Today's Job...

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Wish i was there Matt,the sh_t is right up with the best things in life.

If you leave at 2am mate you'll be here mid morning :)

That Dolmar sounds half good mate.

You should hear the other half.

Don't get him started on the Dolmars... :D

I wish mine sounded so good.

Crikey Rudy. All I said once was that they are good saws and stuff.

But your Dad isn't Bryan Brown so....?

......oops, sorry :taped:

Bryan Brown is fine. Bob Brown would be a worry...

come on matt it's not my fault that it was such a tall tree :msp_tongue:

Strike 2....
 
Because I start my new job on the 25th of March and am on "holidays" until then I decided to head out today and knock over a row of Athol Pines for the same company with the Casuarinas. They are along the top of a cliff overlooking the River Murray and Lock 4. Apparently they want them cleared so they can sell the blocks of land - they'll go for a high price here but despite the beautiful river views there is actually no river access - unless you want to rope down 30m to reach the water :) Not a good place for kids...

It was raining and I only used the 200T. First up I had the new(ish) Stihl 3/8"LP full chisel chain on a 14" E Light bar. In this timber it cut like crap. Simply didn't want to bite in. When I swapped to Carlton N1 semi it was a different ballgame. On another note I got Bennn*e to grab me some 7 tooth spur sprockets (standard is 6 tooth) and this thing is now even a bigger weapon that it was before. After a couple of hours I was saturated, covered from head to toe in wood dust, and had to head off. The little 200T is also a mess and I'll have to blow it off before I use it again. It has rained lightly all day with some heavy showers and is the first rain we've had for nearly 5 months.
My chaps are still saturated which should be fun when I head out again in the morning. All I got was this photo out the ute window in the rain. I will have to leave a few trees in the middle as they are surrounded by powerlines and leaning towards them. Anybody who has cut these crappy things before will know that their hinge integrity is like a stick of chalk. They'll just let go whenever they feel like it so you just have to send them where they are leaning...

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Strike 2....

i'm trying to get back in the dugout .......... and buy the looks of it the tree must have had rough bark had to be
ironbark yippy strike 3 i'm out of here

Originally Posted by MCW
Anybody who has cut these crappy things before will know that their hinge integrity is like a stick of chalk. They'll just let go whenever they feel like it so you just have to send them where they are leaning...

sounds like the poplar over here britle as buggery
 
i'm trying to get back in the dugout .......... and buy the looks of it the tree must have had rough bark had to be
ironbark yippy strike 3 i'm out of here

I'll let you off for now mate as you thanked me for putting you onto the Tsumura bars :)

sounds like the poplar over here britle as buggery

WAY worse than Poplar mate. Never had any tree species come close to this crap. Really salty too so as the rain was running out of the canopy onto my face it was stinging my eyes as well.
 
Back again gents.
Have been relatively busy in the last week. If I haven't been cutting trees I've been babysitting while Tracy has gone to work.
Anyway I finished up at one of the properties earlier this week and then shifted back out to Kangara (around 40km away) where they have around 40,000 smaller trees to potentially drop. Because I have a few weeks off before I start my new job and can therefore drop a lot more trees than they thought and the property manager had to contact the overall farm(s) manager to ensure their budget would extend far enough to allow so many trees to be felled. It's not only my cost to the company but they also have to allocate staff to clear irrigation lines etc etc.

Anyway I have a few pictures and videos here from the previous property with the larger trees. On another note the little 550 has now settled down and the warm/hot start issues have disappeared. It's probably had close to 25-30 tanks through it now. I gave it a bit of a hillbilly muffler mod which made a massive difference as Brad Snelling has mentioned. These things have crazy power for 50cc and why anybody would want to modify them further than the muffler is beyond me. There is one thing though that is really pis*ing me off with this saw and that is the felling spike. It is absolute crap. This is one area that Stihl has got sorted and even my 200T's have far better spikes. Every tree in Sweden must have a 10" diameter and be perfectly round. On many trees here with funny shaped trunks the spike simply had nothing to bite on - because the case and muffler are hitting the tree I have paint coming off the case, a bent muffler, and even the spark arrestor screen has hooked on something and bent that too - if anybody knows of an OEM HD spike set for this saw please let me know. I nearly modified a set of 365-390 OEM HD spikes the other day but realised they'd be just a bit too big for a small saw like this. Those that think you don't need spikes on a saw used for falling are tugging themselves. They are very important for lining up cuts accurately (and therefore safely) and also help a lot with fatigue as you can lock the saw into the trunk and pivot it on the spikes. Without spikes cuts will wander and you have to physically push the saw through the cut while keeping the bar lined up to ensure your cuts end up in the right spots. Everybody knows what problems can arise with inaccurate cuts.

I also gave the little MS241C a run with a 16" GB ArborTech bar in 3/8"LP. It cuts well but simply wouldn't stay sharp long enough and was a bit too underpowered in trees this big and hard. For those not familiar with the ArborTech range they are a solid replaceable nose bar that are very affordable. Great little bar.

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I also got lucky the other month and picked up 3 old saws for $150. One was a Sachs Dolmar 115i which needed a few parts but was a good runner in very good condition. They're around 50cc and have a lot of power for a saw designed (I think?) in the mid 80's. I also picked up a similar Dolmar made McCulloch which Wayne (gmax) bought off me for $50.
I also got an 026 which needed a few parts. Bennn*e got me a set of larger spikes for it and I already had an aftermarket muffler to suit. It needed a new 44mm piston and rings which I had here already (luckily as I was meant to get sent 44.7mm kits!). I'm also waiting on a new carby as it had some rust in it plus was erratic when tuning. One minute it would run well and next minute it was like the choke had come on. When it was running well it was a top little saw and like a mini 044. I would rather have an 026 anyday over an MS261 as they have a bit of character and their throttle response reminds me a lot of a Husky. They're really easy to throw around as well.

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On the 550XP I was running a 20" 3/8" bar with a 7 pin rim and it was doing it easily. I have to be honest though that against all popular opinion on the 550 I am finding it a nicer saw to use with .325" and an 8 pin rim. So far it seems to be cutting faster than 3/8" although as always .325" doesn't wear as well. In dirtier conditions I'd run 3/8" for sure. This is a photo with the 3/8" bar...

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This row was quite crappy and caused all sorts of issues with hangers, intertwined canopies, and of course the old stuck saw(s) trick. I got a few stuck here and there is a good reason why I prefer inboard clutches in situations like this. You can pull powerhead off easily!!! I had the 550 stuck in this photo and with no other real option left the saw there and bowled it over with a neighbouring tree. Luckily the Husky survived without a hitch and I cut it out with the 200T. Took a bit of work to actually find it...

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These are the sort of crusty trees I was dealing with. A different species to the others but still a Casuarina...

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I also cut this dead one a bit higher to avoid a Gecko hiding in a crack...

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Some of you guys would have already seen this video in the All Aussie thread but this is something you try to avoid. I was doing the backcut on a heavy leaner with the 550 knowing it would come back hard but I wasn't quite quick enough. It snapped shut like a bank vault on the bar. I grabbed the 7900 to fall it with the lean and as luck would have it a crack shot up the trunk and jammed the 7900 in the new face cut (not ideal as I was trying to get all the trees falling in a Westerly direction to make it easier to tow out butt end first). There are a few things I'd have done differently here but hindsight is a wonderful thing and I was lucky to not have a couple of crushed saws. I hope you enjoy the thrilling commentary. I was using much harsher language in my head and this happened with only 10 trees left on this property to do (for now)...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BDm8uYuhcvw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Understandably I didn't make this video "public" on Youtube as I am sick to death of know all dic*heads trying to educate everybody. I had one guy the other day have a go at me about safety because I was using my 241 above shoulder height and didn't have my face shield down. Despite not actually breaking any of the current Australian safety rules as I was wearing protective eyewear (required with face shield up) - cutting above shoulder height is not actually against any OH&S rules however it isn't recommended for inexperienced operators. I checked this guy's comment history and every single comment he'd made was about chainsaw safety. He must have had too much time on his hands.
 
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This was a photo of the aftermath of the above video. The bar on the 7900 ended up OK...

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One thing you have to be constantly aware of with these trees is bifurcated trunks (or dual leaders as some people call them). With these it isn't uncommon for trunks to part ways as they go over (you can see one split in half in the above "Stuck Saws" video).
I always have to be aware of this and definately finish my final cuts AWAY from the danger side and out from under any lean (when possible).

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I also had Ben (Bennn*e) come up to visit last weekend so he came with me to knock a few trees over. The ones in the following video had been left as earlier on the wind wasn't favourable and they had a relatively heavy lean over the neighbouring orchard.
I was actually intending to jack over the larger tree but with such a big canopy and such a strong wind (perfect in fact!) the jack wasn't necessary and it went over without a hitch. You can see it split when it hits the deck. This is probably the largest Casuarina trunk I've cut on any of the properties...

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xVZ_wSgQZss" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I then headed out to a property called Kangara where they want me to fell a lot of smaller Casuarinas. Maximum trunk diameter in these runs was maybe 10-12".
I ran both the 550XP and 241C. The 241C, despite a lot less power, turned out to actually be 10% faster overall than the Husky in this situation. Fuel economy was the main deciding factor and with a possible 5-6 minute turn around walking back to the vehicle to refuel and then moving the vehicle to a closer position you can see how the little Stihl came out on top. It's also a lot nicer to use than the Husky in this type of job however there are many situations I'd rather be using the 550.

There were 95 trees felled here on one 241 tank :)

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I also fashioned up a tow hitch vice setup a number of years ago that I never got around to using. It works well although it was designed for my old Hilux and didn't have enough extension to clear the Navara's tailgate.

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I also had to pull the pin early as my cheap arsed Forester chaps came apart at the seams (for the 4th time in a different spot!) and of course with damaged PPE I had to head home to get them fixed. As Murphy would have it my Nissan Navara went into limp home mode 1km from my house and Nissan Roadside Assist came and picked it up. Because my new work vehicle hasn't arrived yet and this is the only transport I have this stopped me cutting for 1 1/2 days. Turned out to be a fault with the Cruise Control and a bad signal being sent to the drive by wire throttle position sensor. Disconnected the Cruise Control and all is good.

This is why you don't buy cheap chaps...

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Even though the Navara died this would have cost me around 3-4 hours of work therefore cancelling out their intial cheap price. I ordered a new set of Stihl protective trousers immediately and will use these Foresters as a spare.

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This is a map of the current property. Each block is around 200m square so with tree spacings being 2m apart there are 100 trees per run. I was working in the bottom right of this map.

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There are around 2600 trees allocated on the map so far but in reality it is only 3-4 days of solid work at an average of just on 100 trees down an hour.
The biggest issue at the moment is the heat. We've been up around 40°C (100°f+) and I have been sweating like a pig. I drank 6 litres of water the other day in 5 hours and was still severely dehydrated. Every single bit of clothing was saturated and the flies out here are shocking although they don't give me much grief when actually felling, only when I've stopped.
 
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Excellent write up Matt, as always. You should have been an author or something haha.

What did Ben think of the 390?

Also what happened to the Nav?
 
Excellent write up Matt, as always. You should have been an author or something haha.

You know those 50 Shades Of Grey books Rudy?

What did Ben think of the 390?

Also what happened to the Nav?

Benny has an 066 with a BB kit thats a good runner and as yet I don't think he's had a play on the 390. The one saw he was impressed with though was the 7900. I think I may be able to turn him :D
Because the Navara's cruise control is an aftermarket Autron unit still under warranty I'm getting the guy who installed it to check the cruise next week. I've had this particular Nissan dealer blame other things before to try and get out of warranty claims so we'll see what happens. Unless a plug wire has come loose on the cruise it is highly unlikely to be the cruise control's fault. The control unit is now completely unplugged and bypassed so if we have the same issue reoccur it can't be the cruise control.
 
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towbar mounted vice eh, not bad idea at least you would face plant it before ya knees hit it :hmm3grin2orange:
 
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