maybelateron

Buxtons supply them: https://www.buxtons.net/workwear-clothing-ppe/clothing/clothing-accessories/stihl-ms-protect-arm-guards

I have two grinders. One that fits on the arm of my mini digger (Bobcat E10z). This is a multi tip wheel and teeth mounted in a purpose built frame with a V twin Honda engine mounted above it. The reason it has its own engine is that the smaller diggers don't have enough oil flow to make it work well. The teeth are easy to change with just one bolt to undo. The teeth are also easy to sharpen with a diamond wheel, if you wish to do so. My other grinder that I use more, as it is less of a faff to get to the job/mount on the digger arm, is the Rock Machinery SGR 33 model. I think this represents excellent value, and I have always found them to be a very decent firm to deal with. This uses "Green" teeth, which are available from Rock, but also other outlets. They can be turned 120 degrees VERY quickly on site and have 3 cutting faces before needing replacing or sharpening. It is more complicated to sharpen these due to their profile, so I just replace them as needed, as I don't do lots of stumps. If I had wanted to invest more funds I would have gone for one of the FSI models, as a guy from Stumpbusters whose opinion I value says FSI are good quality, whereas he said if you but a Predator you need to be good with spanners and a welder (his words, not mine)

I certainly am, every day. I feel we owe it to the Ukrainians, and would feel disrespectful to them to not follow it closely. As far as I am concerned this is all too reminiscent of Hitler and ww2, not that I was alive in that era. If we don't actively support them with arms etc we have only ourselves to blame if Putin crushes them then moves west into more of eastern Europe.

I managed to sell sections of one MP for a reasonable price on ebay. No takers for the next one so it went to bio mass - pity that.

If you have plenty of work, leave the pain for someone else 😂

Another rule I have learnt with working on these vicious trees is wear your oldest trousers and tops - the "sap" is more like super powerful contact adhesive that had crossbred with araldite and PVA!

Agreed on point one. The local firm I use work from street view +/- local knowledge. Never been asked for a site visit/quote fee. On point two I'm sure a lot of customers, certainly domestic ones, don't have a clue/don't care what TM is used. Any customer who wants to cut cost by dubious or zero TM does not get the job done by us.

Thank you for telling us of this very sad major trauma, and your candour with respect to the cause of it. I wish you all the best for your recovery and the future.

Needless to say quoting on Monkey Puzzle work gets an automatic multiplication factor. As indeed should mixed thorn hedge reductions💩

The one time I had to climb a MP (as opposed to using my MEWP) it was overhanging a conservatory. I took leather gloves up with me and when I needed to saw a branch off I would put on one leather glove to hold the branch I was cutting. So just to spite me the tree decided to puncture a vein in my arm with one of its "leaves". Surprisingly this was not very painful compared to the Blackthorn reaction I am nursing right now from an attack on the back of a knuckle. I think the key is that it hurts more when the tissues are tighter with less room to accomodate the swelling.

Agree with all the very sensible comments so far. My wife wanted to go electric, so she now has a Hyundai Ionic5. It is a very nice car to drive in most ways, but I will not drive it on my own at night unless weather conditions are such that I won't need to adjust demister/climate settings. It has a touch screen for all of these functions. Yes, it can be voice activated, but this does not always work, and I can't read the crib sheet in the dark, to tell me what words/phrases to use. End result is that in bad weather/darkness I will take my 23 year old TD5 Disco 2 out and burn lots of diesel, but feel safer with respect to myself AND other road users. "Sorry I crashed into your car and gave you life changing injuries, I was trying to use the demister to clear the screen so I could drive safely".

Glad you have made this point. I recently changed my twin axle 12ft plant trailer to a 16ft tri axle one, to accomodate my new spider MEWP. I shall be particularly careful reversing on any uneven ground.

Back in the 70's when I was a teenager working on the farm over the road the farmer once managed to reverse two turntable front axle haycarts, one behind the other. Took a couple of shunts admittedly, but he did it. A truly dark art if ever there was one.

Is the cause of the split in the trunk known? The only time I have seen that in an Oak was on a very large one where we know it was caused by a single massive lighting strike that split a trunk of about 6ft diameter and tore out one of the three main stems at its origin, 21 inch diameter .

Nothing wrong with using a MEWP. Tell the eye roller to climb it herself if she thinks MEWPs are inappropriate!

Can't beat word of mouth recommendations. Other than that I use Yell.com I don't bother with Facebook at all. We are 95 per cent domestic, and this generally means working for people in middle age and beyond, ie those who own a property with trees big enough to need arb workers. As a (?late) middle ager myself I tend to regard Facebook as a less serious/professional advertsing source than Yell/your own website.

I have the stein RC3001 bollard kit which is excellent. I also use a Stein Omega 10mm rope (not on the bollard) for a lot of natural crotch rigging, as I find it quite good at resisting abrasion compared to the Yale double esterlon we use on a portawrap or the bollard. The Omega is also quite cheap compared to many lines.

Things really went down hill when C & A went down the tube. The youth of today didn't know which way round to put their nickers on. Still the "C" part of the label was not gender specific I suppose.

Couldn't agree more; but then not everybody will be in the position take such a financial hit, may have financial commitments they’ll cannot walk away from such as dependents etc.

If you are in decent health, no major muskuloskeletal problems (yet!), and are not afraid of hard graft in all weathers there is no reason why you could not change to arb work. It does not take long to get your basic tickets to allow you to climb, even with a chainsaw, but it takes a whole load longer to become a commercially viable climber (including domestic arb work). I only went into tree surgery at age 41, and I took at least 5 years (running my own business) to get to be a half decent climber. You need to spend some time as a groundie first, to get to know the ropes, no pun intended. Regarding income, rates vary from one area to another, and what level of competence/experience you can offer a potential employer. What sort of work behind a desk have you been doing?

Agreed; the wheels on the Iveco Daily 3500kg are different (presumably weaker) then those on the heavier models. A clear visible difference to any keen eyed VOSA types.

An excellent suggestion. I would add no tachograph, or at least sensible mileage limit from base. I'd even be happy with 3 monthly inspections, or how about at mileage intervals?

I take the 3.5T Iveco on its own to small jobs. If we have a larger amount of arisings I also take the 12ft Ifor high sided tipper behind my Disco 2. Had this on a weigh bridge with 6 inches below the top with conifer chippings and comes in just under 3500kg, by a whisker. Equally, Iveco is legit to pull a well loaded trailer with just brash bags in the chip box.

I have been pleasantly surprised by my MSA220, but the 300 was not available when I bought it. No experience of the Husky myself. I have felled 12 inch diameter Ash with the 220 when we had to keep noise levels down, but would not want this to be my usual saw for this size of trunk. Would buy the 300, and wince at the cost!

You're right on that point. I have the RC3001 and winch. Only used the winch twice for pretensioning though; nice to have the option.