Mick Dempsey

Update: I drove eight hours across France to view/buy this machine. I get there and first impressions are it’s a little shabbier than I thought it would be, few dents, rust patches but only a small red flag. Then I look the engine over and noticed the the oil filter has the hours on which it was changed written on in marker pen 100 hours ago (compared to the hour clock) so clearly the service claimed by the salesman didn’t actually happen. Another small red flag. We open it up and the blades are a bit fooked, the other side is ok but it’s clear that no one has done more than throw a bucket of soapy water on it after the trade in. There’s now 4 of them on the case two salesmen and two tractor technicians assuring me that it’ll be ok, you can turn the blades, it’s a solid machine etc.(There’s a bankers chèque for 30k in my briefcase) I ask to see the anvils, we get to them and they’re surprising ok, I reach into the space between the rollers and the anvils and pick out a stone the size of a big Malteser and some concrete that’s just sitting there. I tell them I’m off and there’s no way I want this machine, no matter the discount. I explained to the salesman (much to the amusement of the technician) that I was happy to pay top dollar for a good machine, but this was a long way from being that. Anyway at least I didn’t do what Mick 2010 would have done and bought it as I’d gone so far..

I have the same engine on my Rayco grinder, only with a carburetor instead of injection. Not an missed beat in 6 years, admittedly not as much use as your chipper. It’s a conundrum, but sometimes you have to just say ‘bollocks to it!’ Put it back together and move it on, forget about losses and go forward. The Forst was a bloody millstone round my neck, but it’s gone now, at a fair price with everything fixable fixed. I’m ready to be hurt again now!

If you fell in a barrel full of tits you’d come out sucking your thumb at the moment!

Funny you should mention the adb, I’m starting to see ash here that never came out this spring, am assuming that’s what it is. Chance of a bumper few years?

Bugger! That’s a bit of a pita. I’m off up to the Belgian border tomorrow to have a look at/buy that Vermeer 190 I started a thread on.

So what are you chipping with?

With all pickups putting some sort of cover on the back will dramatically improve mpg. Otherwise you’re pulling a parachute about.

Getting prices in atm. Very very expensive. €45000 ex VAT for a 325 with a 45hp engine.

Dunno yet Don, I have the big Schliesing as a back up till I make my mind up.

Private.

yeah, that’ll be them.

I’ve had that, it was the do as you likeys who’d done it according to the client, standard practice.

So I finally sold it, finance paid off so I got rid. My overwhelming feeling is of disappointment, it chipped great, but too unreliable, needlessly so imo. Shonky engineering, poor welding etc. Nothing against Redwood, they did their best considering they could have binned me off as I’d bought it from one of their foreign concessionaires. I won’t get another one, that’s for sure.

Doesn’t sound like a balsam pop then.

@stuckinthemud is it a tree or a shrubby thing?

I have quoted from pictures with only a few problems over here in France. Expats who live a long way away, so I can’t be bothered to go in person. The rule is (at least in my head) if you want to up the price on the day you must do it before you cut anything. That way you can walk away if they dont like the price without any moral issues.

A very careful grind or just a cut low and leave imo.

The op never said he wouldn’t pay for the work, you going to offer up advice based on the photos or not?

Yep, a lot of underpricing can be laid at the door of laziness.

Balsam pop?

@Stubby Ha ha! Still 10 years old is as good as time as any to learn a very important life lesson. I was 21 when I learnt not to entrust your money to a ‘reformed’ heroin addict.

It’s like knocking down a building!

Consider that a win then. I price for removal/grinding/replacing usually, I only do reductions when I’m short of work, it’s hard, gutty graft. Still do it though!