lux

14 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

@Will C has experience here.

I’ve just had a quote of £39 + VAT, but that’s for 6mm.

I’m a tad worried it might be a bit bendy!

Super cheap aren’t they.  
l’ll let you buy them first and see how they go 😀. 
to be fair at that money I might just buy ten and they will have other uses even if too light for the machines.  Prob fine for running my worky quad around on 

 

How do folks find Stokboard for running small plant machinery on ? 

Does it hold up well enough compared to Trackmatts ?

it’s Half the price so seems tempting.  £69 per board for 12 mm when bought in 10s.  
 

cheers 

I think the 10 inch chipper is prob too small to be attractive to regularly sub out. It’s a bloody useful chipper for your own site clearance etc etc and will make you efficient but I think most people subbing in a big chipper would step up to a larger machine like a trailered heizo or similar. 
 

if you have plenty of large domestic or site clearance for developers and the like it’ll do you well I recon. Agree it could be a little unpleasant driving it around 

I’m shopping for 7.5t tippers atm 

 

I used a green waste centre recently that had a weighbridge.  Working out of our usual area and couldn’t get a hookloader through the gates to drop off a bin on site. Had to shuttle loads of chip out with a transit and 10ft tipper trailer behind.  
 

9 ton on the weighbridge. - up rated springs and barn doors hide it well but 2t over on train weight is a little naughty .. 

wasted time too.  Finally confirmed for me to buy a 7.5t tipper. 

What size chipper ? 12inch ? 
will you charge mileage to and from site or will that be averaged out and factored into your hourly rate. ? Id imagine you’d want £900 plus vat a day give or take.  So I’d say the comment above is pretty fair.  

21 hours ago, doobin said:

I tried the Sherpa 13hp and the Cast 13hp and found the Sherpa to be dated in design but lift more and have more pushing power when tried side by side. I foudn both equally good in build quality- I reckon you could push either off a cliff and pick it up at the bottom and she'd be away! Didn't try the 22hp models as wanted to go narrow.

At least you won't be borrowing my attachments all the time 🤣

 

With regards to flow- that's dependant upon the engine. There is only X litres a minute available at Y pressure from Z horsepower at the end of the day, and these simple loaders aren't like mini diggers with variable displacement pumps and drives.

I think I bought all the attachments going except the flail which I’ll get elsewhere as it’s over priced from cast.  
 

flow rate significantly higher on the 22 hp model. Lift wise on the 22 is the same as a Sherpa. I think the Sherpa felt a bit unfinished in comparison. For a narrow access machine it had an exposed fan on the side and chain drive instead of hydraulic drive. 
When they price matched the base price of sherpa with log grab and 2 sets of wheels for me the Cast was a better machine.  

 

haven’t used the auger yet, looking forward to testing that out. 
 

they are all small handy machines and any of them will make a real difference in day to day domestic type work. 
 

Last job of the year was clearing rhododendrons, teamed up with a 2.7t Kubota with tree shear it was a great combo. 

That little alpine of yours looks good. Need to pick one of those up myself.  

 

 

I bought the cast worky quad ssq22 at the APF show. Bought a few attachments and couple of sets of wheels etc. 

 

so far I’m pretty pleased with it. Much better than the Sherpa in build / design and things like flow rate on the hydraulics etc / protective covers over things. really good extras thrown on for nothing like work lights which are brilliant for loading in dark winter mornings.  Very bright. 
 

they matched the show price of the Sherpa as well so I was pleased with deal. I think the Sherpas were on offer as they have just launched the new models to replace them. Much better specs on their new models and more akin to the worky or giant in design. 
 

which ever you choose you’ll be glad of it. Handy kit   

On 26/03/2022 at 20:55, doobin said:

Well this thing is magic. Must have cost around £700 with both the Baltic Abrasives CBN wheels but it's worth every penny.

 

It's turned chain sharpening into a pleasure rather than a chore. I was pleasantly surprised to see how accurate my hand sharpening actually is, but with this you just set it and make like a robot. Advance chain, pull back against stop, dip wheel, repeat. The hydraulic clamp is a very clever addition, I wouldn't want to be without it.

 

I didn't even mount the pink stones- straight to CBN. You'll never need to dress them and it's putting on an edge every bit as good as you get with a file- and I know how to hand sharpen properly! What I did notice is that where I was putting a decent hook on them with a file, I wasn't perhaps going deep enough into the gullet. Because of the way this works, this does both. The curve of the disc forms the gullet, and the hook is set by the flat of the disc at the angle you chose.

 

The Orgeon grinder and the CBN wheels combine to make a product that is perfectly capable of taking off as little as you would with a file given a careful operator with some mechanical knowledge. If anyone still thinks that a file 'gets them sharper' or a grinder 'takes too much off', then I'm happy to prove them wrong.

 

There is enough adjustment in every plane for even the most finnicky of mechanics. It also comes with a flat wheel for doing the depth guages, which I found worked very well too.

The CBN wheels leave a burr on the top plate and blue up the tooth very easily when you have a damaged chain which is the only reason I bought it. ( and yes that’s just light dabs not constant contact ) If it’s just a little dull it’s easier to hand hand file it on the bar.  Hand filing gives a better result in both circumstances 

 

You bloody well do! Look how much lower the shed is. That bank is steep [emoji6]
 
To prove it to you- I almost had to call for a tow after tipping off 🤦‍♂️The mud tyres went on shortly afterwards.
 
Also- it’s not just about 4wd when choosing a pick-up based tipper.  It’s often as much about getting into tight spaces. The LDV would just about fit down the track to tip that muck (but would get stuck and graze trees on the way down). The iveco no chance. 

Got a bite there [emoji6].
Got that winch on the digger yet

Happy now? 🤣

You don’t need 4x4 in that photo [emoji23]

I’ve found checkatrade fruitful over the last few years.
I would say last financial year it probably brought in around £50k of trade. Something like that. My membership is about £1200 per year.
It also helps as SEO
If you are on checkatrade and google for a tree surgeon in your town your business is very likely to be in the top 5 results and direct people to your profile on checkatrade.
Well mine does anyway so it helps tick that box too.
Enquiries are slower off it from late but that seems true of all avenues atm.
Of course the best advertising is word of mouth.
Obviously something that’s hard when you start out but comes with time.
It’s certainly the biggest source for my work.

But in answer to the OP. I’d say it’s worth it. Keep the feedback going in and you should get leads.

Liquidambar

Monkey pox . [emoji846]

You old tinker stubby. The doctor will give you a cream for your ‘monkey pox’ [emoji23].

 

Spotted these on a couple of large Larch trees on site. South East region.

What’s the most likely culprit

 

Tia

Here’s a small chipper I saw this morning. Nice a compact , fits inside the van well I thought.

The largest conventional brushcutter is an italian made one called "brutale"
 
3.3kw
 

Brushcutter Straight Shaft 6.5 BT Brutale | Active s.r.l.

WWW.ACTIVE-SRL.COM  

I’ve got one of those. It’s brilliant. Bought it about 15 years ago. Local dealership had a batch and knocked them out half price to get rid as they weren’t selling. I paid about £220. I run the Oregon 4 way jet cut head. It’s been superb. Never broken down.
Same power head as the Eder winch.

Mill them and pop them down the road to @bigbeech he will likely kiln them for you for a good price. Be ready in 3/4 weeks probably. He is pretty close to your yard.

Absolute garbage

I bought a load of them for a few different saws.
They went in the large box in the van that’s full of new chains. Some sat their for several months until needed.
When needed got one out and it was made too short. Tried the rest on various saws and 3 or 4 more were too short. Ended up breaking them and lengthened them.

Useless company all round. Lost chipper blades sent off for sharpening is another speciality of theirs too.

I just buy my specialist chains for milling and skip tooth’s etc from Rob D on here and buy Oregon chains from honey bros for the rest.
The Oregon power cut and x cut which I believe they make for husqvarna are nice chains.

Just came across this thread and really feeling it right now. 
On a job atm, 4 large dismantles, a smaller one and some other bits. Chip and wood staying on site, figured 5 days with three guys. It’ll be easy… 🤦🏻
One of the lads had to go off on semi-long term sick leave. Managed to cover some of the days then the other guy got covid. Spoke to client and stupidly decided to soldier on and just get it done. Now going into day 7 AND on day one I realised I’d gone over the vat threshold the month before so will have to pay that out of the budget. Might rebrand as a charity. 

Freesurgery …

I sort of get what you are saying but if he's £70 a day on fuel for grinder then it depends how much he's charging for the day. Also as long as your vat reg then there's 20% back to start with. A £250 stump for me would only have a fuel cost of about £10 for example. I know when I did a job for £900 my fuel cost and lad helping wage was £160 I think so that great for 5hrs work.

Yeah , I had £700 plus vat on the stump.
So let’s say with teeth it cost £100 on the grinder ( vat to come back later )
1 tipper trailer load of grindings removed but that was clean enough to go into the chip heading off to biomass
So roughly £600 plus vat left for a 2 man day. That’s ok as far as I’m concerned.

But yes if it was less juicy on fuel it would be good …. But I expect there is only £30 difference in the day compared to the current prices on red and a little lower consumption

What’s of note also is that Petrol engined units are cheaper to purchase and have lower costs in maintenance through their lifespan

Depending on where you work as well you may require the latest diesels with lower emissions etc.

On the bali  website. It clearly states that hmrc has classified domestic tree surgery in private gardens is classified as horticulture and can continue to use red diesel

Yup , Swinny is correct. For domestic only.

Work at a church or school for example and it has to be white. Anything adjoining a public rd. -white.

Maybe I should fill the tank half red and half white to cover the bases [emoji23]

Just off hired a norcar loader this week. Was told had the come back full of white.

Yikes, that's a lot! be the same for all the machines using that engine though. makes my diesel Carlton look cheap on fuel.

Indeed. Although the difference might not be so big now they will be on white diesel. [emoji20]

what's the opinions between the SG40 and the pred 38, there about the same price but the pred grinds deeper  and has various tracks and is narrower and the RX pred now comes with a dozer blade as standard.

I’ve got the pred 38. Pretty good machine. Biggest downfall is fuel economy.
£70 to £80 a day on petrol when she’s working hard.

I find explaining it one of my favourite things.
TBF the natives are just as bad.
 
’

I concur. I just quoted to fell a large leylandii screen . My price was about 6k plus vat.

Customer told me he was shocked at the price , especially as I would be selling all the valuable trunks from it ………
Told me he had a quote of 2k to do the same.

There’s almost a perverse pleasure to just not being bothered about it [emoji23].

Anyone can tell me what hydraulic oil to use? could do with a top up.

iso 46 I Should think.