How'd it go today?

Finished up third cutting today. The farm I drive for had a crew of Amish in working on the barns. Their business van own trucks, but they have to hire an English to drive them. Apparently they have a few LBZ Duramax dually pickups that are tuned and deleted. They were all eyes on me as sent in and out of the bunk. I guess they like kitty cats, too. :lol:
 
friedrich said:
i‘m very thankfull that alot of my work is for the city. i can do it whenever (except at night and sundays) i want, just have to finish in time…
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This was a rush job, customer was in town for 2 days and got on a plane just hours after we finished, bid the job and came back to do it the next morning


I might have to look into doing city contracts, they go with the lowest bidder here (not sure if they do where you live), but I don't think very many people even know they can bid on those projects, I'd rather work for the city and make less if it means I don't have to deal with customers, reviews, non payers, competitors, etc

just checked, theres only 2 tree companies doing contract work for the county I live in, coincidentally 2 of the biggest competitors in the area and I don't think they are making that much off residential, considering they basically don't advertise and we rarely see them working, but they have millions of dollars worth of equipment rolling around town 7 days a week!
 
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Hopefully not the Dosko again? It wouldn't be all that hard or expensive to FPV a remote controlled stump grinder, so you can sit in the truck with AC and grind. Not much more expensive to add remote control to a button/lever operated grinder, if you've ever played with the more serious RC cars and airplanes.
 
...vermeer 752, excellent condition, 750 hr, one owner/operator retiring, $15k....

I ground an old, hard 16" diameter cherry stump today, I timed it for the heck of it, took 62 seconds....

Maybe you'd like doing stumps if they were easier and faster.
 
WoodCutr said:
This was a rush job, customer was in town for 2 days and got on a plane just hours after we finished, bid the job and came back to do it the next morning


I might have to look into doing city contracts, they go with the lowest bidder here (not sure if they do where you live), but I don't think very many people even know they can bid on those projects, I'd rather work for the city and make less if it means I don't have to deal with customers, reviews, non payers, competitors, etc

just checked, theres only 2 tree companies doing contract work for the county I live in, coincidentally 2 of the biggest competitors in the area and I don't think they are making that much off residential, considering they basically don't advertise and we rarely see them working, but they have millions of dollars worth of equipment rolling around town 7 days a week!
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yes, lowest bidder. it‘s not always easy to have profitable days but still better than contract climbing… for me anyways.
 
Random Q here- When you do a job and do it well and fast and then when you're done the customer says something like, "Wow, 3000$ in one day, I wish I made that kind of money" or I'm a doctor and I don't make that kind of money etc.

If memory serves, I think someone here had a good comeback to comments like that but I can't remember what it is, lmk if you know cuz I had a similar situation but couldnt remember the good comeback line, thanks.
 
Alright, credit where it due, that’s a killer.
I had one chance to use it 12 years ago, but it wasn’t in the arsenal at that time.

(Mental note to start overcharging doctors from now on, hoping for another shot)
 
I actually quite like grinding stumps, perhaps I should invest in a small grinder or start lining up 10-20 stumps a day and rent a grinder, but $450 a day to rent one is offputting, and everyone and their uncle does it around here, just like tree work and land clearing

just saw a post on a local FB group "paying $100 for someone to come cut up this pine tree that fell last night, my chainsaw bit the dust so you need to bring your own" and half the county is jumping on it like the dudes actually paying good, I'm so freaking over the morons out here not accounting for the fact they have to cover maintenance, fuel, etc, just about making me want to get into PHC and completely skip removals anymore, but nobody here even considers it, you say you can save a tree and they just call the next guy to come cut it down anyways, its so stupid
 
The dosko is around $150 to rent here, and it works pretty well in the right circumstances, it's just a workout. If it was mine, I'd mod the engine, and add electric motors to the wheels. Electric is way cheaper than hydraulic.
 
I either get a small baretto tracked machine for $450 (which sucks in every way possible, tracks won't turn the machine, head swing valve would stop the head if you moved it more than half way and the controls are weird)
or I get a full size skidsteer with a fecon stumper 280 for $650 a day, it works but I almost feel the little baretto is faster, might be just because I was doing 7+ ft diameter stumps with the fecon and 30" stumps with the baretto

no dosko or similar for rent around here unfortunately
 
As the dude that actually runs the Dosko, because Stephen has a broken neck and back, and I don't even like him looking at such a machine, I'll weigh in here...

The Dosko fits our needs perfectly, it's paid for, and it earns it's keep. Yeah, it's rough, miserable work, made worse by slopes or soft ground. It's dirty, and you're right in it. It takes just about everything I've got in my 6'2", 170lbs frame to wrestle it effectively for even 4 hours. Sometimes it takes two people to get it into position, but isn't large enough for two people to work the unit. The boss found a full set of teeth for under 200 bucks, and it's fuel cost is negligible. It shares an engine with the Dingo, which came in handy yesterday when the air filter literally fell apart. We were able to rob the Dingo filter to keep me grinding while Stephen ran for parts. When I had to turn the teeth yesterday, it took less than 15 minutes, and I was back in action. It fits into this company like a well made cog. It only goes out once a month on average (maybe 4 times since November.) so anything more is hard to justify. Would a big hydraulic unit be nice? Sure! But it has to be trailered and towed on miles of 8% grades, and backed into tiny driveways, and won't handle the slopes we have locally.

There's definitely a certain misery factor to running the Dosko, but it's well within my acceptable limits of daily work. Would I prefer to climb, SRT, where I'm using my brain more than my body? Sure! But if I've gotta work the ground, I much prefer 6 hours of stump grinding to say, going at silkweed with loppers for four hours. Obviously, I'd prefer running rope and pulling brush, but we can't win all the time.

Back in the day, I'd have put my cousin, JR Beecroft, on the Dosko, because that man is a low slung mountain. When he was a teenager, he did butterfly presses by compressing an F350 coil spring. That gorilla could stand with his back against a wall and you could set a PBR can on the projection of his pectoral muscle. He could grab the back bumper of my S10 and do squats with the truck, regardless what was in the bed. I've seen him wrestle equipment like the Dosko with a level of physicality that I've never seen matched.

But JR and I really are more Cowboy Than You, we can't sleep if we think otherwise.
 
Auto glass technician missed a big chunk of broken glass when he cleaned the wiper blade. I now have a nice arc scratched into my 72 hour old windshield. I'd respond to one of the 7 text/email/ phone calls I've gotten from them if I didn't think I'd fall asleep in the first 3 seconds.
 
WoodCutr said:
I either get a small baretto tracked machine for $450 (which sucks in every way possible, tracks won't turn the machine, head swing valve would stop the head if you moved it more than half way and the controls are weird)
or I get a full size skidsteer with a fecon stumper 280 for $650 a day, it works but I almost feel the little baretto is faster, might be just because I was doing 7+ ft diameter stumps with the fecon and 30" stumps with the baretto

no dosko or similar for rent around here unfortunately
Click to expand...
I get the Dosko from lowes. The baretto is pretty good compared to other grinders I've used. I prefer it and the cheap & simple Dosko, not to say I may prefer another, like the little Bandit grinder if I tried one.

I'd build my own if I had that much need, but stump grinding for me is occasional.

Kaveman said:
As the dude that actually runs the Dosko, because Stephen has a broken neck and back, and I don't even like him looking at such a machine, I'll weigh in here...

The Dosko fits our needs perfectly, it's paid for, and it earns it's keep. Yeah, it's rough, miserable work, made worse by slopes or soft ground. It's dirty, and you're right in it. It takes just about everything I've got in my 6'2", 170lbs frame to wrestle it effectively for even 4 hours. Sometimes it takes two people to get it into position, but isn't large enough for two people to work the unit. The boss found a full set of teeth for under 200 bucks, and it's fuel cost is negligible. It shares an engine with the Dingo, which came in handy yesterday when the air filter literally fell apart. We were able to rob the Dingo filter to keep me grinding while Stephen ran for parts. When I had to turn the teeth yesterday, it took less than 15 minutes, and I was back in action. It fits into this company like a well made cog. It only goes out once a month on average (maybe 4 times since November.) so anything more is hard to justify. Would a big hydraulic unit be nice? Sure! But it has to be trailered and towed on miles of 8% grades, and backed into tiny driveways, and won't handle the slopes we have locally.

There's definitely a certain misery factor to running the Dosko, but it's well within my acceptable limits of daily work. Would I prefer to climb, SRT, where I'm using my brain more than my body? Sure! But if I've gotta work the ground, I much prefer 6 hours of stump grinding to say, going at silkweed with loppers for four hours. Obviously, I'd prefer running rope and pulling brush, but we can't win all the time.

Back in the day, I'd have put my cousin, JR Beecroft, on the Dosko, because that man is a low slung mountain. When he was a teenager, he did butterfly presses by compressing an F350 coil spring. That gorilla could stand with his back against a wall and you could set a PBR can on the projection of his pectoral muscle. He could grab the back bumper of my S10 and do squats with the truck, regardless what was in the bed. I've seen him wrestle equipment like the Dosko with a level of physicality that I've never seen matched.

But JR and I really are more Cowboy Than You, we can't sleep if we think otherwise.
Click to expand...
What model? I've only run the 1 cylinder 13hp Dosko
 
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