The Official Work Pictures Thread

Here are some pictures from a planting job we did this week. All trees were 9''-10'' caliper (sweetgum, white oak, burr oak, and 2 sycamores). We had all the holes over dug with an mini excavator and back filled with all nice clean soil. We used the wheel loader to move the trees off the trailer and to the holes. We got all 5 in the ground in one day. It was a nice change of pace from the usual pruning or removal job.

[/ATTACH] IMG_2076.jpg IMG_2077.jpg IMG_2082.jpg IMG_2084.jpg IMG_2088.jpg
 
Nice man! Dad's finishing up a planting job today, 6 4"-6" caliber trees. Always enjoyed planting trees, nice change of pace like you said and makes one feel a bit better after slaying a bunch of other trees.

Is that wheel loader yours btw?
 
Good planting pictures. But I can't believe someone actually plants sweetgum. They are awful to have here; I cut them down whenever I can.
 
Thanks for the comments guys!

rangerdanger said:
Nice man! Dad's finishing up a planting job today, 6 4"-6" caliber trees. Always enjoyed planting trees, nice change of pace like you said and makes one feel a bit better after slaying a bunch of other trees.

Is that wheel loader yours btw?
Click to expand...

Ha I wish the wheel loader was ours. It was a rental with an operator from a local construction company. You are right, after all the removals I have been doing lately planting some trees makes me feel a little better haha.


MasterBlaster said:
Sweetgums = SUCK
Click to expand...

I agree, we planted at a local country club and one of the members wanted one (and paid for it) so we planted it!
 
Planting scares me. I love it, and have done loads of it, but I worry about a customer getting stupid and unintentionally killing the tree with excessive/lack of water. I ran into this years ago and got sued. I came out fine, but I planted 135 pieces on a property and this crazy evil woman took the reigns and went NUTS with the garden hose several times a day, daily.
 
Sounds shitty, Chris.

I wonder about prescribing a watering regimen, and use of a water timer, which must still be checked to see that its working.

I got the biggest single job for me to date. Nothing too crazy, 46 trees, some just simple canopy raises on western red cedars along hard gravel (renting a 60' self-propelled 4wd Genie lift, one of the few times a year where a bucket is really a big timesaver), and many easy, smaller removals with access, or drop and leave. I'll have two 28'' DBH cedar sticks to crane over the garage from about 50' with a 22 ton, and a 40" cedar stick that leans somewhat, but somewhat closer radius, I think.

I'm going up there in a little bit, I'm going to transplant a few 2" vine maples to my house, rather than just cutting them down. Knock down a few easy trees, too, maybe. Having another look will help me make a more exact work plan, and its only 5 miles down the county road from me.
 
I made the recommendations, I went over it 100 times, I told her not to touch the materials being planted while the job was in progress (evening when I was gone), and she did what she pleased anyhow. She said everything was turning brown. I went and looked and it was wilting from drowning. I begged and pleaded with her to stop but she felt more water would make them stop turning brown and wilting.... She called me during an outright downpour with a hose in her hand, still watering away in the rain. All the materials had a 1 year warranty from the nursery, but my stance was that if she insisted on killing it, I would not eat the labor value of replacement, nor did I want to replace what would get killed again.
 
Knocking down a biggun with the mini ex!

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I regularly use a mini ex around that size when working for two outfits, either with a grapple or with what you have on there. A great tool for tree work, especially when wanting to move brush. I enjoy operating it, wanting to get better. It seems very zen like, in the moment. Lots of little tricks to maximize efficiency. Very durable critters. Hand moving brush again and seeing green in my sleep, no thanks. If you only had one machine, maybe that would be the best choice, or the first one if you can carry it.
 
IMO, if you're a tree company, a loader should be your first thing, although my excavator gets far more hours on it thus far. The problem with only the ex is it can't load as much weight as my loader as well as it makes for a terrible forwarder as well as harder on grass; the latter two being more important than the first. However, the ex is far better at handling, sorting, and loading material though. Also it's versatility rivals a loader/skid steer, perhaps surpassing it.


Clean face cuts are important!
 
I still want a mini ex on wheels. 5-7 mph in high with a creeper. Articulating would be the cats pajamas, but lets not get out of hand. Where's that grapple Carl?
 
We seldom if ever work on grass, I guess I don't much see the disadvantages with the ex in that capacity. Obviously it can't lift the quantity and as high and far as a proper forwarder, but what it can do is much dependent on the skills of the person operating it. I'd call myself an advanced beginner on one, hopefully looking at intermediate :|:, but I sometimes get to see a real advanced expert using one for tree work, and his work is so fast and neat. Great skill to have. Moving weight beyond basic capacity is much smoother with experience and really knowing how. As i mentioned, there are tricks.
 
Articulating ex would be tough to design. However, dual steering axles would be far more doable. You couldn't skid steer, but you could coordinate steer (front and rear axles turn opposite directions). Locking differentials would be helpful, as would axle oscillation. The push blade would be of questionable use, aside from for stability due to a lack of traction.

I'm pondering a way to use articulated steering, but it seems more complicated and would compromise stability in some configurations.


For me, tracks are fine. You can see the kind of terrain I'm working on!
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Excavators are designed to lift their most around ground level. Due to their arm's geometry, their lift capacity decreases with height (as the lift radius increases).
 
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