Conor Wright

Two travellers, Mickey mcDonnagh and Willie Ward are up in front of the judge for causing a brawl at a wedding. Judge: Mr mcdonnagh, can you please tell the court how this outrageous brawl began? Mickey: yes sur ah can. Willie wur marryin me cussin Mary an cos she me cussin I offered her a dance after d weddin an we wur dancin away an next thing Willie come flyin over an hit her a box in the fanny. Sur. Judge: good grief, he boxed her in the fanny? That must have been terribly painful. Mickey: oh it was sur, turrible painful. He broke three of my fingers.

I bought the one in the picture, then didn't get the job I had planned for it! It's used for loading logs onto the processor and occasionally retrimming brashy logs, have never used it on a larger scale job but it has serious power when it comes to pulling through timber. They are a simple machine so even an untrained eye should spot defects ie cracks, poor welds bent rams.. It's 100% mechanical so no 'puters to go wrong. You will need (going by my machine, others may differ) one pair of spools for the stabiliser legs, pto for the crane pump and another pair of spools to run the delimber. I personally wouldn't consider adapting it to a 360, it could get messy and it's a bit bulky to hang imo. Another option to consider may be to use the 360 and shear to fell the trees, make a stack sufficient to fill a trailer and bring in the processor, then clean and load the timber in one go and move on to the next stack. No physical labour. No expensive of complex machinery adaptations (except guarding, for your own safety. Strongly reccomended) Patu is the make of the one pictured, now kesla to my knowledge. Kelfri make one too but it may not be so strong. I am far from an expert here, lgp Eddie has more experience in using such machines.

The defender I had previously had a pto winch. The pump was mounted just behind the cab (lwb 110) and connected to the gearbox, I believe engaging 4th gear and engaging the lever in the cab turned on the pump. For a crane you could probably mount a small tank beside it, for a log splitter you may need an oil cooler or larger tank.. I do not know what make the pump was, I spent all my time fixing other things on it and never got around to refitting a winch. I would not buy another!

Tea tree oil too, I believe

Have the parts, dealer is only a few km over the road and he dropped them to me! Thats service! Should be up and running again tonight 352 turbo, not sure if it's a conversion though.. will pm you the numbers! Thanks!

For 60 ton a year shear and saw seems more appropriate. Forestry kit is very expensive and unless you are a mechanical genius, very complicated too.. maybe a big old stroke head on a tractor or converted to work on the digger.. far simpler than a roller head and will strip off larger branches too. People will tell you they are slow but they will make short work of 60 ton without huge outlay.

Should I go left? should I go right? Should I try to do both? Dealer replacement includes upgraded ball joints. It seems to be a common failure. Pity it failed in the middle of the laneway back to the house, leaving both car and jeep stranded, upside is herself gets to drive the mog to yoga later.

8.2 tons on that test.. better than I expected but it could be more detailed. As for meat, we have at least one meat free day every week. It's not as bad as you may think! When you look at the amount of energy required to breed, feed, contain, grow, slaughter, package, distribute and refrigerate then cook a piece of meat (especially beef) it is staggering. Then there's the whole industry around the disposal of the meat wastes.. a family member has a small veggie production unit and it's equally amazing just how productive land can be, a decade ago it was home to 5 cows and making a couple of thousand per year, whilst damaging the land. Now it's producing in excess of 100k per year fully organic with steadily increasing soil fertility and quality. I couldn't give up meat willingly but can see the sense in reducing consumption. Poultry and pork are better alternatives, but there is nothing like a nice rib eye steak seared on a griddle!

They already do that with large motors being run on generators. Not sure how though, seen a big old sawmill coming to life on a phased start-up, impressive stuff.. It came up to speed over about a minute, but it put the gennie into full Volkswagen mode, black smoke a fiat 11090 would be unable to achieve! Once up and running there was no sign of pressure on it.

It's an old pic of a pic, poor fellas gone now but he was my logdog back in the day. Shown here being trained in on the splitter!

I picked up a Clarke converter from wholesale welding supplies, max 4kva if I remember correctly.. runs my planer and circular saw with ease. Not big money either. if you know a good electrician, they should be able make up one for you?

They put scientologists in labs? Like chimps? Poor things. Testing teeth whitening products I'll bet.

Nice toy! Shame you're on brash though..

At the risk of a derail, you mentioned old om Merc engines dying when you changed the oil you were using some time ago.. can't remember where it was, I'm running a mog with a 352 which burns a drop of oil (ahem) apart from the obvious, an engine rebuild, can you recommend a brand/specific oil which served them well?

Ooh steady on! Have to take it easy with those swedish models, finicky things! them germans can take it harder though! was.looking at an old husky 41 today, almost gave in but bought a bench vice instead! Maybe I'm already an ould fella but there's something more attractive about old equipment..a skill in the manufacture that's somehow gone now. You work as a fitter in a quarry? Or did I dream that up?

Another vote for the grab truck with chainsaw operator. There's no shortage of climbers with a van and ropes, not so many with heavy lift capabilities! you could fill a nice niche market with basic climbing abilities coming later on and progressing as the business develops Hope it works out for you, whatever you choose!

I prefer stihl to husqvarna, but that's just a personal opinion, so can't really make fair comment on the husky. I think a 241, or if you want to spend a bit more 261 would do you nicely, it will cope with the larger diameter stuff once kept sharp. If you sharpen well it will drive the longer bar, if necessary. Maybe not at a commercial rate but it doesn't sound like you need to produce wood at that rate. They are light saws for their power and not overly aggressive as a 70cc plus saw may be. If you don't have them already, invest in a pair of cut resistant pants. They may save your life one day. The pine sap thing... Burn away on it once it's properly dry, no worries.

My apologies, I didn't realise you were in Ireland and didn't realise there were differences. As you may have gathered, my statement was at someone in England (Scotland and Wales too at a guess). I always thought that EL covered the employee in the event of an accident, it wasn't till I actually started going through the small print that I realised it was actually to protect the employer No worries, its better to know these things. I had presumed we were sharing a whole set of regulations, probably the same across much of western Europe. So it was presumptious of me to jump into the conversation. seems as if each country, to a certain extent, has it's own legal nuances, so to speak. Much of it is set from case law ie. The outcomes of court cases, which can vary widely. It is 100% legal for a company to work here with no insurance except a road traffic act policy. ie car insurance allowing you to travel to the site legally! Every day is a school day. As an aside, my pl insurance(As a sole trader) does cover an employee for a maximum of 52 days labour per year with no restrictions on the type of labour implied.. so if an accident does occur involving another person there is a level of cover built into my policy.

As you employ him as a labour only sub contractor you legally have to have it, the subby on the other hand requires no insurance although accident insurance would be a wise choice. Something for you to bare in mind...EL insurance doesn not cover the employee in the event of an accident, it covers the employer in the event of a court case/claim arising from an accident so you'd be stupid not to have it as if an accident does occur, and a claim is made then any moneys awarded to the employee would come out of your pocket. Don't be a fool, get the insurance. I went looking for more information on this as I always thought it to be the case I did not have to have el, and I do not. The laws regarding insurance in Ireland are different to the UK. My climber needs to have his own cover in place to protect himself. Under the laws here there is no requirement for me to have cover extending to others, provided they have cover themselves. There is also no legal requirement to have pl insurance in place, but I imagine it's now rare to have anyone operating without it. Basically an uninsured climber becomes an employee (scary) and a self employed climber with his own cover remains self employed and subject to the regulations in his own insurance contract, regardless of whether he invoices me or the client directly. I presumed, wrongly, that there was some standardised set of rules throughout Europe regarding cover. We have been talking about two different sets of regulations for the same practise. Pays to read the regulations, also helps when your partner has been working in the insurance industry for well over a decade! Having berated me for not knowing what I had been paying for for years she helpfully explained the legal differences between here and the UK. Then showed me the relevant paragraphs in my policy booklet. We have it easy here in comparison! Much more comprehensive legislation over the water it seems..

Tongue and groove? I know it may not be possible on all trees and in all situations but I used it felling pops which had a lot of shrubs below and it kept the butt ends in the air, just made a cut in the middle, chipped the top and lifted out the stem with the digger. Virtually no damage.

See.my post above, I'm in co. Galway West of Ireland, some large plantations across the country, especially east Midlands have been destroyed but many of the native stock, boundary and roadside trees seem to be faring better. Not all though.

That's worrying. There is a small plantation growing beside home, it's 3 acres of 12 yo totally infested ash and 6 acres of almost knackered 22yo looks like they are going to dig out and bury the young plantation and clear the older one for what firewood is in it then replant with Sitka. Great. However the native ash stock seems less.infected, we have two ash at our entrance and one is fine, the other I brought back to a pollard as.its roadside and has a large cavity at the base, but is otherwise healthy. Awaiting it's reaction to the works. It would be devastating to lose a woodland such as yours, whatever about the plantations..

That's normal though, isn't it?

Yes, onsite. don't like the idea of a climber working alone.

Some interesting points here, take for example a situation such as mine, I'm a sole trader, no el. I bring in a se climber to do what I cannot, he invoices me as he was contacted.by me.regarding the job, I then pass on this invoice plus mine to the client (I don't make any extra on the climber, just pass on the cost) I also never expect the climber/s to do anything against their will e.g. go up without spikes or push to finish a job ahead of time.. ie. Im not "telling them what to do" who is liable if he/she has an accident in the tree..?