Will C

I binned the 14" bar and went down to a 12 for climbing before i had a top handle, i find the 181 slow at best, i would guess with a 16" bar you may do more damage using it as a axe!!!!!!!!!!!!

Same here, I got hold of a net bag with a drawstring to replase the pillow case tho.

Off with it's head!!! Small stuff gets twisted and ripped off, gives great satisfaction:lol:

I use a 441 with upto a 25" bar when the husky 540 runs out of bar. I used a mates 362 the other day with a 18" in, that was a nice saw

We have had our forst for just over a week. So far i still say over all its the best chipper ive used would like a pair of handles on the front of the bonnet tho to help man handle it, but only a small gripe

I love my 540. excellent bit of kit, as has been said it is so well balanced, seems well built so far. Ive had mine about a month so far and it has given no probs, Ive evan droped it 20ft out of a mac (kab fail) luckly it landed on a heap of brash and was fine:thumbup: My only small gripe is it can be a pain if its been stoped for 5 min, needs priming again before it will start, not really a prob, just anoying when your only just balanced in a fork with one foot

Just re read the thread Jack and seen your posts - sounds like you are in exactly the same boat as we were - we wanted to invest once and properly and not end up with regrets. We too thought how much stronger built the Forst looked compared to the Greenmech. We have just come from a 99 Entec so anything was going to be better With regards to viney stuff etc - the Forst just seems to eat whatever is thrown at it and regurgitate it back out as small stuff! The Greenmech did struggle on bits, we have proven the Forst won't and will do it with ease. Both have had 6" Holme Oak put through them - the Forst munched it and the Greenmech stalled.

Absolutely 100%. No regrets here! Going to take some getting used to just how good it is! Managed to spray chip over the truck and into customers flower bed Really nice to use, the only thing that lets it down against the Green Mech is the noise, however, it is no noiser than any other brands apart from the Green one. Team Forst all the way here and the Customer Service is Spot On! Not once did they comment on us being on an Island and it being a pain like most companies do, and very happy and confident it will be as good as having a dealer here - a little trip round the factory proved that! It was one of the Groundy's first day with it today - he was made up with it! Felt proper spoilt! And was very happy with our choice! It did get difficult to make the choice in the end, much harder than we thought it would! And as IC Trees said - they both have good and bad points If you have any specific questions/worries etc ask away - more than happy to help if we can! And as to people saying how quick they are - we had to turn the feed rollers down so we didn't get done on the job to quick! Have you had them on demo yet? (Apologies if you have said - not had time to look through properly for a few days)

Its arrived!

I think your onto some thing there. I'm going to have to try to educate some of our log customers. There is only so much pine and Mac I can burn at home

We have now had a demo of both machines We had a very hard decision to decide if we should go green or orange:001_huh: We were very impressed with the quiteness of the green mech and the lightness is a bonus when you have to manhandle it into a narrow drive way on a hill but i was worried if the weight had been lost to robustness. Having a turbo on the machine means more time needs to be given to cool it down than a non turbo engine. The forst was built like a tank, not going to fall apart in a hurry. It munched everything we saw thrown at it quicker and had no turbo to allow to cool. You can also carry fuel cans/climbing gear etc in the hopper of the forst but the green mech tailboard seemed to short to trust stuff being left in there on the rough isle of wight roads. We came over to the mainland to see another forst as the only one on the island has got a one off hopper on it and i didnt like that so wanted to see a proper one and that made all the difference to it being the machine for us A Big Thanks to Matt from Redwood for picking us up from the boat to show us the machines with a proper hopper on and all the guys whose machines we saw, It was also good to see the factory while we were on the mainland, and nice to see where the machine comes from And we mustn't forget the greenmech dealers for all their assistance and help too. It had got so close we could almost of tossed a coin on it. Which we weren't expecting to be the case. We had a whole list of pros and cons to both machines and we wanted to be sure of our decision, like many others we can't afford to mess up! Thank you to everyone who assisted us, we now look forward to receiving our new orange toy! And some sleep not thinking about chippers!

It is far from the deciding factor, just something that was brought up by a salesman as a point to consider, but clearly it doesn't have an impact from what you guys have said. We are not getting hung up on any particularly point, it is so close we just need to check out anything that has been thrown at us to sway us, we can't afford to buy twice so want to get it right.

coming to the mainland to try the forst on mon:thumbup: the green mech was good but im not convinced it will last as long:confused1: both got nipples so all good

one of the last mk5 transits on a W reg now on 234500. belived to be og engine, drinks 3 litres of oil a week so it only needs filters changing:001_tongue: had a lot of body work but still going:biggrin: Its a crew cab and got a extra leaf in the rear springs so it sits level with a good load on I think if i go home over weight its ok because i was empty in the morning so it averages out:001_tt2:

Thats good to hear, I look after my gear as well so maybe to fact the green mech bearings are only 2/3 the size of the forst isnt such a big issue:confused1:

Ive gone from veg oil to stihl non bio recently to see because it felt like i was getting through a lot of bars. i dont know if there is a difference yet but there is nowt in the cost

How many hours do you expect to get from your chipper before it needs the fly wheel bearings doing? oh and what chipper it is would be good:thumbup: The reason I ask is we are in a quandary as to which chipper to buy, im going to flip a coin soon between the 2 main options:001_tt2:

got 2 different groundies, both self employed and both do other bits as well so they job share if you like, works well all round:001_cool:

Thanks IC Trees. Anyone else? We have had both the Forst ST6 and the Greenmech Arb 150 out on demo's this week, unfortunately not at the same time. Got to say after all that has been said by people on here and everywhere else we were extremely surprised. It is a really tough call. The Forst definitely wins hands down on how quick it chips but you can only feed a machine so quickly. Unfortunately the machine we used had a rather strange hopper on it (at the owners request) so we are off on Monday to try one with a proper one on And see if that makes a difference to useablility! The Greenmech amazed us to be honest, it was extremely user friendly, and very nice to tow. Its biggest plus point over the Forst is definitely the quietness of it, it made a big difference in the communication side of things between the groundy and me up the tree. Being a lighter machine it was very easy to manhandle, especially when the job we were on for the day was up a steep hill and a narrow driveway so the machine had to be hand wheeled in. But is it being that much lighter compromised in the longevity of the machine? The bearings are smaller than in a forst but do they need to be as big when they aren't worked as hard by the discs as blades? The list goes on........ We have a pro's and con's list for both but to be honest it is so close we could toss a coin over it at the moment. Hopefully that will change by Monday as its becoming a real head ache now for us and the salesman If you own either of these machines and could let us know your honest opinions of them both please do either on this thread or by message - it would be greatly appreciated - as you are the users and ones with experience of them.

Looking forward to hearing how you get on and what you think, we had the Arb 150 out this week and the Forst ST6 and are in a right head spin

Oops. See post below!

Its a self empolyed man not a slave, treat him as such and he will work harder:thumbup1:

£85 cube or £150 for 2 cube. Well the body on the truck is 2 cube and i guess there is some air in there! Thats delivered anywhere on the isle of wight but just tipped, dont do stacking any more. paid £50cm mixed hardwood delivered for 50 cube last autumn + 50 cube ish of tree surgery waste all hard wood seasoned below 20%. We are about the cheapest on the island, not sure its worth the effort but it fills the wet days and brings some proper work in Got the last half load going out tomorrow and we are all out for the season :-)

value for money, if the going rate in your area is £100 but you need £110 you will get it once every one knows you drag more brush than the bloke who only wants £90 but stands with his hands in pockets or on the fone. The numbers are for example not what you should or shouldn't be charging

we run a laid back ship, start at a sensible 8 finish when done some days i get a long day from them, some days they get a short day and still get paid. As far as food goes if they need food they get food, Man is a machine that needs feeding, i don't expect the chipper to work with no diesel so why ask a good bloke to work with out a sandwich???