drinksloe

That's not a lot of money for a tool like that (esp if it has PTO and 3 point links, which i'm guessing it does) Does he ever have any bother getting brash stuck in about the track rollers? A mate bought a larger version iseki? in the spring this year for working the posst knocker as sick of being stuck with his tractor, not spoke to him for a while but said he liked it the 1st month. Be intresting to see if he's still using it with this dry spell or back on to his tractor till winter time again. It wasn't a lot of money for the age and looked a tidy machine Few years ago we were fencing a big hill job (10km+) over very soft ground and carted the gearout/in every day with a clapped out old Massey 290? (so old it never had a pto but a big spinning fly wheel u put a belt on) had twins on it and it travelled no probs and floated over the wet bits. The chapper tractor was a MF390 4wd with twins all round and only needed to look at a wet hole to sink out of sight, often the old massey had driven throu the same hole laying out stuff and never even marked the ground But postknocker do make tractors very heavy even with twins on

Do u think these crawler tractors are better than the 4wd alternatives for the more modern wetter climates? How do they cope going up steep hills? I now the tracks are a bit more aggresive than digger tracks bit rubber tracked diggers do struggle in greasy conditions Some of them are not that expensive

Thinking a bit more myself and reading throu other replies its probably pretty normal for most prey species to squel/scream when attacked hoping it will scare the attackers off. When u give a rabbit squek on the back of ur hand its amazing wot will come in to investigate a possible free meal U can get various calls/screams that u can load onto ur phone to attract various things in for shooting or photography. I tell u wot when u listen to a lot of them there not that dissimilar to a young baby cryingscreaming, i'm surprised there isn't more urban fox attacks on kids/babies, u hear off odd 1's but thankfully not many.

Sika deer whistle, i think just around the time of the rut (Sept-Oct time) Must admit not sure if they do it any other times Infact its quite a strange sound the 1st time u hear it. Ur Red stags will roar or Fallow buck grunt again around the rut time Have heard some deer (fallow/roe) scream when stuck in a fence and ur trying to free/put it out its misery. Not sure if all deer will scream if being attacked by something??

Obviously it will depend on the exact scream as more than 1 animal has a sort of scream like call. Rabbits definately will/do, not all the time while being attacked but often. Spent mt childhood ferreting and they definately do and its possible to mimic the call to attract foxes so they have learned to come to it as well as many other predators Even mice/voles have a high pitched alarm call when being attacked (i guess it is designed to panic the attacker in the vain hope they let go for a second so they can escape) Foxes also have a few scream like calls esp around mating time. Owls also can have quite scream/screach like calls esp the Tawny As for badgers no idea, must admit i've never heard off it before but coukld be possible

Cheers. Althou it will be like most other things in nature/wildlife and vary massively from place to place, i know off a few areas with big setts within 100m's of each other and all active, the forester/staker on there reckoned he counted 30 walk under his high seat 1 night 1 after the other, and i do believe him as setts everywhere. Also when been out with the lamp seen badgers miles away from any know setts so amazing how far they will travel or often 'claim' rabbit burrows and enlarge them. Same with otters too we used to regulalry see them on the back hill up to 1000m away from any real water course, guessing hunting frogs and stuff in rashes, wet holes and the odd shallow ditch

Aye i totally get where ur coming from, there always seems to be 1 or 2 that have to get invloved in everything. Best not to upset the TO in that case, i thought if it was in middle of nowhere with no public access u could quitely remove a few over years bt not really the case here. Wots the wee cabin in the woods? An old woodsmans hut? Looks quite nice Be brilliant to develop/renovayte into a wee wknd getaway

A lot of folk would be amazed they have badgers on there land as u generally never see them, but the signs are quite bvious when u know wot to look for. Usually a broc hole will have a flat bottom and the same if they're crawling under fences etc, while fox runs/holes are more an even circle shape Good practice further south is to fence of and bumble bees nests if u find them to try and stop there decline at the paws of badgers. Dalton, when u say 1km2 is a territory, is that for an individual broc or a family group?? Some off the family groups/sett can be massive

So the TO wants u to underplant without any thinning/felling at all? I'd say it wil be almost a complete waste of time, very few shrubs or trees will thrive under it, (got a small woodland with areas of mature sycamore having the exact same problems) If the TO allowed some thinning each year it wouldn't take u that long to seriously thin them out. The other thing is would the TO ever know if u thinned a few out every now and again over the next 5 years? Is he ever likely to do a random inspection? Is there any public access or anyone likely to complain? Is there any stewardship schemes say for butterfiles etc u could sign up to as i imagine they would want the old glade back. Looks like it could be a really nice woodland with a bit of work.

Aye ur almost correct above, althou in i'd describe that as a single sheave and in practice probably need longer than 40m, but u have the right idea. For a double sheave u'll be 4:1 so need 80m+ Every time u put an extra 'thing' in (not sure the correct term) u half the load but double the distance u have to travel. Because ur pullng it all by hand and fairly small bits of timber u might even get away with something quite cheap and cheerful like 8mm polyprop (u bog standard blue rope) However u decide to pull the rope, (stand at bottom hand over hand Or at top vai a redirect so just walk in a straight line) it would be really handy to have a 2nd person there purely for either attaching/unattaching the rope. Or else u'll be up and down that hill like a yo yo. be more tiring than pulling the logs up.

I'm not that bothered about brands really, but from ur post i take it u already have stihls? I would imagine ur new stihl chains and bars might be compatabile with ur new saw. If u swap to husky they definately won't be unless u change the sprocket. Not a massive issue but a pita when running both stihls and husky's. Both the saws mentioned above are cracking saws

Wot is ur price range? Or wot are they wanting for the 391? For a 20" bar a 372xp is a cracking saw, very old technology/design but has stood the test of time very well, possibly a smaller 60cc husky might do ther trick too. Might be some good deals going about with the new 572 out I have a stihl362 and really like it, done a lot of work with no problems althou i wouldn't fancy running it full time with a 20" bar, althou i must admit when i put a 18" bar on occasionally it copes fine For a 20" bar i'd be looking for a 65+cc saw

Must admit i've a bit of a different way of looking at it. Wot's the point in achieving the perfectly sharpened saw chain if it needs workshop conditions to achieve it?? (Althou milling or longer bars would be the exception to the above) Not advocating using blunt chains by any means. And i dare say it depends wot sort of saw work u do (how close to van, size of timber in relation to the bar size etc) If ur doing a lot of cross cutting or felling of trees over bar1/2 an uneven chain is a complete nightmare getting ur cuts to meet (been there done that when i had dislocated fingers and couldn't grip my files properly) But if its all smaller groundy type work with its not as important or atleast not a disaster For a normal cutting/forestry saw i'd far rather be able to sharpen it little and often to a pretty good standard fairly quickly in field conditions than achieve the slower perfect sharpen needing a bench/vice. Most of the cutters i know all just do free hand with no guide, i've always found the guide gives it too much of a hook when u get half way down the chain, possibly very sharp but if u catch something it can shear off and takes a lot of chain to get it sharp again. Also with the perfect sharpen i'm sure it would just encourage me to hit stuff i shouldn't, i am pretty careful with my chains but i'm yet to hit something just before i stop to sharpen a chain. Yet the moment i've sharpened it and got far enough away from my files u can bet i hit something.? Each to there own and wot suits them, but personally i wouldn't get too hung up on it, with more experience u will get better and better too Just to add I bet for normal groundy/smaller tree work i bet the time u'd save between having a chain at say 7 on a sharpness scale compared to 9 will be absolutley tiny over a day, compared to the extra time it takes u to ge to that. Like i said bit different story on bigger timber/bars and chains or milling but with a bit of common sense and watching the saws cuts still pretty easy to keep evenly sharp by free hand fileing. Probably should say a compramise between wot is useable and achievable easily/often in field conditions and the optimum/perfect chain sharpen

Would it be possible to float the logs down to a less steep/shorter part of the banking? Then if u want to do it by hand i would be looking at a rope pulley system. U could use u going down the banking as a force, which woud be simple and easy but means ur up and down banking 3 or 4 times per log, by the time u tie it on/off I'd mibee go for extra pulleys and u walk along the top of the banking to pull the log up, but u could be talking a lot of rope for a 30m hill (even a simple 2:1 ur talking about 60m+)

The stumps were a massive disaster, as anyone with any common sense could imagine they would be. Doubt they'll ever go back to ripping those out again. The costs off digging them out and then transporting them to roadside/site to be washed and chipped. Not very environmentally friendly. The best laugh is there used to be a field of willow literally right next to it, yet they cart the chip down to penrith somwhere to dry for 1 year. Absolutely bonkers 100mile round trip when the harvester almost could of blown the chip into there yard when cutting the endriggs.

When that power station was planned/built the blurb said it would only burn brash/stumps/roots/waste and locally grown willow. (Almost all the willow fields have been ripped up now) Complete white elephant (as most eco/green government schemes are) possibly works elsewhere in drier soils/climes but not SW scot. I have been told how many artics of 'good/decent' timber it takes a day/week but keep forgetting as the number is so high i sometimes doubt its real. But wagons are running into it non stop 12hrs a day. Originally they had diggers and forwarders digging up stumps and brash (more like mulch by time forwarders used brash matt) off harvesting sites, which must of cost a fortune and used a load of deisel, due to the loads u could take of stumps/brash, then found it would hardly chip or burn unless power washed 1st. Been a long tine since i heard of them taking much brash in, althou i do think Jenky's are chipping some stuff in forests now, not sure if brash or tidying up all those 1/2 artic loads of logs lying everywhere round forest tracks. Might be worth phoning Jenky's? I think there is still a couple of boys running skylines down here althou i think they only run them when needed as part of a bigger harvesting site (so sit at yard/up wood most of the time) i'll give u a pm

I'd possibly go with the last 2 ideas mentioned. Either boat or float the logs to somewhere u have access?? Done that with big heavy bridging sleepers 15ft long once Or if u can get a motor/4x4/quad to the top of the bank a simple pulley, ,ideally high up tree slightly back from banking top, tie ur log/s on and drive ur motor along the top of the banking. Easy and cheap be about the quickiest soloution too. Tirfors are brilliant tools but u wil never quickly get sick of pumping the lever pulling logs up a banking 1" at time. Also possibly be a pain if u need to take 2 bites at it as wire rope too short. I wouldn't imagine a canoe nose would stand up to much use as a nose cone, well definately not the older fibregalss type, the mor emodern plastic 1's might be better but are dear. U couldn't just mke 1 out of sheet metal rolled? I have made a small sledge for doing small stuff with the tirfor and made a rolled nose with angle iron fram and the sheet welded onto it. U could make a round frame with pipe/angle/section and attach some sheet to it if u need extra strength

Would a rock/ripping tooth and a thumb make a good poor mans grapple?? A bit finer/more accurate than a bucket and thumb Been thinking about buying a tooth for a job anyway, if u combined that with a thumb would it be quite handy? Must admit i;ve never needed or used a rippping tooth, grapple or thumb on a digger before, so wondering wot opinions are from those that use them. Also is there any disadvantages of putting a thumb on a digger? Does it get in the way for more normal digging duties?

Had my steel wedges for years so no idea where they came from, most likely either Clark's at Parkgate (who have a decent website0 or Davy Patons at Moffat who doesn't but not much he doesn't stock chainsaw wise, a proper aladins cave for chainsaw stuff

Those are the wedges i love but really only for hold the cut open as u've said very brittle and do snap quite easily. I wouldn't be hitting mine with anything heavy regularly (get the occasional whack with the bar) In a small tree like that u won't have much room if using steel wedges and need to put the saw back in. Have u tried nylon wedges? But like all wedges u need to hit them straight or u'll knacker them (even highlift) In trees that size unless heavily leaning ur small wedge and a longer felling bar is a good combo. If ur knocking outsiders over all day having a couple of steel wedges can be a godsend just to get trees started, i used to leave my wedge bag and sledge up the wood if i was back the next day. Otherwise u can go throu some shanks if ur using them heaily every day and 3+ft trees are sitting back on them

Must admit i prefer the small alloy wedges (mibee only 4") as a handy pocket wedge for keeping the cut open and bar unpinched, but i wouldn't advise hitting it with much thou. So not really a felling wedge I also would really be wanting to use steel in smal trees as chances of touching it with chain will be higher if u need to take more hinge off, with a big tree u should have more room for bars and wedges so not really an issue I do like steel wedges but for bigger heavy trees just to get them started before i put the hi lifts in, i find u have to knock hell out of ur wedges intially to get the tree started sometimes if ur aainst the wieght. Can take its toll on the hi lift shanks (i also double ring my hi lift shanks) Dunno how big ur trees are or wot wieght/lean in them, but a great big felling bar is a bloody handy thing, amazing the leverage u get with the 5ft bars. I tend to use a wee wedge then get tree rocking with the big bar pushing the wedge in a bit more each time

So using this as an example, if big J travelled up north for a week every month, which would need to be taco'd, and local the rest of month where he'd be fine without a taco. So that means he has to run with taco on constantly even when not strictly needed to prove wot he's up to for when he does travel north. Say in normal work he's doing 5x12hr days (within the 60miles) but ur recording it for travelling north later in month, would that be too many hours each week? How does the taco know ur not sleeping for a few hours mid shift as the van will be likely sat at roadside for 12hrs. If thats the case and too many hours, prob be worth buying a scrap van to use anytime the forwarder is left on site so no one needs to know wot ur up to, infact it might be easier having a scrap 4x4 thats capable of towing it for local work, defeats the purpose (and extra tax ins, etc) but atleast then u could put ur hours in. And having ur taco for going north. Seems hellish complicated to me

U could be right josh, i couldn't see any other attachement onto the chasis. Really would need something Any tracks i've seen like that before usually drive from the wheel hub as add ons to quads etc rather than the extra hydralic drive. i think i'd be wanting a demo 1st but definately a very clever idea, i'm sur eu could set up a valve to drive it of the chippers own motor too, as even smaller tracked chippers either chip or track not both

It does look quite clever. Althou after thinking about it I would imagine the big drawback will be unless there is some sort of frame/support for chipper body or axle hubs locked somehow, it might be quite 'tippy' and if ur going 'off road' the jockey wheel would end up digging in. U really could do with an extra set of unpowered tracks for the front/jockey wheel? somewhere so it won't tip the same or dig in to the ground. or even a 'floation' jockey wheel would help Ps Only guessing but possibly if he tee'd into the chippers hydralic feed he might not be able to patent it, as i see he has aplied for a patent for it

Alright Just wondering if many folk head over to Interforst in Munich?? I see its on this year. Is it a larger show than the APF? Or just more diverse? (althou been a long time since i went to the APF)