green heart

While I don't think many of us (?!) would really disagree with your points, I would make one exception -in the case of the tiny 18v/40v battery tree pruning saws . Such as Makita UC029G, Milwaukee M18 Fuel, etc These now offer several significant advantages over 2strokes, for climbers carrying out light pruning operations: lower weight, smaller size, lower noise, less vibrations, no repeated pull starting, cheaper, no exhaust burns, etc They also make good chipper saws, and handy to keep in the van, workshop, garden etc for odd jobs. So, after a few decades of tree-bothering experience, I'm now a convert to those 'battery toys', thanks Gabriel !!

What Paddy says, above ! Let us know what you decide to do? And please make sure you have a very functional tracker/insurance cover on your chipper (and anything else of reasonable value), that you might leave there, overnight... I've noticed that when I am weighing up/anticipate a bad outcome -and still do something anyway, I'm often positively surprised by the result ( reverse psychology+planning = works well ! ). It's actually making me wonder again, about mounting an advertising sign, on our own rural roadside gateway.. We do have the (minor) benefits of a heavy steel vehicle barrier, plus gates adorned with razor wire, in addition to other er, more transient security measures... 🤫

Just like an unusually healthy, well-grown, dense, hawthorn hedge should do ! AND even better for nesting birds, small mamals and invertebrates. ALSO, highly resistant to straying livestock, humans and out-of-control cars, etc -I can report a Land-rover Discovery was impaled up on my (layed) roadside hedge, and was unable to get out, until my neighbour arrived with his chainsaw and massacred the hedge ! 🤨

Hmm.. I'm thinking more Staffordshire style -though I suppose that's as good as a Midland style to most. Thought Midlands tends to be much more thick or 'bushy' cow-proof style of laying ? Anyway, it's a -very- well laid hedge; I'd be proud to my name to the second length/photo. 👍

We adapted one of our home-made post punners, adding a return bracket, to stop half-round posts from twisting, while being driven. Quite good for holding any type of post though. Cost: just half an hour, with a stick welder!

At 61 I'm wanting/aiming to be climbing/pruning 3 days a week, in winter. But only when it's dry -in Manchester -call me fairweather ❄️ , and at the gym/yoga 2/3 times weekly.

Then give it a go, with the option to change your mind (without any penalty, either way) in say, 18 months time? Anticipate one or more break-ins and don't leave any power tools/valuables there overnight -it looks less secure than a cardboard box.. I think Mick's right, it does seem a high monthly rental cost -but then I'd imagine renting a couple of old back-street shipping containers might cost €400 a month, anyway ? We just bought three of them, including an office unit, 'temporarily' rather than rent them.. and that was 2 decades ago; they're still in daily use!

Goat willows do sometimes grow some surprisingly large burrs -like this small one. Keep an eye on it for a couple of years, if you know any wood turners/carvers, they love them !

Stuart, here's my thoughts: my own (UK experience only) is that any treework/forestry businesses that are unattached to a domestic residence, consistently tend to attract local unwanted night time 'visitors'.. regardless if they are alarmed. A second visit then follows, within 12 months, and so on. This can be surprisingly stressful and time consuming. Having a house (or occupied caravan/campervan by the work building) generally reduced those 'visitors' by 80-90+% Last negative: UK commercial rental contracts are like the Wild West, from a Tennant perspective 😳 Maybe things are different in France, tho ? So, I'd make an uneducated guess, that the welcome extra passing trade and enhanced publicity, from a busy location would outweigh the 'security issues/losses/ hassle ' ? -why not give it a try, with an 18 month 'get-out early' clause in your contract terms ?

Haha -yes ! -especially for you.. So, as you must have heard , the hero called Steve helped me find my missing post, earlier on.. nice to hear from you, fella. Long time no see -God høytid !

*Bump* So from a phone call with Makita UK yesterday, it would seem like the new 24m/s 40v Makita UC031G pruning saw (see Stere and Krams posts, above) should be on dealers shelves, before Easter 2026. However, if you can't wait, importing one directly from Japan was £1k -plus Import taxes, last time I looked! It seems the excellent 40v Makita UC029G pruning saws are now back in UK stock again, having sold out this summer. It's still my favourite small pruning saw, by a country mile. In other related news, I was fascinated to see the details of a new Echo 56v pruning saw DHS3006, boasting the (much improved) Mk2 battery pack, Echo's magical harness clip AND belt clip, an 8m/s chain speed, all weighing in at a meagre 1.1kg (plus battery). The motor power rating is a healthy 560W, and availability by March '26?. Quoted prices for battery, body and charger at £427- incl VAT I was told today. Although it costs more than most offerings, I suspect this might effectively grasp first place, in the Best performing small pruning saw section.. More details on the Echo website.

Wow, that's really, properly impressive, Joe Griffin... I so need to get back to the gym, right now, this evening -if only to see what 350kg looks like, on a weight bar! I bet I couldn't lift half that !? -come to think of it, I reckon our 6'' pto timberwolf weighs about that.. unreal. Well done, fella.

Looking at the current pay for Self employed sparkles (typically around a heady £300-500/day), that seems like an eminently sensible route onwards, from tree climbing. However, as AI quietly makes inroads into UK employed/redundancies, I expect a lot of other former employees will start looking to transfer to manual trades, and bring down those day rates back to earth. Demand and supply at work.. Personally, I wonder if the way forward is developing our own remote semi-robotic tree-climbing/cutting tools ! -I reckon Kram's skill-set can't be that far off tackling it, maybe in 2026?? 😉

Not sure of any Heacksler or Scarpur dealers in Manchester/NW, so no experience, sorry. But -we did have a Christmas cracker of an 'educational day' using a Forest master Professional 14hp chipper this week. Read on.. My Review/comments are moderated (for legal reasons!).. and based on a couple of decades of owning/using 4-8'' chippers for our work. We had also previously repaired and used a customer's (new) Forest master 6 hp chipper, which was ok-ish (considering it's size and for 'home use'). So after some consideration, we bought a 14hp direct drive 'Professional' unit (with less than 5 hours use), for one VERY awkward-access back garden job. My plan was to make/fabricate some obvious improvements to the input and output shutes -something that Forest Master's Tech director wouldn't agree to consider, on a potential new 18hp machine. Once on site, mostly chipping up weeping willow, the machine (almost) lasted for just 4 hours of use. In that time, we noted : A serious LOT of machine vibration -and noise too. We (partially) bent/broke one blade. Multiple engine fixings and lock-nuts rattled off/sheared off. Multiple broken welds on the output Shute -it was unusable and destroyed in the 4 hours work. 3 broken welds on input hopper flange welds -it actually fell apart, preventing any further safe use on our site. So then, short and sweet ! And, in fair defence of this unit: It has a VERY low centre of gravity -so is very stable. Light enough at 120 kg, for 2 men to just get it up and down a big 45° slope. Narrow enough to take through the customer's house doorway. It also chipped up willow at an impressive rate, though I'd be nervous about feeding it much over 3'' diameter, in hindsight. I liked that strangely familiar very shiny orange paintwork.. 🫢 It appears customer reviews of their machines must be invited by Forest Master -so I'm unable to submit one, anyway.. Would I recommend/buy another one: Sadly, er, not really.

Santa must have spotted your post -so there's none left in stock this morning -just 12 hours later! 🤫

Josh, Can't you get anywhere near it, using a Quad/scrambler/Off-road scooter type thing instead, perhaps with panniers or a crate strapped on ? Might be more fun than a sweaty walk with a rucksack full of gear and sandwiches.. 🤔

Get a quad bike or 4x4 etc to tow around a couple of water barrels and your Glyphosate, in February/March . Med/coarse nozzle on knapsack. You won't need any spray guards if you spray before buds break into leaf. You won't need dye if working on your own. Mix in some flazasulphuron, for useful residual control element. You should manage around 500/day depending on the usual variables.

Another thing that properly boils my pith: When householders/gardeners historically tip their garden waste into the neighbouring woodland... it's blatantly and obviously fly-tipping (therefore illegal), but impossible to prosecute, without trip-cam evidence, or similar, I'd guess.. One Cheshire woodland I worked in has several hook-loaders worth of garden debris, from just five large houses (£1m+).. But two successive land agents haven't exactly done much about it, despite my questions.. 🤔 Gurr..

@kram I'm always impressed to see practical harnessing of 3D printers -and have a question/job for you: Is it possible you might be able to flex your entreprenurial skills, to make up an 'adaptor piece', to allow the handy 'flip-out' harness hook, from a dcs2500 to be fitted/screwed onto a top-handled 2511 saw ?? If it works OK, I would be happy to pay/buy one -possibly along with quite a few others on here, I suspect ? At, say, £20- each x a few hundred sales(?), it might be a little incentive to consider ? No apology for the Thread-derail -I would plead there is a strong shared common interest here, your Honour..

Motorway matrix signs... slowing all road traffic down to 40mph, for an accident, that was cleared the previous day.... ?! Motorways restricted to 50mph and 2 lanes, for several miles, due to road works, where the only person present is the Traffic Management employee -asleep in the truck.. Yes, I think that's the smell of heated urine..

That's actually a very good question! ⭐️ It would work best with the more expensive 90/120cm high Hawthorn whips, or tall Pyracantha (in an urban setting).. Blackthorn is good too, but unless you include a root barrier along-side the planted hedge-line, then you'll tend to find a huge thicket soon forms from the root suckers, that spread everywhere.. I don't think I've ever seen or heard of anyone doing this.. We'll have to call that the ADD+ planting technique then, Alex?

After encountering a series of nocturnal 'unwanted yard visitors' we layed our 5yr old Hawthorn hedge that we had planted, along the vulnerable gateway entrance. It was 25mm dia x 1.8m high big transplants, less than 20m length. Anticipating future incursions, we then added two strands of razor wire fencing, at 50cm and 100cm high. Worked a treat! No further problems (at that point, anyway!) 15 yrs since. 👍 We've also layed big overgrown gappy Hawthorn hedges (with saw and excavator) , in a something like a Midlands style, to successfully provide instant impenetrable boundaries, for LA's and FC. Again, worked brilliantly.

I remember buying my first 2511, I think, most of ten years ago now. As I picked up the saw, I remarked to the dealer: I'll be needing a replacement exhaust cover in a few months by the look of them. But just one, in all that time! I think that's the only part I've ever put on the saw, apart from chains !? Stunningly reliable

After a year's use with mine, I'd say you'll find that you get used to it, within a week or two. But do avoid/be extremely careful when cutting with the top-side of the bar... it does have really lethal kick back. Always use cut resistant gloves AND sleeves. No 'one handing ' ever ! The set-up on the equivalent 40v Makita pruning saw however, is much nicer to use. Tho the 18v Makita version is a bit underwhelming for professional use IMO. The Sthil AGT40 was OK, too.

Covex, the office at MDL POWER UP have printed their own (brief) paper manual, in English, if you need one. -I doubt you'd need it tho! I really can't see any chance of making clean, normal-sized chippings using this machine, sadly. I'm now looking at the more expensive G l & d chipper, with tracks -but no feed roller. 🙄