hedgecutting

i picked up a bit of wire this morning at 8.05. Rotor locked solid,wire stuck between bearing and housing,cut out most of it in a few minutes,rotor still locked solid,some wire still in there.close in hedgecutter and drive back home,30 minute drive.had to take the rotor out,pull off bearing housing and remove wire.put it all back together,10 minute test run and drive half hour back to the job.3 hours gone at least.
Should I bill the farmer for those 3 hours of take it on the chin ?
 
i picked up a bit of wire this morning at 8.05. Rotor locked solid,wire stuck between bearing and housing,cut out most of it in a few minutes,rotor still locked solid,some wire still in there.close in hedgecutter and drive back home,30 minute drive.had to take the rotor out,pull off bearing housing and remove wire.put it all back together,10 minute test run and drive half hour back to the job.3 hours gone at least.
Should I bill the farmer for those 3 hours of take it on the chin ?

Was the wire just dumped in the hedge
 
i picked up a bit of wire this morning at 8.05. Rotor locked solid,wire stuck between bearing and housing,cut out most of it in a few minutes,rotor still locked solid,some wire still in there.close in hedgecutter and drive back home,30 minute drive.had to take the rotor out,pull off bearing housing and remove wire.put it all back together,10 minute test run and drive half hour back to the job.3 hours gone at least.
Should I bill the farmer for those 3 hours of take it on the chin ?
Hard to bill the individual farmer even though his wire caused it as practically most hedges contain some wire in the centre that was probably erected in the 80s or before. I often had to tie the wire to a pole and gently move hedgecutter away to try unroll the wire from the bearing housing. Then you're down to pliers and screwdrivers to get the small bits out. Could never successfully pull a bearing housing off the shaft as they're usually locked on solid and no room to get puller arms around housing. Had to cut housing and bearing off in the past. However having the odd roll of wire just dumped carelessly in the hedge or similar deserves a bill for repair.
 
Ya on closer inspection it looked like there was a fence in there years ago but was covered in ivy. Then years later a new fence was put up outside that again.
Managed to get it off with pullers,the wire had gone kind of square from being stuck between housing and bearing.could have been worse,I'm sure other lads have endured more pain than that.[/QUOTE]
 
Hard to bill the individual farmer even though his wire caused it as practically most hedges contain some wire in the centre that was probably erected in the 80s or before. I often had to tie the wire to a pole and gently move hedgecutter away to try unroll the wire from the bearing housing. Then you're down to pliers and screwdrivers to get the small bits out. Could never successfully pull a bearing housing off the shaft as they're usually locked on solid and no room to get puller arms around housing. Had to cut housing and bearing off in the past. However having the odd roll of wire just dumped carelessly in the hedge or similar deserves a bill for repair.
I’m the same, never go taking the rotor off, I know some lads who don’t have much patience and it’s the first thing they do, I nearly got bet this year. I got the main lot out but the wire broke down below the housing, gave over an hour trying to prise up enough to get a screwdriver at, each time I’d get a bit it broke, eventually got it after an awful lot of swearing. Hard to say what is right in terms of invoicing, you could end up shooting yourself in the foot just as easy.
 
Ya on closer inspection it looked like there was a fence in there years ago but was covered in ivy. Then years later a new fence was put up outside that again.
Managed to get it off with pullers,the wire had gone kind of square from being stuck between housing and bearing.could have been worse,I'm sure other lads have endured more pain than that.
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I would definitely bill for some of it anyway. It’s your time gone and hours gone that could you could be making full rate. I got stuck in a mattress one time Thst was dunmped in a wide margin full of briars. Locked solid. Long time with the battery grinder had me out.
 
I’m the same, never go taking the rotor off, I know some lads who don’t have much patience and it’s the first thing they do, I nearly got bet this year. I got the main lot out but the wire broke down below the housing, gave over an hour trying to prise up enough to get a screwdriver at, each time I’d get a bit it broke, eventually got it after an awful lot of swearing. Hard to say what is right in terms of invoicing, you could end up shooting yourself in the foot just as easy.
i had that experience a week before Christmas,wasn't too much of a panic on then and like you say with a lot of swearing got it out.
A bit busier these days and couldn't wait.4ft pry bar and was very hard to turn the rotor.
 
If you spent half an hour in the farmers field unwrapping wire I suppose it'd be only fair that you charge a continuous hedgecutting rate so €30/hr odd mightn't be a bad wage for fiddling with a bit of wire wrapped around a rotor providing the wire would all come out eventually?
 
If you spent half an hour in the farmers field unwrapping wire I suppose it'd be only fair that you charge a continuous hedgecutting rate so €30/hr odd mightn't be a bad wage for fiddling with a bit of wire wrapped around a rotor providing the wire would all come out eventually?
Ya,wouldn't be bad and in fairness there was no damage done to the machine
 
If you spent half an hour in the farmers field unwrapping wire I suppose it'd be only fair that you charge a continuous hedgecutting rate so €30/hr odd mightn't be a bad wage for fiddling with a bit of wire wrapped around a rotor providing the wire would all come out eventually?

Is 30 euro plus vat a hour the going rate for hedge cutting this year as i got a lad in this year to cut for me as i dont have time to hit it myself?
 
i picked up a bit of wire this morning at 8.05. Rotor locked solid,wire stuck between bearing and housing,cut out most of it in a few minutes,rotor still locked solid,some wire still in there.close in hedgecutter and drive back home,30 minute drive.had to take the rotor out,pull off bearing housing and remove wire.put it all back together,10 minute test run and drive half hour back to the job.3 hours gone at least.
Should I bill the farmer for those 3 hours of take it on the chin ?
Fair play if you managed to get a locked solid rotor out, remove and refit bearing and back in in 2 hours.. I only once failed to free the rotor in the field and that was a duvet, bastard thing couldn't be cut or burnt out. If you are stopped cutting out crap realistically all you can charge is half rate at best, your machine is stopped and it's just the labour you can charge for.
 
Is 30 euro plus vat a hour the going rate for hedge cutting this year as i got a lad in this year to cut for me as i dont have time to hit it myself?
It was just a guess, it's probably 15 years that I'm using my own hedgecutter so not up to date on prices but I wouldn't do it for any less that's for sure.
 
I can get a 14 on track machine with mulcher for 50 an hour. Got a world of hedges cut at the butt last year for 1000 euro
40+ would be the go of it around here, did you cut much hedges yourself mucky or did you find it cheaper to let the contractor do the most of them?
 
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