drinksloe

The size of the saw is not a problem. In most of his videos is he not cutting softwoods?? Must admit never been that impressed by bbr, who takes a 30" bar to cut 15" trees??? Well seen he's not carrying his gear very far. Any one can cut soft woods as u expect the hinge will hold as long as ur cuts are good The thing is sycamore is a pure bastard to cut, I hate the stuff if any targets nearby. The only thing u can count on is the hinge will not hold any side lean it will snap and go with gravity once tree starts to go even with a winch. When felling some right behind my house I put 2 winches on as any side lean when it starts to go u can't pump the tirfor quick enough to keep tension on. Some were big others not so but all would off made a mess of roof as had to be felled parralel to house and only growing 3- 10m away on a steep banking above the house. As some said it's not rocket science but if anything valuable nearby by get a pro in. A pro will no doubt make it look easy but they have the experience to know if that tree will be a problem or not. If leaning sycamore will barber chair easily the twin stems may even split on u depending how high up and wot join looks like, a pro would evaluate all that in seconds. Sycamore is not a beginners tree

I just bought a pair of lavaro Sherwood's for 125, and that's for full time forestry use. So walking miles throu soaking wet and steep forestry sites Got a pair of old fashioned stihls last year for the same money but really a size to big for me so not that comfy, but I would imagine ok if the right size ( all they had in and sick of getting wet feet in my Mendel's, not trough the leather but water over the top as so short, brilliant boot otherwise)

Best to ask ur boss when u confirm dates/times On the railways chipper monkeys had to wear cutting trousers. On another site normal H&S was mental and thou the roof but they hadnae a clue about chainsaw work, 1 off chipper lads had his rigger boots cut. A very lucky boy.

Just thinking be a few months since last felled with a digger. But for a digger even with a good operator I would do half back cut ( heavy side) then knock a wedge in, just enough to allow me to finish cut. Then get out way and signal digger, with a 13t * digger u can afford to leave a decent hinge and trees not going anywhere so u have plenty time to get out the way. With a decent harvester operator and plenty space for escape routes I'll use a dogs tooth cut, saves bothering with a wedge, but if limited escape space or dodgy operator I will wedge and GTF before he goes near tree. To be honest the wedge takes seconds anyway. 1 thing I'm always surprised with harvesters, even the bigger 1s is how little power they have sometimes for pushing outsides over if they can't get directly behind the tree, which is often the way f produce still lying.

Must admit being SE it's just the usual day rate,try to avoid it nowadays. But needs must when ur busy sometimes not enough days in week and I rarely turn work down so handy doing wknds to keep all the sites going

Just don't let H&S catch u. Can be a great way, althou sometimes it's safer to use a dogs tooth cut so u can have most off back cut done, put machine on the tree while ur out the way then just come in for the back strap. That way u can be out the way when anything falling off tree as digger puts bucket on and can be further away looking up as u make final cut. Basically less time with bucket above ur head and further away from the tree. As someone says it works fine with 360s esp with bigger machines until it doesn't and then u have a big problem or if bucket slips of stem Doobin u wouldn't catch me putting a 3t er anywhere near a 30" pine, if it has no lean ud probably be as quick wedging it over, ud only lose a machine if it has a lean on it or a target near it.

No sane climber would ever entertain it or boss pay for it. I'm an alleged climber, well got tickets/gear and no idea, but the nearest I ever got to climbing was spiking up live trees and butchering all branches off 1 side. Joys off working on railway and that was decades ago. Really the clever thing would be to not brash the real big problem trees as easy climbed, know a few cutters hurt themselves in past climbing up trees to cut the heavy branches off and falling, in the days before bottle jack's. Cheers mark not entirely sure wot u mean with throw lines. In larch or some hard woods I have used both ends of line to get round lambs etc. Which is wot I think ur on about In some of these SS I'd be surprised if u could even get ur throw bag back to the deck, would just get caught on all the branches. Just about to order an 18mm bull rope, rightly or wrongly, need a rope to use with my tirfor now anyway. Got some trees to do next week n a site where will have to be belt and braces so will need it. And definately no machines allowed so tirfor will be dusted down. Lad in Clarks was saying a few contractors buying 17mm stratos winch rope for don't it, 23T breaking strain but there shock loading it. Not cheap thou, far outside my price range

Aye I've walked away from a corner 1 today, not massive but a hell of lean on it with big branches too, wind was fairly good for it. Was confident my 20t jack would of sat it upright but then I'd most likely run out of jack hieght and have to re position it. Didnae fancy that, a lot of travel for the hinge to hold the whole time. Going to practise my zeplin knots now for joining my busted rope together, will jack it as far as I can with rope as back up and then do the final pull to save me buggering about repositioning jack. See these capstan winches, I've seen them but only clips of them working. Do they not go slack if u take the tension of the tail? So if u were felling a tree and put a bit of tension on the rope and went back to cut a bit more would the rope go slack and lose the tension/pull on the tree? Aye ur dead right about leverage getting it rope high up a tree. With softwoods a throw line is a non starter, most folk strap a ladder on to the skidder tractor. If I get ur rope up 15ft ur usually not to bad for a soft wood as most of wieght is in the butt not like it has a big crown like a hard wood. To be fair with a softwood if u thought far enough ahead and never brashed them u could climb up the bottom branches like a ladder. Be easier than spiking althou not sure wot the foresters/ H&S would say

I'd say I've been there done that jMac ?? 00's of meters to 1/2 mile walk isn't unusual carrying all ur gear for day, unless u have an old skool/ex cutter on the forwarder Have those capstan winches got enough pull for big hairy outsiders? I thought only 800kg to 1 or 2t pull. I have a 20t jack which does well and puts most in, althou I'm going to upgrade it to a 30. But it's more for the trees u really should have a skidder/winch on but on most forestry sites even a county will struggle to follow the forwarder. The sticks in talking about are generally 3ft+ at butt usually leaning the wrong way and heavily weighted the wrong way If wind wrong the day ur there ur screwed wedging it even jacking. I was hoping to just hook a rope on the back of 1 of the machines for the ackward 1s, but not wanting it to snap to eadily, must admit my old rope probably was due to snap anyway the age of it so mibbee not all machines fault.

Aye I realise the machines mibbee dinae have a slow enough gear, hence wondering about a heavier rope. Or ruff buggers driving them ? Usually the tirfor is on my own jobs, be buggered if I'm carrying a tirfor on to forestry sites. Plus no point in having a dog and barking urself. Just sometimes with the head the machines can struggle if can't get in the right position for some reason. Thought using the rope and possibly a block for a redirect if needed would be ideal, but never really heard of anyone doing it that way.

Alright just wondering wot everyone uses for rope size for pulling outsiders in? For years used my old 13mm rigging rope along with my tirfor when needed which has worked fine for years. Last few months snapped my rope twice using it to pull trees in with harvester and forwarder. Was thinking of using the harvester/forwarder to pull/ tow trees in, rather than using the heads, just have a bit more control that way. Got some 19mm wire rope but I don't want to be dragging that about with me, for wieght and wire splinters Either thinking about some dynema rope, which is not cheap or thicker normal rope 15 or 18mm but then more ackward to work with for other things. Not looking to be towing machines out with my rope just not snapping as easy when machines get carried away

Aye that doesnae surprise me who would want to use 1. Bugger that digging cleaning forestry ditches by the chain.

In Scotland, we'll atleast locally called a hawk. In old days used with a rutter/rutting spade for clearing ditches by hand . Done similar jobs before and ur often as quick just pulling them by hand ( depending on the species) so buy a pair off waterproof guantlets and throw them in a pile to make a big raft and pull that in with hawk or take or even a rope tied round raft.

Might be worth asking wot saws have electronic carbs?? They might not be best suited for hobby use and sitting about for long periods.

Cheers Matty, think that's convinced me to go with wot I thought the 462. Mibbee see if I can get a better deal on it. I dunno dobin, I don't think there would be all that much difference between a 254xp and a 550, and the 254 will stil be working hard years later. I still use a 353 that must be years old, althou had an easy life for a long time as a fencers saw, who actually looked after it, unlike most fencers I've worked with. Really not sure about these computeridpsed carbs, seemingly husky still make all the decent 3 series saws just not for the EU market

Very interesting, amazing how it mounts up. Althou with forestry not so much the cost but the practicalities off carrying 2 combi cans into a wood everyday/2nd day. Most forestry companies if ur in front off a harvester ur on by day nowadays, not an awful lot off piece work. We'll atleast locally. So would u get a pay rise over another cutter running a 462 or 572? Also be interesting how much extra timber u do put on deck with it over the course of a day. Let's face it both 462 and 572s are cracking saws and put plenty timber on the deck also. To be honest u could argue rates should be a lot higher when u see some of the gadgets/tools some buy various jack's from 700- 2.5k, wedge jack's plus impact drivers, not cheap. Lot of cash for a SE cutter to be expected to lay out often with no real thanks

Every man and his dog have them locally, so must vary a lot region wide. Most folk seem to have valmets/valtras and them seem to do the job well.

Dunno why but Cannae delete that smiley thing or write after it. U can't take the p*** to much thou, still got to do a half decent shift in. Mibbee doing 7.5 ltr would be a decent ammount. Ur putting some timber on deck if emptying that in a shift.

Cheers folks. Dunno if really helped sort off backs up everything I've heard about the 500, just a beast off a saw. But the lifespan and fuel scares me when ur a long walk into the woods. Bad enough carrying wedges etc and esp a jack if u need 1 without carrying 2 cans everywhere. Still really fancy the 462, was hoping/expecting the 500 to be way dearer so making my decision easier.. Aye to be honest stubby I bought my last 372 after the 572s came out, didn't really need it at time but thought they're wil likely be teething problems with the new saw. I'm quite old fashioned and still like old proper saws with carbs. Heard quite a few bad reports from lads with 5 series huskies, bloody great to run when going well thou. Despite owning mainly huskys I think they've lost there way a wee touch now compared to Stihl. Got offered a 2nd hand 572 recently which had done very little but just too much cash for it being 2 year old. Trying to buy another old immaculate 372 off a lad proper pre ex torq saw so fairly bomb proof Does any company make 7.5 litre combi cans??? Mibbee a market for it, can mind the days finishing a can and home time ??

That's all anyone says about the 500 that and it drinks some juice in a day. From wot I've heard the 462 is no slouch either. At moment still running husky 372s as felling saw, got 1 off the last ones, still going well but it's mibbee time it became a back up saw now out off warranty. Does anyone think 462 will have s longer lifespan or nicer to work? A local Stihl agent reckons Stihl saws usually have more torque in mid ranges and huskys all top end flat out power. But he reckons the 500 is all flat out power

Alright Just as title suggests wot do folk recommend?? I did search for it but surprisingly nothing came up. It's for a felling saw for forestry so be running a 20"bar occasionally bigger, but manly oversized trees so 3ft+ butts I know everyone seems to rave about the 500. I phoned up a local company thinking was going to price a 462 and got a price for 500 too just for noiseyness, but thought it would be too expensive. Only 100 quid dearer. Never really into new models or gimmicks just want a saw to work as it should but for only 100 quid more am I daft not to get the 500?

Must admit doing more forestry work it's rare I need a bigger bar than 20" In normal circumstances I'll happily fell trees up to 4ft butts ( assuming not funny shaped or steep bankings/dangerous bits so not got access all round) all with a 20 bar, usually not a problem. And as others have said if u toe them off also helps. Sometimes can be a pain taking the 1st log off if very fat/hairy as usually just chip/3m so stem can just be a bit big for a 20 at that hieght After thinking about it I wouldn't just sweep cut the stem if it's 8ft high, be a bit off wieght in that for it to go wrong. Don't have a lot off control just sweep cutting. Just asking to nip a bar or squash a saw if goes sideways Definately safer with a gun, and if in any doubt with a smaller bar bore it. Nothing worse than battering wedges in when u have missed some holding wood in centre off tree.

If it's only 40" across butt like Avent says above althou a 20 might just be tight. Just gub it and bore the gub out to under 18" of hinge each side, surprising how big a tree u can fell with an 18 or 20" bar

Must admit I'm with Pete b , looks a great bit off kit but in practice is 12" not too small a chipper to fully benefit from being crane fed?? Being remote control will help as at a better angle to see wot ur doing. I spent a bit off time on railways years ago working with 18" PTO chippers a cracking took especially when fed with a noted or the like. But at 12" 1 or 2 folk would most likely easy walk the whole tree in Plus a hell off a money when u add in the transport hassle/costs would be better on a bigger machine

I have seen some terrible yappy whining cockers, more so from show/pet lines. Mind my old neighbours bought a pup from there friends up the road it's was terrible as was the mother, it can be genetic with cockers. But some poor breeders which claim to be workers also bred off poor yappy/whining dogs that really shouldn't be bred off atleast for working purposes. With anything it's always better if u can find a litter throu word off mouth/friends of friends then u know the parents and reason for breeding, pup for themselves or to cash in.