Brits talkin about Brit stuff

[Thor's Hammer]

i bet a good 'expert witness' would soon kick into touch any prosecution soliciter/hse /official..if the **** hit the fan and it all went to court,as long as you used fit for purpose /serial numbered reputable kit,no dout about it !!!!!...at the end of the day this industry is a big ******* GREY AREA period !!!!

I fully agree rollacosta, any decent soliciter would have no bother dealing with hse.
In fact i never realised before now how difficult it is for the HSE to prosicute anybody, even with the most ????ing of cases. to illustrate, we recently did a very large 'site clearance' job in Stirling, Scotland. without naming any names, A.N. Other tree contractor on a connected site up the road utilised a forwarder to lift a fitter over the security fence. unfortunatly, he crushed the fitters hand badly, breaking several bones. the HSE swooped onto site, and stopped the whole job for 4 days while they 'investigated' the incident. i was told by the main contractor (edmund nuttals) that there was no FMOC, no safety records, test certificate or maintanence sheets for the machine in question. However the investigating hse guy told me it wasent worth prosicuting as its not worth the bother to get the small guys. he told their only really interested in the large organisations.

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

Going by the few dealing's i have had with HSE there a big waste of time ! ,they haven't got any clout at all, again imo ,if they did why are there so many un-insured and un-quailfied cowboy's out there ,sucking the gut's out of the few firm's that are trying to do as much by the book as they can

Every time i have had to speak to them about various issue's it's alway's a grey area ,or theres not much we can do etc etc

 

[Thor's Hammer]

what you have to remember is that the HSE provides a lot of pen pushing jobs. i think HSE staff's main task is to justify there own exsistence...
As a comparison, the french have a thriving tree care and forestry industry, but no such thing as a HSE.
Iwould love to know there accident statistics, as im sure there no worse than ours.
the great thing about french contractors is they take things a lot easier on the job. They can afford to do this because their not constantly fighting an expensive battle with a huge nanny state trying to legislate them out of exsistence

 

[Big A]

Just got feedback from Husky after my 372 blew! "Warranty invalidated due to either
1) Blunt chain (?)
2) Blocked air intake (new saw)
3) incorrectly mixed fuel ( mixed to specs as for all other saws I ran on same day)
4) Incorrect adjustments on carb screws ( set by factory)
5) Stale petrol in saw (?? freshly filled for work that day)

Not a happy bunny, my dealer is doing his best to get this sorted out, as he said "if I thought it was your fault for one minute I wouldnt have tried to claim on the warranty". Is it my imagination or are Husky's not the saws they used to be. Any one else been in a similar situation? Seems to me that they are just trying to get out of the warranty, rather than admit a problem with their products.

 

[Ross Turner]

I dont rate any of the new Husky saws,I prefer the old saw like the 254xp & 266xp these saws are the cutters choice.

 

[jamie]

oh ay

our 357s aint as good as the 254s...

wonder why,

jamie

 

[Big A]

Trouble was I wanted to replace my tired old saws with some new blood, glad I kept my old 254xp tho'! Just bloody annoying to have unnecessary hassle!

 

[Big A]

One thing that my dealer did say was that for emmission regs the saws are now set to run a lot leaner, than the old days. That cant be good for the engine in the long run either.

 

[SteveBullman]

switch to stihl big fella

im gonna go the 260 and 360 route next

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Thank goodness its not just me -
we have been faithfull buyers of husky for 25 years - and when our 242s 254s died after several years of hard graft, we had to get 346's (not a patch on 242, 3 fell apart after 6 months) and 357's (nice to use and powerfull, but 2 blown pistons on saws under 1 year old?) to replace them. my first 371 still goes strong after 7 years (looks a tad ropey now) but the 372 i bought 18 months ago has had 2 ignition packs and recently blew its piston.
IT GETS ME REALLY ANGRY!!!
it was a sad day 2 months ago when i bought a stihl 260 and a 346 - as a die hard husky fanatic i have to admit that modern stihls are far better built than huskys...

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

Just got feedback from Husky after my 372 blew! "Warranty invalidated due to either
1) Blunt chain (?)
2) Blocked air intake (new saw)
3) incorrectly mixed fuel ( mixed to specs as for all other saws I ran on same day)
4) Incorrect adjustments on carb screws ( set by factory)
5) Stale petrol in saw (?? freshly filled for work that day)

Not a happy bunny, my dealer is doing his best to get this sorted out, as he said "if I thought it was your fault for one minute I wouldnt have tried to claim on the warranty". Is it my imagination or are Husky's not the saws they used to be. Any one else been in a similar situation? Seems to me that they are just trying to get out of the warranty, rather than admit a problem with their products. :

THE OLD BOY ON THE HUSKY STAND ,SHOULD BE COUNTING HIS LUCKY STARS THAT THIS FRIDAY ISN'T THE CAPEL SHOW...

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

boy's i keep banging on about MAKITA saws imo there fantastic my 7900 has plenty of grunt ,she cut's lovely ,and the price is even better...no more Husky's for me after i bough a peice of cr*p new 3120 ...ahhh never again

 

[Thor's Hammer]

boy's i keep banging on about MAKITA saws imo there fantastic my 7900 has plenty of grunt ,she cut's lovely ,and the price is even better...no more Husky's for me after i bough a peice of cr*p new 3120 ...ahhh never again

interesting point -
All makita did was buy out sachs-dolmar and rebrand their range of chainsaws - although i suspect they spent some on quality control aswell..

Also the echo chainsaw (254 equivalent i think) got a very good review in fmj -

one of my earliest memories of tree work is Dad topping out a 130'' Wellingtonia (dead top) and his little echo packing up for the hundredth time halfway through the backcut - I was only 7 at the time but still laugh when i close my eyes and see that little echo dissapear into a thousand fragments as it arced out the tree and hit the customers patio...

 

[clearance]

Yeah guys, Jim from Yorkshire here, the old Husky saws are the cats ass. The 266xp, 288xp etc. I use a 288xp at work, my favorite saw ever. Use 372s all the time, have used 357s, fast powerfull saws, but kind of frail and cheap. I always use high-octane gas (petrol) in my own saws, Husky mix at a little less than 50-1.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

The trouble on all new huskys is their completely manufactured from plastic- crankcases and all. so you get a saw thats light and powerfull, but only lasts 2 mins at work. on the 2 stihls i recently bought, most stuff is made in aluminium casting. The local husky dealer told me that stihl went through the plastic stage some years ago, and had the same problems. now they've gone back to aluminium.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Tell me People....

Im thinking of selling chippers, and i want to get some feed back from all you guys about what the users want.

Ive spoken to a few manufacturers, and have few ideas up my sleeve.
what i want to know is

How Big / Small do you want them?

Tracked or towed?

Turntable?

Would you be willing to sacrifice wieght for quality? (and ability)

How much do you want to pay?

How important is warranty and backup?

Personally, i think the uk market could do with a chipper with 45hp min, 8 x 14'' feed, and taking no more space than tracked jensen or timberwolf.

give me your thoughts

 

[unimog]

Thor, Chipper wish list.

Min 10" Hyd feed

Wheels that turn into tracks at the flick of a switch

Fitted 360 turntable

German build quality but less than 750KG to pull behind 71/2 Tonner

15 years warranty and parts delivered/fitted within 2 hours

willing to pay £5000 cash/pound notes (no vat) with £1000 cash back,to keep wife happy.

and 300 gallon of red diesel thrown in.


Have been selling chippers for 20 years and still can't find one like that. LOL

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Har very bloody Har...
Selling chippers?

 

[Acer]

.. the investigating hse guy told me it wasent worth prosicuting as its not worth the bother to get the small guys. he told their only really interested in the large organisations.

I'm surprised to read that. It's the larger organisations that can afford to defend themselves. Just done a single windblow assessment. The assessor was saying how he was standing on the wrong side of a branch under tension when he cut into it. When it released, it broke his leg. The HSE found out and actually visited him in hospital to tell him that they intended to prosecute him! They're like vultures, ready to pounce once the accident's happened. If they wanted to improve safety, they'd put more resources into pre emptive inspection, rather than drafting endless legislation.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

I'm surprised to read that.
Not as surprised as I was at the time, but there you go. He told me that its easy for a small business to liquidate and start again, whereas big companies and corporations cant do that.
I get the impression that drafting endless legislation keeps them in jobs