August Hunicke Videos

[August Hunicke]

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[Stumpshot]

Nice! We got a nice load of Missouri white oak at our Lake of the Ozarks job, which you rarely see any of in Kansas. And I'll agree wholeheartedly with the title -- without our log grapple truck, storm work would be a lot harder and less pleasant. Directly feeding wet, muddy, snow-laden limbs right into the chipper is ideal. And then carry home any salable or usable wood. Makes us able to do things at a much more affordable price for people, or do more in a day.

 

[cory]

Great vid! Thanks for showing some chipping.

What's next on the wish list, bigger chipper, log truck, bigger crane?

Crane work generally doesn’t make videos as engaging as a rigging/roping scenario though.

Are you forgetting some of Reg's crane vids removing giant beech trees etc, giant perfectly balanced asymmetric picks.

 

[squisher]

I'll have to disagree with Mick. Treework is always better with cranes, including treework vids imo.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Well, he's sorta French...

 

[August Hunicke]

I want a bigger skid steer Cory. . .

 

[Stumpshot]

Looks like you got a new monitor screen/membrane...looks good.

Hey Aug, have you tried Brasso on the screen? I've had good success with it on phone screens and MP3 player displays and Mother's Mag polish on headlight lenses. Brasso even makes a specific product for getting scratches out of screens:
https://www.hunker.com/12402730/how-to-remove-scratches-with-brasso

Yeah I can imagine that must be definitely a lotta work to find the right tune

Unless you're Mistah Benn and just come up with your own!

 

[August Hunicke]

Brasso huh, ok, I’ll check it.

 

[cory]

I want a bigger skid steer Cory. . .

I'd say get an articulated machine

 

[flushcut]

Nah a track machine is best for wet ground or mud. Tires are nice for dry flat ground. I have run circles around a tire machine on hills and mud.

 

[Stumpshot]

And the word from Mick? I see Reon Rounds run his Avant and have been curious about them. His area of Wisco looks more flat, but for sure he has to deal with snow melt and rain. Plus, he stages out wood with 4 wheelers!

Contrary to popular rumor, Kansas ain't flat, so we need the best (and least marring) on hills & mud. (I think people tried to describe Kansas and came up with "flat" instead of the more accurate "uninteresting" -- but we are fully in the Missouri river valley, with bluffs & hills all around.)

 

[Mick!]

Yeah, I saw this, articulated loader is quicker across the ground, less damage and, let’s not forget, you’re sitting down all day!

Don’t underestimate how great having a telescopic boom is as well.

Murphy’s Bobcat is awesome but it’s a different league power wise.

I like the look of those Gehl loaders you boys seem to use.

 

[August Hunicke]

I love standing on the back of my chariot skid steer. Way rather stand up on the back of that thing than sit down or have to get up and down and in and out of a machine 1 million times. I think I want a bigger mini.

Reon Rounds four wheeler wood dolly thing is pretty awesome btw.
But no, Kansas is flat and there are no trees. You were wrong about that. There are only grass and tornadoes and stuff like that I think.

 

[Mick!]

Standing up is the important thing, I get that.

 

[Stumpshot]

We rather like the Takeuchi TL230 we have access to for bigger forestry jobs. Need to buy a root rake grapple of our own, so we're not borrowing or renting, but otherwise it fits the bill for the handful of jobs we use it on each year. Now we need to fill in the mid-size jobs and get a Vermeer mini skid for the rest of the year!



The precipitation map of KS roughly matches its elevation map -- gradually tapering across the state -- wet to dry matches low to high. "No trees" and high plains is certainly true of the western part of the state -- I don't think a tree service could survive in Eastern Colorado or Western Kansas. Around here, we're a Tree City USA for 38 years running.

 

[cory]

Mick who is the Methuselah in the last pic

 

[SeanKroll]

Buy the biggest Ditch Witch, not Vermeer. $0.02.















The tele-booms KILL it!

 

[CurSedVoyce]

And you can go 2 wheels wide on the articulated. Chip gets his in some pretty steep areas.

 

[August Hunicke]

Buy the biggest Ditch Witch, not Vermeer. $0.02.
The tele-booms KILL it!

I might have secret info that I won't tell, more about this later, DW is bomb too but I'm a Vermeer believer.

Dangle grapples seem inferior to to me. They have to dangle way out on the end of a pole and nearly demand a telescope to work, plus the needed ballast necessary to swing that claw game around.

Stumpshot: you made that map of kansas on photoshop

 

[Mick!]

Cory, he’s a guy who has part timed for me for years. Reliable, speaks good French, careful driver, stronger than he looks, but no powerpack as you rightly observe.

Wouldn’t make 5 days a week, suits both of us that way.

 

[squisher]

Dangle grapples seem like they would be way easier to feed a chipper with. Drag straight to chipper with a grapple full of butts, swing the mini 90 by the tray dropping butts onto tray, swing mini back regrab and swing again to ram the drag into the feedwheels. No handwork at all.

Also seems a dangle would be better for skidding turns of brush as most of the weight can stay on the ground thus using the tractive power of a mini vs the lifting power, allowing much bigger turns to be taken. Also dangle seems it would allow much easier turning along the skid route again because of no need to lift the load, just turn the machine and the load drags along the ground.

My mini never telescoped(ramrod) and while I see it would be a useful function if available and the machine had the capacity for it. I fail to see why it would be nescessary or even more necessary for a dangle to function vs a fixed grapple?

 

[flushcut]

Did somebody say big brush pile
This was fed directly into the chipper no hand touched this pile. Poof chips!

 

[MasterBlaster]

Easy money!!!

 

[SeanKroll]

If you've never seen some who is good at anything, you will have an unclear view of what's possible.

Dangle grapple, power rotate, whatever. Nerds can change a saw chain in 8 SECONDS!

I've had many logs loader by kboom with power rotate grapples, and tongs. The machine is versatile, with a good operator, both ways are possible. With my friend's truck, a full load means he can't keep his grapples on for the ride home/ to drop location, necessitating a return trip, or me to haul his grapples, so he can fold his boom and stow, greatly reducing rear axle weight.
Tradeoffs.

A newer operator can have the best gear in the world, won't do top notch work, or even average.

 

[August Hunicke]

Dangle grapples seem like they would be way easier to feed a chipper with. Drag straight to chipper with a grapple full of butts, swing the mini 90 by the tray dropping butts onto tray, swing mini back regrab and swing again to ram the drag into the feedwheels. No handwork at all.

Also seems a dangle would be better for skidding turns of brush as most of the weight can stay on the ground thus using the tractive power of a mini vs the lifting power, allowing much bigger turns to be taken. Also dangle seems it would allow much easier turning along the skid route again because of no need to lift the load, just turn the machine and the load drags along the ground.

My mini never telescoped(ramrod) and while I see it would be a useful function if available and the machine had the capacity for it. I fail to see why it would be nescessary or even more necessary for a dangle to function vs a fixed grapple?

. Good post, I lose too much capacity with the dangle on my machine. The Vermeer grapple is just so awesome for tree work without losing the capacity that the dangle loses. The V company gave me their dangle to try out and I gave it back. Also tried branch manager dangle which robbed capacity too much for the CTX 100. Would be good on bigger machines for all the reasons you mentioned.
Squish, have you ever tried the Vermeer grapple? Totally engineered for tree work.