Martin du Preez

Leave a bowser out with 100 odd litres of red in… also add a load of sugar, bleach and salt in. Should start ****************ing their transit up by the the time you’ve moved to a different site. I know someone who did this on a larger scale in a decoy bowser on a farm. A few vans were abandoned when the travellers moved on from the local green 

On 12/12/2023 at 15:15, Stihl123 said:

where abouts is the timber?

Apologies, missed this, CM7 Essex 

On 25/11/2023 at 10:38, monkeybusiness said:

A fixed (ie non-swing) rotating grab gives massively more control and dexterity than any other type BUT is subjected to a great deal more forces than one that swings, so needs to be used with a degree of mechanical sympathy and built as strongly as possible. For the money suggested above I’d probably consider the Kelfri free swinger, as I’m not sure how well a cheap grab would stand up to being fixed onto a digger.

Intermacto or however you spell it. Hands down the best, most robust grab for smaller machines. Ours gets used with zero sympathy, used daily, for tree work, demolition, forestry, ripping out smaller stumps, ripping old fences, used as bucket when I forget one, you name it. 6 years and not a fault 

Thank you guys, gone for the 8.5t tajfun from kilworth, good price, if anyones got any hot tips on what not to do winching we’d be grateful. First time using one being in flat Essex 

We’ve got some parcels or barrel straight ash saw log, 25-30” plus some parcels of oak. Clear up to 30ft, if anyones interested or knows a market let me know 07580048803

1 hour ago, doobin said:

For sure. It's not just the old boys either. I went to an Engcon demo day a couple of years back (full of a few famous Instagram personalities with their tricked out machines). There was one guy there who was quite open and honest, he went out with a 13t for £400 a day. In Kent. Including diesel.

 

Would anyone on here go out with a 2.7t and grab (a quarter of the purchase cost and diesel bill) for less than that?? No transport cost either.

nope but you could get away with £360 on site with 2.7, doesn’t change much for larger machines which is what’s frustrating. BTW they charge customer for diesel and haulage but still. On tree work we just charge how may men it would take to do without a digger, unless it’s a large job where a digger would be essential 

56 minutes ago, doobin said:

Priced jobs is where you’ll make your money back on one. Doing things quicker.  Round holes for round tanks, less concrete. Etc. 

 

people always used to say ‘a good op can do it without’ about anything more than three buckets, but it’s frankly

bollocks and outdated thinking. The UK is so backwards in this respect. Same with loaders. I’m working next door to a building site on this job, and all day there’s been a digger sat at a stockpile of stone loading a dumper every five minutes. I just grab my stone from the stockpile and put it exactly where I need it- the second man on my job has been putting a fence up rather than sat on his arse on a dumper. 
 

My profit levels per job show the value to me in investing in machinery. I can’t stand working for builders on a day rate, they are 99% thick as shit, messy as pigs and my time is better spent elsewhere where I can make a grand a day for a skilled bloke and a machine by quoting the job right and doing it quickly and accurately. 

100% I’m not knocking it and I also don’t like that mentality. For your own jobs is where you pay it off, same as a digger mounted laser level. Already cuts the cost of one bloke hanging off a staff all day.

what I was explaining to the op is that the majority of machines you see in the uk are operated hire. If I go onto a building site and ask the prime (who knows nothing)for an extra 200 quid for a steel wrist they’d tell me to eff off. That’s why you don’t see loads of them.
 

plus your competing with old boys who

go out with 14 tonners for

£300 a Day 🙄

On 20/11/2023 at 19:53, Big J said:

 

I guess so, but you'd see big efficiency gains, meaning you can charge more. Also a lot less annoying to operate. 

 

When I had the Vimek with the tilt rotator grab, it was just brilliant. Going back to a normal swinging, non-tiltable grab afterwards was awful.

 

 

 

Glad to hear you're both getting on well with them. 

 

I have even seen 2t machines with them. They don't even seem to consider using a digger without one.

 

The other thing which seems incredibly efficient (and I'm pretty sure it's illegal in the UK) is for wheeled excavators to run (often tipping) trailers. Coupled with tilt rotators, they are versatile machines for all manner of road work, reducing the staffing costs due to reduced machine requirements.

from someone that does groundwork’s as well you can’t necessarily charge more. People don’t see it that way, if you’re on hire they don’t see the benefit, it’s just the uk.

a hell of a lot of people do have them in the uk though, or tilt hitch. We’ve got a tilt bucket (scandy style) and does everything for us. The rest comes down to a good op 😉

8 hours ago, cessna said:

I am now finding that although I have the top of my wood stack covered with ,ex bulker lorry tarpaulins ,that the weather has been so wet and damp that the wood is getting damper even in the middle of the stack.What I am meaning is that the stack is approx 2.4mtr wide, and the damp seems to have crept right across the width of the 2.4mtr wide stack!!!!!!! Most years the ends of the logs get wet but one normally gets a few dry days with a wind to dry the ends of the logs off but this year with such continuous rain ,that the wind has driven  the damp  right across the width of the stack, has one else noticed the above happening to their wood stack.

You telling me, we’ve moved our timber yard so until the new barn gets built we’ve got lorry tarps, big open land on top of a hill, still getting damp and wet. Normally they’d be bloody dry without a tarp. Having to move them up the road to a barn

about to go for a remote  control krpan or tajfun winch
 

Would a 8.5t forestry winch be ok behind an old shape valtra, 6800? 
 

Mainly for pulling over rank ash edge trees and extracting timber from wet woodlands (seem to find the only ones in Essex)

Just now, Martin du Preez said:

Chestnuts do not react well to pollarding as they struggle to reach full occlusion. And also yes aesthetically it will look 1000xs better and not like some homeowner or weekend warrior has hacked it to bits because, yes if you want it too look good and not like a hack job, you’re going to get a professional in and bung them a few hundred quid. There’s no way you’ll achieve a decent reduction on that considering half the people in our industry won’t. That is also a shit load of brash to clear up regardless and the thought of doing that without a chipper makes me feel physically sick

furthermore if there’s a TPO on it the TO is going to love that homeowner is going to carry out the works. They will also likely only grant a target prune

On 23/08/2023 at 20:25, Jim Curtis said:

 

 

Hi Martin, thanks for your suggestion, sorry I didn't reply sooner but I thought the thread was dead and I'd stopped checking back.

 

I'm interested in what you've said, it differs from the other advice received, are you saying that you'd recommend against re-pollarding the tree just above the previous pollard points? That basically you'd suggest pruning the tree? Is this because the tree will remain healthier or will look better aesthetically? I'm interested in what you're suggesting but could you elaborate a little? Thanks if you're able to help.

Chestnuts do not react well to pollarding as they struggle to reach full occlusion. And also yes aesthetically it will look 1000xs better and not like some homeowner or weekend warrior has hacked it to bits because, yes if you want it too look good and not like a hack job, you’re going to get a professional in and bung them a few hundred quid. There’s no way you’ll achieve a decent reduction on that considering half the people in our industry won’t. That is also a shit load of brash to clear up regardless and the thought of doing that without a chipper makes me feel physically sick

Many thanks, so the only exemption applies to the surrounding of a domestic garden and not a commercial or industrial site?

The gov page seems very vague, would one need a felling license for a commercial site, development is to happen but planning hasn’t been achieved yet?

I would reduce that by *up to*2 metres to suitable growth points creating a new canopy structure. There no point just creating pollard points above that, you need to make sure it’s a proper prune

Cheers for this guys, really appreciate getting some good advice, to go on a valtra 6800 115 Hp with a roof mount on so a bit of extra weight. Used to just set up some snatch blocks and pull over with a  tractor or digger but a bit of a pain finding runs on tighter sites

so radio controlled essential, 6 tonne enough to be pulling in some manky edge ash trees? Sorry pretty new to winches, always used a bull rope and tractor which is a pita

Any recommendations for a forestry winch? Don’t want to spend a fortune, just the odd assisted fell

Hunting for for a 11-12 tonne timber trailer without crane, gutted to see one’s been sold last month on here 🙄

07580048803

On 12/05/2023 at 20:46, AHPP said:

 

Can you talk me through how to get more than two talking please.

Oh that is some wild sorcery, I always have the same young lad do it, I think the instructions come with or I got it from here

Drill holes and use road pins, or put the stakes on the side with the bark so they are buried 

We use tmax freedconn, motorcycle ones. 40 odd quid for a set, can have up to 6 blokes on them, music, phone etc 

Unfortunately I guess so 😂

Cheers Matt, I was about to buy that one but he’s pulled out the sale and hanging onto it 😪 looking for something similar! 

Looking to purchase a Valtra roof mount if anyone has anything up for grabs, preferably the older shape Valmet/Valtra 6400/6800