JLG Style Lift Vs Bucket Truck

[MasterBlaster]

Those spyderlifts move slow as molasses and would drive me insane.

 

[tophopper]

With so many other mini lift manufacturers why Teupen Brett? There are some nice American made lifts that are every bit as versatile, plus when they break down you wont be waiting 2 months for a part from overseas.

 

[tophopper]

At the expo, we looked closely at these. Seemed to be as good if not better than a Teupen, made in Wisconsin and solidly built units.

Ive heard nothing good about the Teupens........ I know a guy who sold his because of the headaches involved in getting it serviced.

http://www.manliftengineering.com/products/electric/A70TDi.htm

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Guy I worked for in Germany would not touch Tuepen for the same reasons.

 

[tophopper]

Arent they made in Germany?

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Yup! Not that I'm able to hold an opinion myself on them, as I've never used one.
I've known a few owners (Brett, Wesely in Hawaii) who have been extremely pleased with them.

 

[tophopper]

til they breakdown............

for the record Ive never used one either. Ill stick with our MAT 3.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

I know if I was back in that business, I'd choose a rearmount shorty over a spiderlift. I know of one guy (Dean Lofthouse at Arbtalk) had a spiderlift collapse under him when an electronic interlock failed.

 

[tophopper]

We have 2 rear mount buckets. Occasionally we get a tree that is inaccessible and not safe to climb...... a mini lift is sometimes the only way.

 

[NeTree]

Arent they made in Germany?

Yup; so you're paying top dollar for that crappy European work ethic that seems to prevail these days.

 

[tophopper]

My buddy who sold his, had a breakdown that need a service tech to fix........Teupen wanted $2000. just to send the tech over for diagnosis. Actually getting the part and the service completed took several weeks after the fact. Id buy American!

 

[Thor's Hammer]

'Crappy European work ethic'? where'd that one come from? :what:

 

[tophopper]

Hes trying to get you going.......ignore the douche

 

[NeTree]

Ed, don't tell me you haven't noticed a trend with European manufacturers. I surely have. 4-6 weeks of vacation, 6 hour work days, pressure to not "burn through our work faster than you have orders", etc. They seem to like to keep a backlog of work, rather than hire more help or work overtime to keep lead times short, like US manufacturers do.

$2,000 isn't bad for a tech to come from overseas; airfare alone can eat a huge portion of that. But it's because of situations like that I got hired by the German company to be the US Service Engineer. Lower costs for the customer, and I can respond much faster.

 

[NeTree]

Hes trying to get you going.......ignore the douche

Wow, that sounds an awful lot like "eff you". :what:

 

[Mr. Sir]

I can't answer for the lengthy/expensive service because I've never needed it. I do all of the routine maintenance myself and the few minor problems I've had that I couldn't figure out were resolved with a 5 minute phone call.

Oh, I did break the key switch on the upper control panel with a wayward branch one time. I was able to afro-engineer it so it was still usable until a new switch was overnighted to me.

FWIW, the bucket is about twice as fast as the spider, but the spider is at least twice as fast as climbing for most of the work I do with it. In other words, if you think you can climb faster than the spider, I'm telling you you're half fast.

BTW, Teupen has several stateside service locations.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Erik, If I lived in the US, I would buy US built equipment, simply for ease and convenience. But I know from experience that in a direct comparison between German and US engineering, the US equipment is not a patch on quality.

Its probably that crappy ethic that enables them to be the worlds engineering powerhouse. All that holiday and easy hours is probably the reason for the dedication european engineers show to their companies.

 

[NeTree]

When it takes you a year to build a machine, it had better be right. You've had long enough to make the damn thing.

I do think they over-engineer a lot of things, though. Sometimes simpler IS better in the long run.

There's a lot of 60 year old Vaughn's (Ohio) still in operation. I haven't seen a single Koch (Germany) that old still around.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

An American piece of equipment still around in America? No shit bro, cant argue with that....

 

[NeTree]

Lots of 'em still around in Germany, Italy, and the UK, too.

 

[brendonv]

Brett, I thought of something about the 23GT spider lift. If your buying used, ask about the boom wires. Tuepen lubed the wires when new to get them into the loom. Years later the lube they used eats away at the coating on the wires. The guy I worked for had to shell out over 8k to get a new loom installed (not counting travel costs). Tuepen wouldnt fit the bill for a problem they created. One more thing, computer boards run about 1800$, he went through three in the two years I helped him.

 

[NeTree]

Sounds like superior German engineering to me. :roll:

 

[lumberjack]

How many computers after the wiring harness was replaced?

 

[brendonv]

The loom was just replaced probably end of summer, none to date but I haven't been there in months.

 

[lumberjack]

I was figuring the harness killed the computers.