Daveyboy

I'm really surprised by some of this. Some folk are very healthy and some survive on fags and tea. The water intake is cool though - most people don't drink enough at all.

Balanced though - a pie in each hand. Do you have a loyalty card for greggs? I'm asking because I know one bloke who drinks coke or fizzy orange all day. He stays on the sugar. But he's young. Get to my age and it takes a bit more thinking.

Like a lot of folk on this forum, I have another job. Some people work on the rigs, some drive - there's all sorts of things going on. Me? I teach Yoga. And what i'm really interested in, is what do you eat during your working day? Your chainsaw days. And what do you drink? Is it water or some fizzy drink? I'd be really interested to know - honest!

When did you last have it serviced? Although it sounds like the turbo, the noise isn't. I'd check the oils too - gear box, transfer, front and rear diffs etc. I had a landcruiser that only did it in reverse

Agree with all of the above. I'm 48 and if I went for a job today, most folk would think i'm too old. But i've got other qualities. I don't care that it's raining. I'm reliable and take responsibility. So be happy that you're buggering about with a chainsaw all day. What did I see on a T shirt? "If your man can't run a chainsaw, you've got yourself a bitch". And stay off the phone. Well done, cobber.

Who had that thread about those mini pickups from China? On here somewhere... You can buy them at the docks in Southampton. 1.3lt, 4WD pickups. Tiny but they work. And they must be fixable - one size fits all. D

Saturn machine knives. They used to do my chipper blades. Sexy kit.

Thing about modern diesel engines sounding like a bag of rocks is an easy fix. They were designed to run on diesel but diesel ain't diesel anymore. They've taken the sulpher out of it so the top end gets all rattly - it isn't being lubricated. The fix is to pour half a litre of mineral 2 stroke oil in with every tank of diesel. You'll notice a difference after the second tank. Quieter and better mpg. Tried it myself and it works.

Any version of Mole Valley Farmers should be able to get it. If not, google it.

Mark, that's hilarious! 'Don't use your phone'. And at the end you sign off with 'Sent from my iPhone using Arbtalk ' Well I thought it was funny!

Depends what they're going on. I used to have an Isuzu pickup and it didn't matter what tyres you put on, it was still rubbish. Big Nissan pickups seem to have the wrong geometry too. Slid all over the place on wet, grassy hills. I'm sure the Isuzu was designed by an accountant. Emissions under this, carry so much, so many passengers etc. Didn't do any of it any good - crap is all departments.

Am i missing something here?

What came as standard on my Husqvarna lid. If I'm near a chipper then I wear plugs as well. It's the low drone, isn't it. I SAID IT'S THE LOW - oh, never mind.

I did my tractor driver course (LANTRA) at Lynher. You're a good bunch. Still got the off road course? D

I read through most of this thread last night and saw the horror stories on a MS261. I've never had a problem. And this is mayby why. Once a week, the clutch cover comes off and everything gets cleaned. The roller bearing and the drive shaft get scrubbed and get a coating of ZX1 grease. Fab stuff - ZX1 Super Grease - extreme pressure lubricity. - is where it's at. Failure here is going to be bad design or by poor maintenance. So I clean it out, grease it up and as I say, never had a prob. Interesting thoughts about going up a size on the drive sprocket though. That might be interesting.

Love the arnold swarchanegger 'terminator' stuff. Looks like you've got a robot going on underneath. 50 eh, only 18 months to go myself.

I have a MS181 and a 261. The 181 you can use all day but of course, it depends on what you're pointing it at. It's a small saw but, it works. It has a pico chain and you can't go over 16" but I don't know why anybody would want to. Mine has a 14" bar on it. You can dismantle reasonable trees with it - it just takes a little longer. For firewood and that kinda stuff, it's not a bad choice. I was going to sell my 181 and nobody wanted it unless it had a 16" bar! Apparently, bigger is better but that's nonsense, innit? 14" is a good match and I use stihl bars and oregon chains. My 261 with it's 18" bar is excellent. Standard set up (Oregon chains work nicely on stihl saws, don't ask me why...) and although it's heavier, it's a powerful saw and will do most big jobs for me. When the bar needs replacing I might do something exotic with it. Most people use saws that are bigger than the job asks for. The 441 is touted as the best chainsaw ever, so say stihl. Have you ever picked one up? It may be faster than my 261 and be able to pull a chain around a longer bar but it is heavy! And it's not a saw for a beginner. It's a brute of a thing and by the time you run out of go juice, you'll be knackered. And then you'll pick up your 181... If you want to work all day then a 261 ain't bad or you could go for a 271 which is a cheaper, farmers equivalent. Did