Useful life of a small chipper

[kevin bingham]

do those kohlers have a catalytic converter?

 

[SeanKroll]

A tracked lift would seem very useful, with increase in need over time, as ash trees get worse.


Glad the loader is such a great fit.

With the babying your giving it, you're probably pretty good.

 

[treebilly]

Honestly Eric the answer depends on you and your business plan. If your plan is to buy a new chipper, are you upgrading to something bigger. You mentioned EAB. How much ash is in you area, and what do you want your business to go after. If you’re going to become a removal company you will need a bigger chipper.

 

[flushcut]

Had it for 4 years now.
Bought it new.
Yes
Yes

We really do try to baby it. It's good to hear that most of you seem to think there should be plenty of life left in it.

Four years to get almost 900 hours so how much money will you make in the next four years with it?.
IMO if EAB is up there you will want a bigger chipper 15" at least, if it's anything like down here expect to produce many thousands of yards of chips. Or bigger trucks to haul more wood.

 

[SeanKroll]

What about getting in on the injections that protect? Stay busy while the ash boom-bust happens.

There will be a lot of start-ups with EAB. People always start up after storms and in the midst of epidemics.

My guess, removals, as they get sketchier will become more expensive on bids for companies that mitigate against the risk (bucket/ crane/ complex rigging) and be as cheap for Tweeky McTweek.

 

[emr]

Honestly Eric the answer depends on you and your business plan. If your plan is to buy a new chipper, are you upgrading to something bigger. You mentioned EAB. How much ash is in you area, and what do you want your business to go after. If you?re going to become a removal company you will need a bigger chipper.

We're not wanting to turn into a removal company at all. I am just afraid that people will stop spending money on tree maintenance because they all have to spend their money on tree removals. That's exactly what happened around here during the recession. During the recession we were probably 60-70% removals and now we are over 60% pruning.

The other thing that really makes me concerned is how everyone is talking about how sketchy trees get when they are infested with EAB. At our last Arborist conference we had 3 speakers (John Ball, Todd Kramer, and Don Ropollo) all give talks about how it's a bad idea to climb trees that have EAB. Davey has a company policy where they won't climb a tree that had something like 30% canopy die back. So if that's the case, planning for a tracked lift would make sense. But that would mean a bigger truck to haul it as well. This is why I'm asking about the chipper life..... If the chipper is good, then we can maybe look at a bigger truck to haul more wood and/or a lift if it comes to that.

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[emr]

Sean..... We already do injections. We have 2 Arbor Jet TreeIV systems, a QuickJet, and are possibly going to buy a Quick Jet Air. About 25% of our total business is plant health care. That's also why it takes us 4 years to put 900 hours on our chipper. We spend a lot of time doing other things besides chipping and hauling.

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[SeanKroll]

The unfortunate spread of EAB means new business opportunities.


There will be a lot of stumps around that the guys that don't have a grinder will leave.

Low-risk work that an solid driver/ equipment operator employee could do, without you or your partner being taken away from more technical tree care. Grinding and re-planting at the same time to replace the missing canopy with quality stock for the future of the urban forest has a niche.
A subcontractor that will grind your stumps might be ideal. A big money-making grinder seems like big money for a tree care-focused company. It wouldn't take much to outfit an employee to clean up stumps and install new trees.

Spider-lift owners are good sub-contractors, without need to have an employee. Premium prices to make a mess. Let the main contractor run a circus of monkeys to do clean-up. Might allow one of you to operate the lift as a sub-contractor, actively billing work, while the other has admin stuff going on. Seems like the market-demand from EAB and durability of the machine will outlive the length of the loan.
I never really wanted a big bucket truck. I'd love a spider lift.

 

[brendonv]

Keep the chipper and keep keeping on. Lol

I’ve clkmbed ash I probably shouldn’t, but I k ow the limits. They do get sketchy, but you know what’s right and wrong. We are close with chipper usage. I put less than 200, maybe 150 a year on mine. It’s an 07’ with I believe 900 hrs.

Wood hauling with the ash should be well thought out in advance.

 

[emr]

Thanks for all the input so far guys. The TreeHouse rocks!

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[SeanKroll]

There will probably be a surplus of firewood on the market, depressing prices, I'd guess.

How does ash mill out?

 

[brendonv]

Ash makes gorgoues flooring imo.

 

[SeanKroll]

I've been trying to bend my brain about moving over into more wood products. Looks like I'll have space by summer, on the outside. My friend is already set up a mile away with a bandsaw mill, until I get my own.

Like to look into solar kiln plans, electric kiln plans, etc.

 

[brendonv]

Ive sold some slabs. Dealing with people sucks. Lots of tire kickers and stupid questions or expectations. One log was that fitted for the dump netted $460 in slab form, luckily all to one guy. Im up to $400 + on a white oak log so far too, theres money in the wood if you wanna deal with alot of people.

 

[kevin bingham]

one thing that's nice about dead ash is they are not a whole lot of brush. a small chipper handles them well. and the rest is logs. a tracked lift would be a better investment than a big chipper for dead ash.