Domino

Oh thank god...welcome to the land of reliable motoring

Hedge mong is a troll........I do like the name though.

I love this guy....reminds me of the Vespian days. How wonderfully innocent you are if don't twig this 😀, everyone does realise this is a troll right????

Wow, that's an amazing setup, simply stunning, I can only dream of such things...I bow down to you're immense setup and knowledge oh great one! You seem to be totally missing point matey....I do tree surgery, hence the forum title, not mowing for a living. Our two Avant loaders earn their keep moving timber/brash/chip as well as running digger attachments, cone splitters, flails, cement mixers to name but a few. My point was using existing equipment to make an income when tree work is quiet...do you get that, or is it too complicated??

Just get on absolutely fine with it to be honest my friend. An Avant is just in a different league for maneuverability on small sites and perfect visibility being up front vs trailing behind, so not sure what you're on about there. Wild flower meadow mowing is all about adjusting heights across the whole area and limiting compaction which are the real benefits of the avant in that situation. Yes I agree a standard compact tractor setup for traditional mowing would be better suited, but that's not what I am being asked to do. Regarding cost, a weeks hire on standard flail or collector flail is pretty reasonable.

If everyone lowers their prices and spends money on SEO that'll fix it for everyone.......oh, hang on a minute 😀 In answer to the original question - yes things seem to be increasingly competitive in my area, which is a competition I'm not happy to partake in, much to my demise possibly. Using existing machinery in other areas to bump up income is a solution...flail mowing with the Avant seems quite sort after, and meadow mowing with the collector flail (rented attachments) is getting popular amongst the well healed folk who enjoy such indulgences. Only thing is finding the clients in a slightly different sector can be challenging. Best of luck.

The best approach in these situations is diplomacy in the form of high level fibs. For example tell them Chris Packham's done the habitat survey and signed it all off good to go, Sunak's reviewed the tree works application done a site visit and granted consent, and finally Thunberg coming along next week to plant a million standards in the field just over there sir/madam - works every time.

You'll need 25t ish minimum for one load. Yes a loader that can tip at circa 5m is required, and bigger bucket the better for speed of loading. You will need to provide this on the day. Good access for the lorry and loader is important obviously, and some sort of wall or bank that the chip can be heaped up against is important. Depending on which way the wind is blowing and how the stars are aligned, you will be paid 5-10 per ton. It's a good way of turning around your waste for sure. I sell chip by the trailer load also, so that pays for loading the lorry mostly. Hope that helps.

I've got one of those rubbish log piles. It's sole purpose I've realised is for my Dad and I to periodically look at it and discuss all sorts of hair brained schemes for its future. It's been 8 years now. There is a bloke called Del who turns up occasionally to load the ropiest mk3 transit you've ever seen, pretty much gets stuck every time, gives me 40 squids and talks at me for 1hour min, so that's nice. 2 x Jenkinsons lorries per year and small chip sales throughout do the chip. Anything 1.5m or longer stored until 15ton ish then sold to chip guy for £50pt delivered to his yard.

This.....and a double check on how you're tied in hanging in relation to events 👍

I sympathise with Mr Shutler's vibe. When you've made a great effort to get a good team/setup together, it is for some reason very annoying to see incorrect methods or pricing being applied, even if the methodology is only slightly wrong, or the price only 20% off where it should be. There's similar comparisons across the trades though, you can get an odd job bricky with zero ambition to quote half what an aspiring building company might to brick up a door, but who are you gonna get in to build the extension start to finish without a hitch?

We've all been there 😬🙏

At the risk making light of such serious matters, I kind of chuckled to myself when hearing a particular report outlining the food sector companies to withdraw operations from Russia - MacDonalds, Starbucks and CocaCola to name a few......Sounds like an absolute bonus to me!