How'd it go today?

Pine removal job went well. Six more trees got added, if you include the one that the customer didn't want cut. She was kind of pissed, sounded like a screech owl after she drove up in her car. The crane operator took the heat, but I told him to tell her it was the foreign guy's fault, and that he always does that. I thought she would be more resigned to the fact, maybe take some pity as well. ;)
 
I chuckle inwardly when neighbors get all teary eyed over their neighbor's tree that I'm removing. To little to late, go take a walk in the forest.


Guess that means I'm not really that nice of a person eh?
 
Chip truck died on the way to work yesterday:( 7.3 started running rough like it was missing and it just got worse and worse then died. I must admit that I didnt know anything about this motor. After 2 days of messing with it I know a lot more and am amazed what a crappy design the injection system is, so freakin complicated with so many components that can go wrong. So far I have replaced the cam sensor, the injection pressure switch, the O rings on the injection pressure solenoid and the under valve cover wiring harness. It now runs but is missing on at least 2. Im taking it to the dealer in the morning so they can do an analysis on it for $69.

Man I hate going to the dealer..... They charged me $39 for the O rings which I could of got for $4 online:X
 
I like when the neighbor enquires, "Are you cutting all those trees? They usually have a worried look on their face, and the answer is usually no.
 
Paul there are lots of 7.3 specialists out there and the motor isn't all that difficult to work on. It has a long track record as well, so all the common issues are well known. It's still Greek to those of us who aren't familiar with them, but there is a huge knowledge base out there.

My point is you should be able to find plenty of competent mechanics to work on that motor without having to resort to paying dealer extortion.
 
PCTREE said:
Chip truck died on the way to work yesterday:( 7.3 started running rough like it was missing and it just got worse and worse then died. I must admit that I didnt know anything about this motor. After 2 days of messing with it I know a lot more and am amazed what a crappy design the injection system is, so freakin complicated with so many components that can go wrong. So far I have replaced the cam sensor, the injection pressure switch, the O rings on the injection pressure solenoid and the under valve cover wiring harness. It now runs but is missing on at least 2. Im taking it to the dealer in the morning so they can do an analysis on it for $69.

Man I hate going to the dealer..... They charged me $39 for the O rings which I could of got for $4 online:X
Click to expand...


Sorry my advice didn't help, Paul.

Another thing to look up, ICP sensor. Just throwing out things commonly heard through reading the forums.
 
Skwerlito, for some strange reason, there seem to be no competant diesel mechanics in Charlottesville. My buddy is a mechanic (honda) and called everybody he knew and nobody works on these??

B, I put my ICP in another buddies truck and it ran fine so to me that rules that out. Tired of futzing around, got lots of tree work to do..... Watch its just a bad conection in the harness somewhere... WTF is wrong with a mechanical rotary injection pump???
 
PCTREE said:
Skwerlito, for some strange reason, there seem to be no competant diesel mechanics in Charlottesville. My buddy is a mechanic (honda) and called everybody he knew and nobody works on these??

B, I put my ICP in another buddies truck and it ran fine so to me that rules that out. Tired of futzing around, got lots of tree work to do..... Watch its just a bad conection in the harness somewhere... WTF is wrong with a mechanical rotary injection pump???
Click to expand...

This is all to make diesel's compliant with the new emissions standards. FWIW my cousin's 7.3 had a cam sensor go out and it just quit.
 
That's funny Willie :lol:

Just burned an Ubuntu Linux disk and am now testing it out from the disk. Pretty cool.. Takes some getting used to. Pretty user friendly compared to the older stuff. Should work ok for the lap top. I just need to see if I can get the presentation software to apply to it.
 
Logging again.
It rained hard all day. I hate logging in the rain. Wearing rain gear you get just as wet, only with sweat.

Two weeks ago we were asked if we could help out with a logging job, because one of our competitors had broken his leg and couldn't finish his contract.
Today i got the full story.
The guy went logging on his own, no partner. Left his phone in the truck and set to work in the big woods. Somehow he got a large beech top hung up in another tree. As he cut it loose it came down on his left foot, crushed the foot and pinned him ( obviously he wasn't using Murphy's patented take-down method ). If he hadn't been able to reach his saw and cut himself loose he would have had no other option than to chew off his leg.
I think that is hard to do when wearing chainsaw resistant pants. I think all those nylon fibers get stuck in your teeth.

That was just so stupid.
 
Knocked out some roof clearance, small take downs, and some other misc small stuff at one property this morning. Pulled my rope out of the Oak, HO says "Can you get those two limbs?" Seriously! I'm working within your budget, so that's why they are staying. Gave me extra, zipped back up with the Wraptor. Saw ran outa gas. Dummy.

Got to the next job...

A dead oak with a lean into the woods...two companies wanted to bring in a bucket truck and cut off some limbs. This company always takes the lowest bid, and I thought I could drop it. All went well, although it got hung by one limb...so I nipped the hinge and it rolled off the side. Perfect. On site about an hour, $260. 8)

I went and picked up a check at the office. They wanted me to look at another dead tree. These people are morons...dead as a door nail, in between two houses, down a hill so much that the roof of the house is below the road. No driveways, no crane set up, can't get the spider lift down the stairs :lol:, no where to drop it, and stairs.
Na, I'll pass. :)
 
Did a little dirt work with the mini today, cleaned up and leveled out two horse pens and they had me move some top soil around a septic tank they had installed a year ago. Decent work, easy enough, looked good when I was done, but I think the drive motors are getting weak, it wouldn't turn the tires when trying to get the bucket full in the topsoil. Is that common?
Went to the FIL's, he was having problems with the PTO on his tractor. Old Masey, it wouldn't shut off. Cleaned the grease off the side plate and showed him, up was engine speed, down was 640 and the middle was neutral. He felt like a dumbass :lol:
Was supposed to go work on Dodge truck this afternoon, electrical issues, taillight works, then doesn't. But the truck was only going to sit for an hour. Not anywhere near long enough to try to solve that issue!
 
Made some fire wood for a customer today from his last years storm damage. Then dropped a 28 DBH X 90 foot S shaped head leaning deader than a door nail gray pine in between two valley oaks. Mr Skidsteer was no where to be found. :/: Too muddy anyway in the meadow. So we just coaxed her over into the sweet spot with wedges and a come-a-long. I never left the ground.. Brushed her out, Bucked her up and took the tip. HO having us back when we can get the chipper, truck and splitter to it. Sold him a cord of wood too... :D
Now off to do my book keeping. :P
 
NO! NO! NO! EPIC FAIL!!
You wait for it to dry, then use Mrskidsteer! WTF are you thinking Stephan? You can't do tree work without it!
 
Woke up around 10 today, after getting back to home around 2 in the morning. Went to work and did some dirt work, and a bit of tree work.

After work, we went and did our first cat rescue. Sucker was up about 50' in a Hickory Tree in the woods, so no low branchs to climb up. I had to foot lock about 35', which was a good work out and a great test for my CMI ascender. First time I've used them on another tree besides our Pin Oak out front.

Anyways, Dad and I worked our way up to the top and cornered the cat. Dad grabbed him and we stuffed him in a bag. Sucker was hissing and clawing like crazy though and nicked Dad in the finger a bit. Lessoned learned, always have gloves, and a decent bag that we can tie shut(we had a zippered bag, nothing to tie it shut with, so we held it shut with one hand). Next time we'll take a pillow case to stuff him in first, so its easier to get it in a rope bag or zippered bag.
 
Cut down a big old pondo by a road today...probably 36" DBH and 120' tall. Was able to bucket the lower 75'...then climbed up and took the backweight off. Blasted out a 50' top for a nice lil audience, razzle dazzle baby :D

Although, between the flaggers and old stoney mcgee I damn near had a heart attack though. About 5 or 6 times I had to cut and hold rather than cut and steer...sore shoulders! Flaggers gave me a close call. We had the lane by the tree closed off, but single lane traffic was allowed through. I looked at the flaggers and they had traffic stopped...so I made a cut over the road. The cut piece was hung up, so I cut it loose and watched it miss a car driving underneath by inches :O

Came outta the bucket and musta looked like I meant business as I marched towards the flagger, poor ol girl was nearly in tears. I calmly told her to wait for my signal when I was working over the road...wasn't shortly after that the rigging gear came out.

My experienced ropeman was away, so it took a minor rope burn and several demonstrations of the proper way to load a porty to get them dialed in :|:

Another decent pine 28" x 90' and a smaller one at 16" x 70' came out too. Got outta there and back to the yard by 3:45...good money today, nothing got broken, no one got hurt.

But, DAYYUUMMMM I am looking forward to Thanksgiving!
 
I got tired after 20 years of having to train ropemen on every single job so I developed a rigging system that I can do myself without a ropeman. There are some jobs where normal roping would be quicker but I'm over it. I'll only rope stuff if there's somebody on the job that I know and trust as a ropeman. Otherwise I'll crane it down with my bucket or chunk it down by hand. I have a 5/8" rigging rope I bought about 2.5 years ago and it's been used 3 times.

Glad you got it done without incident, Dylan.
 
brendonv said:
A dead oak with a lean into the woods...two companies wanted to bring in a bucket truck and cut off some limbs. This company always takes the lowest bid, and I thought I could drop it. All went well, although it got hung by one limb...so I nipped the hinge and it rolled off the side. Perfect. On site about an hour, $260. 8)
Click to expand...

I'll often cut the hinge right off on a tree that may get hung a little once it's committed to it's lay, it eliminates alot of hang-ups before they ever occur.
 
Skwerl said:
I got tired after 20 years of having to train ropemen on every single job so I developed a rigging system that I can do myself without a ropeman.
Click to expand...

These guys have been working with me for months now and I've shown the one fella who burned his hand about a dozen times how to properly load the porty. I actually called down to him to load it before I cut the piece...tough guy I guess.

Though I can self rig like a mofo if I need to, its actually kinda fun (maybe not for you anymore though ;)) I find efficiency from a well trained team is hard to beat. It helps when that team has a memory span greater than that of goldfish.

Squish thats a good trick...throw that in the ol' toolbox.
 
Starting to get back into the groove with logging. Another week and I'll be back in top tree falling shape again:)

I expect to make a lot of money this year with all the new tricks I've learned lately: mini notches, micro notches and step back cuts!
I'm still working on a way to utilize the step backcut. With the low stumps we are required to set here, I have to dig a hole behind the tree in order to get low enough.
 
Back killed me last night/this morning. I don't know how many pain killers I took, but it was too many and yet not enough! Feel like crap today. I finally got laid down at 4am then back up at 6.
I tried digging out bushes, but couldn't do jack today. I may try to work on the garage door in a while, I'm sure that will end well.
 
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