Haironyourchest

If you're not paying for it then yes, go for it. Like many, I can't afford it, except for certain tools that sit idle for stretches of time and don't use a lot of fuel anyway. I find the new saws are extremely clean burning anyway, with pump fuel.

There is no easy solution. My Kangoo roof rack is pretty butch, I strap the saw up there with carabiner bungees. Theft could be an issue though, sometimes I'll wind a Flexi bike lock around it and through the "footstand" on the motor, it's not perfect but would make it a hassle to pinch in a hurry. Oil leaks and drips in the windscreen, rain rusts the muffler. Just not a good set up but no other option. Ideally, a long, thin, luggage holder on the roof would be the ticket, if such a thing exists?

Workzone FTW! Pick up the impact driver and or SDS drill on sale sometime and you get another couple of batteries.

have you considered second hand conveyor belt from a quarry stone-crusher? Probably free, and the toughest stuff on earth. Heavy, though.

Bear in mind the cells in the Aldi Workzone Li-Ion battery packs are actually made by Samsung, and are as good as any of the big name batteries, amp hour for amp hour. There are three manufacturers of top-shelf cells, Sony, Panasonic and Samsung. The Hitachi range buy from Samsung also. I think the Stihl battery stuff is Sony. While the build quality and longevity of the name brands is better, they rip you off on the batteries. Although the chargers would be better (quicker) also, if that matters to you. The charger that came with my Workzone impact driver takes 3 hours to charge a 2AH battery, the one that came with the SDS drill, takes an hour. Comparatively my Hitachi charger will charge a fully depleted 5AH battery in about half an hour.

Maybe. don't bet on it though, as I believe the Stihl sprockets are not perfectly compatible with other brands of chain, even if the pitch is the same. if you know someone with a Stihl of the right spec. you could try it out. I'd be interested to hear the outcome. Maybe someone here has done it...

Kriss if there's anything you particularly want to see in action let me know and I'll include it in the video, hopefully tomorrow

Do you mean like a ®MuckTruck wheele jobbie? I looked into those, they are quick, but some negative reports on reliability and very expensive for what they are, seemed to me. Small volume skip as well. The trackbarrow will go at a brisk walking speed in 3rd, which is faster than I'd want anyway on rough ground.

Weight wise, yes, but there's no way you could fit that volume if logs on a regular wheelbarrow, a farm barrow, maybe, but it would be a real pain. And pushing a two wheeler 200 yards across an overgrown field uphill with 150k on board, repeatedly? Rather you than me dude!

Took the mini dumper/transporter out to work this afternoon, very handy for transporting the gear from the van to the trees. The gears are starting to change more easily now.

I would recommend Aldi Workzone. Maybe go Workzone "Titanium" for the drill, and regular Workzone for the impact driver for big screws and the 18v SDS drill for occasional masonry drilling. Three drills should and 4-5 batteries should cost you about half of one name brand drill.

Get horrifically stoned on superskunk, then watch it again - it makes perfect sense!! ?

Well, I went and bought one. After spending probably 50 odd hours online researching over the last few months, I could find precious little in the way of useful reviews about these machines. I've hired the heavy duty deisel hydrostatic drive version before, but those are way too much machine for my purposes, both money wise and weight wise. This is from a crowd called AgriEuro, in Italy, was €2700 Inc Vat and delivery to Ireland. From payment to delivery was about 10 days, I think, will check later. I had to generate a fake Italian social security number to complete the purchase, apparently this is a matter of course for buying anything online from Italy. There's a website that does it for you, and it's legal, just one of those weird things. My intention is to fill the information gap online about these machines as I use it, and update this thread as and when. I was so disappointed at the lack of in-depth info, just bunch of low-res, wobbly YouTube vids. There has been some brief mention on here about mini dumpers, but not really exhaustive by any means. If you find this thread in the future, please feel free to bump or message me, for info, and I will be delighted to tell you everything I can! Ok, I've had a couple of screwdrivers (vodka and orange) so this post may ramble a bit, but what can you do? Ok, the machine arrived a few days ago, and I put it to work this afternoon, moving a pile of logs from the bottom of a field to their final destination. Can't say the distance as I didn't measure it, but boy oh boy was I impressed. The power of this thing...compared to pushing a wheelbarrow, like going from a Fiesta to a Bugatti Veyron. I didn't take pics, sorry, but had the sides extended and loaded up with logs, probably four more times than what I could move with a 2-wheel wheelbarrow, and when I unloaded, weighed each log with a digital luggage scale, the whole load was 150 kilo. And I though that was a big load. The rated capacity is 550 kilos (500) uphill. Well, grand, I think I'll avoid going full capacity for the sake of longevity, unless flat ground etc. But I was more than happy with the performance. A job that would have taken 4-5 hours and knackered me by hand took and hour and a half with nearly no effort. Full petrol tank at start, I checked at finish and couldn't see any difference (though it was getting dark). The chassis is made in Italy, 100%, by Italian law, if it says made in Italy, it is. Ands it's heavy duty. Welds look good, metal is box, about 3mm, will check with calipers and confirm. Motor is Honda GX200, made in Thailand. Gearbox made in Italy. Tracks are from ITR America, the AgriEuro website says made in Japan, but I can't confirm this. The ITR website says continuous cable etc, so they're bound to be ok. I went for the manual tipper over the hydraulic version as it was €600 more, and the kind of stuff I do don't need to tip often and if I need extra power I'll just use a cheater bar on the tipper handle. I'm going to make a proper detailed video of this yolk, if there's anything you want to see up close, let me know. Plan is to use it as an equipment carrier for saws, fuel, hand tools, hand winches and rigging and so on, to bring everything from the van to the worksite in one go, instead of hiking ten times back and fourth across fields. Also for light skidding of logs and pulling brash piles, magnitudes larger than what a man can pull. Also as a mobile work station so all the gear is in one place, instead of strewn about getting lost. I have cunning plans for building attachment points for chain and rope, mounts for clamping saw bars for filing, work lights, umbrellas and so on. The only criticism I have so far is the gear changes are very sticky, and the instructions were in Italian. Used the Google translate camera app to figure it out, you have to very lightly engage the drive clutch to get the gear lever to shift. It's a pain, but I expect it will loosen up as the gears break in.

Don't know about the checks, but you should probably send you employees on a Ladder Safety Awareness Course, so you can be sure they've been trained by a competent trainer, and have demonstrated the required knowledge.

Yeah Tom, most of what we do is wood-butchering, as per customers specifications. No degrees required, better to research and understand the physics of rope rigging, vectors, leverage, calculating the hight of trees and so on. There's an excellent book called The Fundamentals Of Basic Tree Work that will teach you more than most people who haven't read it will ever know. It's out of print but available as a PDF for about £16.00 Best money you'll ever spend... link below. https://www.educatedclimber.com/beranek-fundamentals/

Going to hard to find something that does all that. Give withing glove will be prone to slippage, possibly unsafe. For manual work in the cold I use generic industrial freezer gloves, they cheap, like 10 euro a pair, so you can buy a bunch and swap them out if they get wet. They're nitrile palm and fingers, fleece pile inside and elastomer top and cuff. Dexterity not as good as the platinum black and grey rigger (fitter?) gloves, you know the ones, but better than wool. The nitrile grip surface at least gives you some traction

Sounds a lot of money for a crappy hatchet and some gloves.

CT Quickroll. It's pricy but convenient, you can rig an instant 3-to-1 couple and and de-couple in a flash. Makes like easy.

Don't know about splitability, but Lignum Vitae is pretty tough stuff, still used for propshaft bearings in modern ships!

Feckers will still skive on the job though. Just being there ain't enough, you got to be there in spirit as well as body.

You could grow your own holey logs but it could take a while. If you start now, your prosperous old age will be assured. Select nice trees and flush cut strategically, or if you want a quicker return, and don't mind smaller holes, collar prune the branches and wait 5 years or so for the wound to start to close. When a nice round lip of new wood has formed, fell or cut off that section of stem, then bore out the center and drill out the dead wood in the healing branch stumps (carefully) so you'll end up with man made holes that look natural. You can then place marbles, windows, glass eyes or whatever else in the holes.

Nah, send it directly to him, just saying that your case is strong and you will be filing in court unless full payment is made. The court will take this into account as well, as chancers (that is, if the OP was a chancer) don't waste money on solicitors over 4 or 5 hundred quid. Aggrieved honest tradesmen do. I don't know how much a short consultation costs in the OP neck of the woods, around here it's about 50 euro.

I have a Lidl ash hoover, was 50 bucks. Very simple thing, just a metal can with a glass fiber filter and a metal flexi-hose. You can even suck hot ashes with it. It works fine.

Pay a local solicitor for an hour consultation to look over the emails, show photos of the job (did you take any?) And find out if it's worth going to court. Maybe get the legal muscle to throw in a letter as well.