Grapple Advice Needed Please

[littlenick]

We did a good sized job this week and were able to knock it out quick with the grapple truck. We removed about 50 trees at a condo complex, we started on Tuesday and will be finished up this afternoon. So far we have hauled 12 loads out with the grapple truck.

 

[lumberjack]

Nice! I don't know if I've said it in this thread or not but I got a contract with the county to haul the storm debris from a tornado 3 weeks ago. We started hauling Monday, the AC clutch went out Tuesday morning and got it fixed Wednesday afternoon. As of yesterday we have hauled 26 loads (1950 yards) of debris. It's not a record week with regards to sales, but it is an interesting change of pace and still good money. Yesterday I started using a helper (and headsets) to drive the truck while I stayed on the loader (rarely had to move more than 200') which made it a lot easier on me.

Our best day of non storm tree work did come after we bought the grapple truck. We've broke our daily record twice so far and the second day was only with a 2 man crew on a clearing job.

 

[SouthSoundTree-]

You guys are showing impressive growth.

 

[pantheraba]

10-4 to that...cool to see what they are doing with this big equipment.

 

[cory]

Very fine looking truck, Nick.

 

[lumberjack]

Here's a picture from today, before we finished cutting it apart. The grapple's jaw is 5' wide.


And here's 50 alturnamats!

 

[woodworkingboy]

Carl, I'm starting to think that you actually work.

 

[lumberjack]

Sometimes! We hauled 32 loads this week for the county. Tomorrow we'll do some of our own work, trying to get caught up!

 

[cory]

That is raw power pinching/lifting all those mats, dayum

 

[Levi]

Wow, crazy trucks you fellas have!

 

[sotc]

Great thread

 

[MasterBlaster]

Haahahahaaa

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Hmm. I'm a big fan of grapple trucks. I always ran a 4 axle, I can see me buying another at some point in the future. I really dont like those US loaders or grapples though.

 

[lumberjack]

Hauled 12 loads for the county today, finally broke the previous record of 11 loads in a day. The 12 loads also sets our new daily income record (for normal,non storm/insurance work). Our daily production record has been broken at least 3 times since we bought the grapple truck in late January of this year.

The grapple truck has been an amazing boost for us all around.... I'm trying to decide if I want to spend some money sprucing this truck up (cosmetics, mainly have the cab painted white), or plan on selling it and building another.

 

[MasterBlaster]

+10!

 

[littlenick]

Heres the bad thing about the grapple trucks:

Once you get one, you will never want to use a chipper again and your employees will avoid the chipper at all costs. Now every time I mention the word chipper they get upset and start coming up with reasons how/ why we should not chip for that job.

 

[sotc]

Haha, get them a masticator and a rake!

 

[pantheraba]

What you said!!!!

 

[FJR]

Make sure you learn and really understand the local and federal wieght laws. Know your total bridge combination, different axle configurations, total gross, etc. Find a local scale and get to know them.

We had a almost full load of Ash logs the other day. With the tag down we we over 1800 on the federal bridge, but within the 2000 pound variance. However, the rear axles were overweight. Without the tag we were looking at a $6000 fine, with the tag we were at $1100. The good news is we know the local truck enforcer and he weighed us just for fun, so no fines.

 

[sotc]

That is one of my fears here, some scale guys are cool but none weigh for fun. One of my guys got warned for 200 pounds over on the drive axle and there was plenty of room for it on the steer.

 

[littlenick]

Some more pictures, hope you guys don't mind them.

 

[flushcut]

No, keep um coming.

 

[cory]

For sure

 

[Levi]

Yep, very nice photos Nick.

 

[lumberjack]

We're done with the county hauling contract for now, they're going to wait a week and see how much more debris comes out. We hauled 91 loads in 11 working days, the highest count was 12, the lowest 2 (AC clutch went out), an average of 8.27 loads per day; I bid it planning to average 6 loads a day. We averaged 2.25mpg/4.6gph in fuel consumption. The contract was a success to both parties, good times!


The goal of the grapple truck is to expand my working radius while greatly decreasing the time spent driving to do the jobs. The flip side of that is my bid radius increases so I'll spend more time driving for that... still a net reduction in driving vs the local work. Also the efficiency of the grapple truck has increased our bottom line substantially (the above contract really helped in that regard also )


I got a new bid/highway vehicle Saturday with the 8 year/150k mile warranty and maintenance plan.