Flatbeds

SimplyArbor

TreeHouser
Joined
Oct 12, 2011
Messages
487
Location
Bend, OR
I?m running out of room, we run our business out of our house. I?d like to eliminate my stump grinder trailer to make room for a bigger truck. 3 full size trucks and chipper fit down the side of my house perfect.Trying to bounce pros and cons of adding a flatbed 84?x102? on an f250 7.3. Any dangers hauling a stump grinder on the flatbed? Potential negatives? Advice?
I like the space saving aspect and easier maneuverability potential. Unsure if it will be an efficient system or more hassles.
 
Having a stump grinder ready to hook up and roll, and out of the way at other times, is nice. Can you get a bigger truck and a small trailer?

You're going to have to have longer ramps, and be able to operate the controls the whole way up. 2wd or 4wd? I've put my superjr into my pick-up bed, but it was a low-slung 2wd.
 
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Truck is ample to handle weight. It’s the tiny Vermeer trl, but takes up 9+’ of space. Good little trailer, just hoping to minimize. Figured I may need 9 or 10’ ramps... its 2wd, Vermeer 252 with 35hp. We used to haul it in my dump trailer, which was nice and 28” old height.i think load height in a flatbed is 43”.
 
My chip truck is 44" load height, IIRC, and my f450 service body is 41". I've put my mini-loader in both. 41" feels noticeably lower with 10' ramps. I ride on the loader, so that's easy. Can you sit on the stumper to ride up, so you can reach the controls, or have a walking ramp next to the loading ramps so that you can operate the controls?


Is 43" possibly too high? Big tires? Lifted suspension?
 
The only down side I can see is that now you don't have an open truck bed to haul grindings. I have seen a few Co's with huge steel track Rayco grinders on the back of a flatbed before look pretty slick.
 
IMO if you're going to buy a truck for hauling stuff it might as well be a dump bed. Why have a flat bed if it doesn't dump?

I suspect if you lose the Vermeer trailer then at some point you will regret it. Any of your employees willing and able to store it for you in exchange for some minor compensation?
 
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Payload on an f250 doesn’t justify addition of a dump, IMO. I already own the truck, so this would just be an upgrade. I’ll either keep as a regular bed or have a flatbed put on. I do not think I’ll get rid of the trailer, but would like to haul primarily on the flatbed. No lift on the truck, 33 tires. I feel like with such a large surface and short sides, that useful hauling space would also be a benefit.
 
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I just sold my dump trailer... was nice, but took up loads of space. Main goal for now is getting max efficiency with what we’ve got. I would like a commercial space eventually, but that’s 3-5yrs out, atm.
 
I have a flatdeck on my 550(kept that truck when I sold my business). I didn't find it that handy for treework. Not compared to a chip body/dump. But like others have said I too had a dump trailer. I thought ocassionally about making/getting ramps that would allow me to load my mini-skid but never did. Always just hauled it in the trailer.
 
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I had one for a year, it was nice. Most wood is hauled by a buddies grapple truck, left with clients or donated to local groups. The remainder just gets loaded into the chip trucks.
I figured a flat bed would allow for a bunch of plywood storage and grinder hauling, with room for misc tools, cones, blowers, general tree gear tailings.
 
Also, a flatbed can easily back-up as a chip truck, if an accident or unexpected breakdown happens.


A couple years of being overly packed in might be counter-productive. I'm working out of a 0.2 acre residential lot, three trucks, chipper, 3 trailers, car, 2 grinders, milled wood.

If you had a good place to park your dump trailer or________ in exchange for firewood, it could be win-win.
 
A flatbed can't that easily be used as a backup chip truck. I mean you have to build a box and unless it dumps.......

I had the f550 flat deck and a f350 with a chip box/dump. Besides the forestry bucket truck guess which of the other two trucks was in the starting lineup? My flatdeck sat most all of the time. It was handy for hauling plywood, bettter than a chip box truck. Besides that?

It is my opinion while a flat deck has many uses it doesn't make the greatest tree truck. Even with little sides on it at best it's wide open unsecured and often slippery storage. Everything that gets put on it is in plain view usually. Making it not great for rigging, hand tools, saws or any other bits that can easily go walking. if it's kept as a true flatdeck anything that's loaded on it needs to be strapped. Making it not handy for wood. As soon as a flatdeck becomes a box it's a lot more handy, but then it's not a flatdeck.
 
One of my first jobs in this biz was for a guy who had a flatbed with fold down sides.

We used to have to put the sides down and stack the brush carefully lengthways to maximise the space, then when we got to the tip site there were a couple of long sticks with forked ends.
These were used to push off the brush from the side.
The worst was when space was getting tight and we’d have to start slashing it up with the saws to get it all on.
This made the unloading a lengthy and arduous process.

God bless tippers (dump trucks/trailers)
 
I'm just talking back-up. Very plan B.

If I had a flatbed, I'd have simple sides in any case.

If you have to unload, the sides come off. Unloading, downhill, into three piles isn't very hard.

Nothing beats a dump bed, overall.
 
Wood sides are cheap to build, especially if you have a mill ;) Makes it a little harder for.pilfering. quick removal for in case. I've strapped the sides on top of hauling mill wood or logs as needed. My white one could be made into a dump pretty easy. The red truck, not so much. But not impossible. That was originally the plan. And build a box. But then I found a couple trailer deals I could not refuse. And they really rock for hauling. And since we had 200,000,000 dead trees to deal with, hauling was in our future. Clean up is tantamount in this business and where you can lose your arse if you are not efficient about it.
 

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