Chipper Build Thread

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  • #26
Oh go on then!

It came to me from a builder's merchant, with a 6 metre flat body.



Booked it into Ed's Engineering Shop and got the hot spanners out.



Got the old body off with the aid of a 13 tonne excavator.



Sawed it in half and welded it back together 2 metres shorter



Cut the old body down and refitted, and put her to work as a log/brush truck


 
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  • #27
Then a couple of years ago I decided to put a tipping chip box on.



Cannibalised an old three way tipping body



Built a nice new tipping body




 
WOW! Ahhhh...that looks like my dream set-up, including the telescoping, articulated loader. It just kept getting better.
Do you have a winch on the rig someplace, too? That would be the icing on the cake.



How does it tip? Passenger's side?

Empty weight? Capacity?
 
WOW, that is an impressive build the whole way around. I love the engineering approach. "Well this truck is a tad long, lets just cut 6ft from the frame and weld it back together." I don't weld nearly enough to even attempt something like that. I am very impressed, well done. Very well done. The craftsmanship shows through. On this side of the pond a project like that would usually fall into the category of "redneck engineering", but very few (if any) projects in that category end up with the finish and craftsmanship that you have on that rig.
 
Peter what impresses me the most is that you can make enough money over there to be able to do all of that!! Not trying to be a dick (it comes naturally) but I left in 91 and it was hard to keep just a ford transit tipper busy. Excellent job on all of it , how much weight imbalance will that turntable take??
 
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  • #44
Peter what impresses me the most is that you can make enough money over there to be able to do all of that!! Not trying to be a dick (it comes naturally) but I left in 91 and it was hard to keep just a ford transit tipper busy. Excellent job on all of it , how much weight imbalance will that turntable take??

I forget the specs on the turntable, but they are tremendously strong. It's designed for the steering axle of a turntable trailer.
 
Amazing project. I am interested in how it dumps too. Pic of it dumping?

You must not be in the areas that have a lot of weight restrictions on truck and chipper huh?
 
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  • #46
Peter what impresses me the most is that you can make enough money over there to be able to do all of that!! Not trying to be a dick (it comes naturally) but I left in 91 and it was hard to keep just a ford transit tipper busy. Excellent job on all of it , how much weight imbalance will that turntable take??

I didn't answer the first part of your post earlier, not offended in any way but somewhat staggered by just how much of a downer you have on the UK. The forestry and arb industry contribute £2.1 billion to annual gdp. I need a tiny fraction of that to keep my tiny business going. Sure there's competition, yes you have to work hard for it, but there's work out there and the domestic sector where I do most of my work is unregulated. I haven't seen an HSE inspector on any site for 6 years, they have had so many cutbacks they can't leave the office. I could cut trees naked while swinging from some old polyprop and no one would give a shit.

I imagine in 91 the post 85 bubble had well and truly burst, and it was tough to compete with all the start ups, and everyone was a tree surgeon. I think what's changed since then is that everyone takes trees and safety a bit more seriously, I rarely get call out work, but we do a lot more surveys and preventative work.

With regard to my machinery and trucks, I self build because I'm doing it on the cheap. The chipper cost me less than a third of the price of a new machine, the lorry I bought for £5k at the worst part of the recession. I had a quote from a body builder to do that tipping body, they wanted over £10k, I built it for about £1500.

But while I'm doing it on the cheap, there are plenty of guys buying brand new trucks and chippers. Trying to get a biomass chipper for a couple of days for a site clearance is almost impossible, everyone is flat out.

So it might not be utopia, but it's definitely possible to make a living.
 
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  • #47
Amazing project. I am interested in how it dumps too. Pic of it dumping?

You must not be in the areas that have a lot of weight restrictions on truck and chipper huh?


All major roads have to be able to take at least 44 tonne artics, there are some weak bridges, and some restrictions in suburban areas but I can get my rig pretty much anywhere.
 
I always figured the money was great in the UK. How else could you afford to stop for tea like eight times a day?
 
Money can be good, in the south people are usually working and often busy and affluent.
I did ok, a lot of hedge work which is awful, a lot of competition across the spectrum from small to large (I'm guessing about the large side of things)
The colleges pump out a lot of students, tree work is a relatively easy and cheap start up so its not difficult for a client to get multiple quotes.
I do drink tea all day, much to the frenchies amusement.
 
They dont drink tea? Or not all day? Interesting stuff.

Nice work you guys!

I always thought you limeys were more of a tea and scone bunch playing lawn bowls while quoting Shakespeare type. I did not see a single person wearing a monocle while running the gas wrench! Nice.:P
 
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