How'd it go today?

Took care of the limbs at work. I've got my rakers too low on the 2511. It was *very* chattery in the dead wood, and I stalled it out a couple times. Just got corn free gas since the office is halfway to the station. $4.56/G D^:
Explain that to me, please; corn free gas.

From my research, corn is used to produce ethanol and there are three general categories of ethanol-gasoline blends: E10, E15, and E85. E10 is gasoline with 10% ethanol content. E15 is gasoline with 15% ethanol content, and E85 is a fuel that may contain up to 85% fuel ethanol. ECHO recommends to use only fresh gasoline with a minimum octane rating of 89 (mid-grade) through 93 (preminum) at all times.

A typical gasoline mixture contains about 150 different hydrocarbons, including butane, pentane, isopentane and the BTEX compounds (benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, and xylenes).

Do they now make gasoline with ethanol in it?

I answered my own question...

Currently, corn ethanol is mainly used in blends with gasoline to create mixtures such as E10, E15, and E85. Ethanol is mixed into more than 98% of United States gasoline to reduce air pollution.

I just thought ya'll might find this interesting. What are the ultimate benefits of avoiding ethanol involved gas (albeit to a 1/10th increment or higher, maybe?) for your your 2511? is it more efficient on fuel?
 
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Alcohol is hard on rubber parts, and has a very short shelf life. When I got my first pro saw, I decided I was gonna run the best fuel I could to prevent damage to what seemed to me at the time to be an expensive machine. These days, I wouldn't bat an eye at paying $800+ for a saw :^D

Anyway, I can say with all honesty, I never had big problems running corn gas. I could let a saw sit for several months, and it would work with just a little balkiness. Same with lawnmowers and other small engines. HOWEVER, after switching to corn free gas for all my small stuff(since I was getting it for my new pro saw anyway), I had three pieces of equipment "die" after a short while running corn free fuel. When I say "die", it was likely a carb/fuel supply issue that could have been fixed without a huge deal, but the equipment had other problems, and I just didn't think it was valuable wasting my time on it.

Three is too many times to be a coincidence imo. As to the exact cause, I don't know why switching to corn free fuel affected them. I also have a pushmower I bought used, and it almost certainly was fed corn gas, but it's given me no problems running it on corn free. Perhaps it's the age. It's the newest mower I've ever run, so maybe it was built to withstand alcohol.

In any case, alcohol in gas is an unwelcome additive. The best way to not have alcohol issues in fuel is to not put alcohol in the fuel. I'm fortunate that I have an alcohol free option 25 miles away in a neighboring state, which is 15 miles from my office, so it isn't a huge burden picking up 10-15 gallons at a time to run the equipment I care about for a year or so.
 
Started on the plywood sides for my new 5x10 trailer. Figured out the sides could be mounted with pipe clamps this eliminating the need for holes drilled into the frame. There will also be additional tie down points with this method.

2 out of our 3 kids were out of school today for being sick.
 
Helped Mike on a job today. Everything went pretty well, but we got lucky. There was a gnarly dead oak he was gonna climb and piece out, but one of the lowest small limbs was threatening a fence. We put a line in it so I could pull it away from the fence as he cut it. Mike suggested just pulling the line to try breaking the limb. We did that, it worked, but it pissed off a bunch of wasps living in the tree nobody saw. If we went with the original plan, Mike would have been strapped to the tree with a bunch of big angry wasps flying at him.

After a couple plan modifications, Mike got the codom down with little damage, There was a white pine right next to it the homeowner didn't really care about, and I expected it to be completely delimbed on the side by the tree, but it suffered minimal damage in the operation. I was surprised and pleased. Good day.
 
Twas great working with John again!

I had a climb line set at least so a quick bail out would have been possible. They were pretty docile though. Part of the nest in the second picture after we ripped out the top with a rope and the truck (an oddity but safest way in this scenario in my humble opinion)
 

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Finished the brush trailer today. Could have been a better stain job. Can’t wait to fill it up on next weeks job!! It’s strong enough for me to climb over the sides. I didn’t have to drill the frame once. The panels are all held on with pipe clamps.
 

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Finished the brush trailer today. Could have been a better stain job. Can’t wait to fill it up on next weeks job!! It’s strong enough for me to climb over the sides. I didn’t have to drill the frame once. The panels are all held on with pipe clamps.
Looks good, friend. Best of fortune to you.
 
What's the plan for tiedown on the trailer?
There’s 4 rings on the sides that I left large cutouts to access. If needed, ratchet straps in an X pattern. It could also be tarped with bungee cords attached to the many pipe clamps securing the plywood.

The larger, weightier debris on top of the smaller and lighter debris works well too IMHO.
 
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Finished the brush trailer today. Could have been a better stain job. Can’t wait to fill it up on next weeks job!! It’s strong enough for me to climb over the sides. I didn’t have to drill the frame once. The panels are all held on with pipe clamps.
I like! especially not drilling anything into the new trailer
sometimes simple is better, I started off with a neighbors nissan frontier and a little homemade boat trailer, like a 6x4 with a mesh floor

that will be nice and easy to move around by hand too, its annoying having to hook up a truck to move my dump trailer, especially since its too heavy to wiggle onto the hitch by hand if im wrong lining it up

if you want to get real fancy I think Buyers has a roll up tarp system that will fit :D
 
Nice work.. I bet a tacoma could pull that too.

I’m learning it’s a hard row in contract climbing…. Lots of politics and cliques.. and no one wants to pay.
Tonight I’m going to Maui for 3 days of work…. Kind of a try out for an Arb Centric Pruning crew.

I have created an LLC and GL, I can always go back to a company if it gets tooooo slow..
wife says I have till Halloween to find the magic.
 
Thanks Rich, I might need it…. It’s tough getting older in the tree game… on many fronts.
Though my wife reminds me that it’s better than death. I’m now 48 years young…. Haha makes me laugh.
Stephen I know you started waaay older than me now…. :)

edit: knock on wood but this co wants me to learn and run their crane 🏗️.. There is a lot of talk talk here so maybe.... see.
I gotta look at being an older he/him/man/male in this industry…. Need a specialty that pays.. more than youth.

picture of recent aerial rescue class.. which has a funny story toooooo.


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Thanks Rich, I might need it…. It’s tough getting older in the tree game… on many fronts.
Though my wife reminds me that it’s better than death. I’m now 48 years young…. Haha makes me laugh.
Stephen I know you started waaay older than me now…. :)

edit: knock on wood but this co wants me to learn and run their crane 🏗️.. There is a lot of talk talk here so maybe.... see.
I gotta look at being an older he/him/man/male in this industry…. Need a specialty that pays.. more than youth.

picture of recent aerial rescue class.. which has a funny story toooooo.


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You are getting near the age that moving into operating equipment will absolutely make you more money than climbing. Your most productive climbing days are behind you, sad to say. You should absolutely take advantage of the opportunity to learn how to run a crane. you can do that and make bucks for the next 25 years.
 
The beginning of the end. They'll have a good couple years til they figure out kids are assholes. They'll then dream of the time they're out of school, have money, and nobody telling them what to do. On that day, they'll have different people telling them what to do, not as much money as they thought, and all those asshole kids will have turned into asshole adults.

Oh well. It was a good run while it lasted.
 
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