land clearing with husqvarna 365sp & 440xtorq

[logger 12345]

Day-6

DAY-6

some more work today,this was yesterdays load here in the video i posted above,so we cut aprox 3 more large ash trees today
going very nice,the 440 is just GREAT!! i love it,nice and light,some power in it,very impressed with the grunt for 40cc,well capable of cutting 15" trees at ease.

collecting yesterdays work

travelling in further in to the land

 

[logger 12345]

and a nice load up

husqvarna 440xtorq in action

nice ash section here today

 

[logger 12345]

 

[almondgt]

While I am waiting for your videos to completely load I would like to ask several questions. Do you have to completely clear the land of all standing brush and trees to have the firewood for free? What are the measurements of your trailer? What is the approximate ratio of green/live tree wood to dead wood? Are you retired or is this a weekend thing? How many years do you think think this task will take to complete? Do you work by yourself on occassion? Do you find the chain on your saws dull quickly with the wood and moss you are cutting? Do your customers mind the odd lengths of wood you cut? Are there a lot of roads on this property or are you making alot of your own trails? How far do you have to drive one way to access this location? I am really enjoying all the information /videos you have supplied to date. :msp_thumbsup:

 

[logger 12345]

hello almondgt


thanks for your input,and thanks for the questions,i'm glad the thread intrests you,it's only more reason for me to update it then.

firstly to try and answer some of the questions you have asked:


Do you have to completely clear the land of all standing brush and trees to have the firewood for free?(YES)
What are the measurements of your trailer? (8.9)foot x(4.6)

What is the approximate ratio of green/live tree wood to dead wood?ALL ARE GREEN & HEALTHY so far,might have got one or two very small rotton ones,so this is a good thing.

Are you retired or is this a weekend thing?at the moment it's my full time job,i sell firewood so this is why i am here,i am also a builder by trade but this is dead right now in ireland.

How many years do you think think this task will take to complete? at the rate i am going,not been here everyday,maybe 3 days in the week,i could be here most days but i have other stuff to do some days around my own home,so i guess i could be here for a number of years to come,maybe seriously if i stay in with this farmer i could be clearing land for the rest of my life for him,the land here stretches on for many miles,outside of that this farmer has a lot of other land also that needs clearing at other side of the hill,the trees are depraving the land of sun so the grass won't grow.

Do you work by yourself on occassion? i always have the wife me lending a hand
it suits the farmer that i work alone,well the two of us because he knows me and i have insurance etc and have completed a chainsaw traning program many years ago

Do you find the chain on your saws dull quickly with the wood and moss you are cutting?
a very good question, yes and no,i have been lucky some days with maybe 2-3days without having to touch the chain,the thing is the trees seem to vary here from black ash to whitethorn,to blackthorn to some very harder types which i yet havn't diagnosed some of the species,so yes i think one day here with the 365 i cut some very hard wood and the chain went down and needed edging,i set the rakers for hardwood on the saw so it seems to cut well

Do your customers mind the odd lengths of wood you cut?
another good question, all my customers (90percent) look for small firewood,it seems that a lot of families here in ireland fitted small stoves so the small wood is in high demand,it's also easier to axe it when it's this small,even thought we have a hydrolic splitter which i must repair,we normally axe most by hand,anyway where we take the wood out from here it's all cut again maybe 12-13" long and then split,depending on size. we fill the traliers here with the wood easiest sizes for lifting

Are there a lot of roads on this property or are you making alot of your own trails?
two roads here,one on top and one in the bottom,but on top i am making the road myself as i go in along the land the bottom of the hill is where all the lovely trees reside,the road is now overgrown,there is a huge forest there of ASH,and old stables that the farmer wants to reccover which are now overgrown with many trees in that woodland, i will be maybe starting here in the summer time,the trees down there will be much easier to work on,up here is very elevated.

How far do you have to drive one way to access this location?


that is the best part it's only over the road two miles from where i live



thanks for the intrest!
dan

 

[logger 12345]

Did I read that your Nissan is a diesel? It must put a lot of torque to the ground...that and good tires it didn't look like it spun a bit.

yes you are right,it goes good here now,it has sort of surprised me to be honest,i thought i would get stuck the first day with it cause it was very wet here,but nope it's had no problems yet,i will keep fingers crossed :]

it's 3.0 dohc turbo,as you say the diesel does put good torque to the ground,but to be honest even in low ratio box i still have to pump clutch a bit to get it moving throught the mud with the tralier,and if i go to fast i could damage something

 

[logger 12345]

Day-7

DAY-7

all work today with husqvarna 440xtorq,leaving the big stumps then for the 365sp

ok so today was sunday (thy shall not work on the sabbath day) even though i'm not a hugely religous person i still have some morals,so i don't like breaking the good lords rules but i have a busy week next week and i may not get to spend much time in the land,maybe 2-3days top,so i had to work today until 3 o clock.

anyway i made a start at a cluster of nice ASH trees and got most of them down and ready to load up tomorrow so
all is good.


some pics of today.




before pics of this batch of trees!

 

[logger 12345]

facilities........very important!!

getting some work done

some large stumps for the 365sp tomorrow ;]

 

[logger 12345]

nice wood for tomorrow to cut at home...

 

[logger 12345]

AND THIS CLUSTER ONE SIDE FINISHED UP

 

[logger 12345]

ok that's day 7's pictures,as i normally do on my thread here a little video of some work during the day
i am editing a quick vid now of the 440xtorq saw in action today cutting some of these ASH trees.

the 440 i am extremly impressed with,it's a powerfull saw........

 

[logger 12345]

husqvarna 440xtorq video - day7

here is the DAY-7 video of the husqvarna 440xtorq in action,i'm extremly impressed with this chainsaw!
a great power to weight ratio...



VIDEO:


husqvarna 440xtorq -day-7.wmv - YouTube

 

[almondgt]

Have you removed the carburetor limiter caps on either chainsaw? The smaller saw sounds on the lean side. You'll get use to the weight of the smaller saw and the Husqvarna 365 is going to be used a lot less. Any way you look at it you are getting alot of exercise.:hmm3grin2orange:

 

[logger 12345]

i fully agree with you,i am lazy now about taking out the bigger saw the small one is nice and light,i didn't remove the limiter
caps,i suppose they would void my warrenty if i did,they were tuned from the shop where i bought them,i never touched the 365 at all and it seems ok,to be honest this small saw was tuned on aspen,so i'm using my own oil now the husqvarna with pump petrol.so i guess it's going to be differnt.i did feel it noticably more powerfull with the aspen to be honest,don't get me wrong it's more than enough now as it is and not a lot of a differnce but i did spot a differnce in speed getting up to max rpm,i' going to start using aspen now on all my saws anyway,it works out cheaper long run and better for the man and the saw

 

[logger 12345]

day-8


well a short day here today,we are just collecting yesterdays work,aprox two loads full,not bad considering we only spent 3 hours yesterday at it,today was very wet,so i am going to start cutting everything taking home in to firewood today.

very wet today

going further and further in to the land!

 

[almondgt]

I was thinking that with all the moisture that consumes the area you live and work in there will be considerable errosion to the land from the loss of the trees that are being removed. Will the land owner be seeding the cleared area/s or anticipating the natural growth of grass? opcorn:

 

[motofishman]

Hey Dan, what's your firewood processing system at home like? How much inventory/firewood do your keep on hand, or have room for. Lets see your stacks man! Enjoying reading your thread everyday.:msp_smile:

thanks tom

 

[logger 12345]

I was thinking that with all the moisture that consumes the area you live and work in there will be considerable errosion to the land from the loss of the trees that are being removed. Will the land owner be seeding the cleared area/s or anticipating the natural growth of grass? opcorn:

yes very good point you made,we actually spoke about this today me and the farmer briefly,he don't call around much only maybe once a week,i think he will re-seed it all,it's very hilly on top but he keeps horses in here,so i guess the trees are no good when you need grass to grow for grazing.



hello motofishman

thanks for the comment,i will tell you the truth,it was such a busy winter that i sold all i had cut last year,so around december we decided to use everything we had cut,so our yard at home was empty,this firewood sells good, so at the moment all i have left is the spruce which you see in another part of our land (see page one here on this thread) the only other wood i have aside from the spruce is what i have got from here sinse i started in this job for the farmer here,i will post a picture here now of what i have cut to date,i am building a big shed this year for my wood which will then be stacked and seasoned before sale,unfortunatly all i do right now is pile it in a heap and cover it with plastic,it's all i can do when it's cut and ready to sell.

this is the wood i have now at home from this land i am currently working on to date sinse day one,it is now my eight day working here,one tralier has already sold,and we have filled a bag already in the house for our own burning,so after 8 days not bad progress i supoose :msp_wink:



so the latest update is today was very wet so not much cutting in the land,we did bring home one nice big load (see above)
also we cut the same load up ready to sell,(see complete cutting done below of all loads we bought home)



our own little bag of wood for burning:

wood we have ready after 8 days ready for sale,must cover it as we go along,one load has sold already so that
is one tralier less gone from this heap.

i don't cut any wood here i cut it all in the other place as shown in page one!
wood shavings are very messy around your home.

 

[logger 12345]

few small updates tonight

ok some small updates here this evening,ok where i was cutting the last cluster of trees yesterday i found some trees which had fallen over on the ground in the previous years,maybe due to storm damage,remarkably as some trees do to survive,they had taken growth again and are healthy,these stumps are quite large but a lot of them are laying flat on the ground,i have now all the vertical branches/legs cut off them so it's just what is left on the ground,but they are quite big.
so i will use the 365 husqvarna sp tomorrow with an old chain to cut these,i won't be too bothered about the old chain digging in to the ground now and then to get them cut as i say it's old and well used,nevertheless to cut with this old chain i needed to re-sharpen it,so that's what i did this evening,i filed the teeth with oregon file and used husqvarna file/raker gauge for the job (see pics) i used flat oregon file also on the rakers to take them down to the correct depth. it's razor sharp now and ready to cut these large stumps tomorrow.

i have removed my good chain and placed it in my tool box for now.it is now 8:30pm here so i will be calling it a night shortly,in the morning i plan on bringing home all the wood i have currently cut here and cut up these stumps too and bring them also.
i will need to reverse in to the land again tomorrow to load up when i have cutting done,so tomorrow is 365sp's chance to make an apperence the 440xtorq may be used later in the day also tomorrow to cut the wood smaller once it's brought home and to prepare it for firewood.



ok the few pics of this evenings work on the old heavy used chain:

 

[logger 12345]

filing the rakers down!

the old heavly used chain for large wood on the gorund!

ready to go tomorrow razor sharp