Muddy42

Nothing about cutting brambles is pleasant. I find if you go at them too aggressively with the brushcutter, they get tangled round the shaft. I like using an up/down motion to slowly pulverize them. Also reversing a flail mower into bramble bushes seems to work quite well!

Brushcutters & Strimmers For Hire WWW.HSSTOOLSHOP.CO.UK Powerful, heavy duty brushcutters designed to quickly and efficiently cut undergrowth, vegetation and long grass even in the most awkward of places what about this? £25 per day

As above, rent a petrol brush cutter >45 cc with a metal blade attached.

Sitka is great firewood. I've occasionally had a half lorry load from nearby forestry when they don't want to transport it across the country. Then its been all ive burned for months. You should be able to burn that wood in the winter of 2026, if its brought under cover with good airflow, during a dry spell next summer.

I guess as a camping stove there is always going to be the temptation to forage wild wood or driftwood, rather than carrying it yourself. Fur trappers in 19th century Canada could travel around in the snow indefinitely as long as they had a tent stove to dry out their boots and kit at night. You should be able to scrub out that flue pretty easily with one of those drill based chimney brushes. Id remove that cowl thing on top of the flue and try a straight pipe.

Thanks for letting everyone know and Im glad its been a success. I have a tow behind the quad flail made by chapman and i'm very pleased with it. I guess that at 25hp, the power at the flail will be pretty similar to your setup. Solidly built and easy to grease and work on.

All wood will burn if dry. Green wood left in an open sided shed will dry but not many people have the storage for that. A system where wood is left outside for a year then inside for a few months works well. I don't need a moisture meter to know that the logs shown in your last photo are not seasoned and probably still green. There should be deep cracks and the bark should be splitting off.

I saw am amazing video on youtube once of a guy using a pulley system with a 45:1 ratio driven by a ride on mower. He drove the mower across a large lawn a few times reseting the rope each time, but it did eventually pull out a tree stump.

I've done it before. It takes ages and you need to be patient. You need to have a few days worth of hot fires on the stump. It works well if you like having a dedicated burn site anyway and can keep dumping stuff to burn there day after day.

If you are self-installing you might already be offside. England is stricter than Scotland. In England the installer needs to be HETAS registered to comply with building regs. Plus your house insurance may have a view on this. If a pro is doing it, its up to them what test they do. Or you can self install and get someone to check it afterwards. Even if you clean your chimney yourself you should also employ a sweep occasionally to ensure a paper trail and cover yourself. But rules aside, personally I don't see the need. Make sure you comply with the stove's installation requirements and crack on. you get a good feel for whether the draft is adequate by using it. Or you can see if the stove will pull a candle flame towards it. The other tests are whether the flue carry smoke properly and it doesn't end up in the attic or coming out other chimneys. Then there is a spillage tests - does the stove leak smoke from fire cement, seams or door seals.

Why do you want one and whats your setup, if you don't mind me asking? Draft tests need to performed under very specific conditions, specified in the stove manual and the manufacturer may need it performed by a professional to believe you have an issue. But ultimately it just gives you a number for problems you can spot without a manometer. Low draft symptoms would be smoking when lighting or opening the door, hard to keep going, smell when not lit etc. You might have a problem with the liner or it needs to be insulated. Maybe the flue is too short (<4m). maybe a down draft is being created by overhanging hills or trees. Maybe its a modern house that is sealed or there are competing drafts (dryer, extractor fans). you can just live with a marginal draft by using firelighters, getting the chimney hot quickly with a burst of newspaper or opening a window and always burning hot with less fuel. If the draft is too high your fuel doesn't last, the fire is difficult to control, the stove gets too hot or even gets damaged. In my experience the low draft is much more common these days, especially in today's eco conscious world, where designers try to minimize the amount of heat going up the chimney, which is effectively what causes draft in the first place. Think of it like an engine, you sometimes help things by helping air to get in and out as exhaust. Modifications need to be done with caution to home insurance etc.

I think I can tell when fuel lines are getting brittle, with the carb disconnected. I clean the engine then give the lines a poke around under good light. Cracks will open up when moved but also the rubber feels hard not supple. I've always assumed the fuel line will perish first, because its constantly exposed to fuel. So if it shows cracks, I'll replace all the rubber - boots, carb kit etc. I've done this a few times on two strokes and less often on four strokes.

Stubby, is there a way to clean out these carbon deposits without removing the cylinder? Personally I use alkylate in the infrequently used tools and fresh pump fuel in two 'everyday' newer brushcutters and chainsaw. At the end of the grass season the strimmer gets run dry then run on a bit of alkalate before servicing and storage.

As above, I always just start by giving the carb a clean, remove and clean needle valve and just replacing the diaphragms and pump. I check that the fuel inlet pipe will hold light pressure and vacuum. Generally this is all they need and I don't go any deeper into welch plugs etc. I've had some that still leak and then its a case of finding the leak.

I've stopped bothering with breakdown cover. Often all they do is subcontract the work to local garages. You get to the same position by cutting out the middle man, going on google maps and finding a local garage or recovery service that will come and collect the car and take you to a garage. Then get a taxi home.