One Man Band- climbing and rigging, groundwork, business mgmt.

A 1 ton goes a long way. I would prefer a F450 instead of the 350. But, we doing ok for now. That is going to change shortly. But we can chip right into the woods more often than not.
 
Dang, I would have wrote the same thing Stephen :) My one ton is always over loaded, but I am good at getting rid of chips onsite.
 
Our city is currently awash with chip and we live in constant fear of not finding anywhere nearby to dump, large landscape supplies are charging $10 a cube to dump at their depots (if your desperate enough...)
 
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  • #104
I've never paid to dump cold and am selling them now. I haven't dumped at home for line than I can remember. You can charge to spread the mulch, too.
 
I have been getting a couple calls a week for "free" chips. I rarely do free anything. If I find it convenient, I will dump a load on someone for free if they are close by the job site. If. I often have someone that will give me up to about $10.00 a yard. Master Gardeners has been a good resource for dump sites. The drought has more people more water conservation conscience. Got a call today for interest in bio plant processing. I vote yes please.
 
It never ceases to amaze me, by how many of my clients have beautiful green yards, and trees that have no mulch rings, and they wonder why their trees are not doing very well. Even after I try to explain to them the benefits of having mulch around the trees, they still don't want the chips. I have been spreading mulch around every tree on my 4 acres since I got my chipper. I still give my chips away, if it is too far to haul them home. My old chipper does not make as nice of chips as most other chippers, I think because it does not have an adjustable bed knife.
 
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  • #108
I usually give the the five fingers of mulch attributes.

Increases soil moisture

decreases competition

reduced/ prevents compaction

moderates soil temperatures

slowly cycles nutrients into the soil, feeding the tree slowly with all the tree parts, as in the forest



If you go onto the second hand

prevents mower and root damage,

Avoids string trimmer damage,

You save money by not paying for haul off of chips, and purchase and hauling of mulch.

Pictures speak a thousand words.

BMG scoops might facilitate placement. Towing a 5 yard trailer full of mulch with the mini makes easy work of getting them the mulch where they need it, so they don't have to wheel barrow it 8 cubic feet at a time.
 
Tarzan said:
Dang, I would have wrote the same thing Stephen :) My one ton is always over loaded, but I am good at getting rid of chips onsite.
Click to expand...

My 450 is always overloaded! IMO it really doesn't matter what truck you have tree guys can always find a way to over load them, it just comes down to how many trips to the dump you wanna make.
 
SouthSoundTree- said:
Many people, at one time or another, to greater or lesser extents, work solo. Sometimes, there is a groundie, but of limited skill where the climber is better off rigging something themselves.

Personally, I like rolling solo better, at times. Other times, not so much.

Obviously, there are times to have 5 workers on a job, too.

Clearly, there are the safety considerations to working with 5 or none.

At times, like some no-clean-up jobs, a groundie can only help get gear to the tree, pass up a saw, if that, and carry gear back. Maybe rig a branch or two.

Discuss tips and tricks for working solo.




Rig with a double-whip tackle through a natural crotch on the piece being lowered, or with a loop sling with a biner. Untie the termination end of the rope (tied at the climber), and pull free.




Reg showed a technique of hitching big branches to a rigging line tied high in the tree, allowing them to swing back vertically-away from the obstacles below, then dicing it up.



Girth-hitch two slings on either side of a cutting point, and connect together with a biner. Once the limb hangs, it can be diced up, or disconnected and thrown/ dropped.



When speedlining, anchor at the ground and set the tension in the tree. Once there are too many limbs hanging on the line to manipulate the line, you can still drop limbs on the tight speedline, either sideways, or through a natural crotch. This NCing also saves slings.

Next...
Click to expand...
Along the same lines as the two slings and connected is one could do the whole tree that way just leave it all connected and then fell tree in. Call it peeling the banana.
 
I went the employee route because I don't want to "have" to climb trees everyday when I get older. I took 3.5 days I a row off recently and still made money. Some hard costs don't stop billing you just because you stopped working. Fwiw, that's the road I took and there are definitely employee struggles but once you have a good crew, you'll never hire mediocre again
 
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  • #116
Critical mass is critical, Willie. I hear what you're saying.

I want employees to make me money, and themselves money, too.
 
Yep, that's my overall goal, everyone makes money and I fish more.
If I were were top do the one man deal and stay in the 1 ton truck range, I'd still have a dump bed. I did the load handler for awhile and it worked but if I were to stick with that, I'd ash least get the kit that turns your factory into a dump.
 
sotc said:
Yep, that's my overall goal, everyone makes money and I fish more.
If I were were top do the one man deal and stay in the 1 ton truck range, I'd still have a dump bed. I did the load handler for awhile and it worked but if I were to stick with that, I'd ash least get the kit that turns your factory into a dump.
Click to expand...

That's the route I took, and if I had it to do over, I would have been a little more patient and bought a truck that is already set up. I got a pretty good deal on this truck:
602099_10151515956589844_298022081_n.jpg

Bought a dump bed kit for 2 grand, and paid a buddy of mine to make it all work for another 2 grand. He had to build a steel sub frame, to make room for the kit to work right. Spent another $2,200 to have this steel chip box built:
10645195_10152716492829844_3848677774324750557_n.jpg

I had the box built hell for stout, because I mounted a winch on the headache rack and had a receiver welded on the roof of the back of the box for sliding a receiver mounted fairlead, all so I could load logs:
1491704_10152370228019844_7326890944839421458_n.jpg

10371705_10152459208284844_3876967720945527823_n.jpg

It works great, but it is all too heavy, and I think I would have been money ahead to find a truck that already dumped, and maybe even had a chip box on it. Now that I have a dingo and bmg, the winch, and heavy box really are not needed, so thinking of going with something a lot lighter. Anyhow, learn as you go, and I figure I can always find a bigger 26k truck, with enough room to have this box, a platform for the dingo, and tool boxes for climbing/rigging gear and chainsaws. I would like to experiment with chipping into mulch bags, and leaving this truck just a flatbed, then I could load the mulch bags with the dingo, and lash them somehow so that I could still dump...just an idea, that might or might not work :) It would sure be nice to get rid of the box!
 
The idea of lone working is a strange one to me as over here you are not allowed to climb a tree as a solo employee or without a qualified rescue climber. You are not even supposed to fire up a saw as a solo worker. Plus if we get seen working solo here we can be fined upto £10000/$15000. So you don't see many one man bands.
 
It was from the hse rep that was doing a nvq course I was on for construction site management in march. I thought that was a bit steep but I know someone who has had a 6000 fine for lone climbing without chainsaw trousers on as well.
 
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