My New 23GT and trailer

[Koa Man]

A few pictures of the demonstration we had at the high school. We had a pretty good turn out. Several companies told me they couldn't afford it, but wanted to know my daily rate for rental with operator. They seemed OK with what I quoted them and each said they could probably use me 2 to 5 times a year. I am going to email them photos of my Gehl in action and offer a rate to move brush and/or logs. I already told them I could move more stuff than 4 ground guys with my Gehl and I won't get tired.

 

[SkwerI]

Subcontracting is Teh Goot. No customer hassles, no employee supervision hassles, no collection hassles, no callback hassles, just sow up, do the work and get paid. And the guys who call you regularly don't ask you a bunch of stupid questions every day.

"Point me at the tree and GTF outta my way."

 

[woodworkingboy]

What is the reach on that thing? Awesome!

 

[Koa Man]

You get 32 ft. at ground level to about 3ft. high. Then it slowly increases to and maintains 36 ft. from 13 ft. to 30 ft. high. Then you will very slowly lose side reach. At 40 ft. you will have about 34 ft., at 56 ft. you have 32.5 ft., at 66 ft. you will have 26 ft. and at 72 ft. you will have little over 19 ft. of side reach. At maximum height of 75.5 ft, you have 9 ft. of side reach.

Two of the guys with 75 ft. buckets admitted that they would not have been able to get inside the tree like photos 1 and 2. Because the bucket can be pointed straight, it can narrow to only 27 inches wide. Quite a bit less than a side mounted bucket on a regular aerial lift. For open places with enough room, I will be the first to admit a bucket truck is way faster, but I bought this because I do not have that kind of space on most of my jobs.

 

[lumberjack]

Time for a new avatar, eh?

 

[cory]

That's awesome. So a bucket truck can get into position faster, but how does the speed of boom movement compare to a bucket truck?

 

[No_Bivy]

slow

 

[MasterBlaster]

Super cool, but gimme a regular bucket anyday.

 

[arborworks1]

One other thing is the when you are neogiating a yard tree there will be very little if any padding to get the spiderlift into the tree. So you can shave time in that regard. Plus the transport aspect of a small machine, no cdl drivers. Lower maintenance cost as opposed to a heavy truck.

 

[lumberjack]

Don't forget insurance is way less, you can haul it along with most of the rest of the equipment, it'd get to 95% of the trees I do, and it has great height and reach.

I gotta be careful, I nearly talked myself into getting one.

 

[Koa Man]

Super cool, but gimme a regular bucket anyday.

I would take a bucket anyday too if it could get to where the work is. When I was having a hard time convincing the bank to lend me the money, I thought well may be I'll go buy a 75 ft. 4X4 rear mount bucket truck. It will be a lot cheaper. Surprise! They cost $138K new and late model ones are hard to come by and nearly $100K. At the hotel where my lift will be working the most, a bucket wouldn't be able to get to 75% of the palms. I also have a few beach front estates with around 30 palms each and I will be able to get them all with the 23GT. With a bucket truck, I would be able to get 37 of the 90 palms.

I got another hotel contract with 127 palms that the current tree contractor cannot get to with his 75 ft. bucket. They do not want these palms spiked. He had to bid on them using a tree bicycle. No way he could underbid me and I got those 127 palms for $59.69 each every 3 months. Those 127 palms are all under 35 ft. He could get them with a 15GT. The monthly payment on my 23GT is $2439. The payment on a 15GT would be less than half of that. You do the math. I think you will see that he could have got a spider lift and have it pay for itself on just this one job.

Like I have said before, to be a true highly efficient company, you need both. I cannot afford both so I chose the one that can do both, except it will be slower in open areas.

As far as boom movement, with the optional 20hp diesel and 40% more hydraulic power, the elevation of the lower boom is quick. A couple of guys at the demo told me they were surprised how fast the lower boom elevated. The upper boom is slow compared to a bucket, but way, way faster than climbing up a tree.

 

[treesandsurf]

Looks nice! Bummed I missed the presentation, in bed all day sick as a dog.

Maybe I should put on a climbing demo to get my sub-contracting gig going .

jp

 

[woodworkingboy]

Are there any additional safety concerns with a spiderlift, compared to a using a bucket for tree work?

 

[No_Bivy]

I gotta be careful, I nearly talked myself into getting one.

mee too

 

[brendonv]

Ya, don't throw wood on the legs.

That was my main concern when I hire in a spider. "Are you sure you want to throw that piece there?"

 

[MasterBlaster]

From the first time I saw one, I was leery about those legs.

 

[Tree Reb]

I gotta be careful, I nearly talked myself into getting one.

Me three. I sure could use one, my legs are getting a bit weary.

 

[lumberjack]

I still have my Genie, but an extra 10' of reach and 20' of height would be tits.

 

[Koa Man]

There were 2 guys from the University of Hawaii maintenance dept. at the demo. They currently have a Genie manlift around 60'. He said the their Genie was scary because the bucket shook so much. Lenny put the spider bucket in the most extreme side extension, in the least favorable position (over one outrigger) with he and another guy in the bucket and started bouncing in it to try and rock it back and forth. The UH guy was surprised how stable it was.

Yes you need to be careful not to drop logs on it, but when I had my Altec bucket, I was careful not to drop stuff on it either. I didn't want to dent or scratch the paint and start making the truck look beat up. I don't like it when guys just throw a rake on the ground. The tines start to get beat up. For that matter, I don't even drop logs on open grass areas if it is going to put a divot in the lawn. I lower them with a rope. I don't see a problem as far as stuff dropping on my 23GT in my operation, but I am not a "cowboy" in the tree. You might say I am more of a sissy when it comes to stuff like that.

Anyway, it goes on its first job today. I got 5 tree removals, all cut, drop and leave it where it lands. The owner has a big property, two guys with 5 chainsaws of various sizes and a backhoe with a 4/1 bucket to move the debris. He is paying for me to bring one groundman to help me. My 3 ground guys all got certified in operating the 23GT along with my wife and 16 yr. old daughter. My daughter took about 5 different guys up in the 23GT on demo day. She said 2 guys told her that was high enough before the upper boom started to telescope out and wanted to go back down.

 

[DTW902]

Thats great Wesley I can see Kelly showing it of for you. Welcome to the club you will love that 23 especially once you get over the learning curve. You will love the rotating basket and many other functions that the 15gt did not have.

It's funny reading all the questions. Same thing happened when I got mine 2 1/2 years ago. Now we should end up with a lot of pictures of the Spiders with 3 owners on the forum now.

 

[lumberjack]

Dave, Jim, and Wesely?

The Genie moves, but it's far from "scary" after you get your mind around it. I was skeered the first 2 days I used it as it was my first time to use a lift (no instructions/demo, just hop on it and go). I figure I've been in it pushing 1k hours now and it's not been a biggy for the past 985.

 

[Mr. Sir]

And me.

 

[rangerdanger]

Awesome pics Wesely!! I can already tell you're going to put that lift to excellent use!

 

[lumberjack]

Haha, I forgot all about you, Brett. So that's 3 15's and 2 23's

 

[brendonv]

Whose Jim?