How'd it go today?

CurSedVoyce said:
I think the full moon is messing with people. I gave away a tree today to my friendly competition. Guy wanted a bucket truck and I climb. He thought is was a horrible idea to climb with a saw. Thought I would have a rough time rigging the limbs from over the roof. Got anal about his tile roof and I handed him Andy and Paula's card. Walked away. He'll feel better with a bucket truck and I will feel better about not having to worry about working for him with his OCD.
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If they don't like your style before the job, they probably won't like it after. I catch flak over the phone sometimes from folks insisting I use a bucket...... NEXT.
 
I've learned to tell them I have one. What are they going to do when you show up without one...throw you off the job? Bucket truck means you know what your doing to some people. With that note, I've worked for a guy with a bucket truck who didn't know how to start his new, and only, chainsaw. :|:
 
Exactly. My clients love me. Why should I have to work any harder to win someones approval rating. Most the folks where he lives hire me straight up. No questions. All referral work. I have worked for him before. I doubt I will again. I don't need clients like that. There are much better and more deserving ones out there I need to work for. I am booked into July anyway.
 
:God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy!" Walk Stephan, and don't think a thing about it because that job was nothing but a heartache waiting to happen!
Adrian, see if you can find a forklift repair/supply shop somewhere close. I bought my forks for $100, used 42" and built a mount for them. If I were to guess I'd have $150 plus time in them? It's not hard to build the mount, even easier to build the slides for the forks! But it sure beats the price they want for new, or even used forks and you can make what you want this way! I really like the 42" reach vs. the 36" reach most forks give you!
 
I attempted work this morn. Drizzling when I left, pouring when I got there. Took down a vine covered I don't know what shrub. Kept clogging the chipper up. Packed up and went home.
 
sawinredneck said:
:God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy!" Walk Stephan, and don't think a thing about it because that job was nothing but a heartache waiting to happen!
Adrian, see if you can find a forklift repair/supply shop somewhere close. I bought my forks for $100, used 42" and built a mount for them. If I were to guess I'd have $150 plus time in them? It's not hard to build the mount, even easier to build the slides for the forks! But it sure beats the price they want for new, or even used forks and you can make what you want this way! I really like the 42" reach vs. the 36" reach most forks give you!
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Not disputing you, Andy, but I would by far prefer 36" forks on a mini. It's hard enough to get the rollback power you need when picking up a chunk out at the tips of the forks. It doesn't seem to me that you could utilize the full reach of 42"ers with a mini. Just my .02... I've even thought about taking the 48"s off the rack on the Kubota and putting the 36" forks on it for better performance.
 
My experience with a mini is that you do much better making heavy lifts off to the side, rather than in front, and the closer in the more you can lift. That is if your mini has the ability to lift off the side, like with a mini excavator. I'm talking about with a grapple attachment, but I assume it would also apply to forks.
 
The thing with forks is that the load is a bit forward of the attachment plate at best. When the load (log, for example) is at the far end of the forks, it takes much more power to lift it. A mini is rather limited in its lift capacity with forks to begin with, and the closer you can get the load, the better. When I have big wood to deal with, I cut it 24" long and use tongs with the tong hanger Carl welded up for me. I can handle bigger wood with the forks if I cut it shorter, but the tongs seem better all-around with big wood. (Meaning 24" to 36" diameter). The forks are handy on dead pines when they're under 24" diameter, as I can cut them as long as the mini will handle, and I can fork them and let them roll off the forks over the side of the trailer.
 
I gotta say I rarely use the forks. Never brought them to a tree job (edit, I remember one time now). I do use them around the house, just did actually for moving some lumber I had milled. I put it on a pallet and stack it up. A lot of the forks I've seen don't tilt back enough. I've gotta remember to cut and extend a piece of steel on them so they curl. I think mine are the shorties, they work nice.
 
I was on FIRE today. My saddle must have gone on just the right way this morning. It was a great day. The saddle fit just right, the gaffs snugged up perfectly, and the climbing saw had some fire inside it. Wrecked 3 challenging trees today. Only anticipated doing one. My groundman is probably passed out on his bed with his clothes and boots on. I'm going to take it easy on him tomorrow. He really jumped through hoops big time to make sure I came out of the trees to no brush. I best chow on some advil and get my phone calls done before reality sets in and I crash hard for the night.
 
Due to the torrents of rain today I did all the stumps I had stacked up. The new (to me) grinder works awesome. Fast as hell compared to the rentals I am used to, just needs some bushings. Too bad the last stump of the day was surrounded by buried Cobblestone,two layers. F***!! I only killed 12 of the 16 brand new Greenteeth. Chalk that one up to experience.
 
I climbed a backyard pecan for a 'lil trim, then killed a big old ugly cottonwood with the bucket. I love not having to climb everything! I'll be getting three days treework in this week - excellent.
 
The Poplar trim went well, and rocked the vt hitch like I had never done before. I much appreciated the advice on the hitch, there is really not much of another way for me to get help. Also, Chris giving some pointers on working that species....fortunately, lots of large limbs to tie into.
 
I grabbed a Vermeer sc 252 '03. It has a 25 Kohler and needed a little work. Honestly if I could find the guy I bought it from or if he would return an email I have a few words for him. Either way, I do not have to rent or count on the local Bozo to screw up my job. There is nothing worse than subbing something out then getting a call from the upset HO. I hate stumping, but I have not found anyone I can seriously trust to do a decent job. While I was at it today neighbors from each job contacted me for stumps and other work:rockon: I'll get the bugs worked out here soon enough and a probe has been ordered to avoid today's issues.
 
Well. I picked up that old Vermeer. Got it home about 11:00 last night and worked it today. It works I'll give it that. I don't think I'll be getting rid of the 250 anytime soon though. Got the guy down $1100 to $8900. So pretty cheap really for a working chip. It is quite a bit lighter which is nice.
 
It may work out as a fine backup and/or for longer travel distances and smaller trimming jobs. A friend of mine has had one for about 6 years and he still refuses to put flags on the back corners, so he still can't back it up very well. But it's worked well for him and done everything his old 1250 did.
 
Nice! How do you feel about the chute height? The one I used seemed high compared to my 200 xp. May be difficult to feed big stuff into unless it has a winch.
 
Lol. I don't know about the computer stuff. I don't think it is. Just the usual swtichs and crap for the infeed/autofeed.

Yah the chute height sucks a bit and I dunno about feeding to big of material through it. I did jam a few things in with the mini today though. Seems to produce a real nice high quality chip.
 
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