Wheeled Leaf Blower

lumberjack

lumberjack

Young man on the go
Joined
Mar 6, 2005
Messages
9,686
Location
Mississippi
Who's got experience with them and tree work? The BillyGoat F18 has my current interest, 4.5x the hp of the BR600 blower.

Thinking about for cleaning up after tree work. Minimizing time involved, keeping production UP. Have a job now with 40 trees coming out of one yard, 30 are already down. I'll have a lot of raking to do.

Also, I'm pondering the ability to burn on site, the F18 would sure accelerate a fire's consumption rate.
 
I bought the F 12 this fall with the Honda motor. It is a beast at a slim 140 lbs. Side hills suck! Inside corners are no treat either, but if you have someone with a backpack blower working with you, its all gravy. Worth the $1400? Definitely! Mine paid for itself in three days. It can move a lot of sand too though so keep it in mind.
 
Parking lots rock with one.... As mentioned... so long as you have a backpack working with you. Something to keep in mind is that is is more stuff to transport. Hills suck. But then you don't have the terrain that we do here... lol
 
I've been rocking the BMG rake, been having good luck with it besides the fact I need to replace the tines soon. Sure you've already thought about that tho haha
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #5
Yeah the F18 is 180lbs and $2700 for The self propelled version. I figure I'll make it an attachment for when the loader could carry it... On the current job it's too wet to clean up with the loader and a rake. My first thought on this job was a rotary broom for the loader, but that's when it was drier!

We have the BR600, but it doesn't have the power to blow sticks and such. I presume the F18 would? I might get back into full cleanup jobs in that case. We currently sell most jobs as "broad strokes cleanup." I also figure the low height of the discharge will help shear sticks and such from the ground then angle the nozzle up and blow them out.

When you say it can blow sand... I also presume it can kick up an amazing amount of dust? That's one thing I'm not too crazy about but then again the back back blower does the same thing.

I also figure setting it up to blow on a fire would be easier than with the backpack blower which tries to wiggle around and work itself on its back where it can be a spinning jenny. The 4x+ amount of air should help as well. Also it could be left going longer, which should help the fire burn substantially cleaner and faster, which is a good thing!

Regarding moving it, I'm already taking a loader and grinder to most jobs, what's an extra blower? Haha

One thing I thought about... Is it controllable enough to blow things into a pile?
 
As far as clean ups go, it is more a forwarder than a blower, believe it or not. With two guys wearing BR 600 s they put the debris in front or beside the BG and I can put leaves 20-30 ft away in a decent pile. As with anything else, it pays to plan your attack. Sticks move effortlessly if within leaves, but not as easily alone. The adjustable nozzle is cool but gets very tiring if you are moving it up and down all the time against the air flow. You can certainly move twigs and small branches into a pile, but as far as helping a fire, mine will spin itself into the ground if the wheels aren't chocked. Overall, if you can pay it off in a couple of jobs, you aren't going to lose.
 
"Broad strokes cleanup?" I've never heard of such a critter. Is that official jargon or just something you say? I'm guessing it means you don't clean it up better than when you got there?
 
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  • #9
I take care of all the big stuff, they take of the raking. They save money.

"Broad Strokes Cleanup" is a term I coined.

I figure it'll be easier to chock the tires (or get the parking brake) than it would be to prop the back pack blower to just so.

The job we are currently on is $32k and change, material stays on site, moved with the loader. 26 of the 71 trees have no raking involved. Currently we've knocked out 56 trees, aside from raking, as well as 5 floppers in 114 man hours. 45 stumps with cleanup as well.
 
I take care of all the big stuff, they take of the raking. They save money.
Click to expand...

Ahh, I see. I'd sure want them to do it as soon as I finished so other people wouldn't think I did a sloppy job.
 
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  • #12
If they want full cleanup, we will do it. But usually they elect to save the 1-600 dollars.
 
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  • #13
Oh, got a price from the local dealer... $2300+ $300 for self propelled + $150 for 2 parking brakes + $125 for shipping x 1.07 for tax.
 
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  • #15
I figure on the property where the 40ish trees are coming down, that the raking is worth $1500 at least. Currently it will take probably the better part of a day with 2 folks, me being one of them. And at the end of the day, that day will have sucked hahaha.

We have another 3 trees on a different property that the raking is worth 4-500 I'd imagine. When you look at our hourly production levels and then apply that towards time raking. And it still will suck haha.
 
Im on Carl's page. Raking pays me as well as rigging and cutting. I look at a 6 hour job as a 6 hour job. If my crew and my gear is on the job, the customer is paying my rates. I have done several fall clean ups over the years and did bid them a bit lighter then I do tree work though. No liability worth speaking of, minimal wear and tear, and allows me to go hunting and send the boys out to work for the day.
 
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  • #17
I'm still playing with the idea. There are many things I want and only so many sources of income. Gotta grow in strategic ways. Decisions Decisions.
 
Off topic, but just curious if you're still using that manly lift Carl. How's it held up over time?
 
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  • #19
Nope, I linked up with treesmith on here and he is my climber now (sub). The lift was sold for parts in late December... the paint quality on Genie's are terrible, and I had rode it hard and put it away wet many times. Also, the reason I came to own it was I laid it over while towing it and came to an agreement with the rental company.
 
If you want to boost the fire with this big blower, it will spread dust, sparks, burning leaves and embers everywhere. And waaayyy too strong to start the fire.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #22
It has the ability to blow at less than full rpm. Also, ember output will quickly diminish as the tiny material is consumed. We used our back pack blower (22% the HP/kw) to start the fire wide open without issue. More air wouldn't have caused a problem with that fire.
 
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