stick

I am ok on old school motors but I threw the towel in on modern diesels a long time ago, I just have them plugged in now. Sixty quids worth of proper diagnostics time is far cheaper than changing expensive components until its fixed. Bob

Am I alone in thinking that being self employed or a boss entitles you to take breaks as and when which makes a holiday less of a priority. I just grab time between gluts of work and do what I want which suits my tiny mind,I dont think I could bear to be somewhere for a set two week period pretending not to be bored witless. Bob

I never had RW on my land until Merrist Wood Ag college let the land they were leasing to play farming on go to ruin. My fields are down wind to these and I have had to do battle with the weed ever since. Its a bad picture but there is loads of it in there which all came from the higher ground in the next door farm.

I forgot to add about the mix ratio`s as a percentage. 50.1 is a 2% oil mix and 25.1 is obviously a 4% oil mix so although the numbers look miles apart the oil content of the mix is still very small @ 2% extra on the 25.1. Bob

Aside of what oil is best which is a highly contentious issue one needs to consider tune. Adding oil changes the viscosity of the whole mix so if a saw has been tuned to run on 50.1 changing to 25.1 will have the saw running lean. Its not a problem if they are tuned for one or the other but you need to be mindful not to change oil ratios without tweaking carbs. As Stihl have documented the ratio can be 50.1 on their oil or 25.1 on quality other oils so there is a wide scope on mix ratio`s . Bob

We have the Stihl auger, I am of the same opinion as others here in that you can dig a lot quicker with hand tools, the lads also abuse the hell out of it trying to make it munch through stoney ground when it clearly wont do it. The only exception is soft soil and then they come into their own. Good gadget for planting . Bob

Its what stihl recommend if using other oil. ( bottom of the page). As said never had issues or smoke. Fuel mix | STIHL Bob

A friend of mine bought a stationary engine/powerpack in a frame, pto shaft comes off the back of that through a speed reduction box. The hydraulics come off the timing cover, its got all its own cooling system, oil reservoir and charging system, he has also fitted it with huge worklights that light up the whole yard . Works brilliantly and no tractor involved. Bob

I would just hang one of these off the back of any old tractor, available in many flow rates and keeps the PTO live. This one is expensive , normally about £350 ish from flowfit but just an example PTO Pump Gearbox 800 series+ BE L Hydraulic Pump | eBay Bob

Especially in close proximity of the woodland. If you were to buzz the stumps down a bit it would be an easy job for a mulcher. Bob

+ 1 on the last two posts. I am old enough and ugly enough to have seen where a bad cough can lead. Doctors asap. Bob

Climber ,groundy with aerial rescue ,unwritten truck and chipper is the way forward if you are after sub contract work. Shove mag signs on it when doing your own work, its not really a complete package without a groundy. Rates are regional so I wont comment ,also there can be a huge difference in rate depending on capabilities. Its great to see lads get off their arse and have a go Bob

Let alone the difference in price and availability of landy vs jap bits. Always plenty of good second hand bits about to keep a landy going:thumbup1: Bob

Our ten tonner had developed an oil leak that has progressively got worse, I thought as the brakes and everything were recently overhauled we would give it a birthday. A bit wet in there:thumbdown: The original engine was a 130hp but I had a 150 ti in a festering truck in the corner of the yard so pulled the engine out of that. Fits in there ok but heaps of bits to change, if you never had the other truck for bits it would become very complicated and expensive. Single biggest difference between the two is this massive intercooler. Should wake the old girl up a bit:thumbup: Bob

I think in the interests of retaining some stability of the ground on theses slopes it may be an idea to either buff the tops of the stumps off just below ground level with a decent stump grinder or romp around the site with a mulcher just taking the tops off everything. I dont think de stumping is a good idea, removing them is just creating another job to deal with . Just my worthless humble opinion. We cleared and de stumped a 4 acre site for a reservoir , that was a massive pile of stumps. 21acres ?? Bob

Anyone considering offering the service would be wise to stock up in the summer months,the price of bagged salt during a cold snap rockets and supplies dry up. The last time we needed a top up during a cold snap the salt had gone up threefold. Bob

We have been pulling this stuff out for the last 30 years, I missed last year which was a first and I am now looking at it thinking bring on the chemicals It has to be worth a try . Bob

You are right about employers and their responsibilities in the workplace. I was referring to the landlords of these estates, they get round their responsibilities and liabilities by supplying grit bins and put the onus onto the tenant.They would leave themselves open to prosecution if they were to supply the service. Extract: If a landlord has granted a right of way to the tenant (and more than likely also their visitors and employees) over the estate areas, then there will be an obligation to ensure that the right of way can be exercised safely. That said, this doesn’t mean that a landlord has to clear every inch of every possible route of access. Case law (see McCondichie v Mains Medical Centre [2004] L.R. 4 below), sets out that landlords aren’t liable for someone who may have an accident in a car park, for example if they have put a reasonable system to clear access routes in place. However, effectively gritting and clearing all access routes could be a particularly onerous task, one which a landlord will struggle to maintain. A practical solution would be for a landlord to facilitate the removal of snow by providing the tenant with the necessary equipment, along with a regularly restocked grit bin. Bob

Still worth a look Mick, our dosco has steel vanes , they are shouldered and worn Bob

Thanks for the replies and PM`s on this, There are a few areas I can test case a few of these suggestions. Will report back, thanks again. Bob

Bang on there Old Hand. Thats where the problem was with our TW`s. They had lost a bit of blow through worn vanes and could not shift conifer unless the revs were on max and it was fed in slowly. New vanes sorted it. Worth checking out Mick. Bob

We did well out of gritting and snow clearing, the bags were selling like hotcakes at the gate ,also the gritting and snow clearance kept some of the lads busy around some of the estates we do grounds maintenance on. A friend of mine who does a lot more of this bought tailgate mounted spreaders and mini snowploughs for his 4x4 pickups, they were flat out though the last cold snap . I suppose the kit has not moved since,that said I would imagine its all paid for itself and its ready to go if and when we get a situation like this. I know for a fact he got through 4 artic loads of salt/grit because I unloaded it in my yard as he was pushed up for space. The upside is its some turn over at times when nothing else is going on . An interesting aside to this is the liability of snow and ice clearing, if a landlord does nothing and someone slips over and breaks a leg he is not liable, if he clears the snow/ice and someone slips and breaks a leg he will be liable because his efforts are deemed inadequate. True:thumbdown: Bob