Making Things Work
It was quite the day yesterday, but we pressed on with indomitable spirit & fortitude. It started when I went to the woodlot to get the chipper truck -- and it didn't start. The coughing and lack of power I mentioned from the other day became full blown. It wouldn't turn over on its own, only with ether -- pointing to a fuel system issue. All signs point to an IDM module failure -- a part we just had replaced 6 months ago. Crew converged at the woodlot, we unloaded all tools for the day into the estimator's pickup -- we were going to do the day's trim jobs with the pickup, stack brush by the road, and then have the grapple truck follow behind us and load brush onto its flatbed. Then we'd unload it off at the lot by the chip pile and do direct chipping onto our piles.
Miraculously, the chip truck started on the last try -- but it was decided to play it safe and limp it down the road immediately to the International shop in Kansas City. So 2 men went on that mission, while me and the foreman went to start the jobs. I raised the crown on two Norway maples and deadwooded a red bud while the climber deadwooded/crown cleaned a pin oak. We also took out a dead ash limb and headed back the neighbor's mulberry, as well as roof clearance of an elm and hackberry. Then we worked next door for a neighbor, taking down a broken hackberry limb, roof clearance of a red bud, silver maple, and elm. Brush pile out front was enormous, but loading it onto the grapple truck bed went fast. Off to the next job!
Reduction on a willow at the property edge, air gapping vines, and separating it from encroaching vines from the nearby woods. Decent sized brush pile that loaded fast with the grapple. Meanwhile, the chip truck had stalled out about 20 min down the road, so they got it off the road and left it for later towing. They rejoined us for this 3rd job, which felt like overkill to have 5 people for a trimming with no chipping. 4th job was a Bradford pear reduction, the one from which I had already cleaned up the fallen leader. Pretty quick climb & reduce the ends for lightening to prevent further storm damage. At some point the homeowner will have it removed, knowing that it is destined for failure anyway. Pretty decent pile of brush, which was crushed by the grapple to further reduce it on the bed. Decent load to be dropped off for chipping.
Then 2 went on an evening expedition to tow the chip truck using the grapple truck -- into Kansas City to the International dealer/shop. They took a back highway and made it safely, so the truck is now in the shop today. If it is the IDM module, that should be covered by a parts warranty so we will only have to cover the diagnostics & labor. We made it work yesterday, and will do the same today, doing jobs in our work queue that are appropriate candidates for our current capabilities, that don't demand an on-site chipper. Seems like we need to make a backup chip truck and chipper a priority, so we won't ever be dead in the water! So we may go for a forestry package bucket truck w/elevator, since it has a chip dump body. Then down the road we could reconfigure with our ideal rear-mount bucket truck.
