Outlaw333

My thoughts entirely, so you recon £20 a day for specialist kit is fair to ask on your normal subby rate? Because I run my own jobs aswell as just subbing I am fully insured so I can act as a bonafide subcontractor if need be, I work a lot with forestry contractors so this is quite often the case. Like you said, if the odd branch needs rigging down, it is just done but if it is a job based on the use of more exotic kit I think personally that it's fair to charge for it's use, as you also said the skills/training to effectively use specialist kit deserve being paid a bit more for too. I'm not talking about ripping anyone off but a few quid to help cover the overall costs rather than those costs being taken out of what is already a tightrope walk of an income. This is why a consultant with years of training and £30,000's worth of Picus charges more for a consultation involving a tomogram than you or I do to fell the tree once it has been established that it has reached the end of it's safe lifespan.

Fair enough, cheers for the input Tree Beard, that's good advice and a much more simple way to look at it. I normally try and factor everything in when pricing up jobs on an individual job basis depending on what is involved rather than a simple £200 per man per day or whatever. It's got to be one of the hardest things we do I recon pricing up. I'm still trying to get the hang of it now after 2 years in business!

Well i would say in the same way that diagnostic equipment is an elemental part of modern car mechanics but they still charge for plugging your car into it because it is expensive kit that has to be payed for somewhere. It's makes sense to keep costs down for those jobs that don't require rigging. Just my opinion though, that's why I'm asking.

First of all, I know this is not 'strictly speaking' in the right forum but 1)I thought it might get missed and 2) the question is more about pricing than rigging so I felt I could justify indulging my rebellious side! Just wondering what peoples thoughts are with regards to pricing in rigging. What would you consider a fair amount to add on to your standard subby rate if providing your own rigging kit, or do you have a standard rate that stays the same but factors in the annual costs of rigging equipment. If it is your own job how do you go about pricing in rigging, obviously there is the time factor but does anybody have a standard 'rigging fee' that would be applied to your job/day rate, or do you have a totally different method for pricing up, or do you just keep your rate the same..

I recently got an ex council owned Stihl 460, re-furbed by a licensed Stihl dealer for £365, it's an absolute beaut!! As the guy said, If you decide to go second hand it is better to go for something like that as they are used and maintained for 2 years by the council and replaced with new regardless of what work they have done, a better idea than getting one from someone independent who has sold it on ebay because it's been ragged and is at the end of it's life. At the start of May I worked with a river keeper in Hampshire who bought an 'Ex-Council Re-furb' and it's still serving him well after 3 years+

Hi Folks, I have recently set up my business and things are going well so far. I came across a bit of a phenomenon on my last job and it has raised a few questions. Now as far as I am concerned I want to maintain a good friendly relationship with fellow arborists in the area, I frequently sing the praises of those I know who are doing good work, I have some whom I consider friends and some well thought of acquaintances and knowing the quality of their work I often recommend them to potential clients when I'm pricing up jobs as I feel it is good for the soul, good for business and good for everyone that way(just my personal feeling). So I did a job yesterday and the client had had another chap in to price the job before I had, I won the job but not because I undercut him(my rate is actually considerably higher) but he had failed to point out, for what reason I genuinely don't know, that clearly the simplest and most cost effective method was not to dismantle the tree but to seek permission from the neighboring farmer to take down the stock fencing at the perimeter of the garden and straight fell it into the field. The response the client received from the other chap however was shocking, without going into detail here, he said to me that he had got angry, told him never to contact him again and proceeded to badmouth me(on what premise I have absolutely no idea!). This particular episode hasn't really bothered me but it has raised some questions. So I just wondered if anyone had any words of wisdom really, is this behavior frequently encountered? Should I expect to come across a lot of hostility? I'm not living in lala land but I would have thought that surely most accept that this is a game, there is competition out there, you're not going to win every job and you just need to bloody well man up! My main concern is that clients get a good contractor who will look after them and do a pukka job, whether that is by myself or somebody else it doesn't really matter, as long as I am getting by ok, I hope the same for everyone else.

Thanks bud! That was really kind of you to say.

Luccome oaks weren't introduced until 1763..

I am in the same boat, I have about a years experience working for a few firms, I have been self employed for about six months but mostly that has been hand cutting for a forestry company(largely dull, repetitive, monotonous graft when you're a chap who's head is in the crown rather than in a strapless helmet stood below but on the plus side I can handle a chainsaw like a boss, so all good experience and that!), got fed up of being screwed around by just about everybody I have encountered in the industry, I am still 150% passionate and determined though so I have taken the plunge and launched my own company(yesterday!), I am going a bit crazy as I want to be out doing instead of inside sat at a computer, but, I have a date in the diary for December for a nice 3 day job to get stuck into, so that's a start. I do need to track down a subbie climber or two though that I can call on, which might take time as I will not settle for anything but the best, that is of course reflected in what I am willing to pay. I have had a few mental wobbles, thinking is this a good idea, have I got enough experience and whatnot but at the same time, no-one has put in the work I have over the past year, I have very high standards and I love what I do. So bottom line, it's time to get excited and my heart is well and truly with anybody else doing the same.

Oh goodie! A thread where I can unashamedly tell people about some of the shiny new kit that adorns my equally new Treemotion! Petzl Carritools: 1 large one for my saw, 2 small ones for carrying a Multisaver, retrieval ball and tape slings. Silky Tsurugi Lanyard made up of, replacement 5 meter CE Lanyard with two DMM Aeros and my ART Positioner. Couple of spare karabiners. I never thought that was overkill atall but some of you guys make me feel like Captain Utility Belt!!

great thing aswell, about 20 seconds with a couple of allen keys and you can bang it on your steel core replacing the need for separate friction devices

that is correct.

Don't suppose you know where to get a copy of the BS3998 do you?

Awesome! Cheers!

I can't thank you lot enough for the help! ADW you are an Aladdins cave of knowledge on the matter! Being a motocross rider and having done all my own wrench work for years I'm not shy of getting my hands dirty but I do wish I could just give you my saw and be done with it! Everything just seems so dainty and delicate and I don't like working without the correct tools, which I won't, I'm just going to have to get them I guess! I am also now concerned as I did stuff a recoil rope in the barrel at bottom dead centre and cranked it until it stopped, I was thinking at the time 'I hope that hasn't gone down a port' but I have heard so many say thats what they do and it was what I had been advised to do by a supplier in Exeter when I went in looking to buy the tools, anyway, I couldn't get it off with a smart crack with a mallet and left it at that before posting on here but I am worried now that I could have caused damage!

Thing is, the bloody clutch is on there so tightly there's no chance compression alone will do it, I could hold on to the cooling fins on the ignition side but they are ally and I wouldn't want to stress them, not to mention the fact I don't know what other stress this may cause to the motor. Is there something else you recommend?

I can find them for other saws but can't seem to for the 550, might have to see what I can cook up in my lab, I have a soldering iron, a ships sextant and a barbie with no head..

Ah I was too late! Guess that answers that question!

That's some pretty Illuminati advise to give there Mark! Do we need to do 10 minutes in the naughty cupboard with the grandmaster before we can find out?

Cheers for the replies, don't worry I have been trying to get it off the right way but it sounds like mine might be a little more wedged than normal, I've given it squirt of gt85 for now in the hopes that it'll help when I come back to it Mark, where might I find one? Do you mean the pronged jobbies with a bolt head so you can get a socket on it?

Hi all, I'm really struggling to get the clutch off my 550, does anybody have any words of wisdom for a chap left scratching his head? I have used recoil rope to stop the piston and have tried my combi spanner and a hammer to crack it but I don't really want to tonk it any harder without someone in the know to tell me it's ok! Thanks in advance

I bought my 550xpg from them a few weeks ago and considering they had to order it from Husqvarna it came very promptly, had a minor issue over some 2stroke but they couldn't have been more sound about it. I'll second Rob D though about the naming and shaming thing, reputation is so important for any business and you'd be surprised by the influence a few words on the internet can have!

Hi all, Out of interest what would you deem a decent enough rate per m3 for thinning a small Douglas site? Trees average 36 feet, base diameter 6 to 10 inches with a few up to say 14 inches, client wants 6' saw logs for firewood so trees are averagely yielding about 4 logs each. All chucked down and stacked by hand. Thanks in advance

I've had my 550xpg(named Sequoia) for a month or two now and she's a little beast! I would never want to use an equivalent Stihl saw again that's for sure.. Well, unless they come up with something pretty special in the future.

Wow, ok, I guess I must have jumped the gun a little, I just don't like to see people upset that's all and I could see him feeling rather ganged up on. I stand corrected.