LeeGray

Thanks for commenting Matthew, nice to know Jon is a real person. I tend to trust folk but there are lots of stories about bacs transfer going horribly wrong for tractors and machinery these days, always been lucky myself but know people who’ve lost thousands.

Or anyone need something taking south upto 2.8t and plant trailer size?

So I got sick of dealing with rep(tiles) and just bought a cheap Schaffer 3036. Just couldn’t bring myself to spend £30k without having experience of a compact. I’ll run this alongside the telehandler to see how they do then maybe look to replace them both next year. Its off a guy (Jon Oakland trees not sure if he’s on here?) down in Wisley, so the next mission is getting it up to me. Opposite end of the country and don’t fancy running down with the Rover and trailer. No local artic guys heading that way soon, so anyone know of hauliers that way? Or anyone coming up north soon and want to earn some cash on the way? Cheers, Lee

Thanks for all the comments chaps, did a bit more ringing around and hopefully get some prices back on different machines. Interesting there’s so much out there, but the biggest marketing budget pushes the others out of the way on the internet it seems.

Perfectly put!

I’m looking into compact loaders. The multi ones 7/8/9 look impressive but to be honest I was a bit shocked at the prices of 27-30 grand for what is a very basic machine. The Wacker Neuson TH412 looks really good quality, but doesn’t have massive hydraulic flow and has standard telehandler vision I.e. very little on off side a bit further price wise at £32,500. i was hoping to get rid of old, big, numb, noisy, thirsty telehandler and replace with something that would do all the yard work loading/unloading, feeding cattle, mucking out etc but would also replace little dumper on digger jobs and go out on its own as a loader. Both and most others in this category would go on a trailer. I don’t do work in back gardens etc for the most part so size getting through gateways etc isn’t a problem so long as it’ll go on the trailer it’ll be fine. Reach isn’t really a problem as they’ll do 3m which is all I need regularly. Do these little machines really cope with quoted loads at decent duty cycles or can they lift a lot once on flat ground with a tail wind and all the alarms going off. I really like the idea and I’m sure like a lot of people would snap one up at £15,000 but £25 or £30k just seems a lot of cash and not much on the used side to see residuals. ( either there really good and folk keep em or no one buys them in the first place?) I’d love to hear honest opinions from anyone running similar or suggestions of other makes that are good. Cheers, Lee

Got my 17 year old on our Nfu policy a van, bloody dear though. Pleased he’s got his own car now and own policy as was ‘only’ £1600 for a £300 polo!

Engage 4wd, or at least that what it does on my tractors

Use mine for work every day, they’ve coped better than the dewalt stuff I’ve had. Plus 2 year warranty so if it did die just take back and get another.

I’ve moved over to ryobi stuff, it looks like cheap tat but actually is really quite good to work with. I’ve moved my whole set up from dewalt and probably cost about the same price as the dewalt impact driver which last about 12 months for me. Little ryobi chainsaw works grand on 4 or 5ah battery, cost about £50, I chuck it in digger for knocking hawthorn back or tidying strainer tops but it points posts and cuts firewood no problem too. Try one if you can, for the cash and size you’ll be impressed. Grinder, jigsaw, impact driver, circular saw etc all good too but radio is shite for getting a signal and dodgy generic battaries last 2 minutes.

It does for us but we’ve developed a good customer base over past 15 years. It’s a hard sell saying it’s the season for x so here’s x rather than the have whatever you want whenever you want the supermarket way but there’s always a few people willing to pay for top quality fresh produce with some traceability.

Small organic farm growing veg and meat to sell direct to public, steel fabrication (gates, sheds, trailers etc) groundwork, fencing.

That’s what I do most of the time and works fine for me or cant up with the mini mill if needed but don’t do masses and wouldn’t want to be on like that a lot.

That’s the plan here, couldn’t get the money I thought it was worth on eBay so plan is galv rechassis and keep forever for high days and holidays (or at least if the Range Rover doesn’t start one morning) values pretty much guaranteed to go up more than inflation.

Put my old 90 on eBay at a similar price to other listings, sat back and planned early retirement....got masses of offers usual £5 and half bottle of wine, swap for my grans old Skoda, etc, loads of ‘interest’ but not one single person came to view it and I didn’t sell it. Plenty of dreamers but don’t think a lot are moving at the prices advertised, I’d list it starting at £500 and you’ll probably get some actual bids and get a good price.

Can you let me know how much you want please bill

Yep, if could make a step up from my 3ton I’d be looking at something like this if I wasn’t stuck to 3.5t trailer https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/D-Fiat-Kobelco-SK55-5T-Excavator-31163378/112900505069?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D49138%26meid%3De3bea1fe990346868616097b03b87d03%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D112900971968%26itm%3D112900505069&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

Which model/size is that?

Great ta

I’d be interested in a price on the biggest femac you think would be worthwhile on a yanmar b25v Eddie. As above, bit of tidying up before fencing, ditching or drain work mostly but if I could take my time doing some of the hedges and possibly verges that the tractor flail mower can’t get too at home that would be a bonus. Double fenced 400m ditch last year and replanted hedge on one side, thought it was great till the strimmer had to come out! Strimming is bad enough on the flat ground but going along either in the water or lop sided is a killer.

Would want to be in a cabbed digger though, given old farmers round here propensity to staple barb onto hedge/tree/anything remotely solid and vertical I might even be tempted to get a bit of margard!

https://www.approvedhydraulics.co.uk/collections/flails-light-duty-mulchers/products/te-80-lt seams like a good option, they’ll knock off the hire charge £350 if you buy one. like you not expecting massive power but could make life easy in places potentially. Looking at getting a saw head for the heavier stuff, in hedge trees etc but can’t find any prices online. Slanetrac hs 55 looks viable but probably miles out on price.

In exactly the same situation here, does anyone actually run one commercially or is flow too low to do a good/quick enough job to make worthwhile. Mines a Yanmar B25v. Read lots of poo pooing but also occasional good feedback from smaller machines. Tempted to hire before buy from approved.

Range Rover 4.4 always towing, mostly fully loaded 12-15mpg, lovely. citroen nemo stop/start 68mpg! Horrible. 30,000 in little van, 10,000 in the truck so average 54?

I know if I had a good, solid job and just got first mortgage I’d be staying put paye and letting the boss have all the hassle and unpredictability, get some money off the mortgage before taking the next step. Do bits and pieces on the weekend if need be or jump altogether and get on with it yourself charging what you like, if you’re working in the same area and know the pricing, have own gear, are good etc you’ll be alright. Trying to have a foot in both camps won’t work well.