IronMike

Depends whereabouts in Cumbria! @Ledburyjosh give me a call if you want, 0777 2655 759 and we can chat. Got a good mate back in the Lakes who might also be able to help.

isn’t every week manic for you buddy?! 🤣🤣

Anyone done the legwork on cheapest place to buy a 200l drum of Motomix? Last one I bought from local place (Carrs Billington) and was a bargain at £400+vat. It's lasted me 18 months, and I rang up to check price on another knowing fine well it'll have gone up. I was quoted £560+vat 😵‍💫

That's very generous, bravo! Could have done with it when I ordered some stuff a few weeks back 🤣 Jokes aside, great service from Skykand, would recommend.

I follow a chap on YouTube, his channel name is Christopher Collects. Very enthusiastic and knowledgeable, shoot him a DM with details and he’ll let you know if what you have is worth anything over face value.

No way to get close to a lot of it other than winch. As mentioned this was a very steep site with winching the only option. Thankfully when one did gather some momentum and barrel a bit, we avoided any problems.

Logbullet is poorly mate, suspected drive motor issue. It can not go up many hills currently! Booked in for repair and other remedial work in a few weeks, so nursing it along at the moment.

VID-20230607-WA0009_1.mp4 I've had the tractor with winch on and Logbullet combo out lately on some steeper terrain. As usual, the photos and video dont do it justice, it's was damn near 1:1 in places! Hard work when felling, but super satisfying to send trees down the hill side. Only downside was having a 50m cable on the winch, as we regularly ran out of reach. Checked with Jas P Wilson's and the Igland will take upto to 77m at 10mm, but I'm guessi g the play off is reduced overall pulling power plus hauling that off the drum and up hill would be a hell of a slog. Spoke to a few folks who suggested getting an extension for these more awkward jobs, either cable or some dyneema perhaps?

Baking hot here, dry as a bone and not a sniff of a breeze. Can't wait to fire the saw up and get cutting now the forwarding is done 🥴

I agree with getting the awkward stuff done first too. We did a job last year that had 3 or 4 mighty Ash to come out. I showed the lads these on the first site visit, but there were the last ones to get felled. It was good to have them motivated to get to the whoppers at the end! Even when immediately after we dropped them all, the worst bout of freezing rain/sleet came thundering down and soaked us to the bone!

As mentioned above, something like ice creams on a hot day, or a cold beer at the end of a tough shift, or a pack of choccy biscuits at morning break can make a decent boost to moral. And simply telling someone they did a great job can also make a massive difference.

Splendid stuff matey. Great weather for it! We've been in the spruce this week, and had Dryads 8 ton Bobcat on site. What an amazing tool it is, and now I'm searching Mascus for something similar 🙈

Ps. Filled survey in too 👍🏻

What an amazing photo, looks like the owner of that truly magnificent chainsaw really knew what they were doing, and is probably very handsome and modest too 😉🤣😎

I was bought a Silverstone experience day a good few years back. It was in a Ferrari 360 I think. I was first surprised to see the car had dual controls, like a learner! Also had a flappy paddle gearbox that was shite, the gear changes took ages. I got about 5 laps in I think, which was a tad disappointing as we’d driven from Cumbria. Was great fun though, and I got to overtake an Audi R8 going down hanger straight! The instructor bloke was loving it, so much so we nearly ran off the track at the end of the straight as we were both whooping a bit too much! I’d definitely do something like that again, and I have Croft Circuit about 20 mins from where I live now.

I have Logbullet, tractor, trailer, winch, all tooling, Shogun and family car, public liability etc all with them now.

My insurance is up for renewal currently, but I’ll be sticking with my current insurer I think. I use H&H, based up in Carlisle. I can send contact details if anyone wanted to try them (full disclosure, I get a £20 Amazon voucher for any recommendations 😲) and I can definitely say they are decent (regardless of voucher!)

My 555 is still going (just) and that’s 7 year old, and had all manner of stuff through it (pump fuel, Aspen, Motomix) and my MK2 550 is still smashing it after 3 years of heavy use. Sometimes you get lucky, but decent maintenance and mechanical sympathy go a long way to extending the life of tools etc.

If someone had shown they were keen, by getting the basic tickets needed to do the job, I'd be happy to help with the rest. I think if someone comes and they have already shown some commitment to the career path by investing their own money, it makes the choice to employ a bit more straightforward. The line of work I'm in won't need a stack of further training anyway. I'd look at FMOC for Logbullet, large trees, EFAW+F, and windblown. But if the candidate had cross cutting and maintenance and small trees already, they'd be in good stead. I'd happily put themt though the extra tickets, and look at a wage increase as and when this happened and production and reliability increased. I'm effectively looking for another version of me! Someone who can happily operate the machinery when needed, can drop trees safely and productively, then process them correctly. The work I do is all day rate, there isn't the pressures of working to tonnage or piece rate. I can't emphasise enough how steady the work is, pretty much every day is relaxed and happy and just enjoyable. Yes the odd day of a bit fraught, but they're rare! I'm lucky to work with some very decent sub contractors, who I've built a good relationship with over the past few years. This on the whole does make things easy, but if I had the guarantee of having someone with me all the time, I could definitely push the business along to the next level I'd like to achieve. I'm happy to invest time and money in upskilling someone, in return for some loyalty and commitment.

If it’s any consolation, all the foresters appear to have vanished too! Im trying to take someone on currently, full time, PAYE, with all the perks. I’ve offered the job to 2 of my regular sub contract workers but they’d rather stay as they are. I’m reluctant to look elsewhere as the standard of most just isn’t up to scratch. I am offering 26-28k. I’m looking for someone with basic felling tickets, and the rest we can sort out. They’ll be doing a mixture of cutting work, and machine operating. Based in North Yorkshire, no long travel times to site as all out work is local. No cutting trees in back gardens etc, predominantly thinnings work on local estates working with knowledgeable folks, away from the public. Is my wage offer unrealistic? When did 26-28k become a sh*te wage?!

I've had my MK2 550, my 572 and my 390 all done by @Crocky I'm just waiting for the 390 to come back, it's in the post as we speak. The 572 is an absolute animal, it's truly a pleasure to use. The 390 is gonna be amazing I'm sure.

I have the over ear versions of these, the original ones. Unfortunately, when people call me they can't hear me over the noise of the machine! 🤦🏻‍♂️ They have since upgraded them and included a boom mic for an extra charge that might sort this out, but I can't confirm.

Dam! No Max Power feature for me then it seems! 😂

I’m intrigued by all this! I have a V1505T in my Logbullet, it’s a 2019. I think it’s got in the region of 44-48hp, but not quite sure. Could this be modified and made more potent perhaps?

I got told the file is hideously priced?