CurSedVoyce
California Hillbilly
They can speed things up but I am very limited as to my choice of what I can put on site. The closest crane is a two hour charge to show up and work. I pay both ways of his point of origin. so $300.00 soon as he leaves the shop. Then the clock is ticking on the site. Small crane, 17 ton is it. After that, figure almost four hours charges to have a crane show up before it even sets up. There are larger ones in the valley.
The 17 ton only has a 75 foot boom.. Operator never likes putting on his jib. He has walked away from jobs in the past that need him to put on the jib. I get why though.. Too many cowboys shocking his crane. Can't blame him one little bit.
What Stephen needs logistically......
A larger chipper... Something that will process material faster than what we have now. Or...... Since we have a way to move material faster with the mini, a place with enough room on the job to stage the material.
None of these fix the reach of the crane issue with the "local" guy. But one can work around the reach a tad if you already have the brush down and he is just handling the big wood. This would also cut the crane cost down some, making it an easier sell to an otherwise poor demographic.
IF I can work the local guy on a simpler tree and show him I will be gentle on his rig, the jib could come into play later on once trust is established.
Reach is huge here. Often times, the reason we are hired, is because the crane can not get in with out farming a bigger one in from a more distant place. Something that has to be considered in cost.
In these cases, I often get my charge plus what say 1/2 the crane cost to do them. Mo money for me.
Too many times have I heard that trees were going to have to go or large limbs to even get a crane into play. People move up here to be surrounded by trees. Not a very acceptable solution for them.
So those are some of the issues we face. That and height... Little pondos are 80-90 feet tall.
Black oaks up here and some Valley oaks can easily hit 85.
So height and reach are an issue.. Often times, you have to just catch the tops on rope, then let the crane pick them from the butt.
Last crane estimate I put out, a crane from the valley would have had to brought in... Reach and weight issues. Canyon oak. Guy under bid me... No biggie. He brought the 17 ton with him and they both walked. Before the first pick. Oh wait.. we need a bigger crane
Guy ended up calling a full on company he had worked with before on a construction deal and they did the work. No sweat off my back. I ended up being right and got two more jobs out of it even though I never even put a gaff on.
