Big box treeco's

[lego1970]

Not only are those chippers cheap to make but very easy to work on. I also read somewhere that they have never had a fatality from someone getting sucked into the chippers like hydraulic self feeds units so with hiring newbies that would be good to have. Having said that, I have noticed a couple Asplundh trucks with self feed units.

 

[treevet]

Lower maintenance. No hydraulics. Fewer moving parts.

Besides, they don't get paid for production, so why waste money on a higher production machine?

Even tho they use them because they made/make them still I think for the majority of work they do the old chuck and duck is more capable of production than a slow self feed. If you are just chipping relatively small cut backs.

They are just dangerous and painful to use with deadwood.

My old Mitts 16" 8 cyl would out chip my 20" vermeer 200 hp diesel from start to finish on a small pile of cut backs I think.

 

[treevet]

I also read somewhere that they have never had a fatality from someone getting sucked into the chippers like hydraulic self feeds units

Don't know about Asplundh but that is not true as far as the industry at large.

 

[jomoco]

Don't know about Asplundh but that is not true as far as the industry at large.

Can you give any examples of anyone being sucked through an old chuck n duck?

I can list you 35 and counting on the hydraulically fed whole tree chippers.

How does the industry at large view the escalating numbers of WTC fatalities?

jomoco

 

[treevet]

I never knew thee were big box franchise tree company's, I do however know of a few nationwide companys...

Yeah, I made a mistake in the OP referring to a franchise for some reason. I edited it. But just out of curiosity, I wonder if there are any companies that are very large (big box) that ARE franchised?

 

[lego1970]

Don't know about Asplundh but that is not true as far as the industry at large.

I don't know where I read that, but I've thought about it and you can pull a branch back out once it starts to go in, so I would think likewise with a human limb. Like I said I don't where I read that and if it's just Asplundh, or if it's even true, but I wouldn't be surprised if the fatality rate is higher on the self feed units then the chuck n duck. If that is true I wonder if that may be another reason Asplundh still uses them since they take a lot newbies.

 

[treevet]

Can you give any examples of anyone being sucked through an old chuck n duck?

I can list you 35 and counting on the hydraulically fed whole tree chippers.

How does the industry at large view the escalating numbers of WTC fatalities?

jomoco

No not specifically but I remember a couple of them and it is not something you forget (from the news not hearsay). Obviously more likely a whole body would go through a self feed but a chuck and duck is so fast that reaction time is almost non existent and those rotors like my Mitts and Merrill 16" were hugely heavy to give a fly wheel effect.

Coincidentally I was just watching "Fargo" last night on the idiot box and this is an ugly subject.

 

[lego1970]

No not specifically but I remember a couple of them and it is not something you forget (from the news not hearsay). Obviously more likely a whole body would go through a self feed but a chuck and duck is so fast that reaction time is almost non existent and those rotors like my Mitts and Merrill 16" were hugely heavy to give a fly wheel effect.

Coincidentally I was just watching "Fargo" last night on the idiot box and this is an ugly subject.

Everybody knows it works better if you freeze the body first. :greenchainsaw:
That guy was an amateur.

 

[treevet]

but I've thought about it and you can pull a branch back out once it starts to go in,

You may be referring to the Whisper chipper which I don't know but a 16" 8 cyl like I had, it had 12 razor knives staggered around the rotor.....well you would likely become one of the casualties with that kind of thinkin'.

 

[tomtrees58]

Davey!

we have a winner:jawdrop: tom trees

 

[mckeetree]

Asplundh recently started advertising for residential work in the local newspaper's business listings...I guess that ABC is really putting a hurting on them around here.

If they start that here they will have to get some different guys because the ones they have here would never make it.

 

[treeclimber101]

That's easy. They also get paid per hour (on some utillity contracts) for each saw or machine on the job. I think they get paid per truckload dumped of chips, too. Have you ever seen how full their trucks are at the end of a day?

Have you ever seen an Asplundh office? Around here, they just work out an agreement to park their trucks somewhere. The crew shows up, and they go to work. VERY low overhead.

When they get into some overtime from storm damage...Dig in the spurs and ride it hard.

It helps if you can gouge the labor on the cheap side, shorting pay or docking hours whenever possible, while billing for each conceivable minute on the clock.

They don't get paid for production, and the cash keeps coming in. Those little whisper chippers don't cost that much, and the clock never stops ticking. At the end of the month, that turns into a pretty big bill.

My point is volume and productivity the company is so large that even at 125.00 an hr. they indeed make money , but spend as well , the only time they lose money is when the doors close and there margins are called , but thanks for the reply..

 

[treeclimber101]

Not to get off track from the OP, but in a lot of places Asplundh also doesn't have all the specialty climbing gear, rigging gear, big saws, stump grinders, stand behind loaders, grapple trucks, sprayers, and other high dollar equipment that some of the big residential tree companies have. Don't get me wrong, Asplundh has some high dollar equipment like helicopters with brush cutters on them, train carts with cutters on them and a bunch of other stuff, but they probably charge alot more for the specialty equipment. They also have tremendous buying power and are probably self insured.

Asplundh has all that equipment right down to the grapple loaders , they do vegetation management climbing and in fact they have so many grapples that you can find ten at any auction so that I don't agree with either. Asplundh as well does res. work here in New Jersey last month they were doing removals at the home of the dean of Rowan State college, nice digs, big job, swanky, lol ....

 

[lego1970]

Asplundh has all that equipment right down to the grapple loaders , they do vegetation management climbing and in fact they have so many grapples that you can find ten at any auction so that I don't agree with either. Asplundh as well does res. work here in New Jersey last month they were doing removals at the home of the dean of Rowan State college, nice digs, big job, swanky, lol ....

I said "a lot" of places. Here in the midwest and some of the other areas that at was at when I was with Asplundh only had climbing ropes, old climbing/rigging rope, couple pruner poles, couple trim saws and a stihl 290 on board and that's about it. Every now and then I'll see a tracked brush cutter or spray equipment, but even that's few and far between and once again that's for utility clearance. Only the GF's have big saw on their p/u trucks, nobody had either experience, knowledge, or gear to do cable work. There was no health managment or disease specialist readily availible, no rigging gear, no grapple trucks, etc, etc. Don't get me wrong, we safely took down many big trees without all the lastest high tech gear, but you could take your time, and charge a crap load of man hours on the job since the utlility company had much deeper pockets then your average homeowner. Even then I got laid off a couple times. I'm not saying they don't or couldn't do residential but at least in the areas I've worked, it's probably not economicly feasible. At least not anytime soon.