flatyre

Yeah i'm not that well set up yet. I should sit down at the computer this weekend and draw up a proper quote letter complete with T&C's. As a young business I was worried too much official looking paperwork might scare off customers. Most of my work is for small private customers, £200 to £500 jobs, rarely a four figure job, which means competing with handymen.

I like the older Stihl av saws, I have a couple of 028 av's and an 038 av. Good usable classic saws, simple design and easy to get parts.

Lets be honest, the landy was a great design, let down by cheap parts, cheap materials and crap build quality. The design was the only good thing about it, and the only reason so many are still on the road is due to the owners constant efforts. Whats the saying about Landys dripping oil? Personally i'd like one but they are the most over priced, poorly finished vehicles ever made, why not let some third world country continue making them out of recycled beer cans, they'll be cheaper and have better build quality!

well ebay got back to me after their "investigation" and surprise surprise they ruled in the buyers favour stating that by refunding the money and returning the saw puts buyer and seller back to square one. I posted off a complete saw in perfect working order and am receiving a badly damaged saw with major parts missing, hardly back to square one! Amazing the amount of chainsaw bars that magically fall out of sealed boxes in transport. So if you see a saw on ebay and you want some free parts, bid on it, take the bits you need, then open a dispute case claiming the parts fell out in transit and get your parts and your money back:thumbdown:

i'll try and get the clutch off, and see what the problem is. thanks

hey folks does anyone have an example of an invoice templet I could use and how soon after finishing a job would you send an invoice to a private customer? Thanks

Can he not argue the hedge was probably there before the path? And at over a hundred years old it is part of the village identity? or as others have said just tell the council to put it on the end of their "to-do" list after all the other obstructive hedges and trees have been dealt with.

yes the chain spins from the go.

thanks folks, will strip and clean the clutch tomorrow, another symptom I noticed was when adjusting up the chain, after refitting the clutch casing I finger tightened the two bar nuts and tried to tighten up the chain but when I pulled on the chain it was still tight even when loosened off to the point of the chain sagging off the bottom of the bar. The sprocket isn't running freely by the looks of things.

Hey folks I have been offered a 2004 Isuzu 3.0 Rodeo for £1400. The owner is a reputable farm machinery dealer and ifor rep so it's probably done a fair amount of towing. He lost the ifor franchise so parked the Isuzu up and its sat at the back of his yard for the past year. Its a bit battered round the back end but the front end and doors look good, not sure of the miles but he said it ran perfectly and has never had a spanner near it. Now here in Northern Ireland vehicles are more expensive than on the UK mainland so with that in mind can anyone tell me if the price is good, bad, or fair (based on average mileage) and if anyone has owned one what to look out for?

Hey folks I have a couple of little Husky 36's I keep for small dirty work. they're generally bullet proof and can always be relied upon, however one of them started playing up, hard to start and wouldn't run unless started with the trigger pulled. Then it wouldn't start at all and the chord became very hard to pull, it felt like the saw was semi seized. Took it out today and accidentally pulled the chord with the chain brake off. Lo and behold it started no problems, then tried it with the chain brake on and it felt semi seized and wouldn't start. Chain brake on won't start, chain brake off starts easily, then immediately stalls as soon as the chain brake is engaged. Took the clutch casing off but no sign of any problems. Any ideas?

nice video!

They seem to think they have a cooling off period, or warranty like they get when buying it new. I'm always suspicious of buying used equipment, so I avoid anything that has "untested" "selling for a friend" or "not sure what condition its in" that sort of thing. At the end of the day the saw is running and was complete with just the usual cosmetic scrapes and scratches, as you'd expect from a second hand saw. As someone said, he probably got carried away then had second thoughts once the auction ended.

I just sold an ms250 on ebay and was very surprised at what it went for. However before it had even been shipped to the new owner he was sending messages requesting information about it, as soon as he received it he was picking out every little flaw with it. I have now received a refund request because the box it was in wasn't tough enough. What is it with ebayers who want a second hand bargain in showroom condition? Don't they understand the concept of 'used'?

My wife keeps telling me I've no arse or hips so its like putting trousers on a pole, no matter how good a fit they are as soon as I start moving they start slipping.

I used to nibble off the chocolate, then peel off the orange stuff and finally eat the rusk bit, but never dunked one.

man what a depressing thread, but it does raise a very important question, what is the best bickie for dunking, I like a chocolate hobnob myself!

I'm also at a cross roads vehicle wise, I would consider myself a landscaper who does a bit of light tree work. I run a mwb 2.4 transit and 10x5 trailer, which is perfect for landscaping but not so good for tree work. I'm tempted to swop the van for a crew cab tipper set up for chipping into, but then at this time of year most of my work is conifer topping and hedge cutting. Come spring a van would be much handier. I also have little ones which is a nod towards the crew cab tipper but realistically once the back seat gets buried under dirty petrol smelling oil leaking equipment, I wouldn't want my kids sitting on it. I think a landscaper needs to carry much more equipment than a tree surgeon, and unless you want to be loading and unloading equipment every day. I can be quite lazy when it comes to making sure I have the right gear on board so a van works well as I just carry everything with me, needed or not. It might mean the fuel economy suffers but at least when the customer pulls out another job, or wants something changed, I don't have to run home to tool up. If my business moves more towards pure tree work then i'll buy a tipper but for now my perfect setup would be the van, a bigger tipping trailer, with a mini chipper or small tracked chipper on board. (andy sell the family car and buy a crewcab pickup)

its not fun, but funny at the same time! I spent all day rebuilding an ornate brick pillar which someone demolished with a tractor. Repeatedly advised that couldn't build with facing brick in the rain as the mortar would run and ruin the finish, repeatedly told not to worry and crack on, only to be told at the end of the day that it basically looked like s**t.

thanks guys, just ordered a set of the husky button ones as they are wider, to hold up my stihl class ones:thumbup:

cheers for the replies guys, its a good point that larger firms have more equipment, staff etc. But surely means more overheads to be covered in the price? Say a council has a large area of forest needing cleared, larger firms can put in a better price than one man bands who will need to hire in a lot of heavy equipment like logging lorries thus pushing up their price, so the big firms win the big contracts. But when it comes to the smaller jobs, the smaller firms have the upper hand as no specialised equipment is needed, though the bigger firms still need to cover their expensive gear even if its not being used. The big firms win the big jobs and the small firms win the small jobs, would that not make it fair for everyone?

damn chainsaw trousers keep slipping especially when they're wet so i'm about to order a set of braces, any recommendations?

hope i'm not hijacking the thread but I have a 2.4 mwb semi high transit, does anyone know what weight i'm allowed to tow?

but does that not just help to monopolise the market?

used a big Hudson for a few years, great trailer, every bit as good as an ifor. to be honest I don't see what makes an Ifor twice the price of any other trailer, you have home made trailers and factory made trailers, there isn't much difference between the factory made stuff. Its not like the engine is sharper, or the gears are smoother. As long as the balance is right! If I was buying a new trailer i'd go for a Hudson or a Nugent!