drinksloe

There is a big difference between 20 or 30p a piece. Either 5 or 3 to a quid. If 30p ur only 45 pieces an hour to get ur 15 quid an hour. Really depends if u could cut 1 every min throu the day? It all depends on the site and timber No doubting very hard work but plenty of outside jobs are similar Tree planting rates are around 7 to 8p a tree, great on new plough but very hard work on steep restock sites

Alright. Just wondering from some of the more tech savvy, wots the best apps? for mapping for forestry or fencing? I'm still stuck in stone age but am probably going to have to bite bullet and get a proper smart phone. ( Non I phone) Worked with a few lads over last few months that got emails of either fencing/forestry plans and could check them on phone when onsite. Quite handy really. Was on a new cutting site the other day it would off been really handy to be able to see where we were in relation to the job etc. Another couple of fencing jobs they got the sat maps up and marked the fence we just put up and it measured the fence from phone was usually within a meter or 2 of the wheels distance. So amazingly accurate Wot should I be looking for with buying a new smart phone, u do see them for not a lot of money. Cheers

It is a load of BS, but atleast they have invented a whole load of courses that never existed before, so easy to just "upskill' Must admit never knew it had to be with a fisa qualified instructor, I was told only 3 in whole of Scotland are fisa qualified. I think a lot depends on how good the trainers are, most other skilled workers do renew like digger drivers etc, Mibbee if keeping fisa compliant means u can up ur rates and charge the money cutters deserve then mibbee a good thing. Mind I was on the very 1st fisa course with a load of exp cutters and do remember 1 or 2 learning new cuts. Think a lot off the older cutters hasnae seen the split level cut before. Mind a few boys saying that in the pub too, after moaning about the coarse. These are boys who done a lot of hand thinnings back in 80's so exp cutters.

Dunno how Scotland's doing, but a hell of a new planting gong on the now. Never understand the whole grant thing, but absolutely throwing money at fencing side of it. Got forestry companies putting thousands of m"s of deer fencing up when really very few deer and going to strip down again in 5 yes. Same valley all rabbit netted be lucky to area bloody rabbit up there. Another site only about 50% of fencing is round woods rest round fields not even boundary with a wood and wangled on same grant, and it's 40 odd K meter, so not a small amount of fencing and fancy specs

Are the numbers not massive, 30 mill from government/tories and 60 mill from lib dummies At commercial spacng a ( ie 2m centre's) ur talking 400 hectares per mill trees ( approx 800 acresish) where's all this ground going to come from??? Even with softwood spacing ur talking 30% the size of kielder forest. Not the sort of size ucan just conjour up. Plus if hardwoods acreage will increase massively. There is a massive shortage of softwood trees in the next few decades, but planting squads just can't keep up ( althou still paying them peanuts) same with mounding/ploughing most of the contractors can't find enough bums to put on seats. Also on the ground thing, most likely source will be uplands ( esp if various folk get way and stop grouse shooting) upland heathland is quite rare globally and were always told how important peat is for carbon/global warming. Generally trees aren't very beneficial to peat infact with the draining ploughing and drying effect of trees will ruin the peat. Just more BS from politicians that know bugger all about anything really. Sadly the norm now.

AHH reminds me of my younger dafter days, we used to play Botex Bronco, used to have comps at work to see who could hold onto the grab the longest while the shook/spun it etc. Loser bought the 1st round in the dogs that night. That's was the goog old days before H&S and camera phones.

U won't have to be that clever felling either, if 80% off trees coming out u should have loads of room for felling. Before u crosscut it figure out ur extraction method first, even if at a later date. Bloody pain skidding timber out if been cross cut already, far easier if long pole. Dunno how many stems ur talking on ur site but even skidding out with quad might be vaible if not too long an extraction

Or 2nd best behind the 254xp. I've still got a almost new 1 I bought 18months ago, 1 off last before they stopped making them. A bloody great saw

Must admit I did think 8T was a lot, that's a big stick. But both the reps laughed when said trying to figure it out from the kNm's don't think they have a clue how it relates to wieghts either. Cheers open I'm sure ur calcs are right, just be the difference in all the things u mentioned. Think in the brochures they will be scared to give exact wieghts in case a machine tips over lifting stated wieght Seemingly vids online of the new big ponsse straight lifting a 3T dead wieght onto bunk

Just to update thread. Spoke to a couple of salesmen the day for 2 of the big brands. They just laughed when I said trying to get head round kNm's, said it's just a bunch of bs really. Obviously depend on machine size and distance but most will be about 1- 1.5T realistically, ( 1100l grab tank being about limit) perhaps 2T, they do reckon the new big ponsse can lift 3T thou

Cheers J. It's actually for a static winch im adapting to put a grab bar on for getting forwarded into sites. So will have no problems grabbing/gripping it as will be plastic coated like grab tanks. That's why really needs to be a straight lift, had convinced myself was all ok but just dropped it off at the welders ( actually John's who repaired ur wee forwarder J) and he put doubt in my head. As he thought it looked awuffy heavy, im sure only about 1.6T with its wheels on, but he's got a load cell so will find out over next few days. Cheers again everyone

Cheers everyone. Looking like they should have plenty of power I'm meant to be off Mon and have some jobs to do near ponsse yard, might nip in for a coffee and get it straight from horses mouth. 8T does seem a lot for a forwarder to lift thou. Cheers again

Alright Just wondering wot sort of wieght is the max a largish forwarder can lift onto the bunk,? Is over bolsters from closeish in? Been looking online at a few brochures many quote around the 160kNM of torque/force for the larger machines. How does that translate to approx mass lifting wieght? From my old school days, many years ago I thought 1 Newton = 1kg , so 1kN should equal 1000 or 1T but makes the mass lift about 16T which is not right. But that was Newton's and not Newton meters Guessing it's 1.6T? Cheers

U seem to have done ur homework and got a fair idea wot u want to do. I was just hoping to say do ur basic saw tickets then mibee try to get a wee bit work grounding etc to make sure u do want to climb. Expensive tickets and gear Everyone wants to get a saw ticket and then climb. There is always more forestry type work, must admit I enjoy it far more than climbing. Less hassle. But everyone's different.

Seem them at forestry show and said the exact same, lifetime guarantee on the syysttem, which doesn't help u go to work if they're away getting fixed. Also my other thought was wot happens if u have a bad accident and medics need to remover ur boot?? Do them not normally cut the laces off ( well they do on TV shows) taking a bit of cutting those laces, a boots themselves will be bad cutting FF chainsaw proof. Clever idea but really solving a problem that doesn't exist

But I think I might struggle to find wheels/rims in the approx size narrow enough. I'm probably going to have to cut/bodge the middle off the rims as an odd stud pattern. Just wondered if I could just stick some wide 1s on which I can source easier, but at same time don't want to waste money if they won't be right. Cheers

Alright Just wondering wot everyone's opinions are on wether wide tyres are better than narrower tyres? Althou I do imagine a lot might depend on the ground conditions u normally work in. The wee skidder is only about 1 1/2 to 2T ( basically compact tractor size) and running on 20"X 6 inch wide tyres, it seems to grip the ground really well. Esp when turf/ground not ripped up, it did struggle in places where forwarder had exposed greasy clay soil But I know I'm at a job next week and think it might struggle to get throu some of the wet sphagnum mossy bits. And it might of been handy. But worried if I go for the wider wheels it might just sit and spin and lose traction a bit as not enough wieght to really grip? Have any of u had similar issues after putting wider tyres on compact tractors? Ideally I would set it up with twins but so far struggling to find suitable rims, But I old easily adapt 6T dumper wheels and I think some telehandler wheels too. But they'd be too wide for twins Bear in mind I'm in s wet Scotland and also do odd bits of peat work jobs so extra footprint is always good.

I was going to say wot busy daddy said many valmet's the seat turns round some even have a pedal and steering wheel to drive it in reverse. Have a good look if anything expensive hanging down or in a place that could be speared by a branch easily. Some tractors don't put a lot of thought into it

Dunno if any overhanging branches on ur side of boundary and wether taking them back to boundary would make any difference?? I take it u can still do that without consulting owner, althou I'd imagine u need LA permission.

To be honest I think the opposite, for hobby/home owner stuff ur far better just with a straight corded electric power tool. Far cheaper to buy, no battery running out or losing charge throu storager. Probably far greener, only using the power u need and no environmentally harmful chemicals involved in making battery either. I think for some jobs battery stuff is up to the job nowadays, but I bet very few pro users will rely solely on a battery saw and most will have a petrol back up in van. I have been considering buying an elec pole saw but just a combination of price but mainly the worry that u'll run out of battery some day when u only need another 5 mins of power. They're always that day u need to do that bit extra, a extra can of fuel is easy carried and cheap.

Cheers folks, I think I'm still a bit old fashioned and just so used to petrol saws it takes a while to change the mindset. I should say it's high pruning in front of fencing squads so not ur typical pruning small limbs. The other days was cutting limbs 14- 18" , the next job were going too just had a 9t digger in with tree shears. Really could do with hiring 1 first just to make sure. I see on 1 site some fairly good deals on stihls with 2 batteries and chargers, not found any deals on husky yet. Not cheap when 100 for the charger too. U could just about afford to buy a cheap mittox pole saw as back up instead of an extra back up battery but sort of defeats the whole point.

Alright Just wondering if many on here have experience with battery pole saws? Must admit been years since I last done much with a pole saw, great bits of kit but I remember burning a hole in my cutting trousers ( must have been resting exhaust on them) and when ur really pushing the limits the exhaust/hot bit was just in the wrong bit for supporting the saw. In theory really like the idea of a battery saw, but just worried about it running out of battery when u just need a few more cuts. Esp if u have traveled to a job It would be so nice working in almost silence thou. I can imagine a battery pole saw should work fairly well as ur not on the 'trigger' that much just short bursts. I did search for similar threads but not been 1 for a while

Meant to add if u say where u are it might help folk tell u wot work is in that area, or someone might offer u work. For me common sense is far more important than tickets as that can't be trained and generally older folk have that. Not meaning to diss climbing in above post but everyone wants to climb so loads of folk at it, money is not as good as it really should be and it's bloody hard and complicated work esp on a PT basis for yourself and lots to go wrong ( even just pricing jobs, a few tiny unseen complicatons can really slow a job down Easier ways to get work. In many cases a good ground/forestry cutter will be making similar money with less complication and cheaper kit, still bloody hard work thou

Some good advice already. 1 thing I will say is climbing is bloody hard (esp when u don't do a lot) Also some big changes in best practice/HSE seem to be coming climbings way, I wouldn't want to go back climbing esp if these new regs come in. By rights u also need 2 folk ( is rescue climber) which means u then need to find someone to work with, plus employers liability as well as more expensive PL insurance By all means do ur basic saw tickets and get some exp etc, but climbing is hard and expensive and it gets more complicated keeping the right side off HSE. Depending where u are could be other work more forestry minded, coppicing, hedge laying, small scale forestry woodland work or gardening type work u can do on ur own when it suits By rights u should still have 2 folk for all saw work I take it ur a builder or plaster with the name? Sure plenty of wee building landscaping jobs u could do and save a fortune on saw tickets?

The biggest problem that no course will ever help is u simply can't train stupid. Dunno if education system or majority becoming more urbanised but seems to be a massive lack off common sense in a higher % of population than ever before. And I think social media/computers only makes it worse. Let's be honest here felling trees is hardly rocket science Mibee it should go back to how it used to be not allowed to do 32/med trees within 2yrs off doing 30/31. U can learn an awful lot by f##king up on small timber 1st, make the same mistakes on big timber and never going to end well.