Who Underbid Me? .... and by How Much? .... Do I have the Job?

[pantheraba]

No...dont be in the tree if you are wary of him...use that lift? It may not be practical to rig the tops. My point is to get all the practice you can as a safe situation allows.

 

[dstimber]

Got 4 of the 15 down. 11 to go. Toped the first tree and pulled over the spar into the lane between the 2 rows. Open up a nice hole to work with tomorrow.
Moved to the front yard. Didn't top those two. Limbed them up and took as much weight as I could away from the lay off them. Pulled them over too. Cleaned up what mess we made and gonna start again tomorrow. Wind is supposed to be up tho. So we will see.
Cleaning up sucks I need a chipper and chip truck lol

 

[SeanKroll]

Safely home!

Can you stage brush and rent a chipper? Hauling that much brush sucks.

How is your time estimate looking?

 

[dstimber]

I haven't found a place close enough to rent one from yet. The closest is about 1 1/2 drive one way. It's about a 5 min drive to to mill where I'm dumping it. I'm just a tick behind on my time estimate. May make it up now since I have some room to work with. Still figuring 3 more good hard days at it. May take more but I don't mind. Homeowner is fine with it too so that's a plus.

 

[pantheraba]

I didn't know how much I really needed a chipper until I got one. If you are gonna do trees just get one. It lets you get jobs that you would not otherwise get.

And if you can find someone that wants wood make them your friend. My buddy just took the big wood from an insurance job we did...the biggest hickory either of us have seen and a large oak. He has a bobcat and trailer and makes firewood for himself, brother in law and a friend.

A win-win for all.

 

[dstimber]

I'm thinking I may try to hunt one down at the end of the year. 75% of my time is spent cleaning up. Helper does great but doesn't get a whole lot done by the time I get down because he is watching my back for me. Which at this point I don't mind having the 2nd set of eyes

 

[MasterBlaster]

I didn't know how much I really needed a _______ until I got one.

When it comes to treework, fill in the blank!

 

[Tree09]

When I first got a chipper, I thought I was really saving a bunch of time, but when I sat down and crunched the numbers, it really didn't make me that much faster. Now granted I'm running a 12" c&d, but the time it took to chip and then clean up chips (they fly everywhere lmao) really wasn't cutting time down that much from stuffing it in a trailer. I would go for a mini first (after a large dump trailer). Me personally obviously. Now if you get a much larger chipper with a winch, I'm sure that's a completely different experience. But then again many huge removal companies are running grapple trucks and no chippers. Makes me wonder why they would do that if chippers were end all be all of brush management? I'm starting to think iron to move stuff trumps chipper all day until the chipper can eat whole branches on its own and drag them to itself. The brush goes quick (esp with an arbor trolley), without iron moving logs takes forever (I work mainly hardwoods tho...)

 

[MasterBlaster]

The chips shouldn't be flying everywhere.

 

[SeanKroll]

You might need a better deflector on the discharge chute, and a better enclosure on your bed, Kyle. Got a picture?


Last three jobs, I chipped onsite. They were happy to have the mulch. One before that was a decent removal and prune on a postage stamp sized lot, so I hauled it one mile away.

With www.getchipdrop.in, I've always got a chip drop nearby. I sometimes pay $20, sometimes free.



Kyle and Denver, what are you doing for material disposal?

 

[Tree09]

Here the landscape business is so built up most people have designer mulch, so chips are a complete waste product. They don't go everywhere, but I do need a better catch thing for the bed. However a few chips go here and there, but I'm quite particular, and I make sure to clean them up. A better bed box would help greatly tho. However, since I dump my stuff at my friend's place who waits till the leaves drop then grinds them for mulch, he prefers just brush, because he can control chip quality more. He has a 9" Vermeer (and tub grinders at the yard), but he usually just crams it in a dumpster tub with a mini excavator with grapple and tosses logs on top to crush it down. Once i build the trailer I want, I'll be able to bring my backhoe on the job, and then I can just grapple (fixed thumb which I need to rework) brush in the trailer and crush it up. The 20' tub I'm planning will have ample room for brush, and that way I can pull levers rather than hand chip. I could be wrong, but I'm thinking that combined with the gin poles for the heavy stuff will be the best for me atm. I do have a tandem with a grapple, but I don't cut trees enough to justify the 2k a year to put it on the road yet...

 

[dstimber]

Kyle and Denver, what are you doing for material disposal?

My brush is going to our mill. We have a large pit dug out in the side of a hill where we burn scraps. The log size stuff goes to my loader operator at the mill he has his own little saw setup at his house .

 

[SkwerI]

You might need a better deflector on the discharge chute, and a better enclosure on your bed, Kyle. Got a picture?


Last three jobs, I chipped onsite. They were happy to have the mulch. One before that was a decent removal and prune on a postage stamp sized lot, so I hauled it one mile away.

With www.getchipdrop.in, I've always got a chip drop nearby. I sometimes pay $20, sometimes free.



Kyle and Denver, what are you doing for material disposal?

The new website is www.getchipdrop.com and after I signed up I found two dump spots within 5 miles of my house. Much appreciated, Sean.

 

[SeanKroll]

That's a good disposal location situation. You can set up for power unloading, I'd imagine.

People with livestock and horses, farms and the like often want chips.


Brian, that's a good new web address. The old web suffix (.in) instead of (.com) baffles some people. If I tell them to go to www.chipdrop.in like they see on the magnets on my truck or chipper, they seem baffled. Its possibly, I've started talking in tongues, but I'm pretty sure, not.




The old question. How much money to invest, and when, to save money and make more money?

What is this tandem with grapple? Once you get equipment on the job, you'll be making more money, easier. If you show up with some specialty equipment, I think it gets people interested, and they talk about it.




Blow-over from the chipper into the windshield wiper area is not good. A tarp over the cab helps, but better to have a good box.

 

[Tree09]

I'm sure I've posted pics before, but here it is. Richie brothers find, $3500, 88 f9000 with the tandem on an air lift (can run single axle when empty). Hiab 215 on it, right now mounted behind cab. It's a 21.5 ton meter crane, but it's only got one extension, so it doesn't reach very far. My buddy has a 48" bypass and clamshell with rotator he wants to sell me for like $400, and I need to add sides. Everything works fine, my buddy has a cdl and drove it home for me. An impulse buy lol, was trying to get a 450 or 550, ended up bringing that home because I got pissed they all went for more than I had lol. The problems are it's too heavy to back in driveways (cracking pavement, it's a heavy truck), and it will cost about 2k a year for licence and insurance. Since I do trees only part time, I can't justify that yet, but once I get a lift and some forwarding equipment I might be able to use it. I might even look for a crane (unmounted or on junk truck) and then will definitely run it. Basically I bought it too early in my business development imo lol.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Nice piece of equipment!!!

 

[Tree09]

Thx Butch, I just wish I could cut trees more to justify having it and get to use it. I'm sure once I start using it I will have a very hard time working without it, and it will probably pay for itself quite quickly. We'll see how the winch truck and trailer goes, maybe next year I can save up for a lift and a mini

 

[dstimber]

Just got back from day 2. Only got 2 trees down wind was against me all day. 15mph. Gusts 20-25. Erie feeling to a new guy up there lol. It got calm and we fell one tree against the wind. Had a pull line in it and a 5:1. Gust popped up about the time it started over. Still got it in the hole I was aiming for but about a foot off. Broke a branch or two from a smaller pine that ima have to clean up next week.
Hinge wood in pine is some good stuff!

 

[pantheraba]

You are having a good time. Good pictures. Wind is wonderful.

 

[dstimber]

Having a blast so far! First tree today we rigged out 75 percent of it before we dropped it. It's branches were to big for me to handle and keep away from the shop. That was good practice for my helper. He did good. The 2nd I just parked my trailer under me and dropped everything in to it. Had to lower 2 from it before we laid it down. It was a good day other than the wind.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Easy money!!!

 

[dstimber]

3 to go. Lol this is taking a little longer than I thought it would.
We pretty much worked ourselves into a hole and didn't have any room to move around or do much. So we spent most of Saturday moving logs and straightening up our mess.
The trees on the south row were a lot closer together and the limbs were a tangled mess. I had to tidy them up some before felling. All leaning slightly south toward garage.

Got one down on Saturday and 5 Sunday.

Out of the 3 left, 2 are easy fells with a pull line. The 3rd is a codom with side lean and one stem opposite the lay.
Considering top down approach to it. Maybe set 2 pull lines ? One to counter the side lean at as close to 90 degree of the lay as I can get them the other straight on?

Oh yea helper snatched my 9/16 rope into his saw while limbing. Thankfully just cut it 10-15ft from one end.

 

[MasterBlaster]

That's a stroke of good luck! Usually it's in the middle!!!

 

[sawman]

Nice tractor

 

[dstimber]

No kidding butch! Lol
Thanks it's stolen! (From my dad) good for skidding logs that's about it. It doesn't have enough arse to make the loader useful . Just wants to stand on its nose when weighted