cornish wood burner

A good plan. It sounds like you need big wheels to run over the hoof marks. If these fill with water you might be in trouble. I would be interested in your findings and what you go for. Good luck

Sounds like a hobby for the lunatics to me. Must be interesting to watch from a safe distance. I agree a locked diff would certainly be right for racing. Cornering hard through sweeping bends would lighten the inside wheel resulting in spinning.. I suppose travelling uphill across the slope the top wheel might be light so let's say it depends on the terain, the radius and speed of the turn. Given the OP said his ground was fairly level, with a pivoting front axle the back wheels should always be on the ground and give enough traction. Mine is fine even with a trailer load of wood. If I turn too sharp around a tree while mowing it goes straight on though. It is one of the best things I have bought for maintaining my wood/copse. It has cut my strimming by 95%, doubles as transport and a tractor. Works well for me.

Very good I can 't ALWAYS be wrong but on this occasion I sit corrected.

I would not agree with locking the diff. It is not the traction but the going straight on at corners when turning fast and sharp I have a problem with. If you cannot have your hardcore delivered as suggested previously they I would not contemplate anything other than a 4 wheel braked trailer. Even behind a 4x4 you can get yourself in trouble. I presume you do not need to carry wood to your house so my shopping list would be MS 211 Good quality strimmer to clear paths Westwood mower or similar no deck I would expect to pick one up for 2 or 3 hundred no problem.Make a simple wood trailer. Flat floor posts for sides like a wood lorry Saves the hard work in transporting the wood. Not so trendy as a quad but cheaper. That just leaves your hardcore. A trailer and something to tow it with, be it tractor or 4x4 will cost you a lot of money.Find a local builder with a transit tipper or similar would be my next choice after getting 20 tons delivered from the quarry. If you are really set on fetching it yourself (WHY) then first get a decent trailer. You might be suprised what your car can do.

Just read some info that said 6.5 percent of workforce in construction.

That sound pretty bad for the construction industry.Do we know the percentage of the work force employed in construction? Obviously if it was 33 percent then not so bad, however most builders I know have a story to tell either about their own or a workmates injury. It is a dangerous game but probably worse than it might be. What is your view on fixed price jobs prompting things you have outlined including excess speed and knowingly cutting corners.

If you wanted to make a toy how about using on old westwood ride on lawn mower or similar to carry everything. May even be possible to mount the winch on it. Fit an alternator to the mower pto to charge the battery. You might get some strange looks but it might beat hauling gear by hand.

Do you really need a 4x4 for occasional towing on the road? I have a braked 4 wheel 8x4 that I tow with my car that I use for transporting my wood.

Fuel or oil additive plastic container. Bit stronger than a normal plastic bottle, mine are only 500ml so you might need two. Will fit a pocket though.

If you did go down this route I would suggest it would be best to have some weight on the hitch, so if you build a small trailer for it keep the wheels further back than normal.Not so far that it will sit the mower up though. I use mine for transporting everything around my patch, strimmer,chainsaw, petrol,water and wood. Amongst other saws I have a ms211 and while it probably is too small for most professional users I do most of my cutting with it. Suits me and probably do for you to. Remember even a ms 171 beats a hand saw. Get a short bar though

Coming from farming stock I would agree with the above. Who knows what you might want to drive in the future. As a thought provoking exercise, I am doing a similar thing to you but I am keeping my copse clear with a ride on lawn mower. I have a ball hitch on the back and I bring close to half a ton of wood to the road on a home made trailer. Old ride-ons are as cheap as chips and if the ground is flat and good it is amazing what they pull. Great for getting between the trees.

Thanks for the info guys. Certainly more than I was expecting but all useful.

As you say the fly ash is a complicated subject.Higher temperatures generated by the secondary burn might affect things we do not understand. Not sure if products of incomplete combustion are significant though. I thought the modern boilers were very efficient and had vertically complete combustion. We did briefly use a little recycled wood but inspite of specifying clean wood only some plastic and wire crept in. I kicked that into touch several years ago before our farmer friend used it. Reason being I could see strange deposits on the boiler walls and in the ash which gave me concerns over the sensors. We only use round wood chip now and I notice the difference. I don't normally go into the waste side but my experiences tie in with your post. Apparently the farmer analysed the ash before using and was happy with the results but I cannot say if he obtained a permit.I think I might investigate this further as we produce a significant pile of ash from the 3000 tons we burn. For my patch I think I will keep to ash from my own domestic fires and do as Tony says (use sparingly)

Could it be the minerals and heavy metals accumulate in the bark and are then released by burning. The fly ash certainly is hazardous to your lungs very fine and easily prompted to be airborne. We do mix with the bottom ash on an outside tip so it is normally wet.

Thanks for that info Woody guy. I have been spreading ash from domestic fires but as part of my day job I run a couple of large wood chip boilers which it sounds like most of that article was aimed at. I was interested to hear about the fly ash. From the looks of it I would have put money on it being the best fertilizer, just shows take nothing for granted. I will also keep an eye on our furnace temperatures but from memory they were very close to 900 deg especially interesting as a local farmer has been spreading some on his fields. Apparently grew a field of corn with it. I will find out how he got on. Cheers

For the last few years I have been planting a narrow strip of land between mature wooded hedges. Once the trees I have planted become established I have been scattering wood ash around them. Species are the normal firewood types ie ash oak sycamore and hazel. All seem to be doing well but reading a recent post about farm yard manure for trees prompted me to ask if am I doing wrong?

Biomass is rated on size and moisture content. Size will be rated as G30. G50. G100 etc. Max size and length is important. From memory G 100 max length is 300mm whereas G 50 is 200mm exceeding these figures will give you and your customer grief. Different boilers have different moisture requirements. One with an underfed hearth normally will not accept chip with more than 35 percent moisture content. Step grate machines 50 pc MC is usable. Your customers will prefer the chip to be as dry as possible. They will not want to use chip to boil off water.The price you can get will reflect this. Transport will vary with each customer. Artic with a walking floor is good for large loads but access or store size may limit this. A chipper with a series of screens to cater for different specs is ideal. Some chippers are not really suitable for biomass.We have seen several some good some not so. We often get small free loads from the likes of hi line when they are in our area. This chip is normally small, wet and of low value. We are much more fussy about serious quanties that we pay for. This is obviously a very basic outline but I hope I helps your understanding of what is required. If you have any specific questions I will try to answer them.

We buy some chip for biomass along with 2~ 3000 tons of chip wood. Do you need details of what we or other users require?

And me The two resident workers looked carefull and let's face it they needed to be but when that presenter put his hand on the window frame that was being machined I winced. He was far to twitchy (and annoying) to survive there for long. Great video interesting to see the old machines. Tempted to say brings back memories.But I won't.

One thought which 35 do you have ? I believe a good 35 X would struggle to make 30 HP at the PTO and the other models a fair bit less so read the spec carefully Hodge that chipper is a Komptech 8010 C takes some big timber if you ever have some serious chipping to do.

Its one of the chippers we hire to chip for our wood burners Built on the back of a lorry with a grab of course. Bundle of slabwood a once. Chipping seasoned timber output is about 50 tons /hr Actual not manufactures figures I will find some details tomorrow if of interest. Is it OK to name the owner. Over the years we have had several chip for us driven by different power units and we have found you do need adequate power for speed and quality. Slightly different to the chipper the OP is talking about, I guess quality would not be an issue.

Chippers we use are run by 300 to 800hp so little different but if the smaller ones are anything like these take the manufactures power requirements and add 30 percent. As I remember the 35 reaches its PTO speed quite early so if your power is marginal that won't help. I would think if you were a little down on power it would slow you a lot. I would imagine someone on here is much more familiar with small tractors driving chippers

Cheer mate

Have you tried spraying every thing with a good quality contact cleaner.Not the WD 40 lube type but one that will remove the oxides which it sounds like you have plenty of. Good scrub with a tooth brush with plenty of the cleaner. If you get an improvement that might point you or whoever does the final fix in the right direction. .