Its going to be a crane job...

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I guess it's the same here, really. Some areas are prone to have a lot of cranes, some aren't. Most of the crane work has always been new construction, from buildings to dams, so the cranes follow the action. The crane guy I work with as a rule, he's an anomaly in that the majority of what he does is trees. You don't find many like that.

There are a couple big outfits in town, running twenty cranes plus. They are hurting, but some have ties with China going on. I hear of lots of used cranes being sold to China, and Dubai at one point. Someone has to show how to operate them.
 
I'm not even sure that they would be happy with you setting your own slings, these guys would probably climb the tree and set chokers how and where they wanted them, then let you cut!
Get a Skytrak stuck, they can get it out. Need a CNC machine moved, no problem! This is what they handle. Tree work, I think they'd crap there drawers!
 
Good luck on the job Fiona. That constant high tie in point would feel pretty good to me.
 
Hope you have a good photographer for a few pictures.

Your mass: energy combo is a good reason to learn to speedline for applicable jobs, IMO, as you do even less handling of branches, and more handling of a few ounces of 'biner and sling. If you have groundies that are good for grunt work only, you can handle the rigging line and then the tensioning of the speedline from the tree, if one or both are necessary. I will sometimes keep a few stubs handy for friction points to wrap when I'm controlling the load from the tree, then remove said stubs in favor of the next new stub up the stem.

Best of luck with it, not that you need Luck.
 
I AM surprised to hear that the crane is the only option you think you have for laoding those logs. We stopped loading logs by hand in the 80's when a local tree guy bought a prentice loader and started working hourly for picking up logs. There are a lot of guys doing it now and some do it really cheap, but will leave oil stains etc, so its best to keep them off the driveways. Even without a prentice log loader on the island, a skid loader into a dump truck would work, as would a tailgate lift on a decent truck.

Either way $120/hour seems a bit pricey for a tie in point on a straight single stem conifer... Couldn't you shoot a line and set up a floating false crotch, and do the rigging as per Bernam's suggestions.. that is pretty straight forward... If you are concerned about lawn damage, you should be able to land the top flat or tip first, then lower down a section of wood using a block set in the second tree. then use that wood as a landing pad to drop the sticks on. If you can bomb all the brush, maybe do that first, then pic the wood with the crane, if you re going to have it on site anyhow.

I would consider using a crane on a job like that if I was trying to save time and piggyback the job on another nearby job that really needed a crane. Pines go very fast with a crane, but it's $300 in travel time, $140/hour, with a $600 minimum for a decent crane around here. Putting that kind of money on those two pines around here would pretty much price you out of the job if there are other bidders...
 
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Well Murph, a crane is not the only loading option I have, by any means, just doing double duty...I'm sure I could do the job differently as evidenced by the range of replies, and if these trees were in an open area with no roads or power lines near them as these have, I would probably try some of the suggestions to bump up my experience level, next time I probably will.
Serves me right for posting before I actually did the job...

All for now till the job gets DONE!
 
one more thing , nothing to do with the crane .... Gerry said in his book that no one body type is better or worse for this work ... I am small stature and old ... climbers our size do just fine , if you did spike and safety softwood wreck outs all the time and were used to it , you could do it all day no problem ...
 
When I first started I had to load all the logs by hand onto a trailer. Now I can say I never load logs by hand. The guys and I have been meaning to have a mini skid appreciation day haha. :)
 
When not getting them picked up, this is the way we load logs and brush when there is no large crane on site. Unic truck crane, handy dandy. It loads and unloads the mini as well.

Is it common to see these running around the states now? You can't stand on any busy street for more than a couple minutes and not see one go by, short beds as well. I dig 'em, easy to use. Can pick trees too in the right situation. You can stick a basket on the end for a human lift, most gardeners have them as a pruning aid that moves by remote control.
 

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It's cool for loading, but I bet using them for TD's/whutknot will open it up for all sorts of abuse; or at least around here, with all our good old boys.
 
You are right, people sometimes do get carried away with them. I've always thought that one could bring in a good income in the states as a mover of things. Unloading more than a few sheets of sheet rock or plywood by hand is unheard of here. Machinery movers, you name it, they all have one.

You can pick up used ones for a song. The annual truck inspection that will run over a grand is the killer though, at least over here. Crazy priest has one that I can borrow, and the crane guy has two. 8)
 
I have one (Unic minus the boom) sitting out back. They are a disposable machine. It would cost more to by a boom than it would cost to buy the whole thing. My cousin gave it to me to get it out of his way. It also has a radio remote control. I will build something out of the leftovers this winter.
 
If you don't exert care, you can tweak the boom on those pretty easily, or smash in the side of the truck. The guy here I originally did tree work with was a real expert at using one. Even with the outrigger extended, he'd pick up loads that pulled the truck up on two wheels, and I'd be afraid the whole thing was going to roll over on top of him. No remote, he'd stand there operating the controls with his back pressed against the door, and that was how he determined how far the whole chassis had pulled over to his side, not by looking at the wheels. It scared me.
 
This one was a 5 section boom, 5 ton unit. The turret bearing is also hooped. I believe you can replace the whole crane for under 25K. They are built where you are Jay!
 
That is a large boom! Two and three section booms are much more common. Right, I believe that they are all made over here for some reason, a few different brands.

You can use the boom to pack down brush in a high walled truck by pressing down on the load as you add on the chokered piles. It really packs it in. Most folks don't think to do that, though. The boom also will hold in the load so you don't much have to tie it down, if at all. That's handy for not getting pulled over by the cops for leaving brush scattered all over the road from here to China.
 
That would be quite a drive to China from your place!:D Ross used his on a hotshot truck, extended cab freightliner. I guess he thought he got his moneys worth out of it, he bought the same model again!
 
Are distributors common? I've always wondered what the story is with them over in the west.

The Chinese will buy anything now, money to burn! :D I hear that they are mad for chips currently.
 
I only know about the dealer in Calgary, AB. You sure don't seem 'em very often here!
 
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