Dan Maynard

Thing with an arb trolley, you can put a lot of weight on but then it's a lot of work to pull. I've done some jobs where we pulled the trolley round with a quad bike, absolutely brilliant and moved a lot of wood like that. I haven't bought one myself, I think £2k spent on a muck truck is better investment. If you have the business use, mini loader is the way to go.

Cherry also warps and splits like a bstard as it dries. I'm still backing cherry.

That's easy, glue it back together and sell it as firewood.

The place near me used to rent out a 360 and 460, and they kept the teeth pretty sharp. I'd take the 460 every time I could even though a few quid more to hire, the extra weight of machine and extra power means it takes a lot less effort to grind, and the self drive is brilliant on slopes, or on and off the trailer. It is a fair bit longer than the 360 though so access can be a problem. I always say the only reason a bigger grinder is not better is if it won't fit in the garden to get to the stump. Sadly they stopped hiring it out and just had the 360 so I bought my own cheap one I can put sharp teeth on.

I'm intrigued by these, or thinking a pair of rings on ultra sling as looking for something bigger than 10mm in rigging wrench setup. What size rope do you use the block with, and does it normally go through once or through both and then you need to keep changing over? Seems like having to go up and pull the rope back through would be a bit of a faff but maybe you never really do?

Not sure bots experience disappointment as such...

Was on Nokia up to the 8 I had, was a nice phone. Currently on Ulefone - cheap and tough, can drop it out of a tree without breaking, bit slow and camera not great. Wouldn't be big enough for you.

Seems like the Shizll is hard to find now though - anyone heard they've gone out of business or know why discontinued?

Actually for light and easy to carry I have a Shizll spider sling in my climbing kit, rigging ring at the top is worth between half and one turn on a bollard. Also have a 10mm rope, rigging wrench and whoopie sling in a bag. Light and quick to set up. As I live in the land of small trees no need for bollard most of the time.

I think America is a weird mixture , I've worked in only two factories in the US, both pharma, both were basically metric. All product drawings, machinery, tools.

Tree Runner Rigging Bollard P 500 Kit WWW.CHRISFORESTRY.CO.UK Small and very stable bollard with a payload of 500 kg. The abseiling brake is suitable for ropes up to... Worth the extra hundred over a portawrap, I get help by people who are more casual labour quite a bit and this is super easy to use and control. Nice and stable, and not a big bit of kit in the van. My opinion anyway.

DUN500W yes. I've done a couple of bay, a privet, trimmed wisteria with mine in the last week so I find it really useful - but it wouldn't be any good as an only trimmer as it won't do the heavier stuff. 23mm might be the spec because it's the gap between blades but it doesn't have the power to cut that thickness.

The big old ones were sometimes. Id go elm too.

Doesn't sound like a good tool to me.

Well he went to sea as an apprentice engineer with Esso, so maybe that's the common thread.

So far my dad is the only person I know to call them shifters. You've doubled the list!

To be fair i haven't had the scales out so I don't know if we're at 300g or 3kg. I can do you a special deal on a 60cc mid-90s Dolmar PS-6000i though, I'd swap it for a ms400.1? You'll hardly notice the weight, honest.

Can't really see why a wiring diagram needed? It's a motor and couple of switches surely?

I've got a saw that's half a kilo heavier than my 400 and will last longer, it says 461 on the side. Rather take the 400 up a tree any day though.

It's aimed at protos buyers.

It certainly is a thing of beauty now, the trained eye can just detect the pruning cuts.

Back to the tree last night, after bee bedtime to plug the hole. Today was able to climb the elm on the left to set a line, then transfer across above the nest using my RC grapple. Only I haven't got an RC grapple so fcked about trying to cling on while fighting to get a line through the ivy. Knocked the tree back to a pole, cleared up, then used a pole saw to cut the rope off the bung so as to be a few metres away when the angry bees came out.

If you are already running one then no change until 2029 so I don't see why you'd sell it suddenly. Whatever comes to end of lease will go on the market and I guess might be cheaper than before, but on the other hand if I was thinking about it I'd want to get it signed up before April to stay on the old rules. Might be more available after April though, at that point ones coming to end of lease become cars - but then buy that outright and claim mileage rate.

I generally do 2-3 days a week of tree work, on the other days I'm in an office job working on industrial software. I have a bit of physio about every 6 weeks, gradually my back shoulders and arms are improving but I do get elbow tendonitis quite bad if I do the wrong thing like use an axe. On the plus side it allows me time to physically recover, I think if i tried to climb full time the injuries would build up so this is allowing me to continue longer. Also, I have a ready occupation to cope with seasonal variations so no need to do fencing or grass in the summer to fill the diary. On the negative side it's hard to keep track of all the things going on in two completely different worlds, projects phone calls, meetings, customers, invoices , quotes etc etc. I would have to admit both businesses could be run better. If you can pull it off 2 businesses there is a huge upside but I would maybe suggest if the fields are closer it might be easier, eg operated mewp hire it's all tree people you talk to.

Is that right? I thought the 362 was being dropped, but then there has been no reason to buy one since the 400 came out anyway. If the 462 is dropped that would be a shame, if I won the lottery I'd buy one but I don't think I'll ever wear out my 461 so don't really need to.