lux

Dear All, I’m looking for your constructive inputs and advice on my new chipper. I’m not looking for a stihl v husqvarna style debate of slating each other’s brands on this thread please. I purchased a new TR8 with the new 55hp Doosan engine and took deliver in September. It’s done circa 50 hours work now. In that time I’ve had what I consider an u acceptable amount of breakdowns. I can’t fault Forst for their attentiveness and speed in resolving faults but quite honestly I should of had so many if any at all on a new machine. I basically have their technical assist on speed dial I’m looking to escalate this to a complaint , I’ve been inconvenienced enough. Good service goes so far but it doesn’t stop me losing money in down time on site due to breakdowns. I’ll give some chronological history of faults. I have photographed all but the latest ones ( of which it still has but they are closed for Christmas so haven’t sent any yet ) September 24th I took a belated delivery at the end of September. Not a big deal as they gave me a loan chipper until mine was ready. Arrived and went through the delivery inspection. Found vulnerable electric wires left unsheathed rubbing on sharp edges. Bonnet had damaged powder coat and poor fitting of the new style exhaust for the Doosan engine. Machine declined and sent back to be sorted. 6th October. Machine cuts out on site. 2/3 hours of downtime on site to establish the relays have been housed under the anvil and continuously come out making the machine cut out. Relays beginning to rub through on casing. We padded out the relay box with a sponge to keep them in place. The permanent fix from first is to send out their own sponge with sticky tape to fix it in place .... 6th November. Bolts fall out of the linkage bar connecting the emergency stop bar Thread (very short ) inside the link bar has been stripped by the bolt vibrating before coming out. They send out a new link bar and new bolts with a longer shoulder .... the bolts are identical. Parts swapped over, loctite on thread. 6 days later it’s unwinding again. Tightening these is now a maintenance thing every 2 to 3 days. These should never need tightening ! At same time I notice the powder coat is failing on the lugs that retain the hopper in its transport position. I assume these lugs that are welded on were not adequately descaled from welder meaning the powder coat has adhered properly. Forst put me on a waiting list for a new mid section of the hopper. 17th December Machine cuts out on site. Overheated. Fault codes identify the radiator. Examine carefully and find its leaking at the bottom of the rad. Manufacturing fault. The rad is well encased so cant really be damaged. Engineer sent out who fits new rad on site. 24th. December A shears bolt head is found by the chipper when clearing up. Couldn’t identify it at the time. 30th December I notice the top feed roller has moved off centre and is just ( only just ) starting to touch the weld on the Infeed opening. Open the bonnet to investigate, this reveals the source of the sheared bolt head. From the bonnet hinge Bolt is sheared off and left in the chassis. Hing now moves as the bonnet opens and bonnet fowls on the chassis causing some damage to the powder coat. In order to realign the bonnet to close I’m correct position we had to loosen both hinges , pop a ratchet strap from the spout to the handles on top of the bonnet and ratchet it into place and re tighten the hinges. More time wasted and another issue to sort but they aren’t open until next week. I love the chipper when it’s working. The 55hp is fantastic and it flies through timber, but I’m reaching or have reached the end of my patience with these faults at 50 hours. I’m aware some forst employees use this forum so I imagine this will work its way to first before they receive my official communication. I’m not fussed about that. What are your constructive thoughts and views on a realistic resolution. Now the powder coat on the chassis has taken a dink from a fail I’m minded to say either replace my machine with another or take mine away and strip / repaint what needs doing and provide a loan machine for the duration. Thanks in advance.

I see that when running a chainsaw there is an orange pole that goes over the bar I assume to prevent sag and increase accuracy of the cut. Does it limit the bar size you can use ? Presumably it does.

In this circumstance we will have to go metric as Dempsey’s fat bloke was probably french [emoji23]

I think those saying anywhere around the 1100 ish + vat if applicable are about right in my view. I agree on circa 300 + vat to do the stump properly. It’s always tricky gauging volumes from the picture but I could see that job being 2 1/2 -3 loads ( transit sized in waste ). It’s an easy looking tree and easily achievable in good time in a day. I can’t agree with factoring in breakdowns and attributing it to the quote of that particular job. Tree work is some of the hardest going on kit , I look after my kit pretty well but I probably don’t go more than a week without something needing a fix That’s arb work. I generally see breakdowns as spread out across the life of a machine ( stupidity accidents aside ) This goes back to the point of pricing. These jobs should be priced so you are covering everything and the business is left with a clear profit after. If you cry about a chainsaw blowing up on a job I suspect you definitely aren’t pricing right on most of your jobs. I’m glad to see people in this thread putting a sensible price on the tree and I suspect their businesses are doing well The tree is easy for a reason- you know what your doing. Don’t undervalue that point. Put a fair price on it and bank the profit Far too many people undervaluing their work. It will always happen. Just try not to let it be one of you ....

You’ve only just moved yard ! [emoji23]

What’s the market use for those thick boards Hewn ? 8” slab is pretty unusual I usually mill quite a bit thicker than intended final size. Usually I slab in 2.5 and 3.5 inch Never ceases to amaze how much some wood moves when drying.

A fine unit of measurement is the fat bloke.

Nice little tractor. How much did the loader lift ? I’ve pulled some epic bits of timber out of some gnarly spots with my Eder. Throw in a mechanical advantage and it’s very very powerful and portable. Did a fair size Ash a couple of months back. It was on an island so dropped it into the lake attached to a line and just winched it across the lake and out. Very silty so had a lot of resistance as the crown pulled through that but did it in one. I bought mine for one job extracting some fallen trees down a steep wooded hill but have used it much more than I thought I would. Def a good purchase.

Eder power winch from treadlight forestry. Twice the power of anything on the market. Mine is superb.

Anything for pussy...

You need a movement licence to transport infected timber. Get it from the FC You can still sell / use the timber but it has to be taken to a mill with a processing licence to deal with the infected timber appropriately.

They are on a sale price on the logosol website atm. Cheap as chips [emoji106]

Woeful company. Lost chipper blades , sent someone else’s blades out, never use them for that again. I bought a few chains and most of them were sent out too short. They had sat in the van for a while so typically they weren’t interested Never used them again.

Yeah I’ve used them. They love conifer. I guess the gravity feed likes that material. Stick a piece of hardwood around 3” in it and they are miserable.

I wonder if one of those budget chains comes out of the same factory as those crappy rotatech chains , they have been quiet on social media for a long time after the battering they took a couple of years ago .....

Weren’t we all hoping he would find the random nail half way through a cut in one of those trunks ....... I thought the husky chain was made for them by Oregon anyway.

I hope he has a powered log splitter, it can be miserable stuff with an axe or maul .... good way to work off that Christmas dinner I guess [emoji38]

Better off with the cs100. I’ve seen the results of a couple of hours chipping on those generic small machines. The blades are incredibly soft and get ruined with a couple of hours use . The key to those tiny chippers is having sharp blades. I think the green mech will have a much higher quality blade that will stay sharp and chip better for longer. The OP would be better hiring a decent chipper when needed or getting someone in to chip for them instead of spending money these chippers really. Small chippers are labour intensive, gravity fed , bits bouncing back out , snedding everything before it chips. A lot of time used.

Wheel weights. Water filled tires. Forestry chains would be a massive plus in the wet stuff.

I don’t mind the switch. The best point about echos is their relative simplicity. No auto tune etc to mess about. I’ve bought quite a lot of their kit over the last couple of years. It’s good gear. I don’t get the brand snobbery thing. It’s the same with dolmar saws. Very good bits of kit but they just aren’t too popular here. Shame. I think you’ll be happy with a 7310. [emoji106]

That’s ok for me. I’ll drop you an email or PM and see if we can some booked. I’m not in a rush.

It’s very well made. Has some nice design features like the scoop / tube that takes air from the fly wheel to air filter. It’s a decent design. I had the demo one for a couple of weeks. Nothing remarkable about it but nothing wrong with it either. Like all echos they need a fair few tanks to loosen up and reach full power. It won’t quite keep up with its direct competition the 462 and 572 but I bet it’s more reliable long term. Reliability seems to be echos real strong point. Seen some ported 7310 on YouTube. Certainly goes well then.

I’ll send you one of my 660’s to do and compare if you are available in January [emoji106]

It’s all computer / machine cut. Volume boring furniture. No point trying to compete with it. Go bespoke and more unusual. Social media will be your friend to launch it I suspect. Ask Steve B he’s good at all that stuff. Don’t underprice yourself early on. Hand made furniture is time consuming, skilled and deserving of a good price tag. Good luck.

I have been mulling the idea that when the house build is more complete here ( not too far off ) I may see if there is interest in a bit of a camping / saw fest / beer up festival at my place. [emoji106] Sunday saws especially welcome [emoji23]