# Just bought me a New Forestry Truck, Old Davey Tree Unit, Pay Too Much?



## ApexTreeService (Dec 21, 2012)

Just picked up old Davey Tree '94 Ford F700 w/Cummins Turbo Diesel 2 speed rear, and 93,000 miles. Unknown hours. Altec LB650A 55' work height (50' platform) lift inspected and passed 2012 in California. No visible leaks from any part of the boom. Engine drips here and there. Passed Cali inspection this year, and just passed my states safety inspection as well. 11' chip dump, pass through bins in front of dump. I paid $8500 to the seller, plus state tax, title, license. 
Today I drove it to the painter 40 miles away, 65mph all the way with 5,000lb chipper. Didn't see excess black smoke, seemed to run great. Owner said :msp_smile:$1,100-$1,200 to paint the whole truck (the last one this company did was $1,175) my company color with a Sherwin-Williams industrial single stage Urethane paint. He said it wouldn't be more than $1,500 if there was more prep/body work etc. Chipper: $400 to paint. Sounds like a very fair price to paint.
I know the boom should be retired in just under a decade, any opinions overall???View attachment 269016


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## treeclimber101 (Dec 22, 2012)

Congratulations it looks like you did good !


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## capetrees (Dec 22, 2012)

:msp_thumbsup:


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## Treetom (Dec 22, 2012)

Looks like she's ready to go, after the 2013 aerial unit inspection. Looks like a money-maker to me. Good luck.


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## imagineero (Dec 23, 2012)

I wish we had stuff like that in aus. There are very few combined boom lift/chip trucks here. I've only seen one in real life. It was almost 30 years old, rusted out, not running, couldn't pass any registration inspection, the boom was out of test and it had a whole stack of other problems. The seller was looking for $15,000 for it! It would have needed at least the same again to get it back on the road, probably more.

Shaun


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## ApexTreeService (Dec 23, 2012)

imagineero said:


> I wish we had stuff like that in aus. There are very few combined boom lift/chip trucks here. I've only seen one in real life. It was almost 30 years old, rusted out, not running, couldn't pass any registration inspection, the boom was out of test and it had a whole stack of other problems. The seller was looking for $15,000 for it! It would have needed at least the same again to get it back on the road, probably more.
> 
> Shaun




Damn that sucks!

I'll post a pic of it painted in a week or two, whenever it is done.


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## ApexTreeService (Jan 15, 2013)

*New paint! Check it out.*

Out the door, $2235, all steel on boom truck and entire chipper painted attention grabbing company color.


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## stltreedr (Jan 16, 2013)

Looks great! sounds like a good deal too, on the truck and paintjobs.


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## ozzy42 (Jan 17, 2013)

ApexTreeService said:


> Out the door, $2235, all steel on boom truck and entire chipper painted attention grabbing company color.



Looks really good .Only word of criticism if I might? You should have painted the hubs and wheels just to complete the dealio.
Otherwise ,looks great. Congrats.



edit: When do you get it lettered. Don;t forget to post pics.


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## ApexTreeService (Jan 17, 2013)

ozzy42 said:


> Looks really good .Only word of criticism if I might? You should have painted the hubs and wheels just to complete the dealio.
> Otherwise ,looks great. Congrats.
> 
> 
> ...




I know, my original intentions were to make sure wheels and hubs were green too. Then the bill kept getting higher, 200 extra for paint because it was much larger than he thought, then 250 or so to fix some cracks and holes on fiberglass hood. So, I figured if he painted them great, if not I would sand blast them at my house and shoot them either gloss white, or flat black.

What color should I paint them? White, black, or green?

Haven't decided on decals. My add colors are red and white. Maybe white vinyl background on 5'x11' box with red and some black lettering, along with logo and such. Or, skip the white background (which would cover entire sides of box) and just do the lettering shadowed in white to make it stand out? That way you still see a lot of the lime green. Ideas?


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## T-rain (Jan 18, 2013)

Why do I like that toxic puke green so much? Just makes everything look so much cooler.


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## ozzy42 (Jan 18, 2013)

ApexTreeService said:


> I know, my original intentions were to make sure wheels and hubs were green too. Then the bill kept getting higher, 200 extra for paint because it was much larger than he thought, then 250 or so to fix some cracks and holes on fiberglass hood. So, I figured if he painted them great, if not I would sand blast them at my house and shoot them either gloss white, or flat black.
> 
> What color should I paint them? White, black, or green?
> 
> Haven't decided on decals. My add colors are red and white. Maybe white vinyl background on 5'x11' box with red and some black lettering, along with logo and such. Or, skip the white background (which would cover entire sides of box) and just do the lettering shadowed in white to make it stand out? That way you still see a lot of the lime green. Ideas?



Yea,I hear ya on the $$ adding up.
I think white would ''pop out ''.It would match the parts of the boom . K.I.S.S. 

I'm lost as to what lettering colors to go with.Never had anything THAT green before.lol
Maybe black on white or shadowed by white.
I do think the truck looks so good that less would be more.Again K.I.S.S. 
You see a lot of trucks with too much lettering on them .All it does it make it too ''busy''
More important to pick the right font,size and contrasting color and make sure it is applied perfectly straight. IMHO.


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## ApexTreeService (Jan 21, 2013)

Any opinions on this? It's my yellow page add, just a quick drop and click in paint program. I would change a few things on it, such as reduce the services rendered so I could increase font size.


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## sgreanbeans (Jan 21, 2013)

I think just big black lettering with your name and number, dont crowd it with a bunch of other stuff, put all that on the tail gate. Phone number at the top of the box, name right down the middle, New Times Roman font. I did this and you could see it a mile away. Mine was dark green with white lettering. Check out my site, its on there. Tho I wish I put the number across the top.


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## ApexTreeService (Jan 24, 2013)

sgreanbeans said:


> I think just big black lettering with your name and number, dont crowd it with a bunch of other stuff, put all that on the tail gate. Phone number at the top of the box, name right down the middle, New Times Roman font. I did this and you could see it a mile away. Mine was dark green with white lettering. Check out my site, its on there. Tho I wish I put the number across the top.




Thank you for the input. I think I am going to go for the billboard because I just cancelled one of my major advertising contracts. Check it out below..., this is only a rough draft, fonts need changing, spacing worked, and wording added where 'description' is.


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## ozzy42 (Jan 28, 2013)

ApexTreeService said:


> Thank you for the input. I think I am going to go for the billboard because I just cancelled one of my major advertising contracts. Check it out below..., this is only a rough draft, fonts need changing, spacing worked, and wording added where 'description' is.



I don't know if you designed your lettering yet ,but here is a place you can go to try different fonts ,colors, backgrounds,shadowing etc.

I have a guy that does my stuff locally ,but I go here to kick ideas around.

There prices seem pretty fair if you don't mind installing yourself.

http://ebuysigns.com/stickers/105165/edit


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## millbilly (Jan 28, 2013)

*I might have its brother*

View attachment 276099
View attachment 276101
View attachment 276100


I bought the same model truck a few years back, for $3800, I thought it was a fair price at the time. did the fleet white paint myself;


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## autoimage (Jan 28, 2013)

love the paint reminds me of my old kx250


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## Toddppm (Jan 28, 2013)

hah, I believe it was called Flow Green, had a KX125 that color.


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## ROPECLIMBER (Jan 30, 2013)

Wow great deal, I have always wanted electric green trucks, I bought a 91 f750 with ford 6.6 dsl and 5 spd (55mph) truck for 8300 in dec then 924 for TTL and out of state inspection to get title transfered to Texas, its an old McCoys truck and has split rims so looking for some Alcoas for the front to replace the splits.Would rather have saved a little longer and got a cummins with a 6spd.
Paul


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## ApexTreeService (Feb 5, 2013)

This is what I went with for the 'billboard'. I drove around for a day looking at work trucks with simple lettering vs wrapped vehicles. I decides a full side wrap looked best.


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## Jlhotstick3 (Feb 5, 2013)

ApexTreeService said:


> Just picked up old Davey Tree '94 Ford F700 w/Cummins Turbo Diesel 2 speed rear, and 93,000 miles. Unknown hours. Altec LB650A 55' work height (50' platform) lift inspected and passed 2012 in California. No visible leaks from any part of the boom. Engine drips here and there. Passed Cali inspection this year, and just passed my states safety inspection as well. 11' chip dump, pass through bins in front of dump. I paid $8500 to the seller, plus state tax, title, license.
> Today I drove it to the painter 40 miles away, 65mph all the way with 5,000lb chipper. Didn't see excess black smoke, seemed to run great. Owner said :msp_smile:$1,100-$1,200 to paint the whole truck (the last one this company did was $1,175) my company color with a Sherwin-Williams industrial single stage Urethane paint. He said it wouldn't be more than $1,500 if there was more prep/body work etc. Chipper: $400 to paint. Sounds like a very fair price to paint.
> I know the boom should be retired in just under a decade, any opinions overall???View attachment 269016






Looks like a real clean truck, that altec lb650 boom reaches like crazy and Is a great boom, as far as retrieing it, 10 years wouldn't bother me just because my previous work truck was 13 years old and it was a material handler , just keep an eye on the cables and that thing will last forever. Good luck with it and the toxic green looks great!


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## ApexTreeService (Feb 5, 2013)

Finished product. I know it was cooler all lime green, but the paint was the attention grabber. Now, the ad is the attention grabber. I prefer a clean all one color look, but as a work truck that doesn't always work. It looks really great in person because it is very large and the vinyl turned out really sharp.


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